Ah Ha! I *think* I know what's wrong...

[dmorel]

Well as has been well documented by now I have been having a hell of a time as of late with new corals and could not figure out what the hell was wrong.
All my tests were fine, I hadn't changed anything drastically in the tank... blah blah blah...

Well get this, what I did NOT regularly test was my salinity, admittedly because I left the refractometer by the fish only since I was using hypo-salinity to treat my trigger. Checked it last night and I am down around 1.019 in the reef!!!! When I typically keep it at 1.025. That is a pretty drastic dip. I am guessing that the folks I have been getting corals from (dave/kevin/todd/gary) are all in the 1.025 ballpark... E-gads.
So I will be slowly bringing it back up with a series of small high salt content water changes over the next few days.

I hope that I'm right and that this will help stem the tide of recent unpleasantness in the tank. Yeah, I know there is no magic bullet that will solve everything, but hopefully this will solve the general dismay of my corals.

thanks for listening,
-dm

[Guy]

Instead of high salt water changes just use saltwater for your topoff until you reach 35ppt.

[dmorel]

An option that I considered...
I was going to do the water changes since I would then also get the benefit of doing the water change as well...

flawed logic?

Clearly doing the top off w/ salt would be a more gradual change, though I had intended to do several smaller water changes over a few days to take it slow going that route as well...

pro's con's?
thanks,
-dm

[Gary Majchrzak]

I personally prefer the method Guy suggested.

[dmorel]

Hmm, guy and gary...
Is this advice I should take?

Consider it done.

[ReeferMac]

Nah, those two Yokel's don't know what they're talking about!
:p

- Mac

[dmorel]

Originally posted by ReeferMac
Nah, those two Yokel's don't know what they're talking about!
:p

- Mac

You must be looking for some peanut butter and chocolate right about now if you're saying that! ;)

Got 5 gallons of top off "salted" and in the bucket.
Now all I need is some evaporation.

[ReeferMac]

You could safely add it now, raise the water level in your sump, and just let it evaporate back down to normal levels if you wanted.

- Mac
(more of a cookie fan than anything else :cool: )

[dmorel]

I get scared adding any more water to my sump, just in case of failure, I won't flood at this level, but another inch...well that's a gallon on the floor...

(cookies eh? mine's ice cream, but only when *ahem* appropriate)

[ToddsReef]

Glad you found something that you can fix, but I wouldn't listen to G&G, I think they have only been involved in reefing for about 2 months combined...or was that decades...hmmm. I also have to say...Lucky Charms all the way!:cool:

Todd

[Playfair]

Jeesh, all this talk about "snacking" :eek2:

*Everyone* is right! When my salinity is low, I overdose the next water change by a few gals and just let it evap over a day or so. Since you want to bring it up a whopping 6 points in a few days, then the topoff method is faster, yet still buffered.

I hope that's all that's going on!

ps- All my pieces are history? :(

No biggy, we'll keep tryin, cause they are zero impact :D

[dmorel]

Glad you found something that you can fix

It's not like I haven't been looking for a while.

I know there isn't a magic solution, but I am hoping this is one anyway.


, but I wouldn't listen to G&G, I think they have only been involved in reefing for about 2 months combined...or was that decades...hmmm.


Either way, definitely want to take what they say with a...
(wait for it)
...grain of salt


I also have to say...Lucky Charms all the way!


I can see that. The purple horse shoes kind of suit you. Better stock up, not sure you can get that in vermont they may only have granola. :D

[dmorel]

I hope that's all that's going on!


Me too!!!


ps- All my pieces are history? :(


No sir, they are not... Nothing from the meeting or the
frag I got from you the day before are gone.
I see a little bleaching on a few (including the purple, but it is minimal) but nothing totally bleached out at all. I have left the MH's off save for two hours a day for right now. And on Sunday I added another powerhead to the get some more water movement. (Did that Todd style with the powerhead pointing at the surface, works great!) And I FINALLY got the skimmer working the way it is supposed to again.
(go ahead and ask... I dare you)

The other thing I have decided to do from talking to most of you guys on saturday is dial down my temp. I had been running around 81-82 and it seems to me that the really nice tanks are all being kept around 78-79 with little to no daily swing at all, so I am going to shoot for that.

I can't tell you how glad I am that I have a resource like this, I don't know that I ever would have made it this far without it.
It's funny, it was jamie's post about perfect water quality that finally pushed me over the edge.
I kept thinking that I had tested EVERYTHING, and but for my constant .01 phosphate I had good water quality, so ***!!!!
Then I realized...
-dm

[Semi newbie]

If a coral does bleach how long until they come back? I know there is no magic amount of time but what is an average? Or does this always kill them? I think I read before that they can and sometimes do come back! At least I am hoping for that. Thanks for all your help. Dave I 'm glad you figured something out! Doesn't it feel good to have something solid that may be the reason!!!!!:)

[dmorel]

It (of course) depends on how bad the bleaching is, and I would suspect it depends on why the coral is bleaching etc etc etc...
There is an (awful) picture of a frag I got from dave playfair a few months ago viewable here (http://morelweb.com/URS/bleaching.htm) that is now (more or less) fully recovered.
The speculation was that either excess superglue or over handling caused the bleaching here... it took about a month for this area to grow back over, but it no longer looks visibly different from the rest of the coral, and the polyps are all coming out and everything nice like that...

Of the corals that I lost in the recent shipment of death most of them bleached out within a day (some within hours) and flat out died. Two of them didn't. One that didn't seem to suffer at all, and another which showed just a little sign of bleaching, but mostly just exhibited poor health (little to no polyp extension...)
The tiny bit of bleaching on that one is now gone, and the color of the whole coral is getting better. I am suspecting in another week or so that this coral will return to its full splendor.

It does feel good to have something solid that might be the reason, but the key is might.

I'm hoping I am about to take a big upswing with my tank.
I finally got my skimmer working the way it was before as well so that could lend a hand, (hermits in sump can find their way into pumps and that will make it VERY VERY difficult to get your skimmer dialed in properly...) and I have taken steps to reduce and hold the temperature a little lower then I had been running my tank previously.

I hope your not as stressed out as I have been lately with my tank (though I suspect you are). If so, good days do eventually come back, I had a great one yesterday!

-dm

[Semi newbie]

Okay mine look like the picture of yours but maybe even a little worse. I am seeing the bleaching on the tops of the coral which I attributed to the lights. They are resting on the sand so can't go much lower and I took a suggestion from Dave to put pieces of wood across the top of my tank to block some of the light. I am just trying to wait patiently to see what will happen. When they bleach do you see the polyps where it has bleached? I definitely see the holes where the polyps would extend from but do not see the polyps at all. I am going to make some changes to my set up soon that will hopefully help control heat and give me a little more flow! Other than the SPS the tanks looks great! The blue tipped Acro from Gary is doing fine! One day at a time is my motto and even though I get frustrated if it were easy this would be no fun for me!