SPS Tank O Death

[BMW Rider]

I too have been having a lot of difficulty in the past few months keeping SPS. I've had several new colonies and frags RTN shortly after introduction to the tank. I've read Marie's earlier posts on the CO2 and have planned to change my Reactor return to feed into my skimmer to help burn off any residual gas.

I was also looking back at some photos of my tank from a couple years ago and was shocked to see how much it has changed, and not for the better. In looking back, I found that this all started about the time I began with the Reefresh system to try to deal with a briopsis outbreak. I have not been able to find anyone local carrying the product anymore anyway. I talked to J&l about why they dropped it, and they said they had less than favourable feedback from users. I have run out of some of the product, so I have decided to take my tank off drugs for a while to see if that helps.

I was also reading the links and info on the potassium dosing and the symptoms of low K levels. It all seems to fit what I'm experiencing as well, so it too may be a factor. I tried to find a K test kit, but so far have come up with notheing, but in the meanwhile I am trying dosing K-balance to see if thing improve.

I suspect the real answer is that it is not really any one thing, but a combination of factors. I suspect that the Reefresh system has possibly depleted my K levels. There may also be some other long term effects of the probiotics that eventually causes a decline in the system since it requires you to balance the water paramaters on a knife edge to keep it working. Also, its possible a new colony that is not aclimatized to the ultra low nutrient environment may not have the resources to deal with it when introduced. I do have one acro that has been in the tank for quite a while and is doing OK (not great though) Further, it is possible that the non-food grade CO2 has just enough impurity in it to add a final blow to an all ready vulnerable system.

I will be following this thread as well and will try to keep track of my success/failure with these steps and post the results.

[christyf5]

I vote for the silicone or something chemical in nature. I've had SPS issues myself over the last few months (or really lets face it the last few years, granted they were never any single thing). Anyway, this last one was definitely chemical in nature and resulted in STN of many frags and colonies. I'm at the point now where I think I've diluted it enough and things are turning around. However if you suspect the silicone, it will be leaching out whatever toxic chemical for quite some time before it is exhausted. I think at this point you need to realize that either you can't keep SPS in that tank or that you need to get everything out of that tank and into a different one to save yourself the headache and heartache.

Perhaps you could resilicone the tank with the proper silicone? (ie. get some more from Bow Valley)

Don't know what to suggest about the rock. I would imagine at some point it would stop leaching whatever its been sucking up (if it has been sucking up anything for that matter) however I wouldn't want to take the risk.

Oh and personally I think its good to be nervous of ozone. Less chance of buggering it up. However its not as scary as you think, you don't need all that much to get the job done, IMO, and the amount doesn't harm a thing (well nothing you don't want it to anyways ). I aimed for an ORP of about 425 (although I've heard 360 is "better") using 25mg/L. Clean the probe in vinegar/water every week or it will throw your readings off.

[fencer]

A redox level of 380-400 is good. Ozone might help the problem by destroiying anything agent that is organic in nature such as hydrocarbons but not the algacide in the silicone unless it is organic in nature. You would think the carbon would eventually adsorb/absorb all the nasties. This is also true of water changes. Having said all carbon can remove good stuff as well. Maybe if you go the water change way you could supplement the water with trace elemnts too.

[untamed]

I think that the problems are viral or bacterial, combined with tank conditions which weaken the corals immunity to attack by virus or bacteria. The viruses and bacteria may be unavoidable, or they might be introduced.

My basis for this conclusion is an experience I had a couple of years ago. I transferred RTN into a tank by bringing in a "sick" coral that I was trying to save. RTN moved outward from the spot where I put the dying frag, killing SPS around it. The closer the SPS was to the frag, the faster it died.

That's my thinking, FWIW.

[michika]

Originally Posted by untamed

I think that the problems are viral or bacterial, combined with tank conditions which weaken the corals immunity to attack by virus or bacteria. The viruses and bacteria may be unavoidable, or they might be introduced.

I take it these bacteria or viruses you are suggesting would be SPS specific in some way? Maybe just leaving the tank fallow isn't enough to kill something like this off. Would this be something that ozone may take care of?

Since I already plan to run ozone on my 180g it can't hurt to try it out on this tank. I think that might be my next step. What I'm hearing is that the issue could be one of three things; equipment/food/drygoods/etc. (I'm starting to doubt this though since I'm almost run through everything I can test), chemical contamination (silicone, the glass), or third a biological contaminant.

This (Red Sea Aquazone Plus 200mg/hr) was what we were thinking of buying for the 180g. Do you think it could be controlled enough to use it on this 28g system for a few weeks? If ozone was the solution to the problem I would buy a more appropriately sized ozonier for this system.

[michika]

While i have the monitor/controller on order, I still have to buy the ozonier itself, and its an expensive purchase. Still though maybe just getting the readings from the monitor will help turn things around.

I figure in a month maybe 6 weeks this tank will come down, and everything will go into the 180g, save for the rock and sand. I'll seed the new system with rock and sand from other trusted sources. I will also have to figure out a method to transfer my clams with as little of my current tank water as possible.

So for people who've had bad silicone or an unknown chemical in their tank how did everything react? Was it just your SPS that had problems?

This morning everything is still holding on, all the frags have color, there are four of them, and one of them has good polyp extension (this frag almost seems immune to the situation).

Can I also ask what I would see if I was seeing light burn? Is it possible that my light is too strong? Its a 175w SE MH in a luminarc reflector. I'm debating switching it out back to my badwing. I assume if it was light burn I would see bleached tips, although I'm not sure about the polyp retraction.