1st Frags dying, please help!

Keroppi667

New member
Now I understand why ppl give up on this hobby so easily.

So I set up my 1st saltwater tank a few months ago, cycled it, got a couple of fish (ocellaris and damsel, had a little tang but he got stuck to the gyre when the power came back after a quick outage)

So, night before last, I decided it was time to get some frags. Bought a 15 pack off a local reefer. Asked for all soft/lps, but he threw in a couple "easy" sps. Whatever.

Water parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate 0-5ppm
ph:~8.0
PO4: 0.06ppm
Alk: 144ppm

...drip acclimated the corals 3 hrs, turned the light (Ocean Revive T247b) down to 1 (of 100) since ppl say too strong of light will kill, but too dim generally won't (although this thing certainly isn't dim on it's lowest setting). The schedule is: ch2 (blue/moon) is on 24/7, ch1 (day) is 0700-1800.

I put everything in, nothing opened up/extended polyps. Fine, I read that is no reason to panic, give it time.

the next (yesterday) morning: No change.
Yesterday evening: no change exchept the damsel is eating one of the SPS (watched him bite off 3 polyps with 5 minutes)

Today: everything is bleaching, withering away, and receding from it's skeleton. I turned the light off a bit ago, just in case it's killing them. I really don't know what to do. I did my diligence, spent plenty of money, check all the parameters 15000 times. I go to my LFS and see "swamps" sustaining corals. I can't even keep a few frags alive for a few days?

Anyone, please help!

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First thing first.....


Some of those corals look as though they may have been blasted by the flow(the frogspawn specifically)?


Typically you don't need to drip acclimate corals, just temp acclimate, do a dip in your favorite solution(been using bayer insecticide myself. Just google bayer coral dip), throw in your tank on the sandbed to let them get acclimated for a few days before moving them up onto your rockwork.



Don't feel too bad, I've been in and out of the hobby for 20+ years, and my favorite coral, any and all acans I cannot for the life of me keep alive in my current tank even though everything else thrives. I just cannot keep acans alive for long term.


EDIT:
Your water parameters seem to be on target, but the only parameters I don't see is salinity, calcium, and magnesium? I would assume(you know what they say about assuming :p) they are within range, but those parameters we need to help also.
 
So I set up my 1st saltwater tank a few months ago, cycled it, got a couple of fish (ocellaris and damsel, had a little tang but he got stuck to the gyre when the power came back after a quick outage)


Reading the OP helps when giving information.
 
"Easy SPS" is like saying a short marathon :)

Acans can be fickle - I had a few that would just not die and a few others that would just not thrive. Right next to each other (well, within a few inches).

Look to lower your phosphate a little and let your system age a few more months at least. A lot of the SPS guys will suggest minimally a year of maturity.
 
He has high ammonia and 0 nitrates. It almost looks like the cycle isn’t fully complete. Asking specifically how long the tank has been up is a valid question.


What are you using for source water? How often are you topping off the tank or do you have an ATO? Water change frequency?

Corals need some nitrates and phosphates to live though these only being in the tank for two days shouldn’t be showing signs of starvation from 0 nitrates yet. Did you ever treat the tank with anything like cupramine?
 
High ammonia? That shows 0 to me.


Of course we all know that the API kit sometimes shows some ammonia when there clearly isn't any. The color variation between .25 and 0 is very hard to tell the difference.
 
I am aware of the api kit reliability issues, I have been using their ammonia kit for 16 years. I am looking at it on my phone, but the color appears to be between .25 and .50 to my eyes. Nitrate and nitrite are 0
 
And this is exactly why we all hate the API ammonia kit. In FW it is a definitive yellow, with SW its kind of yellow/green.



On my laptop it shows as yellow and since the OP said it shows 0 I would tend to trust his/her eyes and not a screen to show the definitive color.



Source water is a good one, and one I don't typically think of as any newbie guide says to use RO/DI. :thumbsup: Could be chlorine or copper in the source water? But seeing as the OP hasn't responded, we may never know.
 
I agree that ammonia looks like 0 and homer hit it on the money about there showing some color.

As for your sps coral "easy" or not with alk of 14(to me that's high but some keep it that high) if it came from a lower alk of say 8 that could kill it that fast. Even a fluctuation of 1dkh can wipe out sps.

Im not sure about your acan as I haven't tried them yet, could be too high of flow or your nitrate being high but as mentioned that would be pretty fast to starve. Could be your tank just cant support acans.

Your frogspawn could be recieving to much flow as well. They like enough that their tentacles sway lightly with the flow. It could have also been damaged on it's own skeleton during transport as their skeleton is very sharp.

Zoas dont always open up right away so unless you see them start to melt just give them some more time. I have the same issue with zoas that homer has with acans. I just cant keep them.no matter where I put them. I have no issues with easy sps, euphyllia corals, and gsp but zoas just wont survive.
 
Alk is in ppm not dkh. OP is at roughly 8.05 dkh. I do see that the op is stating 0 ammonia and you are right, they are seeing it in person. Sorry for that mistake.
 
Alk is in ppm not dkh. OP is at roughly 8.05 dkh. I do see that the op is stating 0 ammonia and you are right, they are seeing it in person. Sorry for that mistake.

My bad I missed the ppm, must have scrolled to far past. I thought I was reading it as 14.4
 
IMO you need to have stability in your water chemistry which could not be achieved in a few months.
While those numbers posted are good, you miss posting the
Most important two, salinity and temp.
When you get all 8 parameters on point for more than 6 months, corals will
Thrive.
 
There are intangible factors in the biology of a reef at work here related to tank/water age and stability of parameters. Uncle99 is right

If you really want to do something right now, the best thing is to send Triton and make frequent 10% water changes (because they will tell you do this anyway)
 
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