SPS Bleaching issues

[mhart032]

Hey all, im having an issue with some corals bleaching the one that are being effected are 4 corals as of now, the corals are as followed, Pink Stylophora, Yellow Porties, Pink Setosa, and a large colony of Blue Stag. the corals are bleaching from the bottom of the coral and working upwards. i have been having some lighting issues and finaly got that fixed on Monday, all my levels are in check and checked for flat worms and coral eating starfish but haven't seen either. i do have starfish but almost never see them on corals. its odd to me that the elkhorn type sps and the stag are the only infected. i have much more finicky corals that are doing ok. like lokie, purple monster, organ tort, and my big colony of tri color valeda pearlberry and skittles. i have been dosing algaefix for a couple week to kill a hair algae problem that seem to have started. but is under control for the most part. i also recently noticed some cyano and dosed red slim remover to combat that issue. really the lighting has been the biggest issue or all. i wouldn't imagine that they would bleach from the bottom on a lighting issue unless very stressed but why just the corals mentioned i would think it would be all of them. i have heard about white ring disease, and white plague but cant find anywhere where this has been reported in a aquarium type system so im kinda counting that out.

thanks Matt

[offroadodge]

hhhmmmm.....so as of late there has been alot of PPL (atleast 2-3 others) I know of that have been having the same problem. I dont believe its the white ring diesease. If it were me i would cut the coral just above the white ringd area and reglue it, the cure for white ring so happens to be to put superglue around the area above the ring to seal the coral off. So by cutting the coral and reglueing it this is what u are doing. Dont wait to take action, the other ppl did wait trying to do WCs, Carbon, GFO etc..CUT and RE-GLUE make sure to cover the whole end of the fresh cut area with superglue. This is just my observation, If the coral isnt being stung then its something wrong with the coral. Matt use ur best judgement, do what u feel is the correct thing to do.

[+mcallahan]

Matt...I used to have this issue and I finally linked it ALK swings. I'd measure your alk throughout the day to see if it swings wildly.

ALK swings can also be caused by dosing ALK all at once vs. over the course of the day. That's what happened with me. I was dosing 25 mL in the am and that was it. My SPS hated me. Once I switched to kalk and stopped dosing alk, my SPS took off. I haven't lost an SPS in over a year.

[mhart032]

Thanks for the quick replys guys. Mark that makes complete sence. My kalk reactor has been down for a couple weeks. Pump issues and leaks just got it back online lastnight. But I was dosing alk it 14oz at a time. Basicly 2 teaspoons a day all at once. Did the coral ever grow back? Or should I cut it. I'd hate to cut it if it will grow back.

[+mcallahan]

Thanks for the quick replys guys. Mark that makes complete sence. My kalk reactor has been down for a couple weeks. Pump issues and leaks just got it back online lastnight. But I was dosing alk it 14oz at a time. Basicly 2 teaspoons a day all at once. Did the coral ever grow back? Or should I cut it. I'd hate to cut it if it will grow back.

Some grew back, some didn't. Personally, if you can, I'd just cut off the affected parts and start over.

[mhart032]

Ok. i think ill give it a day and see if it gets worse before i cut it. but i think there will be a cutting in the next day or so just to be safe.

thanks again.

Matt

PS this solana has been a pain in the a** wish i still had the 90...

[+mcallahan]

another route to go would be to leave them be and make sure the bleaching doesn't get bigger. If it stops, then you can see if the coral overgrows the bleaching. If it doesn't, cut it.

BTW...that strawberry postrata colony you have bleached out at the bottom once and I let it be. As you can see, its 100% overgrown it.

[mhart032]

Ok, i mite wait, the only one that i care much about that is showing signs of stress is the stag, the Satosa didnt make it. and the others as cheap corals not that they shouldnt be cared for. just meaning that if they got worse i wouldnt mind cutting them. the strawberry postrata and the milli seem to be striving great color huge extension.

[Mike M.]

I totally agree with Mark...hate to do it boys, but I do think he's right. I have observed the same result with ALK swings or low or excessively high alk in my stylos and stags primarily. It seems these are more sensitive than others to the ALK thing. Get it under control and stable and all will be well. Then you just have to decide if you want to perform fragging surgery or not.

Just went through this last month in my tank due to an algae plug in my calcium reactor return line.

