What is killing all my SPS?

[GP0801]

Hey guys just trying to figure out what's going on with my SPS. Long story short I bought a orange passion and walt disney frag because I got them for an amazing deal but unfortunately not long after I noticed a dino outbreak in the tank. I didn't think much of it but then I noticed those two acros started bleaching and I also lost a millepora and a bali green slimer almost immediately (RTN). I tried to take care of the dinos by lowering light and stuff but I didn't think to check Nitrate and Phos levels, turns out they were completely bottomed out. So I started dosing Microbacter 7, Neophos and Neonitro aiming to keep Phosphates at .10 and Nitrate at 10ppm. I use Hanna Checkers for both. Once I got both those levels up I decided to try getting some cheap Setosa pieces to see if those will grow, around this time I also started using Dino X because I wasn't seeing any sort of decline in the dinos. I also run a UV at night and turkey baste the dinos off the rock and sand after lights out. Yesterday my walt disney called it quits and totally gave up, the tissue just peeled off in one big piece. My orange passion is on the decline as well, still a few polyps left on that one though and even my purple bonsai, jack o lantern lepto and setosa are starting to bleach from the top. What can I do to turn this around? As of right now my torch corals, acan and zoa look healthy and happy but I'm worried that they're going to be affected as well. I spent quite a bit on the torches so I need to do everything I can to save those. I attached some pictures of the various corals so you can see what they look like as well as daily test results from the past few days. Any bit of information would be really appreciated. Thanks.

 

[lakai]

You are

 

[GP0801]

Thanks that was helpful.

 

[Little c big D]

The dinos could be murdering them. How old is the tank?

 

[GP0801]

The dinos could be murdering them. How old is the tank?

It's about 3 months old now, I've got a microscope on the way so I can ID the dinos but the strange thing is usually the toxic ones tend to kill of snails and yet I have a lot of snails in the tank that eat it and they're just fine. I assumed for that reason that it's probably not the toxic kind but not sure until I can get an exact ID.

 

[Little c big D]

It's about 3 months old now, I've got a microscope on the way so I can ID the dinos but the strange thing is usually the toxic ones tend to kill of snails and yet I have a lot of snails in the tank that eat it and they're just fine. I assumed for that reason that it's probably not the toxic kind but not sure until I can get an exact ID.

It's not necessarily toxicity. Sps don't really have the capacity to sting like LPS so they don't really have a defense and can be smothered. Was the tank started with dry rock? It seems dinos are common in new tanks struggling to keep nutrients at a detectable range. Mine recently just disappeared. That took place as my nutrients started to show up. I lost some sps as well at right around the same time frame

 

[Dburr1014]

SG?
Temp?

 

[GP0801]

It's not necessarily toxicity. Sps don't really have the capacity to sting like LPS so they don't really have a defense and can be smothered. Was the tank started with dry rock? It seems dinos are common in new tanks struggling to keep nutrients at a detectable range. Mine recently just disappeared. That took place as my nutrients started to show up. I lost some sps as well at right around the same time frame

Yes it was started with Caribsea life rock. I was told it's a little better but it is dry rock none the less. Sorry to hear about your corals, hopefully all is well now. I tried to turkey baste the dinos off the corals twice a day at least but that didn't seem to help either.

 

[Dburr1014]

Any other changes recently?

 

[JonezNReef]

Could be your tanks not mature enough yet being only 3 months old... i usually cycle a tank with nothing in it for almost 3 months and don't add SPS until after almost a year to make sure my parameters were soild...but thats just me. With all the corals being affected after the new frags dying it might be a bacteria which I have encountered before

 

[GP0801]

SG?
Temp?

SG I keep it at 1.25 with an ATO so it stays consistent
Temp fluctuates between 79-80 throughout the day.

 

[GP0801]

Any other changes recently?

Nothing I can think of. Haven't even added a fish recently, I have been adding torch corals here and there throughout but I've been doing that before I got the sps as well. For a few weeks they looked really happy, great polyp extension and color but I feel like as soon as the dinos came around they went downhill. I thought it was the bottomed out Nitrates and Phosphates at first but even after reversing that they still didn't do any better.

 

[Little c big D]

Yes it was started with Caribsea life rock. I was told it's a little better but it is dry rock none the less. Sorry to hear about your corals, hopefully all is well now. I tried to turkey baste the dinos off the corals twice a day at least but that didn't seem to help either.

I started with a turkey buster untill I found this gem in the kids pool toys...

 

[GP0801]

I started with a turkey buster untill I found this gem in the kids pool toys...
View attachment 2488953

That's awesome, I gotta get myself one of those.

 

[Little c big D]

That's awesome, I gotta get myself one of those.

It truly is. You can push gentle on coral and then hit the rock so hard that it gets any sand and detritus off. And dinos get shredded. You should be changing filter socks twice daily when dealing with them imo, if you use socks. But they will go away as the tank matures. It's the price of starting with dry rock. And yes this tank is growing sps now that the dinos are gone!

 

[GP0801]

It truly is. You can push gentle on coral and then hit the rock so hard that it gets any sand and detritus off. And dinos get shredded. You should be changing filter socks twice daily when dealing with them imo, if you use socks. But they will go away as the tank matures. It's the price of starting with dry rock. And yes this tank is growing sps now that the dinos are gone!

I use filter floss but I have been changing that out every morning and night, it gets brown so quickly. I'm going to stop using the Dino X today but just keep dosing nutrients. I guess if it's just a waiting game then all I can do is wait. How long did the dinos last in your tank when you had them? And I'm guessing my lps will make it through this okay?

 

[Lavey29]

So basically you have unstable parameters with nutrients bottomed out in a 3 month old tank that you are now dropping a bunch of chemicals in to fix a dino outbreak?

And you wonder why your SPS are dying?

 

[Little c big D]

I use filter floss but I have been changing that out every morning and night, it gets brown so quickly. I'm going to stop using the Dino X today but just keep dosing nutrients. I guess if it's just a waiting game then all I can do is wait. How long did the dinos last in your tank when you had them? And I'm guessing my lps will make it through this okay?

In my case they hung around until the 4th month. All I did was blast them daily and fed heavy, reef roids helped with po4. I also used live phyto (not sure if it helped) I was tired of fighting, so I stopped and it worked it self out after about a month. I had zoas, a hammer, and an acan all survive just fine.

 

[GP0801]

So basically you have unstable parameters with nutrients bottomed out in a 3 month old tank that you are now dropping a bunch of chemicals in to fix a dino outbreak?

And you wonder why your SPS are dying?

Well the chemicals were just a response to the dying corals. I wanted to let it run it's course but I realized if I didnt do something they were dead regardless so I started dosing nitrates and phosphates.

 

[ScottB]

Sorry you lost those two nice pieces. At three months that was kinda a long shot unless it was a live rock insta-tank upgrade situation. Best to start out with some cheap slimer. * edit I see you did that*

It was not the dinos that killed the tenuis it was the lack of available ammonia (consumable precursor to nitrite/nitrate) and bacteria laden PO4. More fish poop pleased.

You did well to dose nutrient back up quickly. Now it is the waiting game while the population of surface competitors rebuilds.

What is your fish population?