Corals dieing

[starionesir]

My birdnest coral is loosing its color and skin. Some of the lps corals like my hammer, torch and even my zoas aren't really opening. I checked all my parameters and they are exactly like my sig with the exception of dkh which I measured at 10. Is that causing the issue? Any help saving the coral will be appreciated. Thanks

 

[heathlindner25]

What have you done different?, or what could have possibly changed around the surrounding environment?

 

[anthonys51]

how old is your tank. and how long has the birdsnest and other stuff been in your tank. also if its been in there long, have you noticed any growth.

 

[whosurcaddie]

Sounds like your stripping the water of nutrients with using both GFO and Biopellets. 0 nitrate and 0 po4 is not really what you want.

 

[starionesir]

I stopped the gfo the other night but of course it will take time to build up. I've been dealing with some algae issues which is why I was running both. Tank has been runming for about a year and a half. And as far as growth the birdnest was growing like crazy. 4 times the size when I got it.

 

[whosurcaddie]

Did all this happen when you started the GFO? How long was the GFO online when all this occurred, and how much GFO did you start with?

It could be a case of dropping nutrients too quickly which is worse for corals than elevated levels of nutrients.

 

[starionesir]

Gfo has been on for a while. This just recently started

 

[anthonys51]

so if your tank is 18 months and things have been growing . what did you do recently or didnt do.

 

[eddiereefs]

Alkalinity swings is most likly ur problem 8-10 is pretty large. Handle thaat

 

[CafeReef]

Recently add any type of invert? Like a peppermint shrimp maybe? They have been known to pick at corals and have a friend who's birds est was stripped to the bone by one. Hit or miss but happens.

 

[starionesir]

No recent additions. No changes really. Just dosing brs 2 part everyday.

 

[tdtreefer]

Recently add any type of invert? Like a peppermint shrimp maybe? They have been known to pick at corals and have a friend who's birds est was stripped to the bone by one. Hit or miss but happens.

pepermint shrimp are nice, but if you dont have food for them to est nonstop, they will pick at coral. i added a sanf sifting star to my tank a while back and it was gone by the morning, shrimp ate that dam thing. i got rid of them shortly after that.

 

[rt67ghy]

I don't think it's a shrimp or fish causing this. Like someone already said it's probable that your GFO and GAC stripped the water of all PO4 and nitrates. If you increase the feeding for a week without running GFO and GAC you should notice a gradual improvement.

 

[starionesir]

So even though I still have algae growth I should stop the gfo and biopellets? I do have a fuge with macro growing like crazy so I know there has to be some phosphate or the macro wouldn't grow.

 

[JammyBirch]

Alkalinity swings is most likly ur problem 8-10 is pretty large. Handle thaat

This is what I was thinking too...high alkalinity will burn sps tips and shrivel lps

 

[rt67ghy]

So even though I still have algae growth I should stop the gfo and biopellets? I do have a fuge with macro growing like crazy so I know there has to be some phosphate or the macro wouldn't grow.

If you have recently put in a lot of GFO it is possible that they have bound up all the PO4 so the algae you have may not be a sign that you have excess PO4 in the system.The algae probably grew before you started running GFO . There's one almost certain way to find out: if you test the PO4 and NO3 and you find both to be zero then your water has been stripped of all nutrients leading to the problem. However, if the readings for both are high then I would attribute the problem to alk swing.

 

[zoafarm]

Too much, Too fast with the GFO would be my first guess. I've done this with similar results to what you are describing. I stripped the phosphates right out of my system...straight from high to very low. This is never a good idea. Small moves are always better.

My next guess would be an Alkalinity swing. I've lost birdsnest like this. However, I don't really think this is your problem. 10 Dkh is on the higher end IMHO, but not something I've had those kind of problems with. My problem resulted from a drop to 5 or 6 Dkh.

 

[starionesir]

I've got the gfo reactor offline and just running the biopellets. Should I try a large water change or just let the alk drop on it's own?

 

[rt67ghy]

I wouldn't worry about the alk now, the corals have probably adjusted to it and it's not beyond the acceptable range. I would increase feeding to the tank and continue for one week to bring the PO4 and NO3 up a bit. After that you can cut back on the feedings.

 

[starionesir]

I've noticed that the birdsnest looks worse at the bottom but they may be due to it shading itself. Really anyway to fix that?