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@Javed Aman thats my same exact issue! I wonder if seeing others with the same issue if that combo is a super recipe for disaster. But ive also suspected something bacterial or in the source water

Very bizarre the quite a few of us who have been rolling good for years all of a sudden have had similar experiences. I wonder if its the aluminum or iodine but that would surprise me. Mine was yellow on the ICP test. Same with Iodine. Doubt we all share a water source but geographically we all are sort of close

Sounds similar to me. Some SPS look amazing. Others like total garbage though it seems Im mostly past the bulk of my problems. I suspected that may have been a trigger for some of my deaths that I did a big tank cleanup and then let the algae grow back. Probably swung my levels a bit. I had mostly tips down death in my case

@epleeds same here. My nitrates are 2 and my phosphates .08. The i have a decent amount of algae though so I feel like I may have had a fluctuation when I cleaned a bunch out. What were your death's like?

@telegraham I'd love to hear what you did tbh. I'm having a similar issue at a slower but still occurring pace. I have another thread where I posted my ICP results. I am really running out of things to try. I was low Ca, sort of low strontium and Iodine. Ive slowly raised the Ca and have followed the dosing for Strontium. About to start with Iodine and weekly water changes.

So the mystery mostly continues. Discovered my calcium reagant is bad at least . Here are my ICP results. Nothing else besides Ca is really off, maybe the trace amounts of aluminum but those arent in tje danger zone. But I am going to add that as a contender to the weird bacterial infection I am having some success treating. I am wondering if maybe the low Ca was causing growth issues and the infection would take hold in areas of bad growth. The tips of the corals that went were usually the first sign of a problem. Extremely doubt Ca at that level alone would cause RTN/STN. Maybe the anecdotal evidence of old of phosguard leeching aluminum is true because I run that a decent bit.

Yeah the weird fuzz and the fact that it is very isolated like 1 piece at a time mostly is what has me baffled. The positive reaction to the antibiotic and the decline of those that didn't has me even more leaning towards it. Ive seen RTN before from other causes though not really in my display but in other tanks I have/have had. This is different. I still am not writing off a small goofy parameter that may be neglected. My ICP test shipped out yesterday. But I find it weird that if it was a parameter issue that it hasn't phased some sensitive corals at all. But yeah I've made that mistake with salinity before haha I have like 3 refractometer but i guess the icp test will clarify that up to

@RW09903 I would've thought that a bad infection would have occurred in more things as well. But seeing as though this weird fuzz only really appeared whenever I noticed a coral waa damaged it seems to hold in line with that there are strains of vibrio in all of systems and once a coral is weakened certain strains go nuclear and contribute to the death. Fwiw, I ordered some amoxicillin after reading a pretty interesting tale of anecdotal evidence om reef2reef. After i fragged the corals away from whatever the fuzz was pretty much all the pieces except some birdnest were fight. I deliberately left the fuzz on 2 pieces of the green slimer and 2 pieces of birdnest. I treated 1 of each in a little bucket mix with the antiobiotic following the post and its been 3 days and the fuzz/bacteria eating them has been reduced almost entirely. Hardly any new RTN/flesh loss if any. The other 2 pieces are rubble rock now. Very limited test obviously but its seeming like it lines up with other reefers findings on this

Here is one from few months back I haven't really taken many pics in the past few months. I have the Hannah testers for both. The low range one. I even reordered reagants multiple times for all and have been going to reefescape every 4-6 months and have them test the levels to make sure my test kits are in line. I have strongly suspected some trace element like potassium or strontium or the likes that over time just hasnt been replenished. Very strongly suspect that as a cause and the presumed bacterial infection taking place in the weakened corals as the effect. Though the parameter piece has me confused why it only affects 1 coral at a time. Tho it did hit some big red SPS first and Ive read that could be a correlation... I do run carbon and phosguard together in a media bag in the sump. I change them out every couple weeks. The leathers I have also suspected could be a culprit. There are some quite large ones. Though I've mentally pushed that further down the list as many of the corals have been where they are for quite a while. But I just renewed the carbon earlier than I normally do last night. I've run my alk around 7 for a while. I don't have a ton of nutrients and bioload and at the higher alk I had faster growth but burnt tips. Found it easier to drop alk than raise nutrients and I've just rolled with it. The pc rainbow colony in the top right was the first to go. That one started from the middle of the colony. I feel pretty good I just didn't have enough flow to the center of it and the angelfish picked at it. The green slimer in the middle right and the frogskin pieces above the sinularia leather middle left are what is struggling now. The tissue death pattern is even weirder. The base on the slimer lost a little bit like a cm over a few months as the montipora got closer to it. I kept an eye on it and it stopped and didn't progress for a while. Chalked it up to coral warfare. The slimer like the other big sps tend to get algae and such stuck to them from time to time. I tend to gently move the turkey baster around to knock it off or blow at it from afar. I've suspected this could be a cause as well. The RTN has mostly come from the tips/places of stress/algae etc. I really suspect after more reading it is a strain of vibrio that is taking hold and doing the real damage. I've ordered amoxicillin has Ive read some good articles of people having success with antibiotics and treating this. I'm quite curious by it. In the mean time I am fragging the slimer whos dying has slowed down a good bit and the frags look fine so far in both the display and my frag tank. I am going to do a small water change like 5% every couple days. And try to try the fuzzy parts with amoxicillin. Fwiw, i placed a piece with fuzz next to the birdnest bottom middle right. Within hours a piece of the birdnest down flow and about an inch away started to RTN. I really appreciate your input. I was originally dejected by this and while I know we all who keep sps for a while probably experience rtn there isn't alot of good information about it surprinsingly

