Help My sps corals are dieing...

[davidwillis]

I started this aquarium in September, and it is my first attempt at sps corals. I am just starting with frags. All seemed to be going well until I went on vacation for thanksgiving. During that time I had a problem, and my tank temperature dropped to 60 deg while I was gone. Most of my sps corals looked dead, but I kept them in to see if they would survive, and to my surprise most came out of it, but were brown. I noticed that my phosphate was at 0.5, so I decided to try and remove it with fluval clearmax (the only phosphate absorber I could find at my local fish store). Shortly after that things started getting worse, so I pulled out the clearmax, and ordered some polyfilters. I now have in the polyfilters, but things are staying about the same. I have no idea what is wrong. Please help.

Water parameters
Temp 78 deg
PH 8.0
alk 10
calcium 420
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
phosphate (it is hard to tell on my test kit but it is between 0 and 0.5) I just ordered a new kit to try and get a better reading.

 

[davidwillis]

I forgot to mention a few things. You can see some of the corals that have life on the tips. They that is what came back from what looked like a totally white dead coral.

By the way, after I came back from my vacation, my fish got marine ich, so they are all in quarantine right now. And I just feed some frozen food to keep my hermit crabs alive, and dose some amino acids for the corals. I have a few lps, and soft corals that are doing just fine, but the sps corals are not.

 

[davidwillis]

And one other thing. After taking the fish out I noticed these flatworms on my glass... From what I understand they are small harmless ones, but maybe not.

Should I kill them? I have prazipro, but I don't have any flatworm exit. I would have to order that.

Thanks

 

[smtank]

Those do look like the harmless varity of FW.

I notice some cyano growing on the skeletons of the sps, you may need to adjust your flow to areas where it is growing.

A prolonged cold snap of 60 is probably enough to send a lot of corals into STN. With a newer tank and the routine swings that go with that, they may not have been able to recover.

Do you have a current pH and magnesium level?

It probably is a combination of a few things. I would only make one change at a time and go slowly restocking with some simple sps like monti or pocillopora.

Did you include your lighting fixture?

 

[davidwillis]

PH is 8.0-8.1

I have a magnesium kit, but I am not sure I trust it.

I am using the red sea magnesium kit. After adding the A, and the B, you add the C until it changes from pink to blue (there is a color chart). When I get to about 850 it changes from pink to a blue/purple (but not as blue as the chart). After adding a few more drops it stays that color, so I thought that must be it. But then I tried adding more, and it went back to pink, then back to blue/purple (bluer than the first time, but it never gets all the way to the blue on the chart). The second change happens at about 1300, It may get slightly darker after adding more, but it never gets to the blue on the chart.

And for lights, I am using two ecoxotic panorama Led's. the 8,000k/453nm ones. And this is on a 29 gal tank. Also I noticed that the one birds-nest that is starting to get pink on the tips again is only getting the pink on the lower area where it is shaded. Do you think the lights are too bright? I am only running 26 watts, but they seem bright.

I have just noticed the cyano bacteria in the last week or so. I am not sure why it showed up, but I added a 500 gph powerhead to help with the flow, and then the cyano showed up. For the tank I have two 500 gph powerheads, and about 200 gph flow from the sump. It seems like there is a lot of flow everywhere (I actually have too much for my hammer coral, it does not open as big with so much flow and I can't find a lower flow area in the tank).

 

[davidwillis]

Here is a full tank shot. This is after the cold spell (corals are brown).

 

[kevlow]

PH is 8.0-8.1

I have a magnesium kit, but I am not sure I trust it.

I am using the red sea magnesium kit. After adding the A, and the B, you add the C until it changes from pink to blue (there is a color chart). When I get to about 850 it changes from pink to a blue/purple (but not as blue as the chart). After adding a few more drops it stays that color, so I thought that must be it. But then I tried adding more, and it went back to pink, then back to blue/purple (bluer than the first time, but it never gets all the way to the blue on the chart). The second change happens at about 1300, It may get slightly darker after adding more, but it never gets to the blue on the chart.

And for lights, I am using two ecoxotic panorama Led's. the 8,000k/453nm ones. And this is on a 29 gal tank. Also I noticed that the one birds-nest that is starting to get pink on the tips again is only getting the pink on the lower area where it is shaded. Do you think the lights are too bright? I am only running 26 watts, but they seem bright.

I have just noticed the cyano bacteria in the last week or so. I am not sure why it showed up, but I added a 500 gph powerhead to help with the flow, and then the cyano showed up. For the tank I have two 500 gph powerheads, and about 200 gph flow from the sump. It seems like there is a lot of flow everywhere (I actually have too much for my hammer coral, it does not open as big with so much flow and I can't find a lower flow area in the tank).

davidwillis,

I took note when I saw the ecxotics. I had a long estabished 10g with PC and T5 lighting. I wanted to do sps. I switched to ecoxotic module with 4 stunner strips. After 3months the LPS looked good, SPS color was ok but zero growth. I suspected lack of intensity in the lighting. The modules are only 1w per bulb. I ordered a diy kit with 12 cree 3w leds. I intalled them early this morning. After one day the LPSs were opened twice the size as before. The SPS frags had deeper appearing color. The polyps on the capricornis were twice the size and twice as many. I hope that these are all good signs after just one day.

