Help, my SPS is suddenly bleaching...!!

[stephencraig]

To set this up right, this has started happening in my Corner Tank. Its a Oceanic 92g. May of you had heard me talk in the past about the high Nitrates I have in this tank,m and my work to try to get them down (HAD been ranging about 40ppm). All the main water quality test check out Ph 8.1, AM 0, NI 0, Phos 0.5). I've been using Fauna Marin UltraLith since 2/25 in order to get the Nitatres down and improve the tank.

Tank is stocked with 2 Acros, 3 Monti Caps, 2 Acans, 3 Tubinerrias, and numerous Paly's, 2 Toadstools, Colt Coral, some Zoo's.

Friday a 4 inch Acro that had seemed to be fine totally bleached out in a single day. We noticed yesterday that one of the Caps started receeding. I trimmed it back today, but still seems to be receeding. We noticed the other 2 Caps later today started bgetting bleaching spots as well. I took a sample this morning to river City, and everything checked out except the Nitrates, which they tested at only 20 ppm. Other than that, my Blenny and Maroon got into a fight, and the Blenny has a bad looking spot on its tail (possible bacteria problem?) from the fight.

We are at a lost as to what is suddenly going on. Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.

Stephen

[Texreefer]

you say "bleaching" but are you talking RTN? did they loose all the tissue?.. what is you ALK an CA like?..PO4 at .5 is high which ties in with the nitrate problem.. do you have a refugium? what about a skimmer?.. what are you using for makeup water?.. did you spray any chimicals around they tank that day like air freshener or lysol?

[stephencraig]

Skimmer is Deltec Turbo 1250. Alk is 9. Ca is about 350. How do you tell the difference between bleaching and RTN? The Acro Friday just went completely white (it was a Tri-Color). The one Cap I trimmed today (its a pick Cap) had its flesh start receeding around the edges (going white). The other two are starting to get white around the edges, but also seem to be getting "lighter" in spots in the center as well.

All water added to the tank is RO/DI. I'm overdue for a water change, which is happening first thing tomorrow morning. I use Tropic Marin for salt.

No, I don't have a refugium on this tank, just an Oceanic sump with the Deltec skimmer. I also have 2 (2 Little Fishes) reactors in line, that pull from the main area of the sump and outputs back over the tank return area. First reactor has carbon (which I did change Friday night), which then pushes to the reactor with UltraLith.

Did not spray any chemicals around the tank that I know of.

Stephen

[KyleV]

Friday the 13th

[caferacermike]

Stephen it sounds more like RTN, rapid tissue necrosis, than a bleaching. The few bleachings I've witnessed were a slower process and you could still see the polyps, albeit clear. RTN for me has been to look at a frag in the morning, come home from work to see it completely gone and covered in hermit crabs. I've never really tracked down the problem. I would buy 10 frags from a source, they would do well for a month and then out of the blue I'd lose one. I've heard all kinds of answers, not to say that any were wrong or that any were "the one", trouble is each time could have been for one or many of the answers given and different each time. Of course it's always prudent to check salinity, MG, and CA levels when guessing as to the answer. Other thoughts were that my supplements were poured in to quickly and suffocated the SPS that were in front of the return pump that blew the new mixture into the tank. I've heard that adding makeup water to quickly can cause them to fall out. What do you feed? If they are not getting any nutrient, if they need it, they could be starving and then suddenly give up. Are you rinsing the carbon and other chemical (I've never heard of Ultralith and have no idea what to do with it) as the fine particles could irritate sensitive corals. Has there been any sort of color shift in the bulbs, rapid degradation for no unknown reason? Are you sure your lighting is working for the set amounts of times, no problems with the timers? Is the tank getting hot at any point of the day? Any predation issues?

We've all had RTN troubles. I've not had a simple answer. I wish the best of luck with what remains. I can probably replace any cap that you lose with frags.

[J_G]

Temperatures above 84 will start the bleaching process also. It will be very noticable at 86 degrees.