UPDATED: Any Help is appreciated

globaldesigns · #1 11-03-2010, 09:51 PM

Well as many know, I have had coral issues this summer. I thought things were going well and corals are revitalizing, but I guess not.

Last night, I had an SPS with a bit of RTN from the base upwards. Today it is totally dead. This was approximately 3 inches in width and 7 inches in length. The whole thing is gone.

I don't want to get into parameters stuff, as I have gone through this over and over again, and even had my LFS check things and again perfect.

Today, I also took that coral in just to make sure there were no critters, red bugs or something else. Well it was clean, no critters, no claw marks, chew marks nothing. So now I can rule out bugs and fish/crab/whatever coral eating critters.

So now I back at the starting point, why did this coral die so quickly. It was in my tank for almost 2 years without issue. And what happened, is what has been happening over the summer.

I am becoming quite frustrated here. Any ideas? Again, please don't ask me to check my parameters. As this is not the issue, I am now needing to look for that needle in the haystack.

Remember though, other corals that had issues in the summer, are still showing great signs of growth and improvements. Water is clean, fish are healthy and overall tank looks pretty good.

Thanks.

Coleus · #2 11-03-2010, 09:55 PM

I think that is just the way with SPS, they just die for unknown reason. I think maybe we they need some thing in the water beside just Mg,Calc,Alk, PH.

Sorry to hear your loss but like many ppl here, we all lost sps for unknown reason :-(

globaldesigns · #3 11-03-2010, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coleus

I think that is just the way with SPS, they just die for unknown reason. I think maybe we they need some thing in the water beside just Mg,Calc,Alk, PH.

Sorry to hear your loss but like many ppl here, we all lost sps for unknown reason :-(

I know, Snappy and others had the same issues this summer. Makes you think there is something in the water.

I just got my JL shipment. Something I am going to do now, that I have never done. I bought some Seachem PRIME. This is a water conditioner to remove any ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, bromine, chlorine, etc. etc. etc.

I do make my own RO water, and again just replaced all filters YESTERDAY. Now I am going to condition all water for water changes and for top up.

Lets see if this helps.

MitchM · #4 11-03-2010, 11:15 PM

Sorry to hear about your coral death. My first guess (and that's all it is) is that your coral starved to death. It may have been in an area where a water current vortex may have prevented it from capturing any food. Or your tank conditions may have been such that the coral was sometimes feeding, sometimes not, going on reserve energy and finally couldn't recover.

I actually think we have quite a ways to go before we fully understand keeping healthy, thriving corals long term.

There are a number of things that we can't quantify yet:
-we really don't know when carbon needs changing, so we could have chemical warfare happening without our realizing it
-we can't tell if a coral is getting the proper flow so it can effectively capture food
-it's hard to tell if we are supplying the coral with the correct and sufficient food
-are the little things like leached toxic chemicals really affecting our coral's health?(why wouldn't it? I know some disagree with me)

What was it, 15 years ago that it seemed almost impossible to keep SPS?
Now we're playing around with coral colours and bacteria driven nutrient management.

I'm probably not being much help here, but I do think that these things matter. We have no real way yet of determining whether we are taking care of every coral in our tank requirements.

If your water parameters and lighting are good, I would suggest to do some more research on the subject of coral feeding.

Mitch

lorenz0 · #5 11-03-2010, 11:27 PM

I vote you pull the plug on those bio-pellets

Seriously dude

globaldesigns · #6 11-05-2010, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lorenz0

I vote you pull the plug on those bio-pellets

Seriously dude

Sorry man, I personally feel that isn't the problem. so not going to do that.

ScubaSteve · #7 11-03-2010, 11:27 PM

Could you post your paramter?

I'm kidding! People do it to me all the time (Me:"Params are on spot, don't ask"... people: "can you post your params?"... Me: "*&$%")

Are you running a low nutrient system? While I run close to that I personally believe that they make coral health very unstable as you are essentially starving them. This makes them pretty susceptable to pretty much anything and without the energy to fight it they collapse pretty quickly. RTN seems to be pretty common amoung ULN systems.

If you aren't running ULNS I'm going to guess chemical warfare maybe? What else do you have in the tank?

I had the same issue this summer, particularly my birdsnest. The birdsnest got the ol' dreaded white band at the base and I tried for months to fight it off but it was just teetering. Around this time I had frags and other colonies start to do the same thing. I finally caved in and fragged up the birdsnest and got rid of the dying areas. The instant I did that EVERYTHING perked up and all STN stopped and went away. Could there be one colony in your tank that is triggering it in all the others?

don.ald · #8 11-03-2010, 11:36 PM

what about electrical shock or something in the tank?

daniella3d · #9 11-04-2010, 01:47 AM

Interesting. I find sps to be the toughest things I have ever had. I can lose xenia or zoanthids for no reason but those sps I have never seem to be affected by anything and they grow fast. I don't have a lot of flow and I feed a lot of coral food each day. hmmm... Nitrates and phosphates are at 0 though because of lots of micro-algae.

I had no idea sps could starve to death because they are photosynthetic.

Mine even grow new tissue as new when some part die from toutching another sps.

Mine seem to like the lower temperature I keep in my tank, at 76F.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Could you post your paramter?
Are you running a low nutrient system? While I run close to that I personally believe that they make coral health very unstable as you are essentially starving them. This makes them pretty susceptable to pretty much anything and without the energy to fight it they collapse pretty quickly. RTN seems to be pretty common amoung ULN systems.

daniella3d · #10 12-12-2010, 12:41 AM

If this all hapened in the summer, then temperature is maybe what is causing the problem.

or temperature swing.

BTW, Prime does not remove ammonia, nitrates, nitrites etc from the water, it juste neutralize it and it only work for 24 hours. It is said to neutralize heavy metal but I would really like to see someone try it with copper and a copper test.

I doubt it's going to help your sps though, if you say that your water is perfect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

I know, Snappy and others had the same issues this summer. Makes you think there is something in the water.

I just got my JL shipment. Something I am going to do now, that I have never done. I bought some Seachem PRIME. This is a water conditioner to remove any ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, bromine, chlorine, etc. etc. etc.

I do make my own RO water, and again just replaced all filters YESTERDAY. Now I am going to condition all water for water changes and for top up.

Lets see if this helps.