lots and lots of my frags are bleaching

[golfish]

hey guys,
I'm having some major problems with this new tank. Some\lots of my frags are bleaching white, not dead, just truning white. I thought maybe it was the lighting because some of the corals came from tanks using 400 watt 10k's and I use Radiums (HQI ballast) I added a glass UV shield to my pendants thinking this would help but no luck, more and more frags truning white. I thought maybe my alk\dkh was too high (14-15) so I dropped it down to 10, still no luck..

This tank is very close in size to my old 150 with a lot of the same corals and running the same lights with the same water params...I'm stumped

[Wind]

i'm stumped as well, i have bird nest, and some montis doing well, but my bali slimer just didnt' recover when it got broken up when it dropped.. i dunno what is wrong w/ my tank as well.. although other sps seem to be thriving... i guess it's one of those wierd things, some just don't cut it.. or things happen like that..

i know something is out of whack but i dunno... good luck though..

[montepora]

Are you guys running Rowphos or Phosban?????

[golfish]

Are you guys running Rowphos or Phosban?????

yeah, I was but the bleaching started way before I used phosban.

[kevinpo]

Hi Mark,
Sorry to hear about you corals Try dropping your Alk to 8 or so (2.3 meq/L). Also try to keep the temp. below 79F. Do you have any of the red acro bugs? How long are the halides on for?

Regards,
Kevin

[golfish]

Hi Mark,
Sorry to hear about you corals Try dropping your Alk to 8 or so (2.3 meq/L). Also try to keep the temp. below 79F. Do you have any of the red acro bugs? How long are the halides on for?

Regards,
Kevin

Kevin,
I droppd by dkh down to 10 a few weeks ago. The temp isn't a problems, that I'm sure of. I ran my old tank 78-82 for years with no issues. No red bugs for me and the MH's are now on for 7 hrs a day..I dropped em down from 10 last week. I've ruled out a lot of stuff. I'm running this tank just like my old 150, most of the corals are the same too. I'm leaning towards contaminated media reactor or my kids dumped something in the sump. I shut down both reactors on Sat and I'm going to just let the tank run with carbon for a week. I plan to start things back up when I get back from by fishing trip.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[LazyReef]

When I see bleaching I lookto bacteria counts. You problay have bacteria that are stressing the corals. Consider removing the substrate carefully (where bacteria live) Do not stir the substrate and move bacteria into the water column. Use an 50 micro filter bag and consider a UV light. I a sorry to hear of your problem. but I am just suggesting I have not got anything to work when I have seen this before either. Good luck.

[MyLittleOcean]

How old are the lights? If they are old the spectrum might have changed..?? I am running two 400w PFO HQi radiums. Suppliment with two VHO 10k's.

[golfish]

How old are the lights?

100% sure its not the lights (3 and 4 months old)

When I see bleaching I lookto bacteria counts. You problay have bacteria that are stressing the corals. Consider removing the substrate carefully (where bacteria live) Do not stir the substrate and move bacteria into the water column. Use an 50 micro filter bag and consider a UV light. I a sorry to hear of your problem. but I am just suggesting I have not got anything to work when I have seen this before either. Good luck.

Bare bottom so there's nothing to remove. The carbon seems to be helping but I had a fish die over the long weekend and of course I wasn't home for 5 days. I can't even find what might be left of the fish. Most of my stuff is looking better except for the one frag the RTN while I was gone. I'm still leaning towards bad reactor media.

[miareefer]

Golfish
Ime curious to why you would say bad reactor media was it contaminated with anything at all is it old has it turned to mush one would think that it would have to be a constant parametre in a closed system .Secondly the loss and decomposition of a fish can have a allmighty impact unless you have the critters to minimize time decaying in your tank .Ime curious if the fact a fish died is a direct relation to the RTN . As you said you have ruled out a lot of stuff and kids can do all types of strange things i once found a matchbox car in a sump lucky for me it had only been in there a few hours. Small screws can be found with a magnet if required ime sure its safe considering all of the magnetic parts in a powerhead .
Mia

[golfish]

Golfish
Ime curious to why you would say bad reactor media was it contaminated with anything at all is it old has it turned to mush one would think that it would have to be a constant parametre in a closed system .Secondly the loss and decomposition of a fish can have a allmighty impact unless you have the critters to minimize time decaying in your tank .Ime curious if the fact a fish died is a direct relation to the RTN . As you said you have ruled out a lot of stuff and kids can do all types of strange things i once found a matchbox car in a sump lucky for me it had only been in there a few hours. Small screws can be found with a magnet if required ime sure its safe considering all of the magnetic parts in a powerhead .
Mia

Mia,
I'm pretty sure the dead fish had something to do with me loosing a few corals to RTN last week. That's anothert issue not related to this topic. Those fish died way after this thread\problem was started. As far as the reactor media goes, I just made the list and went down it. The reactor media was bought from a LFS that had purchased it in bulk then repackaged it. There could have been a nail, staple, tack, wire, anything COULD have contaminated it, if that's my problem.... I'm not sure..

I have since replaced the media in both reactors, ran carbon and things look some what better. All I can do is guess at this point. It may have been a combo of the lights and Phosban.

[Papa Doug]

Oh here,s the thread. I must have answered you on another board.

Like you, I,m thinking its a combo Mark. I have read on some other boards some bleaching problems and the use of Phosban, but none with others. Same with the Radiums, some experience bleaching at specific times, others not. Thats where I think its a combinations of several events or changes and then the UV power of the Radiums.

Ther is absolutely no doubt in my mind that my sps bleaching was caused by the addition of the Radiums. To many times and experimenting for it not to be. Yet when the corals are moved back to the friends 180, also with a pair of Radiums, the recover and have beautiful colouring.

Move the corals back to my system and run other 400w lighting, they are fine. Put the Radiums back, carefully ramp up and bang, they bleach. I wonder if my friends heavily loaded 180, does not have the same water clarity as me. I have even tried shielding versus his unshielded bulbs.

Like I said on my thread, despite all my experience, this ones got me.

[golfish]

Doug,
That thread was at RC. Funny how people see things. They think right off the bat that if you have problems you must be a newbie. I had people give me some off the wall replies over there. I had to post a picture of my old 150 just to show people I knew how to do a WC. How can I say this nice? The problem with RC is you have so many people posting, when ever they see a topic they MIGHT have some knowledge about they jump all over it. They don't bother to read the posted thread, just the topic.

[Papa Doug]

Doug,
That thread was at RC. Funny how people see things. They think right off the bat that if you have problems you must be a newbie. I had people give me some off the wall replies over there. I had to post a picture of my old 150 just to show people I knew how to do a WC.