Coraline algea and acros dying

danrobberg

danrobberg

New member
About half of the acros in my tank have been dying over the past few weeks. I noticed today that about half of my Coraline covering the back glass is also gone. My alk has been stable at about 8.6. My nitrates are at about 2ppm and phosphates are undetectable. My tank is fallow due to ich and I have been dosing acropower to try and keep some nutrients in the tank. Temp is also stable. Not running any gac for about 3 months. Corals that were growing nicely are dying and I can't think of anything that I have changed to cause this. Only thing is removing the last two small fish that were left after the ich outbrake. Any ideas?
 
Testing all parameters would help a lot CA, MG, salinity, type of lighting, etc..... in helping with a possible cause. What medications are you or have used recently in your system. Are you running carbon and if so how long has it been since you changed the carbon out. Just some questions to consider.


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I haven't ran carbon in several months. Cal is about 430. Mag was 1300. Lighting is 10x24 watt t5. No medications. Sg is 1.025 kept consistsnt with a Tunze osmolator.
 
When you say dying, Were they rtning from the base? or starts from the tips and any algae growing on them? Can you post a picture for reference?
 
What about your RO system? Have you checked if it lets chlorine or chloramine through?

I had a bad RO unit - it didn't kill my corals, but I'm fairly sure it was the reason I got a massive GHA outbreak. In my system the RO membrane went bad, but the carbon seems to have still worked to neutralize the chlorine.
 
I just replaced both membranes a few months ago and all filters a few months before that. Tds meter reads 0. The flesh was peeling from all over not just the tips. A few corals it started with just the tips but some was base and tips as well as main body. Some had tn that went real fast but most took about 3 weeks to completely die off. I only notice one that has any algea on the tip. I test alk frequently and it stays steady. I don't dose any alk or cal because biweekly water changes keep it steady. I think some of the man made rock leaches it into the system.
I have 2 mo40 for flow. Tank is about 100 gallon cube.
 
"I think some of the man made rock leaches it into the system."

Can you elaborate on this one. Did you make some kind of rock or recently add some kind of man made rock. What was this rock and when did you add it? If everything is as stable as you say, then it would seem that some kind of contaminant made it's way to the tank. Any cleaning products possible? Have you noticed the skimmer acting up?
 
It's that real reef rock. It is man made. I added about 12 lbs several months ago.

Tank looked fine except for some pale colors on some acros. I attributed this due to lack of nutrients. Went on a two day trip with my wife and when I came back noticed a few corals losing some tissue. Problems started from there. Nothing was added to the tank or any changes made before that. One of the frags that was almost 80 percent dead I pulled and dipped in a very strong dose of coral rx just to see if it was a pest. The only things that came off were a few pods.

Skimmer has been acting normal.

About a month or two prior I added a small amount of tree stump remover to raise nitrates a bit. They were at 0 and over two weeks raised them to 2ppm. Didn't see any change in corals and didn't want to keep adding it. Nitrates have stayed at about 1 or 2 since then.
 
I worry about toxins in the rock leeching into the tank, do large water changes and run carbon. Long term you might need to swap out that rock. Any invertebrates in the system? If it is copper then they might be looking stressed too.

Tree stump remover? Run carbon immediately. I'm not sure on the ingredients in that but household chemicals are rarely if ever pure enough to be added directly to the tank. You need to be more picky about what you put in your tank. I would never use lawn chemicals on my tank or use rock that was not from the ocean (current or ancient because mined rock is perfectly fine).
 
What do you test po4 with? in my experience a po4 os 0.00 is never a good thing. Corals need po4 to survive. My acro´s do best when i keep the po4 around 0.04. If yours are truly 0.00, you need to feed them something.
 
The tree stump remover is 99 percent potassium nitrate. There are several threads on here and other sites of users having success with it. The real reef rock seems to be a very popular alternative to live rock from the ocean. All my lfs sell it and there are many tanks on this forum that use it. I use a Red Sea test kit. It is hard to tell if it is reading 0.0 or 0.4. I was feeding the tank oyster feast every day along with acro power but that gets expensive quick and the corals were sill experiencing tissue necrosis.
All snails and crabs are doing fine.
 
Last edited:
danrobberg said:
I just replaced both membranes a few months ago and all filters a few months before that. Tds meter reads 0. ...
Click to expand...

Did you actually test for chlorine with a test that measures total chlorine? A TDS meter doesn't catch that.

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No copper or chlorine tests. Wouldn't the new carbon blocks remove the chlorine? As far as copper goes all other inverts in tank are fine, wouldn't they show signs?
 
danrobberg said:
No copper or chlorine tests. Wouldn't the new carbon blocks remove the chlorine? As far as copper goes all other inverts in tank are fine, wouldn't they show signs?
Click to expand...

I would assume chlorine is removed by carbon but I wouldn't risk it. Even small amounts of chlorine can harm your system. Your acros are dying slowly. Acros are sensitive, so them dying slowly means things are not too far out or tolerance. If it was copper that you are seeing then it might be low enough that your snails and inverts can tolerate it if it was introduced slowly. At this point I would not assume that your inverts are safe, they are probably just more hardy and can survive the current conditions for now.
 
Any recently add palys?

I've discovered the hard way that some shallow water palys (the ugly green ones with no color reef stores can't give away) can kill all the SPS in a tank in a short time. In a larger tank the effect takes longer as per slow poisoning.
 
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