SPS Crash!

Jetbkk

Jetbkk

Member
My tank of the month, is more like a pile of garbage at the moment. The other day, within the span of a couple hours, 75% of my SPS suddenly died. They very quickly turned white. The water got cloudy, but this was not from RTN (the corals turned white but the flesh didn't come off).

I'm completely confused by this as my parameters are all in the good range (except the KH is higher than it has been):

Salinity: 1.026
PH: 8
KH: 12
MAG: 1380
Calc: 480
Nitrates: 0
Temp: 25-27c (temperature is controlled)

My fish, LPS and soft corals are ok (although a hammer coral looks very annoyed).

So the only thing I can think of is that the KH went up quickly, but for no apparent reason. A 20% water change was done 1 week prior to the crash. Nothing new was added within 2 weeks of the crash.

Now the dying has stopped but I'm only left with some half alive SPS and have that feeling of wanting to sell the tank, although I know I won't.

Really appreciate any opinions on this because if I don't know what wrong I'll never know how to prevent this from happening again.
 
Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson

Well-Known Member
The first thing I thought of was too much light. Turned white, but not RTN. They expelled their zooxanthelae. But, without a lot more info I'm just guessing.
 
whippetguy

whippetguy

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
I'm not much help with an sps dominant tank but wanted to wish you the best. Your tank is one of the best.
 
Choff

Choff

Well-Known Member
Sorry man, that sucks. I feel for you. I also just lost close to 40 sps, but my cause was obvious. I had a shop light with a cfl Bulb fall into my sump for 8 to 10 hours before I realized it.

That said, any chance something nasty got into the water? Any heavy cleaning, painting or insecticide spraying going on in or around the house?

Just a thought.

I was pretty down for a few weeks after this and another bad event caused me to seriously consider selling off my tank, but then I thought forward a bit about my life without the tank and I quickly put that idea to rest.

Breast of luck

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk
 
Jetbkk

Jetbkk

Member
Thanks guys. I'm not going to give up.

Just installed a new reactor running Chemipure, took out the dead stuff, and hopefully will get this show back on the road. Some corals are still alive and my rose anemones are thriving (one big one is now 5 and they've been growing)

I might do more of a mixed reef next time around though as an all SPS tank is seeming too finicky.

I've got good fish and a good aqua scape, just need to fill it in slowly and keep a close eye on things. Still wish I knew what happened though because I don't know what I should do differently yet..
 
UTCreefer

UTCreefer

Member
I saw a thread the other day where a guy's ATO got stuck on. Normally this isnt a problem but he was using kalkwasser as part of his top off and it bleached/killed almost all of his SPS. I would suspect either your PH or DKH.
 
Jetbkk

Jetbkk

Member
The PH remained constant at 8, however the KH definitely went up still in the preferred range but perhaps too quickly and that could have caused the problem.
 
DianaKay

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
Sorry for your losses, You (STILL) have a most beautiful tank & I'm very glad you are not going to give up on your loved SW hobby. Best Wishes for your tank recovery....HANG IN THERE & Show us what you can do once again!!
 
reefer gladness

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
Jetbkk said:
The PH remained constant at 8, however the KH definitely went up still in the preferred range but perhaps too quickly and that could have caused the problem.
Click to expand...

Not sure how fast the alk went up but that would be my first thought for what went wrong. I'm not entirely sure why but my LFS recommends keeping alk at a lower 7-8 dKH range when running carbon. The CPE has activated carbon in it so maybe worth investigating the acceptable dKH range when dosing carbon.
 
PSU4ME

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
The interesting thing here is that they turned white and as Mike said, most likely expelled the x-algae. you also state that only the SPS were impacted. If it was light, I think other corals woudl also show signs of stress. You're anenome's are going good so it doesn't "seem" to be a water quality issue.

Which leaves us with parameters.....elevated alk......to me that's what I would investigate as the cause. You sure your PH probe is calibrated and accurate? If you're using a test kit, there could be error there.

So how are you measuring PH and alk?

Sorry for your loss!
 
Jetbkk

Jetbkk

Member
I'm just using Salfert test kits, all within their use by dates..

I should probably buy a PH meter to automate that one a bit.

Rise in KH is the only guess I have for this problem.
 
Tokalosh

Tokalosh

Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear this news, I'm sure your tank will recover in time.

I lost some Acros to temp fluctuations. It started on one Acro and before I could blink it had spread rapidly to another.
It looked like RTN, but there was no flesh loss, they just turned white over night.

Tok
 
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