All coral closing up

[ReefsandGeeks]

So I've made a few changes to my tank recently and now my coral all have essentially no PE. Similar to how they look when I remove them from the water for fragging. This includes a large birdsnest, an acro, a hammer, and even the zoas seem more closed than normal.

Changes I've made in the last 2ish weeks:

1) Used Ultralife red slime remover. 2 doses over 3 days exactly as the directions state to use it.

2) Cleaned filter and changed out GFO, and added small amount of GAC.

3) Upgraded light. Went from a 165W LED blackbox to a 300W LED blackbox. The new light was set to 40% power to be a little lower light output than my previous blackbox that was running at 100% power. This is over a 65g tank.


I first noticed my acro had less PE than normal, but not enough to concern me. Then my hammer coral seemed droopy, and now the heads are all mostly closed. And just yesterday my large birdsnest which was unchanged the whole time suddenly had all polyps closed and looked terrible. Water perimeters have all come back normal from testing 2 days ago. I tested a few perimeters yesterday, and Alk was at a normal 10dKh, but pH was a bit low at 7.9-8.0. This may be because I tested when the lights were off.

My wife called while I was at work yesterday and said they looked bad, so I had her turn off the new light fixture, so the tank was dark for half of the day yesterday. I adjusted the lights to be only 5% power today.

Is there anything else I can do to keep the help the coral recover? I'm assuming the lighting is the culprit, which has been installed for 1 week now. I want to do whatever i can to save the coral from getting worse, but have never had an issue like this before and I'm panicking. Any input is appriciated

 

[mikee b]

What's your cal mag and salinity readings and temp?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[mcgyvr]

With the changed you have made I would expect corals to be effected..
Specifically change #1 and #3

Your PH is totally fine..
What is your phosphate level? Do you really need to be running GFO?

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

A couple days ago the Mag was 1400, Salinity 35ppt, and temp 77F.

I haven't checked phosphate recently. Typically it's low, near 0, when I do check.

With my corals being effected, is backing off of the lights to 5% power for a few days and restarting acclimation a good enough plan, or is there more I should be doing?

 

[FoxFace Fish]

I don't mean to insult but I think you need patience on this one. You did a whole lot to the corals world think about it you basically changed there sun XD you should acclimate coral to the new lights like you said and keep watching them, and let them adjust to the changes. If bleaching starts then take a breath and test test and test then most likely a water change that solves 95% of my problems. just let the coral get used to it

 

[FoxFace Fish]

and on a side note you also added something brand new that they have never been exposed to (I am assuming)

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

Not taken as an insult at all. I don't mean to sound rushed, but of course if there's something I need to do in addition to what I've already done I'd like to do it. I don't know how fast they would typically recover from something like this. If turning the lights way down and ramping up slowly over weeks is what they need I don't mind a bit. Just want to make sure that's the right course of action.

I have used the red slime remover a couple of times before and never got a negative reaction. Not something I use frequently.

 

[Sk8r]

Suggest carbon. Softies if annoyed spit discouraging chemicals into the water and annoy everybody including themselves in the goes-around comes-around world of a closed system.

 

[mcgyvr]

I haven't checked phosphate recently. Typically it's low, near 0, when I do check.

Can I ask why you are running GFO then?
Its for those with a phosphate problem.. Zero or near zero is not a phosphate problem.. It can cause more damage than good if used when not needed..

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I did have phosphate before starting GFO initially, and the GFO helped. Now it's just routine to change it out when I clan my filter. I have a filter sock that I put it in with 1/3 cup or so in it. I typically change it once every other month.

Coral all seem the same. Not better, but not worse as of last night. I'm figuring it just takes a while to recover so I'm tying to stay calm and not make a bunch more changes.

I did add GAC recently, but not alot. If it's not a bad idea, i can always increase. Same as GFO, I just toss a media bag with it in the filter once in a while. This time I only put in 1/4 cup or so. That was about the same time the coral started looking worse.

