I'm panicking: SPS shedding

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wbrown

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I think I may have something attacking the polyp 'skin' on several of my SPS pieces. Pieces are shedding and leaving the bare skeleton showing.
Water params are normal, can't see any redbugs, no nudis that I have seen, no asterina stars..
Any ideas on what to look for?
I think I have enough separation, most of these pieces are small to medium frag size.
Two pieces in particular have recently been knocked free and onto green zoanthids, I expected some stinging, but not sheets of color sloughing off.
 
rtn stn?
I assume some necrosis? not familiar with the acronyms..
 
RTN=Rapid Tissue Necrosis
STN=Slow Tissue Necrosis

Is this only taking place on the coral that fell on the zoas or were they palys?
You state your params are normal, what is normal? have you adjusted anything? specifically did you adjust your dkh over the last few weeks?
 
Params as follows:

Ph: 7.7
dKh 8.0
Ca 490
MAG 1440
NO2; 0
NO3: 0
Nh3/4: 0
temp 78
salinity; 32
SG 1.023
Only thing changed in the past two weeks other than lowering dKh has been to increase salinity from 1.021 and that was by subbing premixed SW for fresh over a couple days.
I can't remember which piece is zoa, and which is paly, so I can't answer which they fell on. polyps are approx 3/8 to 1/2" in diameter, brown/green in color.
This has appeared in the past day or so.
don't know if there's enough on the frags to frag again, would it be best to yank and toss in QT tank? I have about 35 gal of premix running in the garage, and several 10g tanks...
 
best older pic I can find of the accused SPS killer..
P5020040.jpg
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You can try an iodine based dip like tropic marine pro coral. Or just see what happens. I don't think moving them will help. Frag what u can or ...
 
You have dropped your dkh from 11-8 in 1 week well since the 22nd. Imo a bit fast as your corals were becoming accustomed to the higher DKH and lower calcium levels. IMO I would drop the coral in whichever system that you have that the DKH is higher. In your display raise your mag level a little and watch your calcium drop to where it should be. If you have high ca then you must also have high alk and mag in order for them to work off one another properly.

I believe what you are seeing is the reprocussions from instability in your params. ie, big jump in ca and big drop in alk.
 
the CA is unchanged, I let the dkh fall to a lower level on a recommendation from another member. I have been pretty inconsistent with the params, mainly ph-dkh and a large overdose of calcium I've had to wait out followed by a fast fall to under 250.
I can dose alk up a bit, afraid to move stuff from tank to tank without knowing if it's something that can spread to other corals. My prop tank is full of stuff I don't want to lose.. at least that one's been stable.
 
Well you could dip and move or decide exactly where you want your params to be based on what growth you expect. The more changes you make the more unstable your system will become. If you can hit your target params for a period of time your ecosystem will stabilize at those levels. Are you still adding ph up to your make up water. Try adding no ph buffer and watch your system begin to adjust on its own.
 
nah, I did some experimentation and found buffering my make up water was screwing up both my new mix, and changing stuff in the tank and have abandoned that practice entirely.
Left alone, ph will drop to the 6's, calcium and mag will hit the mid-high 200's in 2-3 weeks, and dkh will fall to 5-6. This is with zero water changes, just top off water.
If I could get a handle on what params will provide the fast growth I'd like, I think through diligence I can maintain it. I'm still in the fowlr mindset but desperately want to have a successful reef. I've been monitoring the calcium, alk, and mag levels to determine dosage amount, but have yet to dose anything since I got everything levelled out a week or so ago till I added 1% dkh (2.4oz) just a moment ago.

We have the beginnings of a reef club in Augusta, I live on about 10 miles outside the outskirts of town. Makes running over to a fellow members a bit of a chore, and I end up getting most of my info here. Nearest LFS is about 30 odd miles just to complicate things just a lil bit more...
 
More frequent water changes will help. These are the parameters that I strive for in my 120 mixed reef.

ph: stable 8.1-8.3
dkh:11 acceptable range in reef 3.5-4.5 mEq/l = 9.8-12.6 dkh
Ca:480
Mag:1500
Temp:78
SG:1.026

If the pieces that are showing necrosis are the ones that fell on those palys that could be your issue for sure. They look like they could be a type of protopaly and protopalys dont play around. Sps are not usually affected by zoas and palythoas but protopalys will decimate most any coral that it comes in contact with.
 
did a 32 gal water change, and will test in the AM.
anyone want some protopalys? I think I may well be done with them after all this.. Hopefully the replacement cost of whats died or dying will be manageable.
 
Your tank ph should not drop to 6; that's quite acidic. What is the ph of your top-off water? It should be 7 (neutral).

Do you have sand in your tank?
 
This is the same tank that was having the same high alk/low calc & pH issues were were about 10 days ago, yes?

Ours has stabilized, but we had to go back to buffering the RO/DI water.......the pH was falling off the charts. When you add a gallon a day of 6.0 pH water topping off the tank, it eventually begins to drop the pH.

We never let ours get below 7.8 before we started buffering again.

Yeah, here's the thread -
showthread.php
 
Skriz;352908 wrote: Your tank ph should not drop to 6; that's quite acidic. What is the ph of your top-off water? It should be 7 (neutral).

Do you have sand in your tank?
Click to expand...
5.44 is the ph of my source water this week.
I have sand, about 3" average in the DT, and 4" in the refugium.
tank is reading 8.15 ATM
 
tokejr;352911 wrote: This is the same tank that was having the same high alk/low calc & pH issues were were about 10 days ago, yes?

Ours has stabilized, but we had to go back to buffering the RO/DI water.......the pH was falling off the charts. When you add a gallon a day of 6.0 pH water topping off the tank, it eventually begins to drop the pH.

We never let ours get below 7.8 before we started buffering again.

Yeah, here's the thread - http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29444">http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29444</a>[/QUOTE]
I wish I only had to add a gallon.. lol This tank runs 2 - 2 1/2 gallons per day under 500W HQI and 200W actinic.
Click to expand...
 
dKH is 9 ATM too.. afraid to dose and get back on the rollercoaster so soon..
 
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