Spring coral losses

[Jeff_]

I am using tap water treated with prime, the only loss I've experienced is a complete meltdown of my xenia. Everything else seems to be happy and growing.

[Jason McK]

Originally Posted by Ryan

If all this happens in the spring could it be the extra chemicals or maybe they are uping the dosage of chemicals the water company puts in the water? Usually they do this in the spring because of the excess run off in the mountains coming down in the streams and rivers.

Just a thought here.

I have thought that as well. Wondering what can make it through the RO/DI

J

[Aquattro]

No losses for me, alk is in the toilet, haven't changed water in a month. Using RO with RBS salt. Top that off, I had to add 15g to the sump last night when I heard the pump sucking air.

[marie]

I wonder if we pay too much attention to our tanks in the months right after christmas, kind of a "kill them with kindness" sort of thing.

Maybe some neglect, like what happens in the summer months, is actually better for our tanks once they are established

[Ryan]

I know when I was even showering I could smell chlorine BAD when I showered. It was so bad that if you were in the shower for more than 15 minutes your eyes felt like you had been in a pool for 2 hours swimming with your eyes open. This was when i was living in Grande Prairie.

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by marie

I wonder if we pay too much attention to our tanks in the months right after christmas, kind of a "kill them with kindness" sort of thing.

Maybe some neglect, like what happens in the summer months, is actually better for our tanks once they are established

I sort of wonder about that, after all the hubbub of christmas we have some time on our hands and well, more time to tinker with the tank. This year I was taking a course and have had no time for tank stuff other than regular waterchanges. Sometimes even those got skipped. I'm finished with the course but now that I'm reading this, I have no plans to mess with the tank

[Myka]

Originally Posted by marie

I wonder if we pay too much attention to our tanks in the months right after christmas, kind of a "kill them with kindness" sort of thing.

Maybe some neglect, like what happens in the summer months, is actually better for our tanks once they are established

That's what I be thinkin, but the water at this time of year could definitely play a role. I also wonder what makes it by the RO/DI when the TDS meter reads 0.

I've never had an established coral up and die on me. If they make the first two weeks, they seem to be bullet proof. Even with SPS at the different times I have kept them. I've had corals brown out or bleach, but never die, and I've never linked it to any particular time of year.

[Drock169]

my pink chalice has started sluffing off some of its flesh but its been fine for a really long time, maybe the elegance below it is stinging it?

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I transferred all the SPS I am keeping into my 34G Solana this afternoon and within an hour (and in some cases 10 minutes), almost all corals had great color and polyp extension again. These were not the ones that had started to STN (trashed those), only ones that were super pale with little polyp extension.

It's really kind of weird. I used about 60% tank water and 40% new water in the Solana, so obviously they liked the 'big' water change. Must be something in the 200's water that is irritating the corals and even killing them.

Although it's kind of too early to tell, I was really impressed with how quickly they looked better after the change in tanks. All I can think of is the water change which was 40%.

Stuff like my Carpet anemone were never effected by whatever is going wrong with my tank and looked great in the 200 and still looks nice and happy in the 34G. This kind of makes me think it's some water parameter that only SPS are sensitive too and only some SPS at that.

Many of the SPS that have made it through the deaths so far are frags from other people. In fact the colonies that seem 'bulletproof' and completely uneffected are the ones I have bought from Denis here on CanReef. The Tri color especially has looked better and better the past few weeks. Crayola as well. I have some millies from another member and some frags from Brad (Untamed) that also are looking great through all this. In both cases, these frags have been 'captive' for many years and I know for sure in Denis' case, he has had some of the colonies for 5 years+

Leads me to believe that they really are that much tougher and can handle whatever is causing the problems. Maybe they have experienced it in the past and survived?

Anything that I have bought in the past few months that was from a shop (usually recently shipped as I try to go shipment days) has long passed. They went first and obviously were much more sensitive to whatever is going on in my tank. Would make sense as they have not ever experienced much parameter swings.

This is all I can think of in my case. Especially because it's not just one species dying off. I have dipped and checked for AEFW again tonight on some colonies that were almost dead and with a magnifying glass, cannot find a single one. Some of the so called 'sensitive' corals I have are from members tanks and doing fine while some corals that are known to be tough which I bought from shops are dead. This isn't 100% the case for all SPS I had (still have some store bought colonies) but it's a majority trend for sure.

Luckily the nicest stuff I have in my tank is all stuff I get off here and doing well still!

[Madreefer]

This may sound that I'm way out to lunch. If this happens every spring it could have something to do with the air. Over the winter usually all of the windows and doors are shut. So of course they start to open up more come warmer weather. This should effect the Ph but is there something else that it can effect? I know I have more evaporation in the winter.