Advise: Open Brains & LPS struggling in 'clean' water?

[theman772]

first try and get the parameters in line I due not think it is a feeding problem imo how due they look today?

 

[qessnce]

For sure. I'm testing around the clock to line up ca/dkh. The directions sound like the Mg portion of 2-part should be added at the very end, after draining the gallon jugs of ca/dkh.

I will post pics when I get home. The green looks a little worse in some spots. It still has its color on more than 1/2. Red looks okay, although not a deep red - just sorta pink.

 

[Useful_Idiot]

If you can't raise your calcium it's because the mag is low. Take a water sample to the lfs to have them test it. I'll bet your mag level is gonna be 1065. You need 3 ppm of mag to keep 1 ppm of calcium in solution. Any more calcium added with precipitate out of the water column. You'll want to add your mag as needed according to your tests, you'd never want to dump 32oz of anything in your system all at once. Raising the mag by more than 100 ppm per day can harm inverts.

 

[qessnce]

I will get a Mg test kit from a Brick&Mortar today. I was going to wait to order it online.

I'll keep you updated on Mg levels. Just perplexed as to how Mg can drop so far so fast if the salt originally used and used in water changes are at the right levels. I'd say my system is very lightly stocked.

*Self note* A good read for Mg: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/10/chemistry

 

[theman772]

you can drive down cal with to much alk and vice verces could be mag but you had your cal at 450 last week?

 

[qessnce]

My Red Sea reef foundation kit arrived today. Didn't have time to go to any LFS in search of a mag kit, and big box pet stores didn't have such a thing.

In any case, after Useful_Idiot's post of 5/15, I mixed the Mg supplement and began dosing 2.4 ml to match the 15 ml of Ca and 15 ml of Alkalinity I was dosing.

Today (after 4 days of continual dosing 2.4ml/15ml/15ml), I tested Mg using the new test kit. 0.63 of titrant was used (.27 remaining), which is about 1360 ppm. This test was done BEFORE the daily dosing, ie. 24 hours since the last time.

Corals don't look too good still. Updated pics soon. Really hoping these guys recover. Thanks for all your help so far everyone.

 

[theman772]

you are no the right path slow is the way to go

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

Coming from someone with much open brain experience, they HATE a large, quick change in lighting (higher or lower). What optics are on this PAR38? I am using them right now on a 90 and my open brains are pretty much directly underneath them on the sand bed (so over 2 ft distance from the light with 60 degree optics). I would suggest moving them to your sand bed if you can and putting them off to the side. Those PAR38s pump out a TON of PAR, be careful with placement. It is definitely bleaching unless all or most of your LPS are looking like that, then I would say it is a nutrient issue. I would then ask if you are dosing a carbon source, and if so, to stop or lower the amount you dose. Red and rainbow brains look best under lower light. Green ones can handle higher light but usually prefer not to be blasted. I suggest giving them less light (slowly, over the course of a week maybe) and feed them a few times a week, if you can.

 

[qessnce]

Hi Capt,

Excellent tips. Thank you.

The PAR38 has 60* optics, I believe. I moved them both down to the sand bed pretty much a day or two after my original post, but they seem to have gotten progressively worse still. Today, the green one has tissue that is lifting away from the skeleton, although it is partially shaded and pretty far down the tank (almost 2 feet from the light).

Mag-dkh-Ca is on target after daily dosing. They never seemed to accept food, even from the beginning. They looked really healthy under the dual/triple T5-HO lights they came from. :hmm2:

I am feeding the tank a mix of newly hatched baby brine shrimp, ESV freeze-dried phyto, cyclop-eeze, OmegaOne marine pellets, and switching off of Hikari's freeze-dried smorgasbord (Spirulina+Brine, Bloodworms, Krill, and Tubifex).

:sad1:

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

The open brains are pretty voracious eaters (at least when healthy). Pellets might be easier to feed because of the higher density of them as opposed to frozen food. Hopefully the green one makes it. Does the red one look any better or worse? As long as that red one is puffy it will continue to color up. That green one definitely looked more stressed, and if you can at least save one and learn something in the process I would consider that a win. Whenever I get an open brain coral I like to (if I can) turn off half of my lights for a couple days, or shade it for a couple days until it is looking good. I have almost killed a few because of light shock. I would put them in my tank, and 2 hours later their mouths would be gaping and they would be retracted. Even if the lighting is similar tank to tank, I always like to do this for open brains, they tend to enjoy this way of acclimation the best. Once acclimated, however, they are very, very hardy. Generally speaking with color, the cooler looking multi-colored ones tend to need less light to keep their colors from being washed out.

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

BTW, if no one has done this yet..... Welcome to Reef Central! :celeb3: :celeb1: :celeb2: :celeb3: :celeb1: :celeb2: :celeb3:

 

[domb54]

I would try moving them to the sand bed and feeding

 

[marymckeown]

I read somewhere that the open brain should be kept on the sand instead of the rock, because they do move and the rock damages/stresses them.