 

[Scott07]

I used the red slime remover a few months ago with negative results for my sps. I lost everything except oddly 2 different birdsnest types and a large stylophora. I've also used it in the past without issue in other tanks, which is why i wasn't concerned about using it again. I'm not sure if it was the product, or something expelled when the cyano (lime green in my case) died. Regardless, not cool lol. All my sps went by releasing their zooxanthellae, and becoming progressively lighter and lighter until finally there was only skeleton left. I'm not suggesting this is necessarily the issue you're having, just that if what your sps is doing sounds similar, i would suggest large water changes.

 

[Uncle99]

Other than SPS, corals like nitrate 2-5ppm, and phosphate at .005, as a nutrient they consume. Does your use of GFO completely strip this source?

Mcgyvr usually has it right so watch carefully, maybe you expect yo much to fast...

 

[FoxFace Fish]

I would do a water change

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

Just an update:

A couple days ago I turned my lighting power down to 5%. After 2 days of lower light power, My birdsnest looked a tiny bit better. Polyps wern't completely retracted, but were still very bad. the next day they didn't look any better than that. Yesterday I noticed even the zoas are starting to close up some. I changed out my GAC and added new GAC in case the coral are releasing something into the water.

I also started my skimmer back up and let it overflow into a bucket to help remove the slime remover. It was bubbling up like crazy, as expected. I took out about 2 gallons of water this way yesterday and stopped. I will continue with this over the weekend. I had to stop last night due to the time. My skimmer is HOB, so I can't just let it overflow or it goes on my floor.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

Update:

Coral are all starting to look better and are getting PE back. What I did after thje issue started is back off light power from my new light fixture to 5%, and turned my protein skimmer back on, and let it "go crazy" and captured all of the overflow and removed it from the system. This took several hours, and I eventually took out about 3 gallons of water as skimmer over flow before the skimmer went back to normal. I also changed out my bag of GAC in case the coral were releasing any toxins in the water.

Personally, I think the skimmer overflow had the greatest impact on the coral getting better. This is mostly based off of the timing. Seemed they had the biggest improvement after I did this, and only marginal improvement with lowering the lights, or adding the GAC. Whatever the case, Things are starting to look better.

Moving forward, I plan to:
1)Slowly ramp up my new lighting

2)Continue carbon dosing with vinegar at a reduced dose of just 10 ml/day (65 gallon water volume) and will eventually restart the dosing program to see where my dose should be. For now, I'm just monitoring nitrate and phosphate to make sure they don't get out of hand with this dose

3) I monitored my alk and Ca depletion more closely during this ordeal because I assumed that with coral not doing well, they wouldn't be up taking as much for growth. This appeared to be true as my alk consumption was drastically reduced. I only had to dose about 1/3 of what I was before to maintain my perimeters. I will continue to watch as I ramp up lighting and during dose changes for vinegar and adjust my 2 part dosing accordingly.

 

[FoxFace Fish]

good job I told you it is patience

 

[Trigger Tough]

With the changed you have made I would expect corals to be effected..
Specifically change #1 and #3

Your PH is totally fine..
What is your phosphate level? Do you really need to be running GFO?

I agree with #1 and #3

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I originally didn't think #1 (red slime remover) was the issue as I had used it before and I followed the instructions. However, after the corals improved so much after I finally got my skimmer back up and running, I have a feeling the skimmer may have removed it and that could be where the positive change came from. I can't be sure, but that's quite possible. I guess I was just waiting to start my skimmer back up in hopes that it wouldn't overflow so much because I have to babysit it when it does, and I simply haven't had time to do that with an actual baby at home. Essentially, the slime remover may have been left in the water too long and started to have a negative impact.

I'm glad I got everyone's responses. made me a bit more confident I was making the right changes after the issues started. Now I just need to take things slow and get back to where I was. Suprisingly this is the first time I've had an issue like this in about 5 years of reefing. Not too bad in the end.

 

[Uncle99]

A good ending to your post!
Glad to hear...