Help....my acros are shedding their tissue.

[jschottenfeld]

I have a 125g reef with a mix of acros, millis, monti's, favias, zoas, setosa, digitata, and some other species that I am forgetting.

The reef has been established for 5 years and for the most part, thriving. Most of the corals that I put in the tank were happy. Sure a few would die every now and then but that was mostly caused by placing it too high or too low, etc. Overall I would say that I had a high success rate with many corals growing nicely for years.

I have 3 tunze streams on a multi-controller to help with flow, protein skimmer, refugium, calcium reactor, RKE controller and a 40 gallon sump. None of these items have changed in the last 4 years.

About 2 to 3 months ago I noticed that some of my acros had their tissue receding around the base of the coral. I first noticed it on 1 coral then another.

I was stretching out changing out my MH bulbs, (3 x 250w 14k) from a 1 year interval to about what was now about 15 months. I thought possibly that the temperature of the lights might have changed so I promptly started the process of changing out my bulbs for fresh 20K radiums. I shortened up their daily cycle a bit and changed out 1 bulb each week. After about a month I brought the lighting cycle back to where it previously was (8hrs per day).

It is now 3 months since I changed out my lights and my acros are still receding and shedding their tissue. At this point about 1/2 of my acros are gone with the other half in serious jeopardy. It appears as if the tissue is just comes off in strands from the base, while the tips are growing nicely. Some of my Favia's have receded slightly while ones on the bottom of the tank are doing fine.

My montis are fine, setosa fine, calustrea fine...My zoas are really happy and fully extended.

Here are my water parameters...
Spec Gravity 1.022
pH 8.4
Alk 9.3 dKh (had been lower ~6.9 and I slowly raised)
Calc 400 (had been previously at ~500 when Mag was higher)
Mag 1200 (had been 1365 and now I am raising slightly)
Temp 78
Phosphates ~0
Nitrates ~0

I dose 1 capful (small amount) of Iodine with each weekly 15 gallon water change. I do not see any type of worm or pest causing this degradation.

Last bit of info...About 6 months ago I added 6' of Ecoexotic Panorama actinic LED strips to my existing MH lights and have them set to the lowest intensity on their dimmer. They go on for 2hrs just before my lights turn on and 2 hrs right when my MH's turn off...giving me a dusk/dawn effect.

Anybody out there have an idea what is doing a number only on my acros??
Thanks!

Jan

 

[Mattl22]

Do u dose 2part? Or have a cal reactor??

 

[CONSTANTNE]

Do you use RO/DI? What brand test kits and do you test your iodine? Possible pests?

 

[jschottenfeld]

Matt- I use a calc reactor.

Constantine - I do use RODI w auto top off. I use Salifert test kits. In fact I thought that maybe my Alkalinity kit might be off so I bought a new one.

 

[tynman]

Just about 2 to 3 months ago I was going thru the same thing. My tank is over 3 years old used rodi water esv salt dose part A and part B thru out the day everyday mag 2 times a week 25 mls 3 drops of lugals iodine once a week. And sps that I have had for over 1 or 2 years started to rtn stn on me one after the other. So I broke everything that was alive and didnt look like it was rtning and I gave it to my reefer friends to save and grow out. I now have started all over again and I am still loosing frags (mostly cause its my fault do to to hi light and dipping to much).
My thoughts were the bio pellets were causing it. Well I dont have the pellets anymore so we will see.
A couple of other reefers ideas are that its in the air and its a bacteria in the air diffrent times of the year.. I dont know about it but I do keep it in the back of my head.
I was also running my LED's at 100% so Im sure that might have had something to do with it but the LED's have been running over 2 years on my tank so why would they start killing sps after that long and they were doing so well.

So if you do figure it out please do let me know cause Im still trying to figure it out.

