LPS die off

[Carlos Torano]

Hi,


Almost all of my LPS is dead. I had about 50 heads of frogspawn, and 15 heads of hammer coral. All but a couple of heads of each is gone.


Tank specs
75 gallon
4 fish (tang, clown, cardinal, neon goby)
100 lbs live rock
mag 5 pump
2 in tank powerheads
in sump skimmer. skims very well
77 degrees
no nitrates
no amonia
no nitrites
calcium is a little low-390
alk is a little low too
I use RO water from my own unit
lighting--4 96 watt PCs (one blew out last month and I haven't replaced it)
many corals-star polyps (3 kinds), sunflower polyps, mushrooms, one massive devils hand leather, one finger leather, a galxia (and no, the sweepers are not the culprit, it is tucked away far in a corner with not enough water flow to bring them into contact with anything but rock...I hate that thing!)
2 maxima clams- one small, one very very large, both doing great

All fish are healthy. All non LPS corals are healthy and multiplying.


I haven't added anything new to the tank in over a year. two months ago I started losing heads of frogspawn. One by one. Now I have almost none left. Yet all the other corals are doing really great. and so is the clams. Both are growing and one is about 7 inches the other is 3 inches.



Thanks,
Carlos


I have noticed some flat worms on the LPS and on the leather

 

[Len]

Hey Carlos, sorry to hear about your losses. What were the symptoms of the mortality? That is, did the LPS die in any particular pattern, did their tissue slough off, were they covered in a slimey jelly, etc.? I suspect some protozoan or bacteria caused the mass deaths.

 

[Carlos Torano]

Hey Carlos, sorry to hear about your losses. What were the symptoms of the mortality? That is, did the LPS die in any particular pattern, did their tissue slough off, were they covered in a slimey jelly, etc.? I suspect some protozoan or bacteria caused the mass deaths.

Slow death. Shrinking and shrinking for most heads. Some just dropped off the skeleton and sank to the bottom of the tank. I sucked them out and threw them away so they would not foul the water.


Some heads still have a few tentacles but mostly show skeleton.


I had plumbed my DI filter before the storage tank...I heard this was bad bacause bacteria will grow in the tank. Is that true?


I purchased a half dead LPS that was green with bright bulb tips. It grew to be very large and grew back over it's skeleton. Unlike others, it didn't split, just got bigger and bigger. It was the first to go two months ago. Then the rest followed. It just shrank away and left the skeleton.


Thanks,
Carlos

 

[tetra]

Holy cows, sorry to hear that, man!