corals dying... HELP

[giambi4343]

all my corals are not looking good. my zoas/ polyps are all closing up and then have red algae starting to grow ontop of them while closed up. and my LPS are just not looking as amazing as they were in the past. but for some reason my squammossa clam and maxima clam are looking great, along with my ricordeas. i think my problem may be my high phosphates. they are at 5. i just started using RO water a few weeks ago. all my other tests are fine. would phosphates cause corals to do this? also, what are some ways to get phosphates under control? i was going to bring home some Phosphate reducer from work (pet store) today. is that all i can do to bring the phosphates to zero?

 

[wrestle1952]

Water change with DO or natural seawater will help. You have some issues if you're zoos and palys are not doing well. They are normally quite hardy. I would strongly urge the use of a phosphate removing substance. There are plenty of good ones out there.

 

[rgentry123]

phosphates can certainly affect the growth of corals, im not not sure it they can outright kill corals though. im sure someone on this forum will chime in about that though for you. the best way imo to reduce your phosphates are water changes with ro water, you could also run a phosphate reactor filled with phosban in the future to keep PO4 levels low.

 

[400M1963]

Best suggestion without knowing more about all parameters in your rig, including lighting, skimmer performance/O2 and turbidity is to test (with accuracy like Salifert) and do a series of water changes - be sure to used aged water in order not to have any of your critical water chemistry parameters in flux - seek to have at any given time the phosphates at zero and your nitrates should be very,very low

 

[tmz]

5.0ppm phosphate is very high and will harm calcifying organisms particularly sps and lps . Excess inorganic phosphate (PO4 species) will also fuel nuisance algae and cyanobacteria.

PO4 binds to a forming calcium carbonate crystal in the place of a calcium ion ,effectively stopping the growth of the crystal. In this way it inhibits calcification which can if severe lead to the death of the coral. Generally any level above 0.25 ppm is considered harmful with 0.1ppm ( 1/50th of your level) considered a critical theshold.Levels below 0.05 are optimal in my opinion. Reef waters are less than 0.01ppm.

Less feeding or foods with a lower phoshate to protein ratio shuld help . At 5ppm some removal via granulated ferric oxide(gfo), or another form of binder seems warranted. Once you bring it down: preventing detritus accumulatiopn, good skimming, using granulated activated carbon, running a macroalgae refugium and managing feeding should hep maintain it.

I would also take a look at nitrates.