Not your normal tank crash

[LgTas]

So came home to a crashing tank last week Monday. No idea what the cause was but water stank and there was a massive bacteria bloom. The night before the tank looked fine but I did notice a frag of Seriatopora dendritica had started stning and one hammer looked ticked off. I tested salinity and parameters and nothing had gone off track.

Here's the interesting part. The majority of the coral I lost were "easy" sps (a variety of Stylos, Seriatopora, Montis), mushrooms, and hammers.

All my acros didn't even flinch. No polyp retraction, colour loss, or stn/rtn. I have a range of millepora, tenuis, spathulata, horrida etc. Other corals that were ok were zoas (though they did close up) and ricordeas.

my pectinia and fungia had some minor tissue loss but survived.

I took ICP tests the night before the crash of my display and my saltwater storage tank so will see what those show.


Any one else experienced this?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Do you have any tank inhabitants that could be affecting your coral?
Full tank photo?
Have you recently added anything to your tank?

 

[gbroadbridge]

So came home to a crashing tank last week Monday. No idea what the cause was but water stank and there was a massive bacteria bloom. The night before the tank looked fine but I did notice a frag of Seriatopora dendritica had started stning and one hammer looked ticked off. I tested salinity and parameters and nothing had gone off track.

Here's the interesting part. The majority of the coral I lost were "easy" sps (a variety of Stylos, Seriatopora, Montis), mushrooms, and hammers.

All my acros didn't even flinch. No polyp retraction, colour loss, or stn/rtn. I have a range of millepora, tenuis, spathulata, horrida etc. Other corals that were ok were zoas (though they did close up) and ricordeas.

my pectinia and fungia had some minor tissue loss but survived.

I took ICP tests the night before the crash of my display and my saltwater storage tank so will see what those show.


Any one else experienced this?

That's a coincidence.

I had similar the week before.

Perfectly stable tank with nothing new for years.
Everything stable.
ICP the week before was perfect.

Perfectly fine in the morning, but arrived home on 17th July and the tank was a little cloudy with a smell.




Next morning full bacterial bloom and one colony had completely RTN'd overnight - coral shed flesh and the tank stank.




Removed dead coral and did 50% WC

Added carbon and poly filter to try clean up the water.





RTN started on most other acro colonies due to the mess created by the first RTN.




More dead colonies to remove.



Another 50% WC and more carbon.

Tank is stable now but most of the acros are gone - along with 3 years of growth.
LPS completely unaffected fortunately.




A month ago ...





ICP after the event was completely normal.
Something bacterial happened out of the blue...

Time for some new frags ....

 

[LgTas]

Do you have any tank inhabitants that could be affecting your coral?
Full tank photo?
Have you recently added anything to your tank?

You can see my tank on my Instagram page:
Full tank clip

Here is the link to my latest ICP tests taken the night before the crash when I noticed two unhappy corals.
Main Display Tank
Natural Seawater Storage Tank

Looking at my ICPs, my NSW storage is fine and my Display had elevated Molybdenum. I'm not sure if Molybdenum would cause such a catastrophic tank crash.

No inhabitants known to be toxic but I do have pretty bad red planaria infestation in my sump that I have been trying to remove regularly with a net. Maybe this disturbance caused them to release toxins enmasse?

otherwise a bacterial issue that came in via NSW or coral warfare.

 

[LgTas]

That's a coincidence.

I had similar the week before.

Perfectly stable tank with nothing new for years.
Everything stable.
ICP the week before was perfect.

Perfectly fine in the morning, but arrived home on 17th July and the tank was a little cloudy with a smell.




Next morning full bacterial bloom and one colony had completely RTN'd overnight - coral shed flesh and the tank stank.




Removed dead coral and did 50% WC

Added carbon and poly filter to try clean up the water.





RTN started on most other acro colonies due to the mess created by the first RTN.




More dead colonies to remove.



Another 50% WC and more carbon.

Tank is stable now but most of the acros are gone - along with 3 years of growth.
LPS completely unaffected fortunately.




A month ago ...





ICP after the event was completely normal.
Something bacterial happened out of the blue...

