# Finally got some pics of the devastation



## Jon in SW Ohio (Sep 24, 2008)

Well last Saturday I left my home in Ohio to come help out down here in Houston, Texas and the day after we left the 80 mph winds from Ike made it up to Ohio and knocked out power for about a week. I showed my mom the basic things she needed to do to maintain the tank before I left but was in no way prepared for a week long power outage. She finally sent me some pics today of the tank since I'm gonna be down here for another couple weeks.

Before:























From Today:


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## Candace (Sep 24, 2008)

That's just horrible. Poor things :< I hope you can get it back up and full of life again soon.


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## Shadow (Sep 24, 2008)

So sad ......  I know nothing about maintaining such things but hope they will survive


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## practicallyostensible (Sep 24, 2008)

I am so sorry Jon, that's just awful.


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## swamprad (Sep 24, 2008)

Very, very sorry, Jon...


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## Heather (Sep 24, 2008)

Oh Jon, I'm so sorry. I know you can rebuild but I know it is also a huge loss for you. 

Thinking of you!


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## Hera (Sep 24, 2008)

What a difference. It was going so well for you. Please try again, you did so well and this was a freak of nature.


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## smartie2000 (Sep 24, 2008)

I am so sorry. They all expelled their zooxanthellate. I sure hope they can recover! With some help of feeding I think some will make it.


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## NYEric (Sep 25, 2008)

I agree, w/ care some of the ones on the bottom could survive.


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## biothanasis (Sep 25, 2008)

I am so sorry, too! I hope many of the ones you have will survive and multiply!!!


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## KyushuCalanthe (Sep 25, 2008)

Well, that is a shame...sorry for the loss.


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## SlipperFan (Sep 25, 2008)

Is this about what you expected? Or hopefully, not as bad as feared?


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Sep 25, 2008)

I am so sorry....but I was surprised that several of your corals looked better than I would have expected....at least you'll be able to salvage some things. The blackout of '03 lasted about 24 hours....I lost all but one fish, but all corals and inverts survived without a hitch...but a week is a lot longer! Take care, Eric


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## goldenrose (Sep 26, 2008)

Eric Muehlbauer said:


> I am so sorry....but I was surprised that several of your corals looked better than I would have expected....at least you'll be able to salvage some things.....



I thought so too! Nature may surprise you!


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## likespaphs (Sep 26, 2008)

bummer, bub...


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## Jon in SW Ohio (Oct 13, 2008)

Well here she is after removing all the dead corals, siphoning out the slime/hair algae that was completely filling the tank, and doing 20% water changes daily. I also reorganized everything to keep the tank from looking so empty. Luckily reefers are just as kind and generous as orchid people so I've got plenty of "help" coming my way to get back some of the rarest ones I lost. The big white one used to be grey with red, but got bleached out through all this. He should be back to his old self in a month or two.


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## Heather (Oct 13, 2008)

Jon, I don't know corals at all, but it really doesn't look so bad to me. I think you and your reef will be back on your um...fins(?) in no time. Definitely keep us posted!


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## biothanasis (Oct 13, 2008)

I guess they are doing pretty well!!! Well done!!! In a couple of monthss it will look like natural!!!


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## SlipperFan (Oct 13, 2008)

I'm glad you decided to not give up on this.


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## Kevin (Oct 14, 2008)

Sorry to hear about the damage. So, most survived?? Bleaching didn't seem to kill your coral. I thought it did. The bleaching in nature I thought was caused by high temperatures. So stress from any cause can cause bleaching?


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## cnycharles (Oct 14, 2008)

glad some of the things survived. my grower supervisor had a large tank filled with cool stuff and an overflow dripped water onto a circuit breaker. power shut off for a few days (down in the basement) and lots died. this was just as he was deciding that he couldn't afford keeping the tank and was in the process of selling it to someone else....  probably a few thousand $ lost. wouldn't even look at an aquarium for quite a while as he was heartbroken. corals are cool!


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## smartie2000 (Oct 14, 2008)

Kevin said:


> So stress from any cause can cause bleaching?



Yup, it causes the coral to expell its zooxanthellae, a symbiotic algae. This zooxanthellae is what keeps the coral alive, and gives it the colour.

I recieved a shipped 'candy cane' acan coral fragment and it also got bleached. So stress can cause bleaching definitely.

This bleaching can also occur on natural reefs, which really causes problems. One reason for it in nature is climate change


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## Jon in SW Ohio (Oct 14, 2008)

Kevin said:


> Sorry to hear about the damage. So, most survived?? Bleaching didn't seem to kill your coral. I thought it did. The bleaching in nature I thought was caused by high temperatures. So stress from any cause can cause bleaching?



There should be a clarification here. Bleaching is often misused to describe tissue necrosis in the media, but they are two very different things.

All stony corals have a white skeleton obviously which is covered by clear "flesh" or "skin" whatever you want to call it. Living in this "flesh" is millions of symbiotic single celled algae called zooxanthellae which come in numerous colors and in all photosynthetic corals provide a great deal of the energy the coral needs to survive. They are what give living corals their color.

Under stressful situations, often the zooxanthellae will die or be expelled by the coral leaving the clear tissue alive over the white skeleton giving a "bleached out" our transparent look. When favorable conditions return the algae can recolonize and give the coral back it's normal appearance. This is what bleaching is and what happened to the big coral in the center of the recent pics. For the most part, this isn't what's going on in the wild.

In the small polyped stony corals, or stick like corals if you will that most people think of when you say the word coral, what usually happens is tissue necrosis. Basically the "skin" dies and starts an avalanche effect spreading over the entire coral. The dead "skin" falls off the skeleton quickly leaving the bare skeleton behind giving a bleached look to an area where many corals are dead.

Basically the ones in the first pics are bleached out looking because they are bare skeletons of dead coral. All my small polyped stony corals (SPS) died in a couple days of tissue necrosis due to lack of oxygen since the water wasn't being constantly moved about them from the pumps. They are also strongly photosynthetic, but a week without light would have most likely only bleached them if they still had plenty of flow. Nearly all of the large polyped stony corals (LPS) survived, though some lost areas of tissue and the one bleached out but it's tissue is still alive and well. Half of my soft corals (no skeleton) made it, but of course my favorite one that can't be replaced as of now died.

Heat stress can cause bleaching and tissue necrosis, but that usually takes sustained temperatures over 90, which I've hit in the early days without any casualties. Corals are very similar to orchids in terms of basic needs, and it's hard to say what's going on in the wild that is killing so many of them.

Hope that clears it up a bit.


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## smartie2000 (Oct 14, 2008)

Thanks for the info jon.

So in nature the bleached small polyped stoney corals (SPS) are really tissue necrosis for the most part then.

I've never done SPS, but maybe one day when I really have more commitment and metal halide/T5 lights. Right now its just soft and LPS for me


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## Jon in SW Ohio (Oct 14, 2008)

The SPS were surprisingly easy and grew faster than most of my corals...but add to that commitment list a generator.

You should be able to do most of the Montipora species in your tank if you ever want to give SPS a try.

Luckily there is a local frag swap this weekend and I've got some Favias I've had my eye on reserved. That's what I get for wishing I had more room i guess...


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## NYEric (Oct 14, 2008)

Sorry about the damage but look on the bright side. BTW the difficulty factor is one of the reasons I gave up invert SW tanks. Props to you!


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## Kevin (Oct 16, 2008)

Wow. Thanks for that explanation. Corals are much more complicated than one would imagine. Fascinating, though. Hope you can get it all back looking like new again!


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