Just got back from Japan late Sunday nite to a tank of great fish but dead acros. Well, the red planet ORA continues to rock on, but everything else wasted.
Went back and checked my Apex graphs for the past week; temp 79.2-79.8. pH 7.8-7.99. Wife tested alk every other day - rock solid at 8.3 Dkh every day. Don't think lighting is an issue. Need the PAR meter again to verify. Did full test panel last night, calk at 450, mag at 1360, alk at 8.3, nitrates at 1, zero phos/amm/nitrites. All acros turn soft, brown, and mushy at the tips for several days, and then just RTN from the tips back. there are no stray volts in the tank, either.
I posted over at RC, and three repeating things keep coming back as potential issues:
Copper - will test for it tomorrow. Don't think this is an issue.
Washing the filter socks in the washing machine with a small amount of bleach and then running an additional rinse cycle. Is this good or bad? They say bad. Please tell me how you clean your socks (the ones in the sump, not the odiferous ones on your feet).
Bad salt - what? I've been using Tropic Marin Reef Pro for many months, and actually, about as long as I've been having problems. Checked on RC, and sure enough, there's other users with the same identical symptoms as me. Could be coincidence. Not sure.
But... I just opened up a new bucket of TMRP salt and did a 25-30 gal water change about 3 weeks ago. Had a massive amount of LPS polyp bailout (goldenrod torch, green torch, 2 lobophyllia, and dendrphyllia) over two weeks following this change. Too much to be a coincidence? I think maybe not. Don't want to take a shot in the dark - thoughts?
Kev