Dieing SPS

[Milad]

A few months ago I purchased some SPS from someone. As I was putting one of the SPS pieces in, i dropped it and it broke in a few pieces but I still put most of it back in.

A few weeks goes by and it looked like it was doing fine and then boom, white in one day.

Next SPS that ive had for about 8 months which was around 8inches wide turns white in one day.

Last week, one more of my sps goes white and today another went white.

Any ideas what could be causing it? All of them look like they encrusting at the base, growing at the tips. Could it be because of high calcium? Should I be looking out for some critters? Should I changed my lighting faster (150mh that are almost 2 years old, i know i know)?

Nitrates 0
Phosphates 0
calcium 450
Alk 8.7
K 450

[chris88]

critters are not going to take down a large colony in one day. it sounds like rtn or a beacking episode. a contaminent may have enterd your tank. Something like a rusting metal or copper may cause sps to bleach that fast, or a really high ammonium spike could do the trick as well. its hard to say becuase it could be any number of things. that is kind of the risk you run with trying to sps. they will be great forever and then one die out fo norwhere they might die.

[whatcaneyedo]

It could be the old bulbs. Swapping them out for new ones won't bring anything back from the dead. But I'd do it anyways.

What is your flow like? I've found that many species of coral both soft and stony can appear to do fine for months with inadequate flow and then suddenly die.

Double check your salinity and temperature just to be sure. My old Neptune controller was once out by 2 or 3º which caused me some problems until I re-calibrated it.

[Milad]

flow is high. two tunze 6105s and 1 large wavebox

double checked temp and salinity, 78 degrees and 1.025

I guess ill just speed up this major light change

[lastlight]

Your light upgrade is LED tho. Personally I'd want to make sure I knew what was up currently before throwing another wildcard in there.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

If you change out your MH bulbs, make sure you don't light shock the corals. Add egg crate or raise the lights or reduce photoperiod for a week or two.

[wickedfrags]

sometimes SPS just go white...............I had a tank with perhaps 125 different SPS, and if 90-95% were happy, well the tank is doing fine IME. remember that these corals come from all over the world, and it is impossible for them to all be in their ideal environment as it pertains to light, current, salinity water temperature etc.

[daniella3d]

Really? I have my SPS in very low flow for 2 years now...everything is growing like weeds and beautiful. Some SPS have so little flow that you can't really see the polyp move.

I had a tank crash in my nano where both montipora cap bleached in one day and a few LPS died, not sure why but probably because that tank was very much neglected. But I had a colony of acropora millipora in there and it survived without a glitch... When I closed down my nano I took the millipora out and wam in the main tank with no acclimatation at all. It almost totaly bleached overnight and in 2 weeks it's almost back to its full color again. These things are really tough!

Months? like how many months?

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

What is your flow like? I've found that many species of coral both soft and stony can appear to do fine for months with inadequate flow and then suddenly die.

[TimT]

Your Potassium is high. It should be 390 - 400 and not 450. IME Acros(only acros and not other SPS) are very sensitive to Potassium. I would do some water changes to correct it.

[abcha0s]

I'm having a very simalar problem. Over the past two weeks, I've lost about 1/3 of my SPS. All of the parameters that I have tested are in range and stable.

I agree with Brett. Don't put your LED lighting over the tank until you have it stable.

I would look closely at the biopellets as a possible cause? If not directly, then perhaps indirectly. Low nutrient systems are know to be less stable. Your Alk is also high for a bioplellet system. Others have reported problems when their Alk climbs over 7.

I do have a question for the other posters - perhaps it will also benifit the OP. I changed salt about 3-4 weeks before my problems began. I'm not convinced the problem is the salt itself, but could the change in chemistry have caused the problems? Should I change back (another change in Chemistry) or should I ride it out?

Good luck with your tank Milad.

- Brad