Sps (acros) dying

[outdrsyguy1]

Okay, so I had an event of some sort and looking for suggestions. My calcium levels got down to 360 PPM and it's been back up to 400 ppm for about a week now. However my acropora corals are really starting to die back bad. All other corals (digi, monti, stylo, lps) are still doing good. Really bad case of stn on all acros.
Here's my current numbers.
410 calc
7.5 dkh alkalinity
1420 magnesium
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
1.025 salinity
78 water temp
8.2 ph average
Nitrate low (haven't done low range test lately but zero on api)
Had a few snails fall off the glass the last couple days and die. About 15 others seem fine.
Run carbon in a bag and change every couple weeks (I'm not the best on that part).

I was also thinking I might have some chemical warfare with the leather on the left and the huge leather in the middle.
Also, about 3 weeks ago my carbon reactor pump died and water say stagnant in there for a while (1-5 days, not sure how long there).
Might be a trace element thing too as I never add any and do a 10% wc once a month or so.

Looking for suggestions. Here's some pics.

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[raz0945]

Rusty I would start with upping the water changes, even if you don't have high nitrates the water change will supplement the minerals. I feed heavy and I can see the polyp extention come out after a water change, I do a 15-20% weekly. Holley
It will also help with coral warfare!

 

[snowmansnow]

Is there a chance you have Acro eating flatworms? Take a gooooood close look


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[bcavalli]

You might want to double check your parameters at your LFS. Maybe your getting inaccurate test results from one if your test kits. Also, I was running my Alk in the 7s and if it dipped even a little I started to see rtn on a few pieces. Just a couple of thoughts.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Ok thanks all. I'm 100% certain there's no aefw. I survived it once and I'm VERY good at spotting them now. It's super frustrating because this seems to happen to me every 4-6 months and I lose most all my frags and a couple established pieces.
Couple years ago when I was starting in SPS I could not get my alkalinity above 8.0 and was dumping in chemicals like crazy to know avail. I ended up solidify and half of my sand bed in the process. I was worried about the same thing happening again but I tell you for the life of me I can't get my alkalinity above 8.0 it seems.

 

[camellia]

Raz0945;1056608 wrote: Rusty I would start with upping the water changes, even if you don't have high nitrates the water change will supplement the minerals. I feed heavy and I can see the polyp extention come out after a water change, I do a 15-20% weekly. Holley
It will also help with coral warfare!

+1

This has saved me many times with many corals recovering completly.
GL

 

[russ-iv]

you another thing you may wanna consider...

ime alk is happiest dependent on nutrients. thats why everyone has different happy mediums on alk. some run the 12s, others like me run the 7s.

when i see 0 nitrate i try to keep alk below 8. remember my birdsnest that kept dying over and over again? yeah. i kept alk in the 7s and they stopped dying. (admittedly i bumped nitrate to 5ppm as well)

also i am not a fan of "true" 0 nitrates. you get those pastel looking colors and it seems the corals are weakened and cant handle any alk swings. (i prefer 2-5ppm)

you may be trying to bump alk up higher than your nutrient load causing skeletal formation to outgrow the zoox. now that wouldnt happen in the 7s with 0 nitrates so i would question your alk or nitrate tests. the green algae on the returns show you have some traces of nitrate (definitely phosphate).

...that is where i would start anyway.