Corals are not looking good at all.

[21chip21]

This past week all sps corals (turned Brown, frog spawn ( not coming out), hammers( not out), Clams ( lost foot and not out very much)
Its a one year old tank. Ecotech Gen.3 at 55% lights. One Kessil 360.
Temp. 78F, Gravity 1.025, Calcium 440, ALk. 9.3, Mag. 1320, PH 8.2, Good No3 or PO4 Using RO water with TDS of 0. Running skimmer ( reef Octopus 3000) and Carbon not helping. Did a 18 gal. water change one and a 42 gal. water change the next day. This is on a 150 gal. tank with a 40 gal. sump. Nothing is working.
Any Ideas?

 

[tmantaylor18]

more water changes? any way a contaminant could have gotten into the system?

 

[Reefer54]

i would check po4, lights, then consistant water changes of smaller volume.

i prefer 5% 2x a week, but usually do 10% 1x per week and 5% the next, based on the color of my skimmate.

 

[21chip21]

I have been doing water changes every two weeks of 18 gal. Ro/DI filters from Bulkreef 2 mo. old. with TDS of 0. No kids I cant see anyway for any thing weird getting into water. I was wondering if my LEDS lost spectrum there like 4 mo. old. I do not have a par meter to test. Has anyone heard of chaeto Caulerpa doing anything weird to water that would hurt corals? Im just grabbing at things now. My skimmer is working the same as it always does. No weird foaming or no different skim color.

 

[gone fishin]

I am not to familiar with macro algaes but I believe cheato can go sexual. putting nutrients back into the water. Just a thought.

 

[Mark 75g]

Your nutrient level could be too clean. How often are you feeding your fish. Do you add anything else such as coral frenzy to the water.

Also, just a thought, but call your local water authority and see if they just started adding chlorine to your drinking water. I know a few areas in Pittsburgh just started beginning of the year and it had major affect. The RO/DI system will not get all it out from what I understand. LFS had to add multiple DI units on their system to get good water.

 

[CleverD]

I agree with Mark 'water to clean" statement. The skimmer you are running is very aggressive and does pull out a lot. I would up the feeding and also to help your self now and in the future look for a par meeter that you can test your levels. This will help because you can a ball park idea of where certain coral species are supposed to be placed.

Also reefer54 said check the po4 and see. Hanna makes a po4 checker.

 

[rovster]

Your nutrient level could be too clean. How often are you feeding your fish. Do you add anything else such as coral frenzy to the water.

Also, just a thought, but call your local water authority and see if they just started adding chlorine to your drinking water. I know a few areas in Pittsburgh just started beginning of the year and it had major affect. The RO/DI system will not get all it out from what I understand. LFS had to add multiple DI units on their system to get good water.

Down in our area a few reefers started having issues. We think it was due to this. I now use the chloramine kit for my rodi, and will never go back. Not saying it's this, but something to check out.

 

[SaltyWalter]

How many Radions do you have? And just one kessil or multiple? And have you ever had the settings higher than 55% or have you recently changed lighting? Browning out tends to suggest not enough light is getting to the corals, and same if the frog spawn isn't opening. What size is the clam? Younger clams tend to rely more on food, while mature clams are mostly photosynthetic.

 

[PaleHorse]

This past week all sps corals (turned Brown, frog spawn ( not coming out), hammers( not out), Clams ( lost foot and not out very much)
Its a one year old tank. Ecotech Gen.3 at 55% lights. One Kessil 360.
Temp. 78F, Gravity 1.025, Calcium 440, ALk. 9.3, Mag. 1320, PH 8.2, Good No3 or PO4 Using RO water with TDS of 0. Running skimmer ( reef Octopus 3000) and Carbon not helping. Did a 18 gal. water change one and a 42 gal. water change the next day. This is on a 150 gal. tank with a 40 gal. sump. Nothing is working.
Any Ideas?

Had similar issues also. Metal halides fixed my issue...

Hope you work thru yours

 

[21chip21]

I do have a new BRS chloramine/DI 5 Filter setup. I have one Radion Pro gen. Running at 60% for 5 mo. every thing was great then and back it down to 55% some thought it was to much light. and I run one kessil 360a. I have two Max Clams one is 6 in. and other is 4 inch. They seem fine along with the 4 different Zoas I have. Acans come and go on looking good. NO PO4 level and all other levels are great even got the mag. at 1320. Some thing just does not make sense. Iv been in the hobbie 18 years and never seen this happen. I think its The water coming in the house is bad but showing TDS of 0 on two meters or my second Radion light just went way out of spec.

 

[jda]

There have been chloramines in my water since i was in the hobby. A well maintained RODI with a non-exhausted carbon block will handle this... and many did before somebody created something that they could charge for. You can find many studies on the web about reef-related RODI and chloramines that should make you feel better. The "kits" are unnecessary and just something else to sell. It is highly unlikely that this is your issue.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rhf/feature/index.htm

Check your refractometer or hydrometer. Nothing makes Euphillia and other LPS more mad than low/high salinity.

I don't think that the lights are good choices for long-term coral growth and that eventually they wear down and eventually die after many months of looking fine. Most of this will depend on the settings and if one got out of whack, you could have fried the corals. Clams will not mind the spectrum since they get plenty of that in shallow water.

 

[Reefer54]

corals do not brown because water is too CLEAN, they bleach.

it has to be the water.....if other locals are stating a chloramine issue with the area's water, it's probably a duck.

 

[Wazzel]

Check the calibration of your hydrometer/refractometer and any other probes you have to make sure readings are accurate.

Have you made any changes to run times, dosing regement, salt brand, etc, etc, etc.

Do you run carbon, GFO, etc? How long has it been since you serveced?

Have you added any fish? Are they nippers?

Check for coral pest.

Check with the local water supplier to see if they are running and different chemicals.

You really need to back track through the past few weeks to see where you may have changed something that is causing this.

What is going on by the way you describe it sounds just like how my tank reacted to a minor alk swing I had one week. I went from 8dkh to 10.5dkh and the corals did not like it. The LPS would not come out for a few days and the few SPS I had at the time browned. Not saying this is what happened to you, but it could be.

Unless you changed the way you are operating a piece of kit or it is obviously malfunctioning I do not see that as the place to start.

 

[21chip21]

BRS 5 stage is two mo. old with TDS of 0. Other then that nothing has Changed. Use RC salt at 1.025 and use seachem Cal. and ALK. Used it for years. What I think is weird is the acans look great and so do the Zoas. Fish all seem happy.

 

[swhobbie1]

change in flow ? If all param are accurate and ok maybe the light is malfunctioning. A couple of weeks ago I moved some live rock with pavona on it to a lower light, lower flow area - within a couple days it was brown. I moved it back up to a high flow, high light area and within a couple days it was back to bright green.

 

[northernreefe]

I agree with reefer54, clean water will bleach sps, dirtier water will brown them out. zoos and acans tend to prefer a little bit dirtier water.

 

[21chip21]

I don't know what it was. After my 55 gal. water change it all turned around. In 20 some years of reefing this one I will never understand. Even my 5 acros came back to life. Was not the lights I would have thought it was. Its all good.:thumbsup: