Moai of the Sea!

[markalot]

This all sounds oddly familiar. I lost all of my giant purple stylo except for 4 frags I made when it was in rapid decline, This coral is bullet proof. I would continue to do as many water changes as reasonably possible for a week or so, and feed the corals as well. If your montis start to lose color and show dead spots then you're in the exact same place I was a month or so ago.

 

Turn down the lights and/or reduce the light cycle to 8 hours might help.

[ManGups]

In my limited experience I think until the new water is the same as the tank water parameters it is fine. Corals are already stressed so new changes will add to more stressed.. If u are changing water and alk or ca or other stuff is not same as tank water.

 

0.05 PO4 is not bad at all - my corals are actually doing great at 0.08 last time I tested and I have not tested in a long time and I run GFO and carbon all the time in very trace amounts. I would say let it be and just ride it out.

 

For cyano just reduce photoperiod.

 

I travel every week Monday to Thursday and honestly it sucks when thing happen but I think u should let it be and ride it out. If I want u can superglue the RTN part.

[Sk8n Reefer]

This all sounds oddly familiar. I lost all of my giant purple stylo except for 4 frags I made when it was in rapid decline, This coral is bullet proof. I would continue to do as many water changes as reasonably possible for a week or so, and feed the corals as well. If your montis start to lose color and show dead spots then you're in the exact same place I was a month or so ago.

 

Turn down the lights and/or reduce the light cycle to 8 hours might help.

Ya, I'd say I'm there.......sadly my grafted cap is all but gone and my large purple rimmed green cap that I've had for over two years now is also all but gone. My only fear with w/c's is continuing to deplete PO4. I guess getting all the toxins from the dead sps out is critical at this point

 

Seasons greeting is still ok as well as my large reverse sunset monti, Ponape bird is alive but all white and stressed. Pavona is ok but a little pale, Idaho grape frag is ok, shrooms are all closed up, branching Cyphastrea is holding on, Setosa is super pale, bird of paradise is closed up, 8 acros are gone. Alk. hasn't moved for a day- staying at 8- glad I remember to shut off the Doser

 

What did you think was the reason for yours? I guess depleted PO4 caused this.....but I am surprised so quickly

In my limited experience I think until the new water is the same as the tank water parameters it is fine. Corals are already stressed so new changes will add to more stressed.. If u are changing water and alk or ca or other stuff is not same as tank water.

0.05 PO4 is not bad at all - my corals are actually doing great at 0.08 last time I tested and I have not tested in a long time and I run GFO and carbon all the time in very trace amounts. I would say let it be and just ride it out.

For cyano just reduce photoperiod.

I travel every week Monday to Thursday and honestly it sucks when thing happen but I think u should let it be and ride it out. If I want u can superglue the RTN part.

All good points - hard call. Hard to just watch it get worse, ya I am fine with .05 but thought it was higher cause cyano was using some so I thought I'd run a small amount of GFO and run it low through the reactor. I guess it shocked the tank ? If things are getting worse I am gonna half to try something though and w/c is really my only option, I remove as much cyano manually- that's fun

[markalot]

Montis are never really gone so hang in there, resilient suckers.

 

At this point question everything.

 

Recalibrate refractometer with 35ppt fluid to ensure it's accurate, double up on Alk kits to ensure accuracy, and water change water water change water change.

 

I also ran carbon at this point which didn't seem to make anything worse.

Woops, caveat to above. I started buying Red Sea blue bucket to make sure the KH matched closer to 8 in order to do larger changes. I often forget this is much smaller water volume so you do have to make sure not to move the params too much, but water changes usually end up fixing most things.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Montis are never really gone so hang in there, resilient suckers.

 

At this point question everything.

 

Recalibrate refractometer with 35ppt fluid to ensure it's accurate, double up on Alk kits to ensure accuracy, and water change water water change water change.

 

I also ran carbon at this point which didn't seem to make anything worse.

Ya, I hope they can pull through, I have 15gal. Made up now and making water as we speak. I'll probably do 10gal. A day for a few days and see if I can stop the progression. Feeding pretty heavy this afternoon. I haven't ran carbon in awhile but I agree might not hurt and I'll do a small amount passively. Ya, question everything for sure - I've been testing everything, changed out my filters for the house water, looking for any kind of contaminant.

 

I'll make the new water the same temp, Alk and close on ca, mag. Reduce photoperiod slightly over a few days.

