SPS Dying help! (A Explanation & Lesson)

Help!  Not sure what is going on, but got home from vacation...all corals are fine except for two....my pulsing xenia is all bubbly and is almost shrunk to nothing....however, I could care less about it....one of my acro's looks like it is literally peeling by the hour!  What should I do?  I did a 10% waterchange, and added carbon.  Should I frag off any part that is not flaking?  It is one of my favorites....the only thing I did differently before leaving on the trip was move it a little higher up....but this is not bleaching, it is literally flaking away!  All other sps, lps, fish, anemone, etc. are fully extended and doing well.....I need help....is there a way to salvage any of it, or should I just let it be? Move it lower?  I took out the xenia just now because maybe it was releasing some toxins?? 
Here is a pic, if it helps!





Update:
Been super busy with school starting up again, but thought I'd include some pics of what REALLY happened.....the day before I got back from Vacation.



my uv sterilizer adapter literally blewup.....how?  I know not....I didn't see any water leaking.  From the melting/explosion/friedness, it blew a breaker for almost a day and a half, which resulted in the tank getting extremely warm....no fans running to keep cool, since power was out.  I guess I am lucky no fish died, only one coral was lost, and that my place didn't catch on fire......lesson learned?  Not sure, since I don't know what caused it....perhaps my surge protector was faulty? There is a couple more pics at the end of this thread....the wall is loaded with this black soot stuff from the explosion....








Edited by bur01014 - August 25 2010 at 11:02pm

have only tested ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, all at 0.....gone for 6 days, I run an ato and automatic feeder, however, I still had someone come by every could days to check on things....this person said the temperature one day was high, around 85!!  However, This was the day before I got back and I got some fans on the water ASAP and is now back to 78....perhaps this temp spike caused the die off?  Is the coral a lost cause?  Should I do a fw dip or iodine dip or is it too late?

When you frag it make sure you are well above the dead spots

Did you frag it? How are the frags doing?

Sorry to hear that. Temp can really be a big problem with sps

One afternoon with temp over 81 is all it takes to kill some SPS, and it's made more critical when parameters are not close to ideal.

After Temp and Salinity, Alk and Ca should always be the next things checked. In fact, I would stop spending time on testing the N compounds. By now your tank should be at the point where the biofiltration is pretty solid and will always keep pollution under control. If N gets out of whack the majority of coral and/or fish will tell you. (one coral having trouble is not a sign of high Nitrogen levels)

And another thing, don't change anything just before going away. The movement of the coral to a spot with higher light intensity and the change in water flow both added to the stress.


Edited by Mark Peterson - August 22 2010 at 9:59pm

Its no suprise that SPS suffered the most, its hurtful to see one die. hopefully one of the frag makes it

Learning from you Jeff.

sanddune600 wrote: I have ran my tank at 84 in the past set my heaters there read somewhere that sps would grow crazy fast if I did I saw no affects either way but my change in temp went over a few days I would say it was the fast swing in temps more then the he temps imo although Mark makes a good point about water parameters + temp

I was going to make this same point. My tank likes to be about 80-82 degrees. It seems to naturally hover there and I don't really see any ill effect. Plus, it would take more effort keeping it lower and for what purpose?