SPS bleaching after tank upgrade

[whotzler]

Old tank / New tank

Gal... 45 Pentagon 24 x 24 / 120 24 x 24 x 4' with 30 gal sump
Rock... 40 lbs / old tanks 40 lbs plus 80 new rock (reef saver dry)
Sand... 40 lbs DSB / 20 lbs. New sand
Temp... 78 / 78
S.G... 1.025 / 1.025
pH... 7.98 / 8
Nitrate... undetectable API / undetectable API
Calcium... 380 / 400
DKH... 8 / 11
Mag... 1150 / 1275
Light.... 1 Kessil 360 / 2 Kessil 360
Skimmer... small HOB / Skimz SM163
Feeding ... Reef Roids / Reef Roids

These are the numbers at the time of the tank switch, about a week ago. I have re-tested and numbers are about the same with exception to DKH dropped to 8 Nitrates up to 5, Iv been feeding lots of Roids. Some concerns I had right off the bat.. Difference in Mag and DKH between new and old tank.. Also loosing the Good Bacteria in the DSB, but I thought it was a reasonable trade by not bringing in all the bad with the old sand bed.. I planned on using the old water but was not able to pull it off, so its all NEW water in the switch. A large chunk of rock, the one with the problem also sat out of water for what was suppose to be 5 min but turned into 20. This rock had about 8 Acro's and a Monti on it. There is significant color loss on 4 of the Acros.. They do still have polyps some have color even on the base. The monti also has lightened in color quite a bit and its polyps lightened also.

Now today I have noticed my monti s that were not on the rock that sat out have lightened a bit and another that was looking great suddenly (within 24 hrs) has lost 3/4 of its tissue and is surely a gonner..

Take it easy on me I'm only a year into this, and I know that I have made some mistakes. Is there any advice out there on getting my SPS back to good. Im really worried, as in my Black Friday excitement I ordered 20 SPS from Unique Corals that are going to arrive in 2 days.. (Another rookie mistake.. inpatients)(but it was such a good deal)

I should also mention that these SPS have been doing great for the last 4 months with lots of growth in the old tank and that there are about 30 other LPS and softies that are not having any issue.

[thegrun]

Of the numbers you posted the only parameter that jumps out is the alkalinity spike, which would be a very likely cause of the bleaching. After a week there isn't much you can do about it. Lowering your light intensity at the time of the alkalinity spike may have helped some, but that was too large of a spike for most SPS to not show bleaching. The new sand and magnesium spike would not have caused any issues. You didn't post ammonia and nitrite levels, but they may also have jumped up do to the rock sitting out of the water. St this point all you can do is maintain stable parameters and hope the corals survive.

[TheFishGuy31]

I'd recommend lowing your lighting intensity like thegrun mentioned.

Do you run a refugium? What is your PO4?

What kind of fish load?

I'd cut back on the Roids if your nitrates are already at 5ppm.


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