[markalot]

I hope you can turn it around, this part is very frustrating. It must be related to GFO or something getting into the tank. I had slow SPS loss, nothing rapid, so this is a little different but I do have more water to work with.

[Sk8n Reefer]

I hope you can turn it around, this part is very frustrating. It must be related to GFO or something getting into the tank. I had slow SPS loss, nothing rapid, so this is a little different but I do have more water to work with.

Thanks Mark, appreciate the ideas and help. ? I agree - I think I just shocked the tank

[ninjamyst]

purple stylo will grow back; they are so hardy. i had white spots all over my caps and they recovered quickly. are you running carbon and did you turn on skimmer back on?

[Sk8n Reefer]

purple stylo will grow back; they are so hardy. i had white spots all over my caps and they recovered quickly. are you running carbon and did you turn on skimmer back on?

The caps are most likely gone.....some are ok, hopefully the stylo can hang on. Skimmer is running, gonna change some water and then run a small amount of carbon passively

[teenyreef]

I hope things stabilize soon! I would definitely run some carbon since all the dying corals are probably putting a lot of toxins in the water.

 

This reminds me of when my caps all lost their color overnight and most of the acros died over the weeks after that. Usually things like Alk swings or PO4 dropping suddenly kill all the acros but montis and stylos are indestructible and do fine.

I can't remember, are your nitrates ok now?

[teenyreef]

Another thought - do you have any microbacter 7? That's another good stand by when you don't know what's going on and it won't hurt anything to pour some in every day.

[Gary.F]

So sorry to read about this.

 

I went with GFO over Alu Oxide because it lowers PO4 more gradually and I haven't had any problems but I suppose any change is risky given how acros love stability.

One thing, reducing the flow on a GFO reactor might not necessarily slow the uptake of phosphates. Given that the water is in contact with the media for longer, it my just be going back into the system purer.

 

Fingers crossed that this is the end of it.

[dropped]

Montis are never really gone so hang in there, resilient suckers.

 

At this point question everything.

 

Recalibrate refractometer with 35ppt fluid to ensure it's accurate, double up on Alk kits to ensure accuracy, and water change water water change water change.

 

I also ran carbon at this point which didn't seem to make anything worse.

Woops, caveat to above. I started buying Red Sea blue bucket to make sure the KH matched closer to 8 in order to do larger changes. I often forget this is much smaller water volume so you do have to make sure not to move the params too much, but water changes usually end up fixing most things.

 

 

Thank you, you have just confirmed something that happened to me, ill also be switching to the blue bucket so my alk levels are the same on big W/Cs.

 

All this talk about GFO being the cause has me worried about changing mine today haha. But i think someone above was right and it was a combination of the cyano/new GFO which quickly stripped the nutrients down to 0 shocking the sps causing the issues you have seen. an unlucky combination. Most likely would have been fine in your older established tank, but it bit you in the newly established tank.

 

I think you should throw up some photos of the damage so we can see the recovery progression

[Sk8n Reefer]

Thanks everyone, appreciate all the ideas. Did a 10gal. w/c yesterday and started carbon, I'll do another 10 today and the next few days till things calm down. Skimmer is jamming and pulling some good dark skimmate. I transferred a few corals back to the Nuvo-pink stylo, fragged purple stylo, Ponape birdsnest, Pavona, mango tango Monti and one of the new acros. Hopefully they will regain some health in the

Nuvo.

 

I'll get some pics today- pretty sad to see my large cap and grafted cap dead. Seasons greetings, Spongnoid and reverse sunset still holding on and one acro is still in tact.

[Chris!]

Thanks man, sucks for sure. Phosphates were a little more than around .03 or point .04 with Elos kit the first color is .05 and it wasn't quite that dark but it has a big jump and minimal color change from .05 and .1 but I think it was more and the cyano was feeding off it and giving me lower reading. The skimmer was fluctuating to much to leave on while I was gone for 4 days so I shut it off and just wanted to run GFO for a few days. Dialed the reactor back pretty good too- must of still shocked everyone. Today the purple stylo is losing tissue in a few places. I am thinking I should do some w/c's but that didn't help anything last time - everything is in a downward spiral...........think I should do another 10 gal w/c?

