Help needed badly dying corals

fishguy597

fishguy597

Member
I'm desperate for help ,the majority of my corals are on there way to the afterlife. I have had a post about rtn/ stn and the conclusion was an alk swing. Well that alk swing was back in mid march just shy of two months ago. My alk has been steady at 9 for at least a month now. My ph is at 8.3, no3 0, no2 0, ammonia 0, or at least close to it per API test kit. My mag is a little low at 1180, ca 400. The majority of my acros are bleaching at the base and more keep following suit. It seems that every few days another one starts bleaching. My birds nests are fine and all corals are showing growth weather it's at the tips or are crusting on the rocks( the crusting are on the few healthy ones left).
I have 2 400 watt 14k Hamiltons and a 250 watter on for 6 hours a day. I also have 2 t5 55 watters on for 8 hrs a day. I run a calcium reactor, phosphate reactor, And run carbon passively. I have a chiller set to maintain 80 deg(78 heat on, 82 cooling on). I have 3 korilla #4 and 2200 gph return. My sump has a drip tray running pura pads that I clean once a week.
I pulled a few corals today and dipped in iodine and I noticed some small creatures about the size of a pen tip. So I p/u some interceptor today. Should I dose it to be on the safe side? The corals look more like a bleaching then being eatin.
My livestock consists of 2 blue reef chromis, 2 basslets,1 blue devil damsil,1 neon dotty back,1 black tang,1 bristle tooth tang, 1 fire shrimp,1 cleaner shrimp,1 coral banded shrimp,cuc, 1 sea hair , and 1 long spined black urchin.
My corals are dying and a little peice of myself as well. This is something I live and breath. The corals that I have fragged seam to be doing well. I have no clue what to do any more. Please Help
Btw my orange monti cap has started doing this too.
 
Ok so I pulled out a few rocks and cut out some of the base on a few corals. I took about a qtr inch off above the dead spots to try to stop it. Should I use some super glue to seal it so the new open tissue doesn't get exposed to what ever is causing this?
 
I have been keeping acros for 6 yrs and really think 2 part is much easier on the health of sps. I also minimizes algae. It is often easier than most people think: Use good phosphate free water, I would really recommend a hanna photometer. I paid $170 but they seem to have a cheaper one out now, not sure how good it is.

keep Kh: at 7-9, more like less than a .5 daily change.
Keep Ca: at 400-440.
Mg: 1300-1400
And change 10% of your water weekly.

do not use too much carbon, use a recommended amount of gfo.
feed enough and keep fish in your tank.

Start by trying to take your ca reactor off line and try 2 part.
 
So the first thing you need to figure out is if your corals are bleaching from the bottom or receding? Receding is much more common than bleaching, if it is happening from the bottom. If your corals are showing signs of STN from the bottom, then the second question is how long after being in your tank does that start to happen?

Most recession from the bottom in acros is from lack of flow. Alk burn IMO is a rare thing, as you can have Alk swings in the tank many times and not see any effects on acros. In all of my cases just correcting the alk stops the problem.

So there are really only two thing you need to look at, enough flow. and keeping your alk steady.

Keeping your alk steady should be an easy thing to do especially with a Ca reactor. Bouncing alk is not so much a problem with the tank as a problem with the reef keeper. Knowing how to properly adjust the reactor to keep your alk/ca steady should be given if you are keeping acros. When people write about having a mature aquarium before you start keeping acroporids, this is not so much about the aquarium as it is about the person keeping the aquarium. Anyway, the point is figure out how to get your ca reactor tuned to you tank and the alk problems will go away..

IMO pulling corals out at this point to frag or dip or put superglue on is probably going to stress the coral even more. I have found that most times leaving the coral alone and working on the other problems within the tank will turn things around in a few weeks.
 
I'm a little short on the gfo I'm using enough for 180 gal and have 240 gal total volume. Maybe I'll pull the carbon out for a while and see what happens. I have desperatly tried to raise my mag. I have used tropic marin and tech m but according to the salifert test kit I've never had it higher then 1200. The lfs said I was at 1400 but theyused a red sea tester. Po4 at the lowest reading onsalifert. I have switched salts in the last few months from oceanic to tropic marin. The only thing I don't like about tm is how low trace elements are. Btw I do 10% water changes and if I do miss one I do 20%. I also use ro/di water.
 
First of thank you guys for the responses. Jb ny: I think I have the alk issue takin care of It has been steady 9 for a month now. I did go from the fine arm media by carrib sea to the coarse. It seams that the alk is easy but the ca is a little more diffacult to maintain. ( even though that's the least of my worries right now since it's at 400). The corals that are having problems have been in there 6 months to a year. I think it's rtn because it's slow and starts at the base then moves up the stalk. Then it is frag time. The way I figure it I have 30 times turn over. I'm currently looking gettingmore flow. The thing is all these problems started when my ca went haywire and turned the tank a milk color but it has been almost 2 months ago.
 
