sps is turning white

at the base it is white just noticed it. should I frag it all or what?

Man that would be a pain to frag all those branches. I would watch it close and if its spreading frag it up. I have lost a few frags that I waited to long to cut up. I have also seen corals bleach in spots and grow back over it. So who knows.... Whats your tank params? maybe something is off

Edited by wickedsnowman - April 22 2011 at 12:45am

iron-0
nitrite-0
kh-160 mg/l
ph-8.3
phosphate-0.25 mg/l
cal-440
nitrate-20
ammonia-0
temp 87
salinity 1.026

my nitrate has been like that now for a week and ive done three water changes.

Nitrates at 20 aren't high. Your tank temperature is pretty high IMO

oops ment 78 lol sorry. no, no mag test
think i will take it to aquatic dreams tomorrow and have them retest everything

I don't know if this will help, but here goes.

There is more to it than just those parameters. There are things we cannot test for. There are things that have to grow and develop so that other things can grow and develop. What are these things? I only know a few of them. Sponge is one and worms are another. That does not mean that sponge and worms just need to be thrown into the tank and that's it. It takes a long time for a certain balance of animal and algal populations to grow to make the tank stable enough to keep the more sensitive coral like SPS.

I don't know how else to describe it other than it's takes a long time to make it all work, especially for someone that has never done it before. I can't describe it but after years of doing it, I know one thing. It takes time. And going too fast, trying to buy and add all the stuff that older tanks have, means that a hobbyist is going to have things die. Sure, things die on me too, if I move faster than I should.

Sometimes I make mistakes and sometimes I add things too fast. I've learned this from my own experience and from seeing other hobbyists do exactly the same thing. It took billions of years for this earth to get to the point where everything worked right. It takes some time for an aquarium to be able to support all the coral we would like to place in it.

I'm sorry, maybe you don't want to hear this, but it's true nonetheless. If you want to stop this coral death, my advice is to slow down. Stop buying stuff. Let what you have settle in. It might save some of the SPS to take them to a tank that is a lot older, or it may be too late. They may already be too far gone. I'd be happy to take those SPS and babysit them until the tank has a little more time to mature. Or find another babysitter that knows how to keep SPS, I don't care. Just please stop killing all these animals.

I'm with Mark on this one, slow it down a bit.

^^^agree slow it way down.....stick with one or two small starter SPS and see if they can thrive over the next 4-5 months.....then start with more advanced corals and larger colonies....

I have to continue to agree with Mark on all aspects.....it seems fish wise, coral wise, and tank wise you have a lot of posts about problems you are running into....slow it down, or you will continue to have such problems...

My 4 cents....he saved me from a lot of troubles....no need to have these precious animals we keep die if it is preventable.....continue what you do Mark...

bur01014 I did start with some sps I got for free they are doin good. I got these small colonies on a kind of payback deal. I am moving coral around today since some of my placement is off a lil on some pieces.