Birds nest bleaching and GSP closed?

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Gazbo

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 16, 2012
Messages
223
Location
Wenatchee Wa
Well 2 days ago my GSP closed up and now my birds nest is bleaching out from the center and one other sps is bleach out and was wondering what could cause this I just did a 20gl water change and will do this every other day until they open up again or my birdsnest comes back. I havn't done anything to the tank that would cause this added nothing changed nothing. My duncans closed up but they do that now and then so not worried yet about that all other corals and anemone's are doing fine. This is what my water tests show let me know what you think. I now my mag is low and bring that up now slowly but would that cause bleaching or sps corals to die?
Mg 1200
phosphate .09
ammonia- 0
nitrite-0
nitrate-0
PH 8.4 - 8.2 (hard to color match)
KH 8.9
calcium 400
iodine .06
 
Has anyone sprayed anything in the room?

No its in a storage room in the basement no one goes in there but me and I have not done anything in the room or sprayed anything. Its not making any sense everything was growing like mad and now dying. If the water parameters look like there within safe margins that wouldn't cause bleaching or gsp to close up then I will just cross my fingers and keeping doing water changes every other day until thing bounce back.
 
What is the salinity?
Have you changed your lighting?
Has the temp changed? Heater didnt go wacko and started cooking the tank hopefully.
 
My GSP normally wont open if something in the tank has changed dramatically. I would do 20-40% WC every few days vs every day. More than likely something got into the tank somehow.
 
What is the salinity?
Have you changed your lighting?
Has the temp changed? Heater didnt go wacko and started cooking the tank hopefully.

Changed nothing temps fine maybe cold its 77 and is set at 79 and the salinity is 1.0245, the thing that I can figure out so far that maybe my nutrients are low but I would think the whole tank would show stress not just a select few. The other coral is my kenya tree. I started a frag off the mother colony of gsp and its open and normal.
 
Well as far as your gsp & kenya, they tend to shrink up and close up from time to time. I think they will probably be just fine. As to why you're loosing your sps, you may never know. We have all had sps bleach, stn & rtn. No idea why. Most common reasons is a swing in parameters. Alkalinity, salinity, temp or what ever. Could be chemical warfare from the soft/leather coral. Yeah, I would do a couple water changes over the next week or so and then let it go for a few and see how everything does. Check parameters to make sure they stay in a good range for the sps. See if the bleaching/tissue necrosis stops and gets better. Another thing people do when their sps does this is frag it, get rid of all the bad part and dip it in coral rx and re-glue it to the rock.
 
My blue tip acro started bleaching from the bottom up. I took it off the rock, cut just above the bad/dead part, took just a smidgen of what still jad color, tossed the bad part and reglued. It was doing great after that. It was so small though that i totally forgot about it when my rbta wanted to make its new home right over the top of it.
 
if it is stn of rtn id do a coral dip with coral rx pro just in case to prevent any more damage.
 
if it is stn of rtn id do a coral dip with coral rx pro just in case to prevent any more damage.

Stn? Not sure what's that stand for but can if happen out of the blue? It has quadrupled in size and almost ready to frag before this happened. Really doubt PETCO here in town sales coral x so thats not an option.
Just got home and status is the same gsp still closed kenya shriveled and birds nest still looks like its bleaching. I will try fragging a healthy section tonight not much left unfortunately.

As for a sudden spike in alkalinity don't think so I do have a reactor that I added a few months back but never more than a slow drip.

Again no other corals showing stress leathers,sps,lps and zoas
 
slow tissue necrosis. and yes can happen out of the blue. the only other option u have is to frag the healthy and remove everything that is not.
 
Are you using phosphate removal media (e.g. GFO) and/or granular activated carbon? If so, have you made any changes to the amount you normally use? For example, if you reduced your phosphate very suddenly, this is likely to shock your corals.
 
slow tissue necrosis. and yes can happen out of the blue. the only other option u have is to frag the healthy and remove everything that is not.

I will give it a try can't hurt at this point and what about the gsp, now I know they do this sometimes but with everything else think it might be more.
I will just do a bunch of water changes until they open up again I guess. I have heard that xania's are a good early detector when things are out of wack and there doing fine. Maybe its just one of those unexplained things that happen in this hobby
 
Are you using phosphate removal media (e.g. GFO) and/or granular activated carbon? If so, have you made any changes to the amount you normally use? For example, if you reduced your phosphate very suddenly, this is likely to shock your corals.

I do run a phosphate reactor but change media every 4-6 weeks and carbon with every other water change that I do every 3 weeks. Same regular maintenance since starting in march.
Now that I think of it the only thing I have done out of norm I went threw and killed off some mojano's about three weeks back with some kalk paste but nothing showed signs of stress the first week of doing that and it wasn't a major amount done and I shut flow off and waited for about half hour before turning everything back on
 
Kalk paste may be the answer. It could have spiked the ALK/KH up to high along with PH. Have to be careful when doing this as the sudden increase of KH and resulting raise in PH can cause bad things to happen. How much did you use or better yet how many majono's did you zap?
 
Majanos as in aptasias? Why did you use kalk paste. Sorry to kinda vear the subject. I just wondered why kalk for aptasia. :)
 
But wouldnt that affect the tank as a whole compared to only a specific type of coral?

Maybe...Maybe not.. Everything can react different based upon the conditions. Some might not be affected at all while other corals get stressed. That was the change from his/her normal routine or last thing out of the norm done.
 
Majanos as in aptasias? Why did you use kalk paste. Sorry to kinda vear the subject. I just wondered why kalk for aptasia. :)

Burns them and is a common treatment for them. Just have to be careful how much you use and how many you go after.
 
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