SPS Bleaching!

[DEIGNAN14]

I have a number of SPS corals on the decline. My orange monti and my blue digi are getting very light... I have a Tizardi and an Pocilipora that are turning white on the tips... looks like rtn...

Over the past month Ive been testing KH to dial in my CA reator. When I started KH was at 7-8... I brought it up with the kent dkh buffer and adjusted my reactor until it stabilized at 12-13...

I think this may be due to PH swings now that the reactor has been set correctly... I have a ph monitor and a nielsen Kalk reactor on order...

I havent made any other changes to my system and its been up and running with heavy SPS load for almost 2 years...

Anyone have recomendations? I plan to do a round of tests in the morning.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[jbundas]

Possibilities:

1. Check for temperature spikes - common problem this time of year and sps can be quite sensitive to it.

2. Do a substantial water change (~30%) and observe over the next week. If it's something odd off with water chemistry or contaminants a wc will show some improvement.

3. Think about your feeding regiment - If you have very little algae collecting on the glass over the course of a week or two without scraping, you may be too nutrient poor for the sps. Try slowly increasing feeding, keeping an eye on algae growth to make sure you don't go too far too fast.

4. dKH - Going from 7 to 13 within a couple weeks is a pretty quick change. You might be seeing the transient adaptation effects of the alk jump in the corals. You could try backing the reactor off a hair to settle around 10, leave it like that for a month or so, then bump it up a little if you want more.

- J

 

[RayD]

Possibilities:

1. Check for temperature spikes - common problem this time of year and sps can be quite sensitive to it.

2. Do a substantial water change (~30%) and observe over the next week. If it's something odd off with water chemistry or contaminants a wc will show some improvement.

3. Think about your feeding regiment - If you have very little algae collecting on the glass over the course of a week or two without scraping, you may be too nutrient poor for the sps. Try slowly increasing feeding, keeping an eye on algae growth to make sure you don't go too far too fast.

4. dKH - Going from 7 to 13 within a couple weeks is a pretty quick change. You might be seeing the transient adaptation effects of the alk jump in the corals. You could try backing the reactor off a hair to settle around 10, leave it like that for a month or so, then bump it up a little if you want more.

- J

I'm going with number 4 here. Natural seawater has a dKH of 8 and a major jump in one shot to 13 could definitely have adverse effect on SPS, clams and other animals.

I over buffered my system all at once and it affected my Bubble Coral big time. Took it over 60 days to recover.

I can also suggest to hang in there. I have had some SPS start to bleach and then come back nicer than ever. Get your parameters to where you are comfortable and give it a little time.

 

[DEIGNAN14]

Thanks you guys!

Ive had this tank up and running for a long time with no serious issues... (knock on wood)

I have to admit that in the past, I have just been doing weekly WC and only testing parameters if it looks like theres an issue.

Latley Ive noticed that many of my corals are growing quickly but have poor coloration.

Hence the effort to get the reactor working correctly and start dosing kalk to offset the ph swings...

Anyway this morning the DKH is at 12... and the PH was read by my milwakee as 7.5! I did a proper PH test and it appeard to be around 8.2... I calibrated that meeter this morning and Im thinking that the meeter is more reliable that the test...

My plan is to do a massive WC as soon as possible- got water cookin now

Im also dialing down my reactor and dripping kalk to bring the ph back up... I plan to dial down the reactor until I get my new monitor and kalk reactor installed...

Again, thanks for your help! any other comments or suggestions are welcomed!

Jason

 

[smcnally]

The dKh was too high at 13 (although I haven't seen that level cause issues that quickly)
I don't think the increase from 7-13 was too quick either. I've gone from 7-11 within hours. According to what I've read, it is fine to make jumps in dKh like that.