Anyone ever seen anything like this before (sps death)?

[christyf5]

Well sadly at this point, I'm really jazzed about the real estate its opened up with that coral being gone. Hows that for pathos? Either that or I've just become jaded as this happens to me repeatedly

Anyway, everything in the tank is back to normal. Currently I'm cleaning all the powerheads and wavebox and have siphoned the generous amounts of cyano that were produced overnight it seems (I had cyano before but man its just going crazy now).

[daniella3d]

You could identify it probably if you took a sample and simply look at it with a microscope. It's much easier than most people think and it's very interesting to see. You would not beleive all the wierdo that I have seen with mine. Personaly I think a microscope is one of the most usefull tool in this hobby but unfortunatly practicaly nobody use them.

Identifiying the culprit is often half way solving the problem. I used to have discus and most people in that hobby and in the forums I was attending had a microscope because discus are plagued with so many parasites and diseases that it was nearly a requirement. Do a scrape and see if there are flukes etc... Funny that in saltware it's like nobody use a microscope.

Originally Posted by lngrhaul

boy, this is the frustrating part of this hobby. You do all the right things like water changes and then something hits out of left field that you can't identify, can't treat and can't save the affected corals.

no advice to offer, but plenty of sympathy and well wishes.

I use a microscope this could have been a spawn and the water became too polluted and the coral that started it all was to week from it's spawn it has happened before. I was on a US forum last year and read some thing about coral spawn. I also seen a documentary about corals many years ago that showed corals spawning and it looked just like the photo's. They did say it is pretty rear for it to happen in hobbyist tanks but it could if conditions are right at the right time. Remember these for for the most part wild corals even the cultured ones are wild we just harvest the parts we want. The only way to get true corals that were not wild is to have them spawn in a tank and the spawn grows.

Bill

[PoonTang]

Originally Posted by bvlester

I use a microscope this could have been a spawn and the water became too polluted and the coral that started it all was to week from it's spawn it has happened before. I was on a US forum last year and read some thing about coral spawn. I also seen a documentary about corals many years ago that showed corals spawning and it looked just like the photo's. They did say it is pretty rear for it to happen in hobbyist tanks but it could if conditions are right at the right time. Remember these for for the most part wild corals even the cultured ones are wild we just harvest the parts we want. The only way to get true corals that were not wild is to have them spawn in a tank and the spawn grows.

Bill

And we did see the evidence of other corals that have successfully spawned on the tank.

[MitchM]

I don't think it was a spawn because corals typically spawn during the night.
It sounds like the original incident started at 11 a.m.

I also don't think that you would have such select damage on only a few corals.

Mitch

I have no idea as I was not there I was just putting the idea out there for people to think about. The start is unknown I think, the coral that was observed at 11:00am was a completely different coral. It could have started at any time and was noticed at a later time we do not sit there and watch our tank 24/7.The coral in question was noticed at 7:00am so it could have started in the middle of the night as far as we know. It does look like spawning coral from the pic's. I do not know for sure as I was not there, but any pic's I have seen of spawning coral look very much like this.

Bill

[Red Coral Aquariums]

This might be related to your situation. I have had a few customers come with similar occurrences regarding SPS and have found a common theme of not using R/O water or TDS is creeping up. Just tasting our Calgary water you can discern the added chemicals our beloved municipality has generously added. Just a thought and sorry to hear of your SPS problems.
Kevin

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Red Coral Aquariums

This might be related to your situation. I have had a few customers come with similar occurrences regarding SPS and have found a common theme of not using R/O water or TDS is creeping up. Just tasting our Calgary water you can discern the added chemicals our beloved municipality has generously added. Just a thought and sorry to hear of your SPS problems.
Kevin

Thanks Kevin!! You know, it could be exactly that as I've been having some RO issues lately. Water comes out of the RO unit at 2 but in the garbage can it was 40, not sure if those numbers are really *that* bad but bad enough for me. I changed out all the filters (except for the DI and RO membrane) and it still comes out at 2 (not that I thought anything would be different but I couldn't remember when I had changed them last, they were pretty gunky). At one point it was 60 in the can so I turfed that water and cleaned out the can thoroughly. It now reads at 2 (so far, this will be the first waterchange post cleaning and its still filling. I've been filling a clean salt pail so that I can measure the TDS in small batches to make sure there isn't anything going on with the RO membrane. I'm still thinking the garbage can might be having issues but its one of those brute cans that are like $50 so I might just try using a garbage bag insert or something to keep whatever is in the brute from going into the water.

I'll have to be more diligent from now on, thats for sure! Thanks for the info!