Hard to get a good pic but that brown bit is fuzzier in person than the pic. Am really at a loss as to why it is seemingly only 1 coral at a time and over a long span. Its an obvious pattern now. But nothing else seems bothered really. I assume viewing it under a microscope would confirm it is a bacteria or not? What else could be deduced from that? (I maxed out at chemistry 2 in high school many years ago science isnt my forte lol)

@ReefdUp it looks like brown jelly consistency. But its not brown. Its like a mostly whitish brown fuzz. Fuzz probably isnt the best term but thats how I'd describe it. Let me see if I can get a picture. I don't believe it is just the corals flesh dying/the reaction from it. But I could be wrong

I just posted a thread of something similar. Except mine is slower occurring. I am strongly suspecting a bacterial infection like vibrio or so in my case. Sorry for your losses man. I would offer some corals but I am holding off on giving anyone any SPS for a little while until I sort out my own

Guess I would also add there is a lone pepp shrimp in there. I have gone at night with a red lens and looked at the tank and seen nothing amiss he usually just zooms around on the sand and scavenges. I also don't buy wild corals. The only corals I have gotten are from folks in here and I strongly doubt that I inherited any visible pests from them.

Sorry in advance for the novel I appreciate any help as the mysterious deaths of things are by far the absolute worst. So I am at quite a loss of what to do. And then I read what happened to @Leishman and now I am even more at a loss. Little backstory. First of all I don't suspect brown jelly. I have plenty of LPS that hasn't cared at all through this and I've dealt with brown jelly before in my frag tank. My current display has been up around 2 years and I've kept tanks for years before that. Many of the corals in my 180 are good sized colonies. About a year ago randomly I had a sunset monti start to lose flesh but it was covered in this whitish brown fuzz and after a day or 2 spread to a sort of next door lepto. I chalked it up to them being to close but blew off the fuzz and rinsed it good in separate container of tank water and did a little water change and moved it to my frag tank. No further loss since on that coral. Checked all parameters again and nothing was weird. Month later a pc rainbox colony I had got the same weird fuzz. My angelfish does angelfish things but never really caused problems before. The whole colony and frags I made wasted away over the next few days from the fuzz. Again. All levels fine nothing else even remotely phased. I suspected the angelfish and kept an eye on him. Another month later I had a branch of green slimer that had grown from a nub rtn overnight with the same fuzz. I removed it from the tank. Fast forward like 2 months and a big setosa colony showed a little missing patch. Figured it was in a slightly shaded area or lower flow. Didn't get any bigger or anything for a few days so I did nothing. 2 or so days later bam whitish fuzz. I fragged up the colony and the pieces are all fine. And just now a few days ago I had a large frogskin and green slimer randomly start to lose flesh to the same weird fuzz. Again fragged most of it and it seems fine. My levels are all in line again and dont swing. I've ordered an ICP test but I have ruled out so many variables. I am really down to something goofy like potassium or a vibrio/bacterial infection. Hearing what happened to @Leishman makes me suspect it more and more except I have no clue how to deal with it... It's so baffling that it's like 1 by 1. It seems like once any injury or small loss of flesh happens the SPS get the fuzziness and it eats their flesh over the next 2-3 days. So somewhere in between RTN and STN speed. It is all over the tank. Not just one area. But it is weird as I still have lots of SPS healthy and thriving.. Lights AI Hydra 26s. I think its Saxby settings. Don't think its these guys or shading Flow 3 mp 40ds 1 mp10 - Ive thought it was flow but it hasn't been one particular area and the water movement is quite good Temp 78.9 Salinity 1.025 Alk 7.1 Phos .04 (some algae so probably a little higher like .10) Nitrate 2 Ca 410 Mg been a few months but was like 1300 The rest will come out in the ICP test I suppose. If you've made it this far I appreciate it.

Perfect thanks so much!

