SPS bleached within mere hours. Now what?

[Newreeflady]

Background:

Left town for a week. My caretaker did not follow instructions and alkalinity dropped. Ok. Got back and everything looked fine. Main pump stopped working the next day and the temperature shot up to 84 degrees. Also, due to the non-working main pump no water is being skimmed or run through carbon. I also turned up the doser during this time and brought the alk from 3.0 to 3.6 meq/L.

Result:

Now several of my colonies are entirely bleached. I watched it happen before my eyes yesterday. We're talking stark white. Polyps not extending, but are still there.

Rectification:

New pump should arrive this morning. I have turned the doser off and i'm going to keep an eye on the alk. I've raised the light up to about 2 feet above the tank (although i'm unsure this is enough??) I will run carbon when the new pump comes in. The temperature is now stable at 80 degrees.

Other thoughts:

Moving colonies to the floor in the corner: more helpful than stressful?

Moving light further up: will this upset my anemone and clams?

Changing water: Is this asking for trouble?

Smacking self in the head: Will this resolve the situation?

Thoughts???

-Angela

[reefkoi]

An alk of 3.0 meq/l is fine you didnt need to up that. If that's as low as it dropped you may have another problem Unless it was a lot higher before that doesn't look like enough of a change to bleach out acro's.
C

[Newreeflady]

It was at 3.77 when I left.

I think the heat bleached them.

What other thing did you propose? My ears are wide opened.

What now?

-A

[sasscuba]

I keep my alk at 2.5 to 3.0 meq/l and sps have great color.

[myzislow]

my tank runs warm at ~82 and hits ~84 in the warmer months for sustained periods fo time. Unless your tank usually runs on the colder side(75-79)I don't think hitting 84 degress would cause instant bleaching like you described, and even then that's highly unlikely.

A couple of days ago I did a service on my friends 75gallon (with 30 gallon sump) mixed reef with about 8 or so SPS colonies. When I arrived his temp was stable at 81. Well, i guess he had forgot to plug in the heater in his mixing bin and I didn't check the temp of the new water or even the SG(i kno really dumb)beforehand and just started in on the tank siphoning water out.

Well, when i went to add the new water back I discovered that it was freezing cold as it had been sitting out in his cold garage for a few days. I was in a hurry and definitely didn't have time to wait for the water to get to temp, so I had no choice but to add the freezing water to his system. Once I was done I checked the temp and his temp had dropped down to 73, quite a large fluctuation, especially considering the short time span in which the temp dropped. I crossed my fingers, finished up and went on my way.

I went out there yesterday to check on everything and all looks great. Not a single coral affected or showing stress; all of his SPS looked great with normal coloration and PE.

I'd look into other potential causes before changing things drastically and moving corals all over the place.

[Newreeflady]

"I keep my alk at 2.5 to 3.0 meq/l and sps have great color."

That's just great. This is not helpful information. Many aquarists also keep the alk much higher and have great luck. That is NOT the point of this thread.

Some shock has occurred. Be is sharp changes in alk, or temperature, or flow, or a combination of things. Now i'm left with a mess. As much as i'd like to spend time analyzing this it seems futile. The NOW WHAT? is really the point of this post. Later we can talk about the why.

So, if anyone has any info that may be helpful for me to maybe recover these close-to-lost animals, please post-up!

thanks,
-A

[reefkoi]

Well lots of people on here let their tanks hit 84 in the summer, (I don't) but maybe if the tank is normally at 76 -78 and hit 84 with very little water movement that did it.
Once you get the temp down and the water flowing I'd think the color will come back, it will just take a long time possibly.
I'd think raising the lights or moving the affected corals under less light would help.
C

[Newreeflady]

I am hesitant to keep the light high up because I have other animals that are not bleached (namely, I have a carpet anemone and two crocea clams.)

I think i'll move them down to the sand. I am not sure what more I could do. :/

Sorry for being snappy, i'm pretty upset right now as you can imagine.