[mhart032]

Nice, makes me happy it's a pretty easy fix! Darn take had me up all night reading about it. Thanks for the imput mike. Really to all you guys. It's very much appreciated..

Matt

[Starsprinkle Rainbowsmile]

I'm going to add a vote out of experience for ALK swings, which happened in my tank and I lost a big birdsnest colony just as you describe due to it.  I have a small tank which is even harder to stabilize too sometimes than larger tanks.  Definitely keep on top of pH/dkH.  To fix my problem I had to dose buffer twice a day instead of one, now things are stable and all my SPS are much happier.

[barderer]

I would take the hard advice and cut the coral on a healthy spot and start over before you loose the whole colony. Give yourself ample buffer of good tissue as well. So many times I thought I could "save" the colony just to watch it evaporate. Cutting a lot of frags when you first start to see it go is the best method to save it.

N

[mhart032]

Just an update, i started to really watch my alk been checking it 3 times a day and its been pretty stable between 8-10 i haven't noticed any more loss of tissue from the corals and some parts a starting to color back up. well the stag have gone from white to a purplish pink color in sections. so its showing some signs of improvements. thanks for the help guys..

Matt

[Mike M.]

Are you saying that you have a 2 pt. kH float across the day? If so, how are you maintaining alkalinity? You might need to consider some adjustments to your dosing schedule to smooth out the float. I never see more that .5-1 Kh float through a day. kH seems a little lower in the morning than afternoon in my system.

[+mcallahan]

I was about to echo what mike said. 2 pt in a day is enough to throw some coral off. Mine doesn't move more than .5.

[Mike M.]

Hey Mark,

Thanks for posting your observations on Alk swing. Due to the relative lack of accuracy on the test kits, I was reticent to say .5 kH, but that would be my best guess on what is actually going on in my system versus a whole point. Matt will clarify if he actually has a 2pt swing or if he is saying that is the range he tries to maintain. I am having trouble understanding how you get a 2 pt. swing in a day and that would certainly explain why he may be having necrosis issues.

[+mcallahan]

Hey Mark,

Thanks for posting your observations on Alk swing. Due to the relative lack of accuracy on the test kits, I was reticent to say .5 kH, but that would be my best guess on what is actually going on in my system versus a whole point. Matt will clarify if he actually has a 2pt swing or if he is saying that is the range he tries to maintain. I am having trouble understanding how you get a 2 pt. swing in a day and that would certainly explain why he may be having necrosis issues.

I'd have that big of swings when I wasn't dosing kalk. My alk would drop all day long, then in the morning, I'd dose alk and send the readings back up again...then a slow fall all day.

I wrote a blog post about how keeping a tank is like surgery. You being a doctor (or so called ) might appreciate the comparison.

[mhart032]

no no, im saying that between days im getting that much fluctuation not hrs apart. it doesn't really move that much. one day it will be at 9 then a day later it will be at 7.5-8.0 but i have seen it as high as 10 after a couple hrs after dosing, but then settles in at night around 8.5 to 9.0 . im dripping it into the tank and not just dumping it anymore. i have been adding a teaspoon to about 16oz of ro and dripping it into the take a day. and its been fairly stable all in all about 8.5 on the average. still needs to come up a tad but i think 8.5 is exceptable. natural seawater is 7.0 witch leads me to believe 8.5 to 9 is pretty decent range.

Matt

[mhart032]

Im thinking about trying a different buffer, i have been using kents super buffer only cause i have a 1/2 gallon bucket, im thinking about trying the brightwell KH buffer to see if it makes a difference.

[+mcallahan]

and remind me...are you dosing kalk?

[mhart032]

Yes i have a kalk reactor inline with my ATO

[+mcallahan]

Yes i have a kalk reactor inline with my ATO

and you are still getting alk swings? Interesting.

[mhart032]

Well i just got it fixed a couple days ago. it had to be resealed. it was leaking. when i started to have this problem it was not in use. it hadn't been in use for a couple weeks then i started to get the drastic swings.

[+mcallahan]

Well i just got it fixed a couple days ago. it had to be resealed. it was leaking. when i started to have this problem it was not in use. it hadn't been in use for a couple weeks then i started to get the drastic swings.

that would make sense.

[Mike M.]

Your dosing schema is the source of the instability. Try to move your husbandry to limit this swing to <1 kH across the week. Your tank is rocking and rolling over time and SPS do not like this at all. I think we have this thing licked.

Meek out!