I think that the cold water was quite a stress. Quite possibly, 1w leds are not enough to help them fully recover if they were barely sufficient to keep them maintaining to begin with.

I will continue to follow your thread to see how you over come this. I am trying to learn about SPS and LEDs. I thought I would share this since I was so shocked at the difference that greater intensity made. When your SPS improves, please post what made the difference.

Kevin

 

[davidwillis]

Thanks, I have been thinking about adding a no florescent to add a little more spectrum to the LED's. I am not sure if there is not enough light, or not enough colors to the light, or too much light, or if light is a problem at all. Where do I find the cree 3w LED's?

I do find it strange that the corals were coming back until I added the fluval clearmax, then almost instantly they got worse.

Something else that may be of interest is that I am running a hiatt system. Which means I run a large amount of activated carbon. I was wondering if it could have stripped the water of anything needed.

Thanks

 

[kevlow]

I purchased the diy kit at rapidled.com. I am very happy with what I see changing in the tank in just 2 days. My thoughts are that the modules with 1w bulbs might just barely sustain sps. I definitely have had no growth. Maybe other hobbyist with more experience can confirm or deny this?

 

[smtank]

I certainly can not speak to the LED's, because I run MH.

It is a fairly new system, so I would back off all the carbon for awhile as well. Carbon is a great thing just in moderation like everything else in this hobby.

Currently I am running a JBJ 28gal with no bells and whistles, the tank is dominated by acropora and other sps. I am huge fan of " keep it simple, keep it smart".

Is this tank running a heater?

I am sure given some time and fine tuning it will come around.

Good luck.

 

[davidwillis]

Thanks. The problem with the hiatt system is that it uses the carbon for the bacteria surface area, and carbon source. So I don't know if turning it off would cause problems.

Yes, I have a heater. The problem I had when I was on vacation was that I forgot to tell the guy watching the tank to top off the sump, and it run so low that the return pump stopped pumping. So the tank was left with just my power head circulating it. All water parameters were fine except the temp, and the salinity was a little high.

I guess thinking about it, the tank did fine other than temp with the carbon off-line while I was gone, so maybe it will be fine without it...?

 

[davidwillis]

So if I take my carbon off-line, should I do a water change to add stuff back in that may have been taken out by the carbon?

 

[Chyendra]

In response to you magnesium test kit, I had the red sea one and had the same frustrating experience. After I compared my results with a salifert kit, it seems like the second color change is most representative of your magnesium levels. So if that's the case, 1300 is a good place to be.

Sorry I can't be more help, I hope your coral start bouncing back

 

[smtank]

Some carbon is a good thing, I always run some chempure elite and change it out every 2 months.

The live rock should provide enough of a medium for the biological filter. Basically you could probably get the same type of medium for growth with some types of bio-balls or equiv ( I hate bio-balls ) without over polishing the water with excess amounts of carbon.

A water change should replenish any trace elements removed and the DOC will build back up pretty quickly I imagine, secondary to the fish.


Forgot to add despite the loss of the sps it is a nice tank.

 

[davidwillis]

In response to you magnesium test kit, I had the red sea one and had the same frustrating experience. After I compared my results with a salifert kit, it seems like the second color change is most representative of your magnesium levels. So if that's the case, 1300 is a good place to be.

Sorry I can't be more help, I hope your coral start bouncing back

Thanks. That actually helps a lot. I had no idea where my magnesium was at. I feel much better now.

 

[davidwillis]

Some carbon is a good thing, I always run some chempure elite and change it out every 2 months.

The live rock should provide enough of a medium for the biological filter. Basically you could probably get the same type of medium for growth with some types of bio-balls or equiv ( I have bio-balls ) without over polishing the water with excess amounts of carbon.

A water change should replenish any trace elements removed and the DOC will build back up pretty quickly I imagine, secondary to the fish.


Forgot to add despite the loss of the sps it is a nice tank.

Thanks... I am going to take the carbon off-line and see what happens. I will also do a water change.

 

[davidwillis]

Ok, I did a 15 gal water change. After the water change I noticed stuff coming out of some of the corals. This happens a lot lately, and I am not sure what it means.

 

[smtank]

Those are mesenterial filaments. If you do a search here on RC you can get more information.

They can be a result of stress, some say coral defense mechanism and I see them when I target feed my sps.

 

[john rochon]

your tank looks very,,, new?? did you use liverock or dead rock or both?
you can see your tank is not ready for SPS. how are you mixing your saltwater? do you let it mix for a day or 2?
I would not add any SPS for sometime. Even though a tank is ''cycled'' IMO doesn't mean its aged/matured and SPS are very touchy.
how do you topoff?
do you use RO/DI and were from? too many variables.

 

[davidwillis]

Thanks. It was dead rock with some live rock, and dead sand with live sand on top.

I mix my salt water in buckets and leave an air stone in it for at least 48 hours.

My top of is RO water from my tap water, which is from a spring. TDS is about 6-8 ppm after RO. I have it hooked to a float valve in my sump. But I just turn it on once per day because I don't trust to leave it on all the time, even though it would probably be fine just to leave it on.

I probably rushed the sps corals.... Is there anything to save them now? I won't add anymore for a long time, but would like to save what I can.

Thanks