Millipora bleached overnight?

[FishyReef]

Came in this morning to find my millipora colony mostly gone. Most of the branches are a nasty green color with no tissue left on them (lights are still on a dim cycle so it might look more white when the lights come up fully). All of my other sps, corals, and fish look just fine. Any idea what could have caused just 1 colony to do this?

 

[yote]

Get a magnifying glass and look extremely close at the skeleton.
Your looking for a TINY nudibranch.

I'm not 100% that's what caused it, but it's what I'm betting on.

 

[Smitty]

What is your alk and temp reading? My sps corals used to do that when the alk or temp was too high.

 

[FishyReef]

I pulled it out and looked at it very closely - no sign of any critters, though I did find many collonista snails at its base.

And it doesn't look like it turned white as much as it turned bright green. Its really strange. I though maybe the green tint this morning was due to lighting but no the skeleton is bright green. I can't tell if there is flesh on it or not. Any chance this thing just shifted color overnight? It doesn't look like there's algae growth on it at all (though there were a few strands of cyano at the base.

I haven't added corals into my tank in months and my other acros look fine, including one that is placed a few inches away. No other changes with lights or anything. Temp appears normal (79.0) and I do have my heater on an external controller, but I can't rule out a swing overnight. Haven't tested my alk yet today, but I did dose yesterday so its possible I accidentally put in too much (using reefbulder).

I went ahead and put the coral back in the tank rather than tossing it. It had a faint marine smell to it but not as bad as other dead corals/frags I've had in the past, and this one is about a 4" colony.

What do you guys think? Dead or color shift?

 

[yote]

Usually when that happens, the coral is dead. notice I said USUALLY.

I'm sure the answer to my next question will be a yes, but I'm gonna ask any how just to rule it out.
When you dosed the reef builder, you were careful not to pour it the coral, right?

 

[FishyReef]

I'm sure the answer to my next question will be a yes, but I'm gonna ask any how just to rule it out.
When you dosed the reef builder, you were careful not to pour it the coral, right?

Hahaha!

I mix about 2 tsp of reef builder into my ro/di top off water, which I store in clean 1 gallon jugs. I usually add about 1g of top off a day, and try to add either reef builder or calcium twice a week (each), but never dose them together or on the same day. I have the jugs I've added reef builder to labeled with an A and the ones I've mixed calcium in labeled with a C. Once I add the powder into the jug I shake it up really well and then add it to my sump. The reef builder never dissolves as fully as the calcium and my water is often just a touch cloudy right after adding it. The return line splits into two via loc-lines, and one of those is somewhat near the millepora but not directly over it. It is possible that I messed up when counting the tsp I added yesterday or possible that I dosed alk 2 days in a row instead of alternating with calcium like I normally do, but the millepora is the only coral that seems affected (and I do have 5 other acros, a pocillapora, 2 birdsnests, and several different montis, plus lots of zoas and lps).

I think you're right that its probably pretty dead and I should have just pulled it. Wish I knew what did it in though! It was a pretty brick red / purplish color when I left yesterday.

 

[yote]

We have the same problem with the reef builder ( which is what we use ) when we dose at the LFS. We noticed that any SPS the particles happened to land on either died or would have bare spots where it was burned. So I went to the dollar store and bought a couple packs of women's panty hose. The hose will catch the fine particles that don't dissolve.
Of course a cheaper alternative would be to sneak a pair of the wife's. Just make sure its not her favorite pair.

Of course there's really no way to know if thats what happened or not. I'm betting it wasn't. We can speculate as to the cause all day long. But the truth of the matter is we'll probably never know exactly what happened. I reckon it's the not so fun part of keeping SPS as it's happened to all of us somewhere along the line.

 

[FishyReef]

We have the same problem with the reef builder ( which is what we use ) when we dose at the LFS. We noticed that any SPS the particles happened to land on either died or would have bare spots where it was burned. So I went to the dollar store and bought a couple packs of women's panty hose. The hose will catch the fine particles that don't dissolve.
Of course a cheaper alternative would be to sneak a pair of the wife's. Just make sure its not her favorite pair.

Of course there's really no way to know if thats what happened or not. I'm betting it wasn't. We can speculate as to the cause all day long. But the truth of the matter is we'll probably never know exactly what happened. I reckon it's the not so fun part of keeping SPS as it's happened to all of us somewhere along the line.

I think alk particles is probably a pretty good bet, but you're right we'll never know for sure. Anyhow, I think I'll just take an old pair of my own pantyhose and pour through that from now on :) Thank you for the suggestion!

 

[Smitty]

I used to dose my alk by pouring it in the overflow box, and by the time it goes thru the sump/ refugium and back to the tank, it'll been dissolved.

 

[yote]

I think alk particles is probably a pretty good bet, but you're right we'll never know for sure. Anyhow, I think I'll just take an old pair of my own pantyhose and pour through that from now on :) Thank you for the suggestion!

You are welcome.:D