 

.03 or .04 there was no reason to run GFO, if you had to take the skimmer offline just scale back the feeding a little and would have been better off IMO. GFO is some seriously potent shit, doesn't take much and with already what is considered low nutrient you played with fire. .03-.05 is IMO ideal. Lower then .03 and your just asking to starve the tank, unless you can run lower with a steady drip of food. The common misconception is that ULNS means 0.00 but it doesn't, or atleast didn't. I would continue with WCs but also with feedings.

 

This all sounds oddly familiar. I lost all of my giant purple stylo except for 4 frags I made when it was in rapid decline, This coral is bullet proof. I would continue to do as many water changes as reasonably possible for a week or so, and feed the corals as well. If your montis start to lose color and show dead spots then you're in the exact same place I was a month or so ago.

 

Turn down the lights and/or reduce the light cycle to 8 hours might help.

 

+1 I second the lowered intensity/ duration of the lights as well.

[Sk8n Reefer]

.03 or .04 there was no reason to run GFO, if you had to take the skimmer offline just scale back the feeding a little and would have been better off IMO. GFO is some seriously potent shit, doesn't take much and with already what is considered low nutrient you played with fire. .03-.05 is IMO ideal. Lower then .03 and your just asking to starve the tank, unless you can run lower with a steady drip of food. The common misconception is that ULNS means 0.00 but it doesn't, or atleast didn't. I would continue with WCs but also with feedings.

 

 

 

+1 I second the lowered intensity/ duration of the lights as well.

 

Ya, it was more to combat the cyano that was using the nutrients for fuel so the lower reading was not accurate I would suspect. I figured 4 days( while I was traveling) with a low amount of GFO would just keep the cyano at bay......apparently I was wrong?

[Chris!]

Ya, it was more to combat the cyano that was using the nutrients for fuel so the lower reading was not accurate I would suspect. I figured 4 days( while I was traveling) with a low amount of GFO would just keep the cyano at bay......apparently I was wrong

 

We all make mistakes, it was a good idea in theory atleast lights out for the 3-4 days would have been a better option to combat the cyano though really.

[Sk8n Reefer]

We all make mistakes, it was a good idea in theory atleast lights out for the 3-4 days would have been a better option to combat the cyano though really.

 

Totally out? Or just cut back- what about the corals that are still left- won't that stress the crap out em even more? There's one acro hanging on and some caps

[vlangel]

I am so sad that things aren't turning around yet. Hang in there Scott, it wont be like this forevet.

[Sk8n Reefer]

I am so sad that things aren't turning around yet. Hang in there Scott, it wont be like this forevet.

Thanks Dawn, appreciate it......tough to see the tank this way. Skimmers cranking and doing w/c's but the corals left are all but done. I have one acro that is amazingly still alive. I have some survivors in the Nuvo. The cyano is gaining ground still- I reduced light to 5hrs. A day but that isn't doing anything to it. I think I'll have to pull,off that last acro and shut the lights totally off for 4 days or so. I'll get some pics up of the devastation but it's tough to deal with right now. ? I really blew it with them this time- completely

[spectra]

Sorry to hear that things are even worse now.

 

What about just running chemiclean for the cyano?

[ninjamyst]

what about letting cyano run its cause? its pretty common for new tanks right?

[teenyreef]

Thanks Dawn, appreciate it......tough to see the tank this way. Skimmers cranking and doing w/c's but the corals left are all but done. I have one acro that is amazingly still alive. I have some survivors in the Nuvo. The cyano is gaining ground still- I reduced light to 5hrs. A day but that isn't doing anything to it. I think I'll have to pull,off that last acro and shut the lights totally off for 4 days or so. I'll get some pics up of the devastation but it's tough to deal with right now. I really blew it with them this time- completely

Dang, that just sucks. I guess you're pretty much in reboot mode now. I'm really sorry that things haven't gone better. I hope that last acro sticks around

[Sk8n Reefer]

Sorry to hear that things are even worse now.

 

What about just running chemiclean for the cyano?

what about letting cyano run its cause? its pretty common for new tanks right?

 

Dang, that just sucks. I guess you're pretty much in reboot mode now. I'm really sorry that things haven't gone better. I hope that last acro sticks around

Thanks! Ya, it's really staying strong, I thought about running chemiclean but wasn't sure about it stressing things out more and then the skimmer is ridiculous and needs to be shut down for a few days. The tanks not really super new anymore- figure it started in early Oct. and livestock in Nov. but in the scheme of things I guess it is. ?

[spectra]

I ran chemiclean on mine and it took out the cyano quickly.