Loosing SPS rapidly!!!

[danrs20]

I'm having trouble with my SPS at the moment and can't figure out what's going on. A whole coral can loose its tissue over night, the problem is that it doesn't seem to bleach from the top, its more of a full body tissue loss. I've lost 90% of my SPS, I've added a picture to illustrate if you can make it out.

Parameters:
Temp= 27 degrees Celsius
Salinity= 35ppt
PH= 8.17
PO4= 0.0918ppm
NO2= 0ppm
NO3= 5ppm
NH4= >0.15ppm
Cal= 360ppm
Mg= 1190ppm
Alk= 8.4dKH

Things that have changed:

1, Swapped to 2 x165 watt MarsAqua LED from 6 x 24 watt t5 iquatics lights, 9 weeks ago
2, swapped from aquaforest component 1,2,3 to the powdered 7 weeks ago ( running probiotic salt for the last 8months)
3, Added a long black long spine sea urchin 3 weeks ago
4, Had a huge temp increase 2.5 weeks ago, 27'c to 38'c for 12 hours - could this still be the after math
5, Noticed rust on a return pump bolt about 2-3 weeks ago, so I cleaned it off and had to reuse as I couldn't find another SS bolt to match it.

Rest of the corals LPS and Softies plus fish seem to be doing okay switch seems odd.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170706/2e02e17c4e137a202d2d7b3d32665145.jpg



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[david pinder]

Had 3 long spine urchins for years and then one day they decided they loved sps, They ate whole colonies before I actually caught them in the act, during the middle of the night

[wrott]

I think you nailed the answer w/ a temp jump, 80F to 100F. It could take 3-4 weeks to start STN, then everything may RTN--even the LPS.
If you can't find a nylon screw, run a couple of PolyFilter pads in your sump for piece of mind. And as you know, be very careful w/ changing to LEDs from just 150w t5s--I'd ramp it so slowly, starting w/ ~30% blue and 5% white IME.
How are you dosing, peristaltic pumps or Ca reactor?
You could try fragging even a very small, healthy tip can regrow into a colony if wasn't doomed. good luck

[danrs20]

David, that's interesting to here about your experience with the urchin. It would make sense as it happens over night, although I wouldnt expect the SPS to loose all its tissue. Is that what you experienced?

Hi wrot, this is the only thing I can think of at the moment but wouldn't have expected such a delayed response from the coral. Do you think from the picture regular RTN? It's almost like the coral expels all its zooxanthellae and turns a slimy brown for so long and then turns white. I dose through 3 peristaltic pumps.


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[mpsteve]

My money is on the temp spike. Stuff like that normally takes 3-4 weeks to happen


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[jda]

If you really hit anything over 90 degrees, then everything would likely be dead. Although I have no doubt that the temp spike is real, it is most likely not that high. Heat damage causes a loss of dinos/zoox and pale/bleached flesh. I see none of that in this one coral.

Don't sweat rust on a stainless screw. Harmless.

Are the tips on that bonsai-looking acropora turning white? If so, then it likely caused by rapid PO4 drop (usually from organic carbon), too low of alk or the wrong kind of lighting spectrum from a LED. Although you probably don't want to hear this, put the T5s back on and eliminate one of those factors.

Urchins normally will just eat coralline, but they can eat coral. You will see bit marks... and they don't eat the tips and skip over the branches.

[jda]

Oh, I have seen euphillia turn to jelly at 86-88 degrees and the hammer behind looks OK.

[ca1ore]

I see material stress in my corals (and fish) at anything approaching 85 degrees.

[danrs20]

My money is on the temp spike. Stuff like that normally takes 3-4 weeks to happen


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I wasn't aware it would be such a delayed response from the coral but it would make sense. The reason I thought I got away with the temp spike was that there was PE on most corals.


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[danrs20]

Hi jda, I can't 100% say that it did hit 38 degrees as a family member was watching the tank at the time. I do however know that it got to at least 33 degrees as this was sent via a photograph because I had them double check the temperature sensor ( 10 hours later ). Even at 32 degrees I expected to return to a dead aquarium. Regarding the tips of the corals it has been 50/50 whether they were effected first or not. There was no white showing what so ever, the process went:
Healthy looking coral
Brown coral
Brown coral covered in brown slime
Full white coral
This is all over a period of 24 hours.
I did have one purple plate that took about 3 days to go fully.

I can easily change back to t5 but the pendant has 10 month old bulbs in it, would this cause a negative effect? Not that I can think of other than a dimmed light.



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[mpsteve]

Like I said it was the swing in temp. Had it happen and lost 90% of my corals. Nothing died right away it took 3 weeks at least till the first coral melted


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