Rough reef week - SPS bleaching

[Terefel]

Guys, this has been my frustrating week in my combined reefing experience and could sure use your help. In between preparing my new hospital tank in my guest bathroom (all my fish are sick w/ ich and I've already had two or three disappear, but have nowhere else to set up a new tank) I was trying to tackle some Aptasia I found :rain:. While doing that I noticed that my one SPS (green slimer) was starting to bleach.

You'll notice above there is tissue recession as well, especially on the right side.

The polyp extension has been not great over the past two months. I was experimenting with different lighting programs (most recent is the Maxspect razor at 85% power for 6 hours with ramp up and ramp down times) since my water parameters seem to be ok. All my LPS are doing fine. Is this guy a goner or can something be done?

The last thing I will note is that this morning I was observing the pods that are starting to populate my tank and I also noticed a few small black spots that were definitely moving around with them - I'm hoping these are not red bugs; they don't look like it based on the pictures I've seen but they are also nearly invisible to the human eye and would have never noticed them had the rock not been right next to the glass. I did dip all my coral (Coral RX) but now am wishing I had known about bayer earlier.

I retested last night and got similar water parameters as I have in the past. Information is provided below (including the non-standards since I presumably have dead fish somewhere in the rockwork, but the clean up crew seems to be doing it's job...)

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.1 ppm
Nitrate: 1 ppm
Phosphate: 0
Alk: 8.2-8.4 (Grrr red sea... be easier to read)
Calc: 390
Mg: 1360
Temp: 77-78
sg: 1.025

Thank you!!!

 

[billyzbear]

Oh man I feel for ya. Kinda strange because looks like the polps are still out.
I would do a water change, pull any p04 media, feed some sps food. Wait a couple of days. If it doesn't improve, water change. and repeat. I had some troubles awhile back, changed 20% of water every other day four times until it got better.
Good luck

 

[Terefel]

Thanks Billy. I appreciate the reply. On another forum they said u might be overwhelming it with light, since the green slimer is relatively hardy. But you're right, the polyps do come out but just a little bit. I thought that the fact the immediately retreated when the lights went down meant I wasnt giving enough light, so I may have compounding the problem by continuing to increase the light over the last few weeks.

I fed some reef roids the other day and I'm doing a water change tomorrow. I will report back!

 

[Rob&Gab]

i no how it feels with teh back and fourth. sometimes there is just no explanation to its causes. just wish for the best!

 

[DeadCalm]

Phosphate: 0

When I hear no polyp extension, bleaching and receding from the bottom up I think of two things:

1. Low nutrients - if your phosphates are really zero and your still using GFO...this could be your problem. You will get your best color and health with your po4 being around 0.01 and 0.03. How often are you cleaning your glass? It should need to be cleaned every 2-3 days. If you're going longer then 2-3 days between cleaning then your system is too clean.

2. A contaminant got into your water. Could be heavy metal, copper, a rusty pipe clamp or a galvanized strap in the sump. You can use a product called Caprisorb or Carbon to clean up your water (depending on what it is).

 

[Six2seven]

Wow I've never seen a green slimmer die. Crazy. My first thought is the constant change in lighting. Sps are very sensitive to LEDs especially if you changed from t5s if you had those before

Bleaching from the bottom up, my next thought is an alk swing

Or if your corals have been pale and then start bleaching slowly from the bottom up then I would say low nutrients and possibly too much GFO or biopellets. Can't tell from just that info but sounds like my last thought

 

[Terefel]

Figures that I would be the first to kill one after this parade of horribles.

Anyway, Thank you all! I always thought my phosphates were just low because of my algae growth. Then I get a refugium and GFO and the algae goes away but maybe it's now too clean after all.

I pulled my reactor offline and will leave it off for a few days. I've also decreased the light even more and will give it a few days to see how it recovers.

 

[Terefel]

How often are you cleaning your glass? It should need to be cleaned every 2-3 days. If you're going longer then 2-3 days between cleaning then your system is too clean.

