Another unexplained SPS loss!!!

[returnofsid]

So I had another SPS RTN on me yesterday....Grrr. Over a period of about 5 hours, all the tissue sloughed off and looked just like peeling paint.

Salifert test kits show

Ca 400
Alk 2.84
Mg is slightly high at 1380 and I'm not sure why.
pH 8.4
zero nitrates
Sg 1.025
I've inspected everything very closely and there are no bugs at all. I even took photos and enlarged them to inspect for trouble.

Any ideas? This coral has been absolutely find and growing well for the past 3 months. The only change at all was two days before when I tested and dosed. Ca was down to 320 and Alk was down to 2.73. I dosed with Randy's recipe #1 and drip dosed the Alk and then, several hours later, the Ca.

The rest of the SPS in the frag tank appear to be doing fine.

 

[jezzeaepi]

Double check your alk with a second brand of test kits. I dont trust salifert for anything to be perfectly honest. I had a bad nitrates, bad phosphate, and a bad Alk test kits all in a row from salifert, and they caused huge problems in my tank. Get elos, they have much higher quality control. Salifert's quality control is non existant.

 

[class clown]

Sid - may be a silly question, but how's the temp? pretty stable I assume?

I also assume you've ruled out warefare between corals

Any other SPS struggling or fading? if so, may want to dip to see if any AEFW jump off. they are super hard to see to the naked eye, under a magnifying glass, in photos, etc... sometimes dipping is the only way to spot them.

 

[returnofsid]

I've now tested with 2 different Salifert test kits (All I have) and get the same Alk reading.

Temp is 78 and stable. I have not ruled out chemical warfare with other corals. I'm not sure how to go about ruling this out...lol. I do need to start using carbon in this tank. I haven't yet. This is the second coral I've lost in the exact same manner in this tank in the past few weeks.

I did forget to mention lighting. The 29 gallon tank is lit by a single 250 MH SE bulb in 10K. The bulb is sitting about 8" from most of the corals. This might be too close, but it's been like this for about 3 months with no signs of bleaching.

The make up of this tank is pretty basic. It's a 29 gallon, bare bottom, with about 15-20 lbs of live rock. A large CPR Aquafuge full of Chaeto. Flow is from a Koralia 3. There is no skimmer and I do frequent 10 gallon water changes. The only fish is a very small (-3") Scribbled Rabbit fish for algae control. I know this tank is too small for a Rabbit fish. I will probably be adding a 6 Lined Wrasse. The Rabbit fish will go in either a 113 cube or 120 soon, whichever I set up first...lol. I feed the Rabbit Fish Nori every day and feed the corals every 3 days, alternating frozen cyclopeeze and Coral Frenzy.

I guess my next step is to try dipping to see if anything falls off...lol. The rest of the corals look great, have excellent polyp extension, great color and are growing well

One other thing I just thought of. The day I dosed, I also dripped a gallon of Kalk water that night for top off. Wonder if the addition of Kalk, so soon after dosing Ca and Alk could have created any issues.

 

[loohunter]

Sid - may be a silly question, but how's the temp? pretty stable I assume?

I also assume you've ruled out warefare between corals

Any other SPS struggling or fading? if so, may want to dip to see if any AEFW jump off. they are super hard to see to the naked eye, under a magnifying glass, in photos, etc... sometimes dipping is the only way to spot them.

he said it was gone in 5 hours, can aefw's work that fast

 

[jezzeaepi]

Also, 320 calcium and 2.84 alk is way out of balance. If they were in balance before, and you have been dosing evenly, then that makes me further believe that your test kits are bad.

 

[returnofsid]

Ca was 320
Alk was 2.73

These numbers are out of balance, but that was before dosing and after failing to keep things perfectly balanced by topping off with RO/DI water instead of Kalk water.

 

[jezzeaepi]

One other thing I just thought of. The day I dosed, I also dripped a gallon of Kalk water that night for top off. Wonder if the addition of Kalk, so soon after dosing Ca and Alk could have created any issues.

Thats defintly a possiblity, too much alk/calc additions at once.

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
The addition of 1 gallon of kalkwasser in 29 gallons (more likely 24 gallons actual volume) in a short period would make the salinity lower and the PH rise quickly. Kalkwasser has a PH in the 11-12 range. Some corals can be quite sensitive to large PH swings while others show little effect. I would test the PH right at the end of the drip period or as it progresses if possible. I would not recommend a PH reading higher than 8.5.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[returnofsid]

Thanks Kevin. As for salinity dropping, I was topping off to replace evaporation. When I top off, I usually drip at a pretty slow rate, about 2-3 drops per second. I do think that by topping off with Kalk water, shortly after dosing Alk and Ca, I probably over did it. I've moved some of the corals from that tank into my 75 and did a good sized water change. From now on, I'll be more careful about my dosing and maybe dose over a period of 2 days, so as not to make as rapid of adjustments.

 

[roscoe]

Just curious Sid. How come you need to dose alk and cal. when you are already toping off with kalkwasser? For me when I quit dosing alk and cal. and just stuck to just dripping kalkwasser my corals started too look much better. Just my experiance.

 

[returnofsid]

I don't keep up on dosing with Kalk as good as I should. I still find that about every other week, I need to dose small amounts of Alk and Ca. Sometimes more often.

 

[roscoe]

Oh ok what brand of kalkwasser are you using? I'm using mrs. wages pickling lime. I mix 2 Tblsp. per gallon. What is your kalwasser powder to water ratio? How much evap. do you have per 24hr.?

 

[returnofsid]

My evaporation varies. I use Mrs Wages also. same ratio as you. Problem is, sometimes I just top off with RO/DI water instead of Kalkwasser...I need to be less lazy. I mix it up in a milk jug and drip it overnight.

 

[roscoe]

I mix up five gallon batches at a time. I mix it for 24hrs and then let it settle for about 24hrs. That gives me 4 days worth of pure clear saturated kalkwasser water.

 

[tamarindthai]

hang in there Micheal,,,a lot of help here,,,slowly bring it back up to balance,,watch your sal closely maintainence bt 1.025-1.026,,,solid..then all your measurement alk mg ca including ph,,will be true,,if you think you Oppps!!!! just do the water change small and often.

 

[keithinspokane]

not trying to jack thread but the recipe for the kalk water is 2 tbl or 2 tsp of lime to each gallon of water?

 

[returnofsid]

No problem at all and it's 2 tsps Pickling Lime/ gallon of ro/di water. Any more than that and it can't dissolve.

 

[apollothesun]

i overdosed in a quarantine frag tank once with kalkwasser. all the sps in that tank turned white the next day. ph read 8.9

 

[returnofsid]

That's exactly what I did. I'm sure kicking myself for it too!!