Need some advice on SPS browning/bleaching

[Matt LeBaron]

So to anyone reading this let me give two pieces of good advice so that you hopefully do not repeat the two mistakes I made.

 

1) Check your equipment regularly, even though it may seem to be working, make sure it is.

2) Calibrate your equipment regularly.

 

So one of my heaters stopped working at some point recently and my refractometer was a bit off. This became an issue after I did about a 1/4 water change on my 90G tank last week. The replacement water I used had a salinity of about 37-39ppt if I had to guess because my refractometer was reading high and since it was such a large water change the single remaining heater was not able to compensate for the room temperature water change water.

 

This resulted in a bit of a salinity shift in the tank and a bit of a temperature dip for a day or two until I noticed that my tank was a 2 degrees colder than it should have been, prompting me to check the heaters.

 

So a number of my SPS corals have browned or started to bleach. I've lost one frag entirely, it went over the course of almost three days.(That frag was in my DT, luckily my frag tank, while plumbed into my DT seemed to have weathered everything without a problem, I assume because the salinity and temp change were very slow for it) My biggest concern right now is what I should/can do to try and assist some of these SPS's in recovering? Same light, less light, shorter duration, more feeding, less feeding, or just hope and pray?

 

I have a green slimer acro that has totally browned and is not showing any polyp extension. I have one monti that is bleaching a bit at the tips and another monti that *may* be bleaching, it's growing edge is normally white so I'm not 100% sure but it's over all color is a bit off so I don't think it's super happy.

 

Everything else in the tank is fine, including my seahorses, fish, and soft corals like pallys and zoa's. I've got a new heater and I am going to start to slowly get the salinity back to where it should be but it's only at 35-36ppt right now so still is a relatively normal range, I normally keep it around 33-34ppt.

 

Current tank parameters below:

Phosphate: 0.07ppm and 0 on another test

Nitrite: 0.023ppm

Nitrate: <5 (Test basically reads 0)

PH 8.2

Calcium: 420

Alk: 6.5

Temp: 76 (where I normally keep it at)

 

 

Thanks for any advice or assistance, I got my first SPS's about a year ago to give them a go and had really excellent luck with them until this happened. The whole mess prompted me to order a controller to so I can avoid this disaster in the future.

[Ryan S]

Alk is low.

 

Temp too.

 

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

 

I'd raise your alk to 9.0 and your temp to 79.

Edited January 4, 2013 by Ryan S

[surf&turf]

Sounds like you just stressed them out with the salinity shift. My guess is your Alk in your water change water was higher than 6.5 as well, thus causing an Alk spike and stressing the corals even further. Try keeping your Alk around 8-9. Are they losing any flesh on the tips or at the base?

 

I also don't understand why you would have nitrite in your system.

[Matt LeBaron]

Corals grew fine at 76 for the entire year I've had them. Seahorses do better at lower temperatures, 75 would be ideal for them but I choose 76 as a slight compromise for the corals.

 

I'll slowly start dosing alk and raise that a bit also.

 

Nitrites are really low, only reason they are detectable at all is because I have one of the hanna photometer tests. Any normal test would read it as 0, which is basically effectively is at 0.023 ppm.

Edited January 4, 2013 by Matt LeBaron

[BowieReefer84]

Sounds like you just need to get back to regular maint and things will improve. I would just keep things as stable as possible and ride it out. SPS can brown in a day and then takes a month plus to color again ime.

[Steve175]

I agree: don't raise your temp (horses won't like it). Try to aim for stability. I would shoot for an Alk closer to 8 through (with either kalk reactor or 2-part) to avoid Alk spikes during water changes.