Coral death plague, need help!

sandman12 · 10/26/2016, 05:26 PM

I am having a serious issue with coral slowly dying in my 50g reef. I have had a reef tank for about the last 15 years and have never seen anything like this in my tank, friends tanks, nor have I ever read about this so it's going to be a tough one...

I first noticed very small brownish algae on the tips of my SPS, the next day the tips are dead and the death very slowly spreads. Takes about a week to kill a 1" frag. At this point this plague has now killed 90% of my SPS and is now taking my candy cane colony, cyphastrea, and gonipora.

I thought this may have been from a suspected alk spike when I left my lights on for 9 days straight while on vacation. Alk, calc, mag, phos, nitrate are all rock solid.

Next I thought maybe some of my equipment was bad and leaching something into the water, I just took apart and cleaned everything. All equipment seems ok. I also had the owner of my local LFS stop by to give his opinion and he was stumped. The only thing still on my list to do it send a sample to Triton for a more detailed testing.

I am totally out of thoughts on this one and am extremely discouraged...

If anyone has any thoughts at all as to what else I can look for I would be very appreciative.

CuzzA · 10/26/2016, 05:38 PM

9 days with continuous lighting sounds like your culprit. How long after you fixed the light issue did the corals begin to die?

UTCReefer · 10/26/2016, 09:42 PM

How old is your sandbed? Post some pics of your corals too

scubadan206 · 10/29/2016, 02:38 PM

I would suspect heavy metal from one of your system appliances. Possibly some contamination that your RODI is no longer filtering out. Contact the water dept and ask if they changed something? Also maybe try a bacterial starter to maximize the good bacteria in your tank.

10/26/2016, 05:26 PM	#1
sandman12 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Bradenton,FL Posts: 2,056	Coral death plague, need help! I am having a serious issue with coral slowly dying in my 50g reef. I have had a reef tank for about the last 15 years and have never seen anything like this in my tank, friends tanks, nor have I ever read about this so it's going to be a tough one... I first noticed very small brownish algae on the tips of my SPS, the next day the tips are dead and the death very slowly spreads. Takes about a week to kill a 1" frag. At this point this plague has now killed 90% of my SPS and is now taking my candy cane colony, cyphastrea, and gonipora. I thought this may have been from a suspected alk spike when I left my lights on for 9 days straight while on vacation. Alk, calc, mag, phos, nitrate are all rock solid. Next I thought maybe some of my equipment was bad and leaching something into the water, I just took apart and cleaned everything. All equipment seems ok. I also had the owner of my local LFS stop by to give his opinion and he was stumped. The only thing still on my list to do it send a sample to Triton for a more detailed testing. I am totally out of thoughts on this one and am extremely discouraged... If anyone has any thoughts at all as to what else I can look for I would be very appreciative. __________________ Support aquaculture! Current Tank Info: 50g CAD lights cube in progress

10/26/2016, 05:38 PM	#2
CuzzA Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Palm Harbor, FL Posts: 2,997	9 days with continuous lighting sounds like your culprit. How long after you fixed the light issue did the corals begin to die?

10/26/2016, 09:42 PM	#3
UTCReefer Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: San Diego Posts: 652	How old is your sandbed? Post some pics of your corals too

10/29/2016, 02:38 PM	#4
scubadan206 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Kenosha WI Posts: 985	I would suspect heavy metal from one of your system appliances. Possibly some contamination that your RODI is no longer filtering out. Contact the water dept and ask if they changed something? Also maybe try a bacterial starter to maximize the good bacteria in your tank.