hard coral dieing?please help!

[SurrealSerenity]

so i got two stony corals, unfortunately I am not very familiar with this type of coral (they were a great deal discount I couldn't resist normally I would research something first), they were doing great for awhile and then they started turning white, and it seems like they are dieing, ones polyps still hold color. My emerald crab was perched on one this morning eating from it. I think my calcium may be too low, iv been using seachem fusion system. I bought some liquid calcium by Kent. Anyone have any ideas? How I can nurse them back maybe?

Thank you

 

[Fish4Me2]

I think you need to know exactly what your key parameters are first. That's often the first cause of problems. If you don't have test kits for Ca, Alk, Mg, Nitrate, I'd recommend getting some as the first step in diagnosing how to nurse your corals back.

 

[smtank]

Do you know the specific names of the corals?

And as posted above, to keep sps corals such as acropora you really need to know all the parameters.

Calcium, magnesium, alk, pH are the most important for sps, but temp and sg need to be within normal values as well. You can kind of get away without knowning the mg but the other values you really need to know.

 

[SurrealSerenity]

I have test kits for nitrate, amonia, and ph and a few others but not calcium, magnesium or alk. Tomorrow my FS will test my water for me, since they are closed today. I'm doing another water change, I did one on friday. I do not have the specific names, I had them written down but that seems to be misplaced, Ill find out tomorrow and post them

 

[smtank]

If you can post a picture of them as well that usually really helps, especially if it is a macro shot.

 

[Allmost]

Hello,
from the description it sounds like KH and CA++ have dropped and SPS died from that. If the tissue is gone and all you see is skeleton (white) then it wont come back. SPS corals require stable KH and CA++ and MG values, and they use up alot of it, so you will need to test daily and add as needed, till you get a feeling of the systems usage. I would advice buying test kits so you can test it often yourself
many other factors like flow and lighting also play an important role in keeping SPS corals.

 

[SurrealSerenity]

they are white, but the polyps on them hold color still. are they dead?

 

[Allmost]

they are white, but the polyps on them hold color still. are they dead?

If they show polyps, then no.

a pic and a FTS would speak a thousand words, as with SPS, its not just 1 or 2 things that matter, its the whole system

what is the lighting ? maybe they are bleached.

 

[SurrealSerenity]

I'll get a pic tomorrow. I have a 29 gal biocube, I took out the bioballs and have been useing chemipure elite, purigen, seagel, and cheato algae. The lighting is whatever comes with it, 10,000ºK Daylight - High-intensity purified super daylight, Actinic 03 Blue - 100% blue actinic 03 phosphor that peaks at 420 nanometers,

and my calcium is at 380 and needs to be at 400? and my alk is too high.

 

[sbreefer]

they sound bleached. photos man...