SuncrestReef Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 I've had very healthy corals for the past 6 months, but in the past couple of weeks my SPS have taken a turn for the worse. I was starting to get concerned last week as I was preparing to leave town for the holidays and saw some browning tips. Today I returned after a week away and things have gotten much worse: November 20: December 29: December 3: December 29: I measure all the common parameters daily and have not had any significant swings. My water parameters for the past couple months have been: Salinity = 1.026 Temp = 77.9 - 78.3 F Alk = 8.3 - 8.6 dHK Cal = 420 - 430 ppm Mag = 1320 - 1350 ppm NO3 = 4 - 5 ppm PO4 = 0.04 - 0.10 ppm I have not changed any lighting settings or flow settings. I have not added any new inhabitants since my mystery box frags on Nov 23. I have not changed any dosing schedules or products. All of my LPS and soft corals appear to be fine. I'm thinking I should send some water samples (both tank and RO/DI) for ICP testing. Any other ideas on what I should check? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The ReefBox Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Hey bud check your TDS (top off water) i thinknthis was the issue to my sps prob recently but can’t confirm it for sure did you dip your mystery box corals? Anything die while you were gone (snails) etc. check. Ammonia. My stuff is on the mend with changing my DI resin so hard to say and I added so chaeto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Tavan Posted December 29, 2018 Share Posted December 29, 2018 Did you change salt recently or a new batch? Would send an icp asap and do water changes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 1 hour ago, viper55 said: Hey bud check your TDS (top off water) i thinknthis was the issue to my sps prob recently but can’t confirm it for sure did you dip your mystery box corals? Anything die while you were gone (snails) etc. check. Ammonia. My stuff is on the mend with changing my DI resin so hard to say and I added so chaeto 52 minutes ago, Manny Tavan said: Did you change salt recently or a new batch? Would send an icp asap and do water changes Sorry, I should have supplied more detail in my original post: My TDS meter says 0. I dip all my corals corals, including the mystery box. I'm not aware of any dead snails, though I have over 30 so it's pretty hard to keep track of them all. I have not changed salt brands since I started the tank in April 2018. I use Red Sea Coral Pro and mix up enough for 2 weeks at a time. I do automatic 1.5 gallon water changes every day through my Apex & DOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Tavan Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 But did you get a new box of red sea pro? I had a batch of red sea pro that was killing my corals before. Icp came back with super high aluminum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Tavan Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 (edited) Also small 1.5 gallon water changes daily don’t do much to get rid of pollutants in the water. If I were you I would do a 20% water change Edited December 30, 2018 by Manny Tavan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The ReefBox Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 I would like to see BRS do something on nutrients with people who do auto water changes using DOS or other equipment versus larger water changes every week or two weeks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Manny Tavan said: But did you get a new box of red sea pro? I had a batch of red sea pro that was killing my corals before. Icp came back with super high aluminum. 13 minutes ago, Manny Tavan said: Also small 1.5 gallon water changes daily don’t do much to get rid of pollutants in the water. If I were you I would do a 20% water change I'm nearing the bottom of a bucket that makes 175 gallons, so I've been using the same batch for over 2 months. My system is 105 gallons total, so my daily 1.5 gallon changes equates to roughly 10% per week. Edited December 30, 2018 by SuncrestReef Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Tavan Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Lowering a pollutant by 1.5% per day doesn’t help much especially if it’s getting in the system faster than that... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Tavan Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 (edited) If i were you, i would do a 20% water change with a different salt. When i had issues with the bad batch of red sea pro, it was an instant improvement when i changed salt and did a large water change. Edited December 30, 2018 by Manny Tavan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Tavan Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 There is a new icp test that is done in the US. Results came back in 10 days when i did it but it didnt include analysis of my rodi water. The ati was better but turn around was 3-4 weeks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennywise Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Do you use LED lights and if so how old are they? Maybe the white channel is getting bad. Just an idea.