-A

[Jorgens]

I would maybe consider moving the light and not the coral itself. I've seen threads where people simply turned them around and they bleached. Different flows and yadda yadda. I've had worse luck moving by trying to help. Raise the fixture, don't touch the coral, they've had enough for the week. and I guess patience if your parmaters are back wait and see. Prayer can help as well....

Just my humble 2 pennies.

[coqui1pr]

Hi Angela

Im sorry for the losses,ok what was the temperature before the spike to 84 degrees? also the lack of flow and change in alk in a short period of time contributes to the bleaching that you are experiencing due to a change in ph,oxigen concentration etc,sps colonies that are stable and experience a sudden change like that sadly sometimes bleach or stn/rtn.Also as jorgens said let the colonies where they are to avoid stressing them more just raise the lights if you change the carbon because new carbon will clear the water and more light will reach the animals.

HTH
Nestor

[Newreeflady]

Ok, i'll just raise the lights. The light was previously about 6" above the tank and it's now a foot higher. Is that enough?

Also, I should note that I recently added a phosban reactor (before the trip) and I did see some color loss, but not straight out bleaching. Maybe they were on the verge, though?? :/

Should I try adding any food? I've only got selcon and cyclops, I don't have phyto

Thanks!
Angela

Oh, and temperature in the aquarium is usually 80 degrees with the chiller coming on at 81 degrees.

[sasscuba]

Originally posted by Newreeflady
"I keep my alk at 2.5 to 3.0 meq/l and sps have great color."

That's just great. This is not helpful information. Many aquarists also keep the alk much higher and have great luck. That is NOT the point of this thread.

Some shock has occurred. Be is sharp changes in alk, or temperature, or flow, or a combination of things. Now i'm left with a mess. As much as i'd like to spend time analyzing this it seems futile. The NOW WHAT? is really the point of this post. Later we can talk about the why.

So, if anyone has any info that may be helpful for me to maybe recover these close-to-lost animals, please post-up!

thanks,
-A

WOW! Trying to be helpful, sorry.......did you put the full dose of phosban in at once?

[Newreeflady]

Yes, I did. I had been using the media in a bag previously, so I didn't think it'd be such a shock, but maybe the bag wasn't effective at all. :/

I just set up the new pump and all is running. Temperature is at 79, the light is off currently, but will go on at 2pm. Two of the corals now have light green skeletons which looks like algae so i'm assuming them dead although they still have polyps.

A couple of corals have actually darkened, odd. Maybe they took up all those free zoox??

Looking bad my friends, looking very bad.

-A

[Newreeflady]

Well, just turned the light on and anything that hadn't already bleached is in the process of RTN. One sole survivor thusfar, a monti cap. The other cap is on its way out.

I'll make water for a change tomorrow. Probably going to be an ammonia spike. Oh joy!


-A

[Newreeflady]

Yep, this was not bleaching. It was RTN. I just pulled everything affected from the tank and now all of my coral is drying out on my living room floor.

The tank is cloudy-ish, def ammonia. I'm going to test and go get some Amquel. Is it ok for coral/anem/clams?

-A

[reefkoi]

Sorry to hear that, I read so many posts about how people go out of town and the keeper ruins everything.
I'll go away for 3-4 days and I don't have anyone do anything, I just let the fish and corals be by themselves. Fish can go for a long time without food, Once I went on a trip for 5 days and everyone was fine when I came back home. Doing it this way, nobody else can screw anything up.
Sorry to derail the topic but I thought it might help others avoid disaster.
Chris

[Newreeflady]

Well, I had an auto-feeder and a doser. I think that the only problem was the alk. I really am guessing this was all coming to a head after the phosban reactor was added.

Right now i'm just waiting on the last coral to rtn. I scraped it this morning and it has a flesh tear that i'm just waiting to see spread. I am tempted to cut it off, but I really just think rtn is inevitible. If I see the tissue start to slough i'll pull that coral out, too.

