salmon alley January 9, 2010 Share January 9, 2010 Well, after being convinced to NOT get out of the hobby (really..didn't take much arm twisting).. I'm having a major bleaching event in the tank. The acros seem to be hit the hardest, the Montis hardly at all. Color is fading to transluscent or brown. Polyp extension stinks, and my coralline algae seems to be looking chalky as well. ALK is fine and stable (9.1 dKH per LaMotte & 8.0 per Salifert), Calcium is 400 and has been stable. Sp Gravity is normal @ 1.026, Nitrates undetectable. I rearranged the aquascaping about a month ago, so for giggles I checked the Ammonia level..it's undetectable. The fish are fine and the snails/shrimp other inverts seem fine. I haven't changed bulbs or lighting. Temps have been consistently between 77 and 78 degrees. I'm at a loss and unbelievably frustrated. Seems like the reef gods really want me out of this hobby. I've started to do water changes, but I don't have any RO/DI premade, so it's a slow process. Going to start running Carbon as well, just in case. Can anyone think of something I'm missing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind January 9, 2010 Share January 9, 2010 Have you checked for pests like AEFWs? No changes in photoperiod? When did you change the bulbs last? Do you use a hydrometer or refractometer? When you rearranged the rock did the corals end up being placed higher then before? I think the water changes are a great idea until you can figure out what might have been the cause. Don't over do the crabon in case this event is related to too much light. The clearer water may make things worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salmon alley January 9, 2010 Author Share January 9, 2010 Have you checked for pests like AEFWs?No changes in photoperiod? When did you change the bulbs last? Do you use a hydrometer or refractometer? When you rearranged the rock did the corals end up being placed higher then before? I think the water changes are a great idea until you can figure out what might have been the cause. Don't over do the crabon in case this event is related to too much light. The clearer water may make things worse. No changes in photoperiod... Bulbs last changed 10 mos ago (ATI powermodule) Refractometer, recalibrated with RO/DI water to 1.000 I was careful to have corals retain their original "height" in the water column Can't say for sure it's not AEFW...I don't see any, but I've never had them, so don't really know what to look for... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salmon alley January 9, 2010 Author Share January 9, 2010 Holy crap... I think I may have figured it out: I previously posted that temps have been stable..but that's because anytime I've checked them, they've been between 77-78 degrees. That's because I'm usually home when the lights are on and at work when they're off. Today I stuck my hand in to get a water sample for PO4 testing and thought, "darn, that water feels cold"...checked the temp and it's at 73. So I scrolled back through my ACJr. to find that the temp has been dropping into the 72-74 range overnight when the lights are off for at least the last several days. No idea why my heater is no longer able to keep water temps up, but could this be the problem? Boy will I be happy if it's this simple...(and I'll be p*ssed off that my corals are stressed because of a $30 heater!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind January 9, 2010 Share January 9, 2010 You gotta love having an AC sometimes. The data log is a very valuable tool. Yes, that could be it depending on where the corals came from. Maybe the heater is not sized right or isn't working at all. What has the pH been at? Can you set up alarms on the ACjr? Or, maybe the corals were unhappy because there are no anemones in the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salmon alley January 9, 2010 Author Share January 9, 2010 You gotta love having an AC sometimes. The data log is a very valuable tool. Yes, that could be it depending on where the corals came from. Maybe the heater is not sized right or isn't working at all. What has the pH been at? Can you set up alarms on the ACjr? Or, maybe the corals were unhappy because there are no anemones in the tank. All the corals are frags which came from members' tanks. I checked the heater, it's working, but maybe undersized given the cold winter we're having (it's a 300 W for a total water volume of about 100 gal) The pH has been running 7.9 to 8.2. I did set an alarm for the temp on the ACJr., but it never went off...weird. I think you may be right...those corals need an anemone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salmon alley January 9, 2010 Author Share January 9, 2010 I did set an alarm for the temp on the ACJr., but it never went off...weird. When all else fails, read the directions....apparently one needs to buy an 'alarm module' or plug a noisemaker into a dc8 outlet...maybe that's why "it never went off"... I'm an idiot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind January 9, 2010 Share January 9, 2010 At least you found the problem before losing the whole tank. Now you have a weekend project, install a "noise maker". