Expelled Zooxanthellae

SaltwaterNoob17

Reefing newb
Something has gone wrong in my 50 gallon aquarium, and I have no idea what's up. About 75% of my corals have expelled their zooxanthellae and lost practically all of their color. However, all of their polyps are expanded and look happy...? For example, while some of my acros have lost their color (and now are a pale beige/white color), their polyps are fully expanded. The same goes for my leather coral and zoa/paly polyps (some of the polyps are kind of shriveled, but most of them are fully open and look fine other than the fact that they have lost the majority of their coloring). Anyone know what's up? What should I do?

My parameters seem fine:

pH 7.8 (a little low)
Salinity 1.0245
Temp 78
Ammonia 0
KH 10 dkh
etc....

I haven't really done anything different lately, so I don't understand what has gone wrong. The aquarium started looking bad about 5 days ago, and has progressively gotten worse. (It actually seems that my Devil's Armor Palys were the first to show symptoms, and that was about 2 weeks ago)

Possible other relevant factors:

- I do a 7 gallon WC every Friday

- I run carbon, chemi-pure elite, and purigen (I've been doing this for at least 6 months); however, I renewed my purigen a week or so ago (with bleach/water). I soaked it first in Top Fin de-chlorinator then Prime to be safe before putting it back in the aquarium, though. Also, the renewed Purigen in my Biocube is fine (and I renewed them the same way at the same time).

- I trimmed my chaeto back (but that seems pretty harmless)

- I bought some new corals 2 weeks ago (I dipped them all in iodine and they seemed perfectly healthy, though)

- I dose with baking soda and Kent's calcium supplement (but I've been doing this for about 6 months w/o an issue)

- I switched my Stealth Pro out for an Aqueon Pro two days ago (but the problem started before this)


Any ideas? :HELP!:
 
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Pictures (I don't have any pics of the corals expelling zooxanthellae in action, but it's been going on for the last several days - brown stringy stuff being expelled from paly and ricc polyps):


Some acros (polyps extended, but white coloration):
DSC04542.jpg


Pocilloporas (polyps extended, but white coloration):
DSC04541.jpg

DSC04540.jpg


Candy coral (the lower polyps are pale in color with speckles):
DSC04539.jpg


Toadstool (polyps were out earlier, but they have changed from green to a yellow-green in color):
DSC04538.jpg


Monti (changed from green to white)
DSC04534.jpg


Palys:
DSC04537.jpg
 
I also took a Koralia 3 out of my aquarium a little over a week ago because I decided my tank had too much flow (I had bought a little frogspawn and favia and the koralia was starting to blow their flesh off). I still have a Tunze that does about 1000gph and two koralia nanos in the tank.
 
Also, I forgot to mention that my feather duster either died or dropped its crown 2 days ago...

Other than the worm, the fish and non-coral inverts all look completely fine and dandy...
 
Carbon dioxide can be a cause of bleaching. You said you removed a power head I would try to put it back in. They dont look good, sorry.
When is the last time you changed you RODI filter? Test you RODI water?
 
Didn't you have this same thing happen a few months ago? I remember all your corals bleached suddenly before. ???

Yes, but this time is different. Last time, the polyps lost their color and weren't expanded; last time my corals all shriveled up and looked dead. This time, they have lost their color, but their polyps are extended; instead of looking plain dead they just look like "ghostly" alive corals...

And last time, I had released ammonia in the tank (with the breeder incident). This time, my ammonia reads at 0 ppm.
 
That's my question too. Are you using RO/DI water? It seems like you're putting an awful lot of stuff to remove phosphates etc....Why?

You're doing frequent water changes..Why are all of the other products necessary, or why do you feel they're necessary.

The only thing I can say that is different than what most people are doing is the amount, quantity and the different products that you're using.. Maybe they're causing some sort of chemical reaction in the water.

Whatever it is, it's bizarre....Bermuda Triangle Bizarre.
 
Carbon dioxide can be a cause of bleaching. You said you removed a power head I would try to put it back in. They dont look good, sorry.
When is the last time you changed you RODI filter? Test you RODI water?

I hadn't thought about CO2. I really don't want to put the koralia back in because it was starting to blow the flesh off of the corals. There still seems to be plenty of flow in the tank from my other wavemakers, I have egg crate on the top of the tank for gas exchange, and the sump circulates that water as well.

I changed my RODI filter 2 months ago. It's reading 0 TDS and looks fine.
 
That's my question too. Are you using RO/DI water? It seems like you're putting an awful lot of stuff to remove phosphates etc....Why?

You're doing frequent water changes..Why are all of the other products necessary, or why do you feel they're necessary.

The only thing I can say that is different than what most people are doing is the amount, quantity and the different products that you're using.. Maybe they're causing some sort of chemical reaction in the water.

Whatever it is, it's bizarre....Bermuda Triangle Bizarre.

Yes, I use RODI water and it's at 0 TDS. I run the chemical media only as a preventative measure. Nitrates are always less than 5 ppm and phosphates are 0.
 
Were your SPS growing before the bleaching? Ca seem fine maybe alittle low with the Alk at 10 dkh but I doubt that would be the cause of almost total bleaching. There are many causes of bleaching, water temp swings, salinity swing, lighting swings, toxins, sediment in the water, high UV, Carbon dioxide and methane gas.
I know this doesnt help you but its all I know about bleaching. I would try to slowly remove and stop using some of the chems you are using.
Coral can recover from bleaching if you figure out the problem. Is your frog spawn white as well?
 
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