The anemone doesn't look happy, but at least he's opened. The fish are swimming. The clams are still hanging in there. The blasto, too.

I'm off to the store to get Amquel. Is there anything I should know? Is Amquel OK to use?

Thanks,
Angela

[Badgerman]

I am suspicious of the autofeeder. When was it on? Was it putting food in to the tank when the return pump was not working? I had a tank crash a year ago because my autofeeder put to much food in and clogged up the filter and caused an ammonia spike. The only things left living were the fish. Sorry to hear your losses.

[Newreeflady]

Hi,

No, I don't believe it was the feeder. The feeder was even clogged when I got home:/

The pump actually died after I got back. I had shut down the power and when I turned it back on.... no response. My third Ocean Runner down. I'm running Eheims now.

I checked and i'm not getting an ammonia reading. I'm in wait and see mode. The clams and anemone look fine, and i'm running carbon, phosar, polyfilter and my skimmer. I'm going to do small water changes over the next several days. My house smells like dead coral.

I'm most suspicious of the phosphate removal, I think the other stuff was probably just secondary, tertiary and quaternary stress which compounded to result in RTN. Of course, there is no way to ask the coral now:/

Thanks for the help all.
Angela

[MechEng99]

I'm terribly sorry to hear about your losses. I'm sorry I couldn't offer any advice either.

I recently switched from phosban in a sock to a reactor, and I literally watched my corals bleach a few days later. I lost a few, but I definitely learned my lesson. I also used the maximum dosage.

Good luck...and just remember that all things happen for a reason...you just have to find the reason. :-/

[jay24k]

Phosphate media in a bag is much difference then a reactor. In a reactor, you get much better exposure to the media.

IMO, none of the other issues you stated caused your bleaching. I'm willing to bet it was the phosphate media change. The big rule of thumb is not to change ANYTHING two weeks prior to vacation.

Temp from 79 to 84 is not a big deal. While people thought stable temps were a big deal, Randy had some articles show that corals should be able to handle the change without issue and is not a bad thing.

The alk drop while a bit wouldn't cause it. I've had mine drop from 9dkh to 6 dkh and run at 6 for awhile before I noticed it. I had no color loss or bleaching.

It has been known that phosphate removal media can and will cause bleaching. I'd remove it completely and let the tank stabilize.

I would also next time, get a doser or calcium reactor. When you look at the big picture, while the equipment is a bit expensive, one issue due to it can cost even more in a single loss. We all want to skimp somewhere but when you look at the big picture, what costs more in the long run.

[kirstenk]

Sorry to hear Angela.

I'm most suspicious of the phosphate removal, I think the other stuff was probably just secondary, tertiary and quaternary stress which compounded to result in RTN. Of course, there is no way to ask the coral now.

I agree. Sounds like the water changes will be your best defense over losing any additional animals. I would keep the lights raised until you find your parameters back to levels you had before this happened. I think your losses will be kept to the hard corals. (crossing fingers)

[Newreeflady]

Jay,

I should remove the phosphate media? Won't I go through this again then when I add it back???

-A

Thanks all for the kind words. I'm really sad about this. These corals grew and colored greatly in my care. A real shame to see them die.

[DocReefer]

My experience has been that the biggest hit to the tank is the loss of circulation. No circulation means the corals die in their own waste. The temp, alkalinity didn't help but the lack of circulation is a definate killer. I would put in lots of charcoal, lots of circulation, lower the temperature to your tanmks lower limit (to lower the metabolism) and cross your fingers...

[Paulairduck]

I would do a 25% water change and stop the phosban for now. The alk swing and the temp swing is not good for SPS, it might not bleach the corals out, but it deffinitely stresses them out, and when you shocked them with running a full dose of phosphate remover and the loss of circulation, it looks very bleak for the recovery of the SPS.

All the other clams and anenomes should be fine, with the water change.

The story really sucks and hope your tank recovers, with tons of luck on your sps.