SPS tips whitening

[DisturbedReefer]

Several, actually almost all of my corals now are getting white tips, it almost looks like someone took a lighter to them. I have a few shots of the most significant ones here. This has happened before with the nana's but now every coral. I have not made any changes to my tank recently except I added a bag of purigen (seachem) about 10 days ago. Most of the damage has been since yesturday though. The only thing I dose with is Little Fishies C-Balance. When this happened before (not to this scale) I was not dosing with anything.

Water params:
SG: 1.0245 per Salinity Monitor
pH: 8.3 per probe
Ca: 360 Salifert
dKH 8.0 Salifert
Mg: 1260 Salifert

I will check other chemistry tomorrow with LFS.

There is a very slight chance that a coin might have been "dropped" into the tank last weekend, but I have not found one (I have a bare bottom tank). The lights are about 7-8 months old now. Tank is just over a year old now. I'm really at a loss here for what it could be. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jetaero]

Hmm... Any idea if the halide bulbs have any scratches on them? Something messing up the UV film?

-Josh-

 

[DisturbedReefer]

No nothing has happened to the bulbs, I even checked for cracks etc.

 

[NaH2O]

Todd - are they bleached out tips, or is the tissue gone, too?

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
It appears to me that the tissue has been lost and seeing the hermit in the first picture sitting on top of the coral suggests dead tissue. You don't mention your water change schedule but I would change 50% of the water and renmove the purigen. Also I would bring the calcium up to about 420 ppm with a dKH of 8.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[DisturbedReefer]

Yes tissue is gone, looks like totally dead coral on the ends. I have been doing once a week 30 gal water changes, give or take a week here and there for the past few months. I have been also fighting the bryopsis battle, that's the reason for the frequent water changes. total system water aprox 200gal. So, this morning I woke up tp the tank being 74deg and the whole tank off, this is not my week. Turned out to be yet another bad heater, but it did last over a year.

 

[big t]

Maybe you were having some electrical bleed off? Also we need to check you salinity with a refractometer.

 

[jetaero]

Wow, that's too bad. I'd go towards electrical bleed off... Is the tank grounded?

-Josh-

 

[DisturbedReefer]

Wow, that's too bad. I'd go towards electrical bleed off... Is the tank grounded?

-Josh-

Not grounded

 

[jlehigh]

Coral recession caused by disease or fluctuation enduced stress IME starts at the base of corals. Anytime I see tips dying I look for predation. I wonder however if that faulty heater was also the source of the stray voltage, and that truly was the issue..

 

[-=dieseldave=-]

"Anytime I see tips dying I look for predation."
I agree.
Your Mg abit low as well.

 

[DisturbedReefer]

Well the heater was not only enough to trip the breaker, it broke the breaker. The breaker was still in the on position this morning and has no effect at all. One by one I plugged things into an extension cord from another circuit and found the guilty heater! Yesturday I did a water change and was moving the heater around, I'm sure that made the bleed turn to a full on zap...lots of stuff looks bad today. My Tang and other livestock are ok so far though. I ran most of my tank on some heavy duty extension cords today while I was at work.

 

[DisturbedReefer]

Coral recession caused by disease or fluctuation enduced stress IME starts at the base of corals. Anytime I see tips dying I look for predation. I wonder however if that faulty heater was also the source of the stray voltage, and that truly was the issue..

I would think the same except this was pretty much over night and almost all of my corals, not just a few here and there. Pretty much all SPS has either patches of the stoney looking areas or are completely gone...quite sad indeed

 

[moortim]

All I can say is that I am sorry for your situation. Unfortunately you are beyond my expertise so I have no advice but if I could offer a spot for things in my tank I would.

Good luck!
Tim

 

[NaH2O]

Tim - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

The breaker was still in the on position this morning and has no effect at all.

WOW! How old was the breaker? To me that sounds like a big liability to the breaker company if the breaker was stuck on. I don't know enough about electrical to know if that is normal or not, but it sure doesn't seem right. Thank goodness there wasn't more damage.

 

[shallowreef]

I feel your pain and frustration!! Good luck with that!

Nick

 

[DisturbedReefer]

Tim - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!



WOW! How old was the breaker? To me that sounds like a big liability to the breaker company if the breaker was stuck on. I don't know enough about electrical to know if that is normal or not, but it sure doesn't seem right. Thank goodness there wasn't more damage.

Well the house is 100 years old, the circuit breaker in question is an old Federal. Yes I do plan on replacing the whole thing and getting the tank on it's own breakers.

 

[moortim]

Thanks for the welcome NaH2O. On the breaker topic I just thought I would mention that I work in the electrical power field and a breaker like that is extremely dangerous but you should have tripped a main one as well. If not I would talk to someone about all of them. Don't try to work on any yourself unless you have some prior experience. I would worry more about fire hazard than anything else.

 

[Scooterman]

http://www.inspect-ny.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm

Check this out, it will scare you. I have them also but mine were made in 82 which was improved by then, that doesn't mean i would ever want them again though. If you get a replacement panel go with Siemens, they are highly recommended & you can get them just as easily as Square-D @ Lowe's or HD.

 

[mojoreef]

Thats tough luck buddy, I hope all turns out well. On the coral tips it kind of looks alot like chemical burn to.


Mike