Need some help with SPS problem

[BobNY]

I am hoping you guy's can help me figure out what is happening to some of my SPS coral. The past few weeks I started having bleaching problems. The bleaching starts at the bottom and works it way up.
It started firat on onw coral, then another a few weeks after.

Tank is 125 Gallon
ATI 6 bulb T5. Bulb's are 10 months old.
Parameters:
Alk-9.0
Cal-415
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:0
Phosphate:0
Temp: 78
PH: 8.2

I did notice a Asterina Starfish one of them the other night. I removed the starfish. Next night there was another on it. I have read that they can be coral eaters. I have also read that they might only be eating the dead tissue off of the coral. Any thoughts on maybe the Asterina's being the problem?
Or any other ideas?

Here is a picture of one of the effected corals. It has been in the tank for 3 months and has been growing like crazy. The bleaching started about 4 day ago. The only changes made to the tank were the addition of dosing pumps for Calcium and Alk. Before that I had been maintaining with manual dosing.

Thanks

 

[motortrendz]

have you been checking the dosing levels? and are they flowing at the same time? what are your parameters?

 

[daaznmofo]

is that bleaching or RTN?

 

[DCG1286]

Looks like stn/Rtn.

From the picture it looks like it could be a tricolor acro of some sorts. I would check the underside of the coral to make sure u don't have aefw. (they love tricolors)
Note* I am not saying u have them but just as a precaution I would check it out carefully.

 

[motortrendz]

thats definitly not bleaching its dead underneaith..

 

[Mattl22]

Defintly frag what u can asap

 

[BobNY]

Will do. Thanks for the help. I'll let you guy's know what I find.

 

[motortrendz]

before u frag it i would dip it.. coral rx before you break apart a nice piece.. if it continues i would frag it as a last resort. what are your talk parimiters? expecially alk?

 

[BobNY]

I'll dip before fragging.
I dipped the other piece that is doing the same thing 2 weeks agao. It seemed to have stopped for a while, then started again

 

[TheSherm]

I agree with everything the above posts are saying, it looks like stn, give it a good dip, get the death out of the tank and frag what you can. The unexplainable monster......

Watch those dosing pumps and do a solid water change

 

[BobNY]

I took the coral out and gave a look. Aside from 2 Asterina stars I didnt notice anything else. Is AEFW hard to see?
I cut some frags off of the coral and discarded the rest. It was heartbreaking as this one in the above picture was my best growing acro .
The other coral was a nice sized Green Slimer.
I am making some water to replace what I need to remove for the dip. I will dip the frags in a little bit.
I need to pick up some frag discs and maybe a rack tomorrow for the frags.

If it is aefw I'm guessing there is a good chance there are more than just what was on the coral I discarded. I will of coars do some searching, but do they only attack Acro's? Are my Milli's Monti's and other corals safe from them?

Here are some sad pictures of my new frags

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

Do you have any birdnest or caps?? If birdnest are fine then maybe you have AEFW
If caps bleach I notice alk is low.. Eggs from AEFW don't die from dipping. Pm me your # and I can tell you how to find AEFW and what to look for. I had a bad attack months back and now I turned into a expert..LOL

 

[BobNY]

Jarrett.....Thanks for the offer.
I sent you a PM

 

[duke62]

i dont think its AEFW they dont prefer to eat the acros from the bottom up if it was AEFW you wuld see other parts of the skin chewed up.it actually looks like something is eating them.i think you alk and cal and mag are notstable and its starting to stn.

 

[TheSherm]

i dont think its AEFW they dont prefer to eat the acros from the bottom up if it was AEFW you wuld see other parts of the skin chewed up.it actually looks like something is eating them.i think you alk and cal and mag are notstable and its starting to stn.

+1. Watch the dosing pumps, do a big WC, test alk, calc and mag every morning and night for a few days to check for any instability. It isnt a coincidence this started after the dosing pumps. Are you dosing into an area with very good flow?

 

[BobNY]

Thanks for the input guy's!!
The problem actually started before I added the dosing pumps. The way I wrote the original post makes it sound as if it started after...sorry.
I figured I would add as much detail as possible, so I added that I installed the pumps.

That said....It is quite possible you are right about the Alk and Cal. Since the addition of the pumps my levels have been very stable. Before when I was dosing by hand they werent always as stable.
I fragged and dipped last night. Tonight I will do a WC. Hopefully after that I never see it again.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

i dont think its AEFW they dont prefer to eat the acros from the bottom up if it was AEFW you wuld see other parts of the skin chewed up.

Not true at all Duke...most AEFW start at base were they can lay eggs. They Lay eggs at spots were fish can't pick at them. Bob Google AEFW or go on RC for some good pics to show you what to look for or what they look like.

 

[Rhegaana]

Since your SPS seem to be on the smaller side (from the pics)I would stop with the dosing pumps for a while and do several water changes over a few days. The water change should be enough to keep levels acceptable. Maybe even do kalk slurrys after lights go off. Just keep it slow.

 

[Arati]

can you post a wider view of the tank?

doesn't seem like a lot of coraline or anything growing on the LR around the frags.

how old is this set up, how long has the live rock been cycled and working?

The background of the tank is pretty clean sps tank need to be up and running at least a year.

how old are the test kits? what kind?

alk tests go bad .. crazy fast.. especially the cheap ones like api or whatever.

to me looks like slow tissue necrosis in my experience it comes from a few thing.

low or unstable alk.

temps greater then 83f.(like in the ocean coral bleaching)

sudden drastic changes in lighting.

that's my 0.02$ best of luck.