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salmon alley January 9, 2010 Author Share January 9, 2010 At least you found the problem before losing the whole tank. Now you have a weekend project, install a "noise maker". Yep. What's the chance that the affected corals will recover? So far no tissue loss, so I imagine that's a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind January 9, 2010 Share January 9, 2010 I think they will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds January 9, 2010 Share January 9, 2010 Yep. What's the chance that the affected corals will recover? So far no tissue loss, so I imagine that's a good thing. im sure as long as the tissue wasn't falling off it will recover. It might take a little bit, but im sure it will be fine...I have gotten a few frags that got cold before being put in the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 January 9, 2010 Share January 9, 2010 If you don't typically use carbon, scale back your lights because your water will be clearer and allow more light to penetrate. This combined with the bleaching will make it worse. I would elevate and scale back the burn time on the bulbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salmon alley January 9, 2010 Author Share January 9, 2010 hmmm... well now I'm wondering about the temp swings as the cause. I searched through RC and found many threads which suggest that the swing I described is not likely to cause problems. Just tested the water for phosphate (with an old Salifert test) and came up ZERO. Guess I'll stabilize the temps, do some water changes and see what happens... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar January 9, 2010 Share January 9, 2010 hmmm... well now I'm wondering about the temp swings as the cause. I searched through RC and found many threads which suggest that the swing I described is not likely to cause problems. Just tested the water for phosphate (with an old Salifert test) and came up ZERO. Guess I'll stabilize the temps, do some water changes and see what happens... It's JMO, but I don't agree with them, and I think your course of action is spot on. Bleaching is usually associated with high temperature than low temperatures in our reef tanks, but that's mostly due to us blasting corals with hot lights for 12 hours a day. Bleaching happens when corals are stressed, and a temperature of 73 might just do that. I would bet on that rather than some other mysterious, undetected problem. Good luck and I hope all your critters recover. As others have said, they'll be more susceptible to excessive lighting and they don't have most of their zooxanthella anyway, so consider cutting back your photoperiod a bit. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikryd January 9, 2010 Share January 9, 2010 300w for 100g seems like it would be perfect, unless you keep your house cooler than 70. I would double check to make sure it is actually coming on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salmon alley January 31, 2010 Author Share January 31, 2010 Update: The news isn't good. It appears that I'm going to lose most, if not all, the corals in the tank despite having stable temps and reduced lighting for the past 3 weeks. The Acros are a total loss and the Montis are starting to look sickly. The fire shrimp, snails and fish don't seem affected at all. Don't know if I still believe this was triggered by temperature fluctuations. This stinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite January 31, 2010 Share January 31, 2010 I hate tank death mysteries. I hope you manage to get it figured out ASAP before there is any more loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefmontalvo January 31, 2010 Share January 31, 2010 Do you think the water might be too clean? With my careful observation of a similar situation. If there are no biologicals in the tank what are the corals going to eat? I had this same problem a few months back. I noticed lots of bleaching and die off. All my temps through out the day were fine I keep a constant temp of 74 in my tank. I did notice I stopped for a period of about 6months of feeding at night with cyclopeeze, I generally feed once a month but with school and work I was just to tired to feed at night and figured there were plenty of things the corals and zoas could munch on. About two months ago I started my monthly night feeeding routine and I have been noticing coral growth and overall polyp extensions on everything. I lost a lot of zoas (blues, bam bams, olivies..... ) In the end I realized I had too pure and clean water zero nitrates is not actually a good thing, your tank requires a low level of nitrates and nitrites and a dap of phosphates to let phytoplankton grow in order to feed the corals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowsingle February 2, 2010 Share February 2, 2010 Sorry for your problems.....I know how frustrating it can be when you can't isolate the problem and you just watch your corals die. Darren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now