Since your corals are showing signs of STN after being in the tank for 6 months or more, it is probably flow that is causing the issue. Turnover has nothing to do with it, you could have 100x in the tank and still have a flow issue. You need to look at the coral itself, and make sure that it is getting flow all around the coral, the base too. Things that could block flow to the coral are things like other corals, and the rockwork.

BTW, RTN means the recession happens quickly, like the whole coral loses all it's tissue in 24 hours. STN happens slowly over the course of weeks.
 
JB NY said:
Since your corals are showing signs of STN after being in the tank for 6 months or more, it is probably flow that is causing the issue. Turnover has nothing to do with it, you could have 100x in the tank and still have a flow issue. You need to look at the coral itself, and make sure that it is getting flow all around the coral, the base too. Things that could block flow to the coral are things like other corals, and the rockwork.

BTW, RTN means the recession happens quickly, like the whole coral loses all it's tissue in 24 hours. STN happens slowly over the course of weeks.
Click to expand...

I beleive that they have good flow around them. I put in two sea swirls a month ago. The corals are stagered and don't have rocks blocking anything. But I will examin themwhen I get home. I have at least twenty corals and the majority are doing this. I don't think they all have a flow issue. But it is possable. Might as well get back to the basics.
Sorry about the stn verbage
 
I had pretty close to the same issue several months back. My ATO float stuck and my tank was overdosed with Kalk. Raised the dkH pretty bad. I turned off everything for dosing in my tank and started doing water changes.

Once I got everything down where they should be again I noticed I was only having the STN when I did water changes. I was using Instant Ocean salt and the dkH was running at 11. Every time I did a water change I would have a swing and the corals were showing signs of STN.

I reduced my water changes to 5% a week or 10% every two weeks. (5% a week works better). While I was figuring this out I was dosing by hand. Man that is a ton of work trying to get everything back up and stable. Once I got it within limits for several weeks I was told about Neo Mag. I also added more flow, a lot more flow.

I kept my Cal and Mag up by making sure my Cal reactor was full of media and I added NeoMag to the reactor. Then lowered the setting on the CA Reactor to 30 bubbles and 60 drops. Set the pH on my CA probe lower to turn off at 6.30 and turn on at 6.70. Next I added the Kalk from bulk reef supply to the kalk reactor and watched it.

The NeoMag has been in the CA Reactor for a little over two months and all my levels are fine, in fact they are high but in a good way. Lots of growth and everything seems stable.

I still have enough of the IO salt to make 350 gallons of water. When I start to get under 200 gallons left I will start mixing in a different salt so I can get away from the IO. Just not too happy with it.
 
Thanks for the info. I have been adding the bionic liquid mag and raising it up slowly and seems to be working. It takes a ton to raise it though. I have had my params stable for a month now and the same thing keeps happening. Seems like nothing is helping. I have yet another one starting to stn at the base. I need to get more flow I think. I did dose some lugals iodine yesterday to see if it's going to help. It maybe bacterial and that iodine is supposed to be medical grade from what I read. That neo mag you spoke of it's just a magnesium supplament right?
 
Have you checked for AEFW? I had a steady but slow decline in my SPS a while ago. It turned out to be AEFW. A quick dip of an affected colony will tell you.
 
AEFW possibly, but you would see it (bite marks or eggs or the flat worms), if you lokoed close.

I think your alkalintiy reading is falsely high. (I.e., You think its OK, but its actually right on the verge of being too low. Hence, calcification is ceasing in the lowst light/lowest flow areas.) Consider checking your measurements with another, hopefully brand new, test kit.
 
chuckreef said:
AEFW possibly, but you would see it (bite marks or eggs or the flat worms), if you lokoed close.

I think your alkalintiy reading is falsely high. (I.e., You think its OK, but its actually right on the verge of being too low. Hence, calcification is ceasing in the lowst light/lowest flow areas.) Consider checking your measurements with another, hopefully brand new, test kit.
Click to expand...

your thinking my test kit isnt readding right? I took in a water sample to my lfs and the alk checked out at 9.That is what I have been shoting for. The only thing that didn't jive is my mag and calcium. My cal was measuring at 400 and theirs was at 420. (api on both)My mag was saying 1180 and theirs was saying 1400, i was using salifert and they were using red sea.

