Cali Kid Corals

Mass SPS RTN

Euphyllia

Euphyllia

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Let me start off by saying that all of the water parameters seem perfect. Alk is stable from 8.0-9.0, Mag is around 1350, Ca is around 400-425. My nitrates, nitrites, phosphates and ammonias are all at 0. I have been using chaeto for a few months now and it clogged the back chamber to where I had to remove some to fix water flow. There is no algae growing on the sand or on the glass. I have been doing 5g (17.5%) water changes religiously every 4-5 days with 1.026 sg water, which measured to the proper params for SPS.

Over the last few weeks, my SPS have began to STN/RTN/bleach/brown. The first to go was a new wild acro frag, which RTN'd almost overnight. Then another wild acro frag. Then a nice acro frag that I had gotten a few weeks ago. The thing they had in common was that they were fresh cut... Then my birdsnest colonies started to retract and bleach. I fragged chunks of them and put them into my RSM 130, where they then fully expanded and regained color. My ORA Plumb Crazy RTN'd yesterday, I just noticed another acro frag has begun to RTN, one of my montis is RTN'ing, my digi is retracting and bleaching. The only corals that seem okay are 5 acros (my nicest ones), my monti cap and my ORA spongodes.

I have no clue what is going on. It seems as though I've done everything correctly up to this point. My clams are fine and my zoas are fine. I am certain it isn't a pest. I've dipped EVERY SINGLE THING that has gone into the tank and made sure no pests came off. I need help figuring out the problem. Here's things that have been changed around the time of the start of the issue...

- Changed salt from Reef Crystals to Red Sea Coral Pro Salt
- Stopped dosing Oyster Feast in July
- Added Chaeto which diminished the phos/nitrates a few months back without issue
- Changed lighting schedule from 10:00 AM - 6:30 PM to 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM
- Cut back on feedings to once every two or three days
- Added dry sand to refill the sandbed (I rinsed the dry sand in RO before adding)
- Switched source of RO to another LFS

I have no clue what is going on. I've ran carbon, I've done water changes, I've been skimming on a wet skim and everything else possible. I just don't know what to do now. Any ideas/suggestions?
 
7 variables changed.....go back to the old salt before...check for metals in the tank? maybe from the sand. i would try to change back to what was working for you before I guess.
 
I'm with Arnold. Also, you never want to change that many things over a short period of time if it can be avoided because you will never know if something you did caused the issue. It could be none of those things, it could be something foreign in your tank is leaching into the water for example but with all those changes it may be impossible to tell. hth's and good luck.
 
- Changed salt from Reef Crystals to Red Sea Coral Pro Salt
- Added dry sand to refill the sandbed (I rinsed the dry sand in RO before adding)
- Switched source of RO to another LFS
Click to expand...
These are the only things I can think of that might be the problem and might have a contaminant that is undetectable but the methods you mentioned.

If it were my tank, I would do a large water change using the old salt and old source of RO and also use a Poly Filter.
 
+1, also what about temp? Been warm out there lately? Heater working, not stuck on or broken? What about flow? Maybe stuff has grown in enough and there isn't much flow happening? Not likely to all of a sudden make a huge problem, just trying to think here...
 
Triplecheck your temperature (get several readings throughout the day) and make sure your test kits haven't gone out of spec.

You might want to consider going back to your old salt for the time being as well.
 
Note that insufficient lighting is a possible culprit.
Especially if you see them gradually turning brown before RTN.

You said:
> Changed lighting schedule from 10:00 AM - 6:30 PM to 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM
That is one hour less, so if lighting, may have made it worse.

When did you last change your bulbs?
 
It's the salt. :(

There's a pretty sufficient group on another reef forum. All of our tanks crashed around the same time frame. The common thing we did was switch salts to Red Sea Coral Pro.
 
houser said:
Not a good enough explanation...
Why was the salt the culprit again?
Click to expand...
+1

Given all the other changes made, the myriad of causes for RTN, and salt change
being a less likely suspect in the first place, I would guess
you are just seeing a random coincidence.

--

However, for fun, I will throw out a couple of theories.

1) The Borate issue.
Some salts (Seachem) use a lot more borate to boost buffering capacity. Some people feel that
could be a problem. I am skeptical unless it is really high. And really something that would be
long term accumulation anyway.

2) User error.
It is very common to switch from Instant Ocean to some other brand, simply because IO is so common.
IO has a fairly high bicarbonate concentration, and some others have quite a bit lower.
Plus, the specific carbonate/bicarbonate/borate mixture can affect PH.
So if your Alk is already a bit marginal, then you switch salt, and forget to test/tweak your dosers,
you can pretty quickly get a big drop in Alk and PH.
 
Euphyllia said:
It's the salt. :(

There's a pretty sufficient group on another reef forum. All of our tanks crashed around the same time frame. The common thing we did was switch salts to Red Sea Coral Pro.
Click to expand...


Doubtful. YOU'd gain a lot from reading Rich's Skeptical Reefkeeping series:
http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/77954-skeptical-reefkeeping-richard-ross.html
http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/82364-skeptical-reefkeeping-part-2-magic-bottle-richard-ross.html
http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/100566-skeptical-reefkeeping-experts-changing-your-mind.html
http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/93781-skeptical-reefkeeping-part-4-what-does-even-mean.html


IMO and IME you are starving your corals from both sources of food (light and actual food).
 
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