SPS Losing Tissue (1 Viewer)

[ebayes11]

I've got a problem with a number of my birdsnests. On multiple branches, white spots started developing, and by white I mean that the tissue seems to have eroded away. It started small, and it's spread to other branches and gotten larger. It seems that only the birdsnests are affected to date, although the green psammacora is starting to show no polyp extension in a few places as well. I've tried to take pictures, but I can't seem to show it clearly. It looks as though the tissue erodes and then the polyps soon follow. I first thought predation or the like, but now I'm doubtful. In terms of rate of spread, it I noticed it probably Thursday of last week, and now it's spread to the other birdsnests some of the branches probably have an inch or more of bleached area.

Any thoughts on causes/remedies??

Parameters:
pH: 8.0
CA: 410
kH: 7 (Low, and working on it)
Mg: 1275
NO3: 0
Temp: 83

 

[dillo]

white spots

I could be wrong but 83 degrees seems to be pushing the limit on temp.

Have you added anything unusual to the tank recently???

 

[ebayes11]

the only thing that happened prior to that happening was a little bit of a spill that caused a short in my CaRx pump, which tripped the breaker one day. Didn't think much of it because I fixed the problem, but just checked my salinity, and it's about 1.023 which is a bit low. Potential cause?

 

[dave00gt]

sounds like RTN, or rapid tissue necrosis.

one of my sps corals did that, and withered away.. cause a fan stopped working and the temp got to 83-85 degrees..

i would consider some type of cooling fan .

 

[cstewart79]

eric your temps are pushing the upper limits and alkalinity is an issue.

birdsnest as a whole are very hearty and should bounce back.

 

[ebayes11]

yeah, i've been working on the alkalinity issue. Sounds like it's time for a clip on fan in the sump

 

[fishcraze]

just throw out some idea for your troubleshooting:

- Were the tissue losses happening randomly on the branches, to the tips or at the center of the birdnests? does the polyps around the the tissue lost area extended normally? if so, may try to look for a predator like those devil crabs - I had one in my tank before that like to munch on the poccilora and birdnest species.
- Have you cleaned the center brace lately that caused the salt creeps to fall back to the tank and onto the sps - that could burn them too.

- kH = 7 ==> I assume you meant dKh? if it's kH, then 7 is too high.
if it's dKh, then 7 is low and may be the main cause for the RTNs. Add several spoons of baking soda to get it back to 8-9. Birdnests especially the one you have are hardy corals so they should recover quickly when u get the parameters stable again.

- Temp = 83 .. have it been this way for the last month or so or just getting that high last week when you noticed the problems? If it has been 82-83 for a while before then 83F should be OK as long as it's not a big swing happen overnite. I kept my tank at ~85F in the summer (for electricity savings). But if you can keep the temp stable at 80-82F by just adding a few fans on the sump or inside the hood, then do it! I notice SPS seem to color best in the 78-81F range, tho it may grow a little faster at ~83-84F
lmk if u need help.

 

[fishcraze]

- salinity a little low to my standard, but if you have been keeping it at that level for months then it shouldn't be the reason for the rtn.
- did u change salt lately?

 

[ebayes11]

Q, thanks for the ideas:

- The losses were happening randomly on the branches in the center of the branches. It looked like the tissue between polyps would go first, while the polyps would open for a while after. At first it looked like predation, but I haven't seen any of the stars or crabs that you would think would be the culprits. And since I used all dry rock instead of live, I'm not sure how they would hitchhike in.

- You're right about the dKh, and I'm working on getting it righted.

- The temp has been running pretty high (83ish) for the past month or so, and I hadn't seen any of the negative reaction. That said though, I'm going to put a fan or two in it today and make sure that I take care of it

- Regarding the salinity issue, I realize from my post there was more to my thought process than I wrote down. The overflow happened because my filter sock got full and started spewing water into the stand. That continued until the water level built up and shorted out the pump. Now, it's conceivable that the top-off was pumping in water before the pump shorted (there wasn't much in the reservoir, so it wasn't enough to be catastrophic, but more than enough to get it down to 1.023). I'll try to raise that back in the next few days.

- The most recent water change I used Oceanic salt, whereas before I used Reef Crystals. However, it was done I believe a day or so after this started, but it still may be the culprit.

So... steps I'm going to take:
- Slowly raise the dKh of the tank to get it back to 8-9
- Install fan to keep tank temp at 81 max
- Slowly raise salinity back to the 1.025 it was running at

Any others that I'm missing?