As far as aefw I have dipped a few corals and didn't have anything come off.There arent any bit marks they are just receding from the base up.The corals that are being affected are in both high and low light/flow areas. The one thing i can think of is I did move 2 powerheads from the back wall to the oppisite ends on the side of the tank.I do appreciate the help btw ,thank you.
 
fishguy597 said:
your thinking my test kit isnt readding right? I took in a water sample to my lfs and the alk checked out at 9.That is what I have been shoting for. The only thing that didn't jive is my mag and calcium. My cal was measuring at 400 and theirs was at 420. (api on both)My mag was saying 1180 and theirs was saying 1400, i was using salifert and they were using red sea.

As far as aefw I have dipped a few corals and didn't have anything come off.There arent any bit marks they are just receding from the base up.The corals that are being affected are in both high and low light/flow areas. The one thing i can think of is I did move 2 powerheads from the back wall to the oppisite ends on the side of the tank.I do appreciate the help btw ,thank you.
Click to expand...

I'm having the same happening in my frag tank, many frags that had grown into multibranches over months with very fast overall growth of all corals in the frag tank compared to the tank. as the frag tank is connected to the main tank it ruled out water chemistry issues as none of the corals in the tank were suffering from anything. also lighting wasn't changed (150 W 10K with 3 supplemental T8 1 actinic and 2 14K arcadia) frag is a small 25 G cube so that lighting was very intense cnosidering that I only had 4-5 inches higher than the frag tank to place the lighthing. all started after I changed the Eggcrate structure to add acouple of racks below the old ones so to position more corals as well as it made easier to acclimate new corals to the very high light. I had to move the placement of the powerheads as the new eggcrate rack cam in teh way in the old position and immediately noticed my
flow in the frag tank had decreased so I added a 3rd powerhead which improved things a bit but still not much. a few weeks later and I started having many frags either STN from the base or just completely RTN for tiny frags. Guess I'll remodify the rack to be able to place the powerheads where they were and see.
 
This situation sucks but at least I'm not alone. I put some sea swirls in at least a month and half ago , so that's why I moved my powerheads. I didn't get home from work till late last night but looking at my rocks I have to move them around to get the powerheads on the back wall again. I'm telly hoping it's a flow issue since I can correct it.
 
fishguy597 said:
your thinking my test kit isnt readding right? I took in a water sample to my lfs and the alk checked out at 9.
....
I did move 2 powerheads from the back wall to the oppisite ends on the side of the tank.I do appreciate the help btw ,thank you.
Click to expand...


The difficulty here, as many of us have experienced, is this syndrome can result from any of a number of stressors. Just as a plant that is overwatered can often look similiar to one that is underwatered, corals can stop growing in this manner when something stresses them.

Usually it is a fast change, such as your intial alk swing or the imporper acclimation of a coral, that starts this syndrome. And, usually, if evertying is in spec., these syndromes subside and the corals recover.

Other things to think about are:
It is spring time, is your tank sudddenly getting warmer than it used to (bigger diuranl swings),
Did you do anything that changed water clarity and hence increased lighting (without acclimation),
Have you checked everything, salinity, skimmer, pump inlet (or powerhead inlets) blocked reducing flow, chiller reduced flow due to internal growth, Ca rx operating, media low or nearly low, etc.,
Did you dose any chemicals, or do something like paint a room in the house that could have added a chemical passively?
Are your lamps old and in need of change, or are they new and you did not acclimate properly?

Just things to check/ consider.

Just trying to help - bceasue I've been through this a few times myself.
 
Chuck,
I did replace my bulbs in march I want to say but I have to check my records to be sure. I went from 14k ushios to 14k hamiltons. In the beginning of may I reduced my mh by 1 hour to run for 6 hrs. My t5's are running for 8 hrs.
Chemically I went from the fine arm media to the coarse in my ca reactor. No painting or anything of that nature. I keep a log book to keep track of everything and I was thumbing through it to see if I had changed anything. The most that has been changed is the powerhead flow. The other is trying to raise my mag. I have used tropic marin, kent,& esv to raise it. My chiller has a dual controller set for 78 +\- 2 deg. I also have a mercury thermometer to check water temp and they are both on the money.
Thanks,
Steve
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

rrrrob
Blue Damsel
Replies
7
Views
1K
rrrrob
rrrrob
Perth_reefer
Temperature fluctuation for SPS
Replies
3
Views
139
Reefing102
Reefing102
Perth_reefer
Temperature fluctuations for SPS
Replies
3
Views
115
Perth_reefer
Perth_reefer
P
50 Gallon Stocking Help
2
Replies
21
Views
2K
Urka
U
beckya
for a 40 gallon breeder
Replies
2
Views
123
griss
griss
Back
Top