😕 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny Tavan Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Also check all the equipement. You could have something rusting in the sump 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The ReefBox Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Stray voltage will do this as well 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrabbyCrabs Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Don't trust TDS meters unless you calibrate them regularly. In hydroponics I calibrated weekly. They were always off. And they we're not cheap Hanna units, of course I used microsemens as units but not really any different. I've been through this. Seems upping my flow across the corals helped, and water changes twice a week for a few weeks. Hope things turn around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 After consulting with Jeff and doing more research, the problem appears to be Brown Jelly Disease. Each of the corals showing problems has brown jelly, while many others in the tank are still fine for the moment. I'm going to dip them, siphon off as much jelly as possible, and cut off the obvious dead sections. I'm also going to examine the jelly under my microscope to confirm any ciliates. Thanks for all the other tips, but for now I'm going to focus on this plan rather than making multiple changes. Slow and measured changes only... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The ReefBox Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 1 minute ago, SuncrestReef said: After consulting with Jeff and doing more research, the problem appears to be Brown Jelly Disease. Each of the corals showing problems has brown jelly, while many others in the tank are still fine for the moment. I'm going to dip them, siphon off as much jelly as possible, and cut off the obvious dead sections. I'm also going to examine the jelly under my microscope to confirm any ciliates. Thanks for all the other tips, but for now I'm going to focus on this plan rather than making multiple changes. Slow and measured changes only... Best plan of attack IMO is to change one thing t a time and monitor results so you know what it is in the end Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milesmiles902 Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 1 hour ago, Manny Tavan said: If i were you, i would do a 20% water change with a different salt. When i had issues with the bad batch of red sea pro, it was an instant improvement when i changed salt and did a large water change. I'm unsure about changing the salt when damage is occurring, although believe a water change is healthy. It's also odd seeing the variety of coral having necrosis. A quick dip or isolation wouldn't hurt, but I have to ask you. What are you dosing? Also, being gone almost always can leads to being aquarium sick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milesmiles902 Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 pH? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 I would send in an ICP test ASAP to ATI or Triton. If you are seeing ‘brown jelly’ on your corals I suspect that is a result of some other stress and not the cause itself. @albertareef recently had a similar experience of slow decline and it turned out that he had a piece of metal mixed with his media in his calcium reactor. good luck! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gumby Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 While you are waiting for results besides water changes, I would keep changing out your activated carbon often. That might help til you can pinpoint it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrabbyCrabs Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 I guess I don't understand brown jelly. Thought it was lps disease. I had a birdsnest do this and didn't do anything but move it to more flow and double my water change. Are there more pics that show brown jelly? From what I've read it's hard to get rid of once in the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 31 minutes ago, CrabbyCrabs said: I guess I don't understand brown jelly. Thought it was lps disease. I had a birdsnest do this and didn't do anything but move it to more flow and double my water change. Are there more pics that show brown jelly? From what I've read it's hard to get rid of once in the tank. Apparently it can spread to any corals in your tank. I am seeing it on 9 of my 50 corals now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdxmonkeyboy Posted December 30, 2018 Share Posted December 30, 2018 keep us updated. But i would change salt mixes. coral pro mixes at like 11.5-12 DKH and your tank is around 8.5. If you do a 20%.. or your super magical they never fail Neptune DOS pumps decide to do a massive water change you are going to spike alk and roast your corals. Just a something to consider is all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 (edited) Actually I measured a batch of freshly mixed Coral Pro back in August. It measured 9.7 dKH on Hanna and 420 calcium on the Red Sea Pro kit. Still higher than I normally keep my tank, but not way off the chart. I'll measure it again the next time I mix a fresh batch to see if that reading is consistent. As for the DOS water change, I also have high and low water level sensors that will turn off the DOS and send me an alert if it removes or adds more water than expected during my auto water changes. Extra safeguards... Edited December 30, 2018 by SuncrestReef Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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