There isn't alot of info on how to do this strangely. I have a giant purple gorgonian I need to start chopping. I was planning on just snipping it with bone cutters/ a razor. Can you just glue the base like with SPS? Or does it shed like softies and you have to attach it with rubber bands. Id like to make a couple frags of it myself to move it around my tank more and sell a bunch to others. I have no clue what kind of gorgonian it is just purple and certainly one of the hardier varieties my guess is antillogorgia

Lost my Quoyi Parrotfish a week or so ago. Lasted over a year in my care. Most people seem to have them wither away out of no where after a 6 month span so I guess I was more fortunate than most. I have had ich in my display (or so my hippo tang has me convinced) for well over a year now without any issues except for a candy hogfish who disappeared. I feared that it may have gotten into the gills of the parrotfish since being a labrid his slime coat hid all external signs. But a microscope and brief autopsy showed nothing. Beautiful fish with an awesome personality but I prefer fish that last a while so I can enjoy the satisfaction of them growing up in my care so I dont think I will get another. I replaced it with a sailfin tang and a blue throat triggerfish. They are doing great. My hippo tang went wild for a day and now the hippo and sailfin are best buds. Most of my corals are growing wild and I really need to frag alot of the colonies lol. I have an interesting "issue" where my nutrients stay low. But they are getting consumed by algae in the display before the media in the sump. I added an mp10 for even more flow (2 mp40s all the way up and the return has about 600gph out of each nozzle) in the hopes the water would turn over more. Now Ive went from having more cyano growth to gha. But gha is less of an issue for me than cyano. My potters angelfish has decided after a year and a half it wants to eat my pc rainbow colony. Now interesting the pc rainbow hasn't lost much color so it seems but just has bad PE. Looking to add another small fish or two like an agile chromis and chalk basslet and then a couple fancy SPS.

I have long tried to find accurate sources of maximum fish lifespans in captivity and numbers are all over the place and there really wasn't one central place of info. So I thought Id poll Wamas on some of the more common genus and maybe some day others can see this thread and see some personal examples of how long our pets can live all summarized in one place. Here are some estimates of the ranges from my reading and experience of how long fish can live in captivity please add your specific examples of how long yours have lived and input to my findings and estimates! This is all assuming they die of old age at what i am guessing is their average lifespan. I am not going into specific genus but please add any specific examples this group is rife with knowledge and experience come brag about your old fish! Anthias - 4-6 years? Angels (Big) - 10-12 years Angels (Dwarf) - 8-10 years Butterflies - seems like 10-15 but some public aquariums have had some over 20 years Cardinals - 5-8 years Clowns - 8-10 years with some going 15-20 Damsels/Chromis - 8-12 years. Anyone got any over 15? Gobies - 4-6 years Foxface and Rabbits - 8-12 years Hawkfish - 8-10 years Puffers - 15-20 years Tangs 15- 20 years Triggers - 9-12 years Wrasse (Fairies and smaller ones) - 5-7 years Wrasse (larger) - 6-10 years

One year between pictures some of the growth in there has been awesome. This time next year going to be alot more frags...

Been a few months so time for an update. Nothing really new in the tank. Every grows. Replaced a heater. Changed some RODI stages out. Had to move some stuff and frag some that was getting shaded. Finally getting ready to buy a larger frag tank and the other half has expressed interest in a waterbox peninsula mini to learn about the hobby...(amazing day considering she hasnt cared at all in years lol) .

Sorry I should've specified more on the cardinals. They were old and some of the biggest I had seen the reefer I got them from did a great job it seems they lived out their golden months with me. They seemed to have went from old age. They just kinda wasted away each over a day or two span. The whole lose weight slowly and then just do nothing until death. I think the hogfish is dead. I need to really really check my overflow instead of just glancing in there but I am not sure what did him in. He is the only fish I have "lost" and the only one to die from something not obvious. I dont think I will ever know. May Tank update. I have gone to kalk in the ato plus manually dosing rodi mixed with baking soda to keep my alk up. I may just switch to an actual two part product. This tank is starting to suck down alk/ca more and it may finally be time for me to start checking mg as well I doubt water changes will keep that in a good place for much longer. All fish are good. My flame hawkfish jumped out(i have a lid.... he hit it and still snuck out) fortunately I heard him and ran over and threw him back in. That is 4 times he has jumped out in the past few years he is running out of lives lol. I will add a Vanderbilt chromis that has been in QT to the display soon. I got real scared that he was developing uronema as he had a white scrape like marking develop after over a month of being in there but its gone away so assuming he just had an injury as he probably wouldve developed uronema much sooner on. All corals grow well. I had to move a toadstool as it was getting huge and was getting mad because the wave maker was to close. I still may add some more rock for real estate to the right side of my tank to put some more branching acros there. Now that I have gone a year without really any SPS issues I may add a fancier colony.

Thanks guys!

I have some stick colonies shading out other corals that I want to trim a little. I have always just used the reef safe super glue to mount plugs to rocks and would probably use that if it came to it. What do you guys like to use? Any other tips or tricks to fragging? I have watched some videos and read a bit so I get the basics but this group is full of knowledge. Thanks!

You could do a group chalk basslets. They seem to play well in groups. Not sure if they would really shoal or school as much as anthias or chromis but just a different option for a group of fish than anthias or chromis.