Time for some new frags ....

Sorry for your experience. Similar issue as mine it seems other than my acros were fine and the monti and other sps are what bleached. My bacterial bloom was a lot more dense than yours too.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Looking at my ICPs, my NSW storage is fine and my Display had elevated Molybdenum. I'm not sure if Molybdenum would cause such a catastrophic tank crash.

That could come from steel or other metal rusting.
You may want to check for something metal in the tank.

 

[LgTas]

That could come from steel or other metal rusting.
You may want to check for something metal in the tank.

Already done. no obvious leaching from magnets or metal. I suspect dosing error as I dose trace.
Still not convinced it would cause such a crash but maybe @Randy Holmes-Farley can give some insight into potential consequences

 

[LgTas]

I'm thinking of setting up a recirculating UV filter on my NSW storage tank to mitigate unwanted bacteria coming into the display.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I'm thinking of setting up a recirculating UV filter on my NSW storage tank to mitigate unwanted bacteria coming into the display.

Not sure if it would make a difference.
My LFS certainly does not run anything on their NSW storage tanks.

I run UV and sometimes ozone on my display - but primarily for water clarity not for bacterial control.

 

[LgTas]

Not sure if it would make a difference.
My LFS certainly does not run anything on their NSW storage tanks.

I run UV and sometimes ozone on my display - but primarily for water clarity not for bacterial control.

It depends on a range of factors how effective UV is but it's widely used in water quality treatment for pathogen and bacterial control.

Luckily my wife is a water quality scientist who's worked on two indusrial scale UV treatment projects so I have the expert to guide me in setting it up correctly.

 

[Lavey29]

That's a coincidence.

I had similar the week before.

Perfectly stable tank with nothing new for years.
Everything stable.
ICP the week before was perfect.

Perfectly fine in the morning, but arrived home on 17th July and the tank was a little cloudy with a smell.




Next morning full bacterial bloom and one colony had completely RTN'd overnight - coral shed flesh and the tank stank.




Removed dead coral and did 50% WC

Added carbon and poly filter to try clean up the water.





RTN started on most other acro colonies due to the mess created by the first RTN.




More dead colonies to remove.



Another 50% WC and more carbon.

Tank is stable now but most of the acros are gone - along with 3 years of growth.
LPS completely unaffected fortunately.




A month ago ...





ICP after the event was completely normal.
Something bacterial happened out of the blue...

Time for some new frags ....

Sorry for your losses. These are the perplexing ones that make me think something airborne got into the tank.

 

[Rappa]

So came home to a crashing tank last week Monday. No idea what the cause was but water stank and there was a massive bacteria bloom. The night before the tank looked fine but I did notice a frag of Seriatopora dendritica had started stning and one hammer looked ticked off. I tested salinity and parameters and nothing had gone off track.

Here's the interesting part. The majority of the coral I lost were "easy" sps (a variety of Stylos, Seriatopora, Montis), mushrooms, and hammers.

All my acros didn't even flinch. No polyp retraction, colour loss, or stn/rtn. I have a range of millepora, tenuis, spathulata, horrida etc. Other corals that were ok were zoas (though they did close up) and ricordeas.

my pectinia and fungia had some minor tissue loss but survived.

I took ICP tests the night before the crash of my display and my saltwater storage tank so will see what those show.


Any one else experienced this?

You didn't happen to dose any bacteria like Dr Tim's or Microbacter before you left for the weekend did you? I had something similar happen when I did a night-time dose of Dr Tim's. I used the max daily dose for my water volume before I went to bed. Woke up and could barely see through the water. I either overdid it, or there was a reaction that I never had before. Had to take the next day off and change 100 gallons of water. Water is crystal clear again. Been doing 7-10 gallon auto water changes daily since. Acros still don't look completely happy after 2 weeks. I typically dose bacteria products into my sump, usually dosed into the socks or in the refugium, but this time, I wanted to seed the tank directly in an attempt to battle ongoing GHA issue. Just educated guessing here... but I think if I wasn't around to intervene quick, I may have had a crash.