Of course while all of this is going on in the tank summer is in full swing which meant lots of time outside with the family and a few site trips to Atlanta for business thrown in there. It was a brutally busy summer. By August I decided a major intervention was required and started doing 10% water changes every other day with a 50% water change on the weekend. Let me just say that 50% water changes on a 321g system is not fun!!

By mid August things had started to settle down in the tank and I could see improvement. The remaining colonies that didn't completely kick the salt bucket were starting to get their colour back which mostly all of them had lost. I also noticed a few colonies that had lost their tips started to encrust over them. Like this guy.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1284615572

Because I was spending so much time trying to fight this "event" I didn't really have much time for other non essential maintenance like algae scrubbing. By this time the tank glass was a spectacular array of algaes. Nothing a few hours of elbow grease can't fix though.

I'm not really one to dwell too much on the doom and gloom so to look on the bright side of things, the tank didn't completely crash! :lol: In fact, everyone else is doing perfectly fine. Clams are doing well, all LPS, zoas, fish, happy as can be. The few remaining colonies are in recovery mode and starting to come around.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1284616081

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1284616100

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1284616119

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1284616139

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1284616165

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1284616181

As you can see the Reef is still here, the FOWLR is still here and we're back on track.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1284616293

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1284616314

So what the heck happened? Who the heck knows. Maybe SPS chemical warfare that reached a critical mass, maybe some sort of pathogen like a virus or protozoan. All I know is, whatever it was, it helped to clear much needed reef real estate for me to buy more corals :lol:

wow i really feel your lost. I am very sorry to hear. have you checked your carbon?

thanks.. and yes :) it is the same carbon that I've been using for a year now and the same carbon I'm still using today. Lignite RoX 0.8 carbon, great stuff actually.

I know what your feeling buddy, pulled out a stupid amount of coral over the summer. Tank is still looking wicked, on the bright side now you can beat me to all the nice coral... like usual :razz:.

Ouch. :( Having lived through several inexplicable SPS die offs, I feel your pain.

Like I've said before sometimes it's not even really a testable parameter. There's so much stuff at play, when an event happens, our attempts at an investigation can sometimes just be the Texas sharpshooter syndrome. You hope whatever it was is resolved and hope for the best sometimes.

But, like you hinted .. onwards and upwards. Your tanks sure have a good look to them still.

That is heartbreaking man. Those pics are tough to look at having seen that tank in person before. Great attitude about it all and not only are you not going soft(ie) on us you're plowing ahead with the sps. Not sure there's much I can help with but if you need me to break off anything to kick start you let me know.

Thanks! Ya if you stand way back and squint it doesn't look so bad :lol: just don't put your face to the glass.

Wow. Hard to read that. There was more in that bucket then in my entire tank. I think the hardest part about it all is not knowing what caused the problem. Seems to be a hard year for SPS.... Sorry about the loss and I can only hope that I can be as calm as you are with the situation. Tank is still show worthy!