Need some ideas.....

[DaveJ]

Hi folks...

I have been slowly losing some SPS and am at a loss as to the reason. I understand that occasionally you lose one for no apparent reason, but here lately it seems a steady rate for me.

The common pattern to demise is a slow recession at the base, then upwards. Several of them still have polyps and tissue, but bare spots at the base etc.

All my parms are in check, pH run 8.0-8.2 through the day, my temp is a steady 80-80.5, my Alk runs 8.5-9.5 dKH, my calcium runs 400-420, my nitrates are below 5, no signs of nitrites or ammonia, nor of PO4. I feed pretty well, a combo of cube and home made fish/coral food.

I'm looking for ideas on what is going on and how to stop and reverse the slow die off.

I see no signs of predation, no FW or Red Bugs.

[kev apsley]

what kind of flow do you have? also, do the bases appear to be a green color?

[DaveJ]

In the 140, I have 2 Tunze 6100's, cranked about 75%. The bases do not turn green, they just receed tissue, no discoloration that I can see or have seen. No loss in color either, though the polyp extension seems go down beforehand.

[kev apsley]

hmmmm...possible flow issue IME.. is this tank strictly sps? I would increase the flow on those Tunze's because most acroporids come from very turbulent waters with a lot of wave action. To begin to even simulate flow in our tanks is only the tip of the iceberg

[DaveJ]

Its possible.... and I am addressing it with targeted flow with some new PH's as soon as they get in. Its not an SPS only tank however, I have a several LPS in there, 3 different frog spawns, 2 hammers and a candy cane.

The strange thing is that some of these SPS were doing quite well for several months then began to decline.....

I should also mention that I do run carbon 24/7 and have been running GFO.

[kev apsley]

also, what is your SG? how do you maintain your ca/alk? have the carbon and gfo been added recently?

[eagleONE]

out of curiousity what does a green base indicate?

[SDguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10480062#post10480062 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by eagleONE
out of curiousity what does a green base indicate?

People say that is an indication of phosphates. I'm not sure if this is anecdotal observation, or actually been studied. Hopefully someone more experienced can say...

[kirstenk]

I see no signs of predation, no FW or Red Bugs.

AEFW are difficult to spot when the coral is in the tank. If you have not, you need to remove an affected arco and check it out.

What is your magnesium level?

[DaveJ]

I maintain 1.024 SG and my MG is 1380-1400. I supplement Ca/Alk with two part from twopartsolutions.

The GFO was added about 1 1/2 months ago.. carbon has been since day one.

[kev apsley]

I would definitely add more flow, many of the other LPS corals could be blocking flow to those sps especially the base area's...I would re-check all your parameters especially the Alk and make sure your hitting the right numbers and not getting false readings been a lot of talk of bad alk readings form Salifert test kits lately if you are using them

[DaveJ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10480123#post10480123 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kev apsley
I would definitely add more flow, many of the other LPS corals could be blocking flow to those sps especially the base area's...I would re-check all your parameters especially the Alk and make sure your hitting the right numbers and not getting false readings been a lot of talk of bad alk readings form Salifert test kits lately if you are using them

When I started the two-part, I did double blind tests with my Lamotte test kits and saliferts at the LFS and they were side by side but I'll keep it up just in case.

[prop-frags]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10480021#post10480021 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DaveJ
The strange thing is that some of these SPS were doing quite well for several months then began to decline.....

The GFO was added about 1 1/2 months ago... Did the problems start about the same time as adding GFO? Is that the only significant change around that time?

[DaveJ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10480375#post10480375 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by prop-frags
Did the problems start about the same time as adding GFO? Is that the only significant change around that time?

Its happened after adding it yes.... but I've also increased the number of colonies around the same time as well. I used about 125g for the system which holds about 210g of water volume.