Good Luck

 

[btldreef]

hey, i just went through the same thing. parameters were just about excellent but i was losing sps coral after another. i ended up having red bugs> you might be having this issue. try to study your corals closely. i hope you don't but it me be a possibility.

 

[Paolissimo]

going thru the same thing. Lost 2 sps colonies and a lot of frags. healthy colonies just started dying. What strange is that, I cut healthy frags, and the polyps extend, until they just die. It all started about a month ago, I switched from MH to al sol. My first thought was that I shocked the corals, so I lowered the intensity of the lights. That didn't help, started testing the water, and my alk seems to swing A LOT. I test every other day, and my alk goes from 7 (never higher then that)all the way to 6. I only have a 40gal tank, so I dose kent part a&b. I use esv salt, and started use kent buffer to raise the alk. I use gfo and carbon both on reactors. Phospate is zero, but nitrate, if I am reading the salifert color chart correct, is 25 (or it could be 10, i can't really tell). My corals are dying, the only thing I am doing right now, is try to stabilize the alk. I use spectrapure unit to make ro/di water. As far as i can tell I do not see any type of bugs in the corals.
calc 450 mag 1590

 

[jschottenfeld]

BTLReef - I've been looking closely for red bugs, so far haven't seen anything.

My alkalinity spent a couple of weeks in the 6. something range before I noticed and then I slowly raised up to 8 - 9 range.

My RKE keeps temperature in check and monitors my calc reactor to keep my effluent at 6.8.

I'm really stumped on this one. I am just about ready to frag out the remaining millis and acros to see if the frags have healthy ends maybe the receding of tissue will cease.

I understand that many reefers go through periods like this and sometime devastation happens...it's just a bummer because many of my colonies are mature and have grown larger than the size of my hand.

On another board someone said that my specific gravity is way too low at 1.022. I don't know, for the most part I have kept it at 1.023 to 1.024. I can't see .001 making that big of a difference.

 

[mbg75]

Have u dipped any coral to be sure there are no pests?

 

[jschottenfeld]

I have not added any new corals in close to a year...but don't yell at me....I don't dip.

 

[Paolissimo]

There are a few thread going around (mine being one of them) about this issue and it seems that everybody that is being effected had their alk drop in the 6 range.

 

[Jarrett]

i guess no one realized that your salinity is 1022 lol that could be why your acros are shedding thats way to low of a salinity for a reef. you need to be at 1025, 1026 especially with sps

 

[Jarrett]

and the fact that your corals aren't dying quickly, instead over a period of time leads me to believe that your salinity would be the culprit but thats just my two sense.

 

[Paolissimo]

I have teh same issue, and the one thing that I can say it's always stable in my tank is the salinity.1.026

 

[Jarrett]

yea but that doesn't mean, that his low salinity isn't the culprit, you obv just have another reason why yours are dying but i know no sps is going to live and be happy in water with that low of salinity. and the fact that they haven't died quickly kind of just backs up that theory that the exposure to the low salinity could be whats killing them.

 

[Paolissimo]

jarrett i am not saying that low salinity will not kill corals, but in my case, and it seems in this case, they started dying, one day is fine, another day is not. Like I said, a bunch of other people, including me, have stated that lower alk level then normal.

 

[jschottenfeld]

Jarrett, when I read last night that someone mentioned salinity on a different board I slowly started to increase. I will slowly bring up the levels to 1.025ish over the next week or so.

thanks

 

[jschottenfeld]

The interesting part is that my zoas and some softies look better than ever. Do they thrive in a lower salinity or alkalinity?

 

[Jarrett]

they dont thrive in it, but they are deff going to be more tolerable then SPS. bring it up and see what happens. i think your sps will make a turn around.

 

[jschottenfeld]

My salinity issues are caused by my Skimmer. Depending on if I have my filter socks in place near the pump inlet for my skimmer determines how much skimmate I am producing. Since I have an ATO, excess skimmate can cause a drop in salinity...(because my system is replacing with fresh RODI water).