This is a very helpful benchmark. I only need to clean it every 6 days or so. This is clearly a sign of my inexperience - when I bought the GFO I followed the BRS calculator and video and I believe they said you should only be cleaning the glass once a week. Now that it's offline I'll see if there is any improvement!

 

[DeadCalm]

This is a very helpful benchmark. I only need to clean it every 6 days or so. This is clearly a sign of my inexperience - when I bought the GFO I followed the BRS calculator and video and I believe they said you should only be cleaning the glass once a week. Now that it's offline I'll see if there is any improvement!

Yeah 6 days is way too long...convenient but way too long to go without cleaning.

One other thing you mentioned was ich. I think most fish get ich because of stress, being under fed and malnutrition. If fish are under fed they will get stressed and get sick. It's stressful enough being in a tiny glass box, but then to be underfed on top of that and you'll have sick fish. I feed my fish 4 times a day. Twice with an auto feeder that feeds pellets when I'm at work. Then when I get home I feed two blocks of frozen food rotating between (mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, krill, rod's food and blood worms. My final feeding is an hour before the lights go out with flake and cyclop-eeze. I also feed red and green nori 2-3 times a week.

I'm not telling you to throw tons of food into your system, but maybe your feeding schedule can be adjusted and solve both your issues?

 

[Terefel]

Yeah 6 days is way too long...convenient but way too long to go without cleaning.

One other thing you mentioned was ich. I think most fish get ich because of stress, being under fed and malnutrition. If fish are under fed they will get stressed and get sick. It's stressful enough being in a tiny glass box, but then to be underfed on top of that and you'll have sick fish. I feed my fish 4 times a day. Twice with an auto feeder that feeds pellets when I'm at work. Then when I get home I feed two blocks of frozen food rotating between (mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, krill, rod's food and blood worms. My final feeding is an hour before the lights go out with flake and cyclop-eeze. I also feed red and green nori 2-3 times a week.

I'm not telling you to throw tons of food into your system, but maybe your feeding schedule can be adjusted and solve both your issues?

Roy - thanks for this very helpful information. I'm going to move to a more frequent feeding schedule and as soon as I get my Apex modules set up I am going to look into an autofeeder. At this stage in the game I have all the fish in hospital (except for the chromis who is outsmarting me at every turn) so I will focus on feeding my fish and coral separately the next few weeks and see if I can make a difference.

 

[mark.a.smith405]

Eheim makes a good auto feeder for 30-40$ as well that is battery powered with feeder schedules

 

[oredith]

what does it mean when i'm testing 0.01 phosphate (salifert) and have to clean the glass every 12 hours?.. >_<

 

[DeadCalm]

what does it mean when i'm testing 0.01 phosphate (salifert) and have to clean the glass every 12 hours?.. >_<

Lol is the film on your glass green or brown?

It might mean that you need to buy one of these to see what your true phosphate level is:

http://premiumaquatics.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PA&Product_Code=HI-736&Category_Code=

 

[oredith]

Lol is the film on your glass green or brown?

It might mean that you need to buy one of these to see what your true phosphate level is:

http://premiumaquatics.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PA&Product_Code=HI-736&Category_Code=

brown. i'm pretty sure my true phosphate level is higher. the zillion featherdusters are eating it all up.

 

[mark.a.smith405]

Have you tried checking your test kit to make sure it's accurate? I only get those FD when my phos is high.

 

[Terefel]

Crud, now I'm questioning my salifert test kit!

 

[Terefel]

It appears there are downsides to me not running my GFO. Branch like algae sprouting from my zoas.

 

[oredith]

ha.. i have the exact same thing, and I HAVE GFO and pellet reactors running (just turned the GFO back on this past weekend)

 

[billyzbear]

I hate to say it but it looks like bryopsis
http://www.3reef.com/forums/algae/bryopsis-learn-what-how-kill-100365.html
Get some Kents tech m I'd also suggest Dr Tim's waste a way. It can be beaten but it is a tough fight.

 

[Terefel]

Ich, aiptasia and bryopsis? Looks like I hit the hat trick this week boys!

I'll look into the tech M treatment, thanks for the feedback.