Coral Health and Algae Scrubber questions

[elweshomayor]

Hey guys, I traveled to Mexico and left my tank in the care of my mother. I expected a few coral to possibly die and was not disappointed.

About 3 of my SPS and 2 LPS died when I got back. My tank pretty much over run with hair algae. I had some problems before, but it was bad this time.
I've fixed most of the problem as of now but I do have a few problems.

My hammer coral recently died within 3 days, I took water to LFS and he tested water using salifert and he said only the magnesium was a bit low but not a cause for coral to die.

Phosphates were i think .25, and the rest were 0, pH 8.3.

I figured maybe my mom let the lights on for too long and it fried the coral that were most sensitive, though I thought LPS loved more light than less.

Everything else including my rose bubble tip, Brain, and other SPS are doing well. Only a few seemed to be affected. Why is this?

I am concerned about my Frogspawn though. It's just not expanding at all. It looks shriveled but at the same time it still healthy (it seems). The "root" still meaty and there is no skeleton exposed as it was for my hammer when it was dying. Frogspawn is simply not opening up. I thought maybe the flow was too much but it doesnt seem like there is a lot of flow. My torch coral gets 5x that of the frogspawn and it doesnt seem to mind it.

This frogspawn has not been moved since I got it and it used to open to maybe 4 times its size. right now it looks like 4 paly heads :/ Too much light? too little? or is it actually the flow? Im afraid to move it... as things tend to die when I move them around.

As for the Algae scrubber, Im not really getting any turf growing on it. The best I get is a bunch of green slime. Lights are on 24 hours a day for the most part, but I do turn them off here and there for a few hours. Is this why? Maybe too much light here too?

 

[mcgyvr]

I doubt that too much light while you were on vacation has killed some of your corals and is preventing you from growing suitable algae on your turf scrubber..

I have a ton of questions though..
Lets start here..
How long were you gone?
How stable has your alk been maintained.?
What is your nitrate level?
What are the rest of your parameters?
What corals died?
How did they die?
When did you get them?
and I could go on and on and on..

I'd bet you are more at fault than your mother BTW .. She probably did what you told here right...

 

[elweshomayor]

I doubt that too much light while you were on vacation has killed some of your corals and is preventing you from growing suitable algae on your turf scrubber..

I have a ton of questions though..
Lets start here..
How long were you gone? a month
How stable has your alk been maintained.?Its been more or less the same, i dont have many corals to begin with
What is your nitrate level? Prior to corals it was high,
but I added corals because I got it down to 0
What are the rest of your parameters? Phosphates were .25 when I came back and 0 when i left, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, pH 8.3
What corals died? Monticap, Birdsnest, hammer coral,
green birdsnest, a green SPS whose name i forget, and a purple one whose name i forget too. A small colony of Zoas
How did they die? They bleached, and then lost their "meat"
and left an exoskeleton
When did you get them? 2 months prior to leaving to Mexico,
all were healthy
and I could go on and on and on..

I'd bet you are more at fault than your mother BTW .. She probably did what you told here right...

I mean maybe, But if i was here, I could have corrected the situation if possible. Im not blaming her, im blaming myself for not being able to be here. Her only instructions was to turn on lights, feed 2 cubes a day, and top off the tank.