***?! I'm Confused

[Shoryureppa]

So...

I finally have this reef up and running. It's about 7 months old. As stable as I can get it. Fish are all finally healthy including a very delicate leopard wrasse. I couldn't be happier... or so it seems...

I bought decent test kits, I threw my API against the wall. Dosing is done with 2 part B-Ionic, water changes at 10%/week. Maintenance is pretty straight forward. It all take a few minutes per day plus the 10 minute water change.

Parameters are as follows:

Temp = 78
Salinity 1.025
Alk = 8.9dkh
Cal = 420ppm
Nitrates = 2ppm
Phosphate = not tested

All tests were done using Salifert kits

Pretty good right? I think so. Having never really kept a reef before, the numbers looked good to me.

But...

Now that the water is stable, problems began to arise.

I thought when the water was stable, the rest will fall into place.

Take a look:

You can blow the polyps off with a baster

What the heck is this white patch? My other colonies had this and it took weeks before they were completely white. It looks like its down to the skeleton - not bleaching. This also killed my RR Wolverine

I grew this from a frag and this started last week.

But This damn thing won't stop growing

All LPS are growing nicely.

I just don't get it.

AEFW? Red bugs? Anything wrong with the water? I'm out of theories... :headwally:

Do you have any ideas? Thanks in advance

 

[Red254]

I would start testing phosphates to see where those are at first

 

[mclevenger10]

I just recently went through this problem myself. It was the phosphates. I was told by someone that even a .1 level of phosphate can be a critical level for corals. Not sure if thats true, but after I started running phosban, everything looked much better. FYI check your water source for phospahtes. My LFS had high levels of PO4 in the water I bought, so I switched water sources...

 

[zachfishman]

Looks like RTN (rapid tissue necrosis) to me. SPS are susceptible to this if stressed, such as from any rapid parameter change. How do you dose your 2-part?

RTN can also result from inadequate flow, and often occurs at a colony's base or core area (flow slows near rockwork or is inhibited by colony branches). What are the dimensions of your tank and what do you use for flow?

 

[Shoryureppa]

Looks like RTN (rapid tissue necrosis) to me. SPS are susceptible to this if stressed, such as from any rapid parameter change. How do you dose your 2-part?

RTN can also result from inadequate flow, and often occurs at a colony's base or core area (flow slows near rockwork or is inhibited by colony branches). What are the dimensions of your tank and what do you use for flow?

First, thank for all the replies, it's what makes this site so awesome. People are always willing to help

Taks is a standard 120 4x2x2 with 2 mp40's at 90% long pulse set at 2 minutes anti sync.

I have been dosing it for 6 month, with a measuring cup. i have tested this tank over and over to see consumption and have dosed accordingly to get the parameters right.

Lights are 2 AI Sol blues 12 inches AWL. Set to peak at 70% for 2 hours on all channels.

Thanks again guys for all the help.

 

[saltyair]

+1 phosphates.

just my 2 cents - 7 months is still a young aquarium.

try gfo and stop dosing just keep the wc up with quality salt.

I would start testing phosphates to see where those are at first

 

[ganjero]

How much are you dosing with a measuring cup? RTN as mentioned usually occur from swings in parameters specially ALK, that is why dosing is better accomplished with dosers (which dose small amounts over 24hr period) or manually dosing small amounts throughout the day. If you dose the entire amount at once that can cause a spike in ALK and it slowly goes back down to the normal level, that swing can cause SPS to die as shown on the pic.

Phosphates won't kill a hardy SPS like the birdsnest unless they are abnormally high and if you have high phosphates you should be having issues with algae too, do you have algae issues right now? You should test them too.

 

[mr_bigl]

I would also suggest looking for pest. I had a star fish that ate my red planet to death. Params were all in order but it kept getting worse. Till one day i saw the starfish and got him out. It was small maybe 1cm max. Now everyday i look for starfish that i did not put in my tank lol

 

[robs.mark]

p04 will brown out a coral before it kills it and although those arent glowing there not that brown either, could be too much direct flow, a pest, aerosol like air-freshner! i would start off my doing a few 25-40% wc over a week, make sure your temp matching the water first though. how are you testing salinity?

 

[Shoryureppa]

How much are you dosing with a measuring cup? RTN as mentioned usually occur from swings in parameters specially ALK, that is why dosing is better accomplished with dosers (which dose small amounts over 24hr period) or manually dosing small amounts throughout the day. If you dose the entire amount at once that can cause a spike in ALK and it slowly goes back down to the normal level, that swing can cause SPS to die as shown on the pic.

Phosphates won't kill a hardy SPS like the birdsnest unless they are abnormally high and if you have high phosphates you should be having issues with algae too, do you have algae issues right now? You should test them too.

I dose it manually and yes you're right, I'm chasing parameters.

As fas as algae issues. I have receding patches of red slime algae. It's just a few patches compared to before when it was all over the place.

YOu mean test for phosphates right?

p04 will brown out a coral before it kills it and although those arent glowing there not that brown either, could be too much direct flow, a pest, aerosol like air-freshner! i would start off my doing a few 25-40% wc over a week, make sure your temp matching the water first though. how are you testing salinity?

No air fresheners or aerosols are sprayed in the house.

The flow is indirect as I have the MP40's not pointed directly at the corals.

Salinity is tested with a refractometer.

I was going to do 10% water changes every other day till it stabilizes. then continue with 10% every week after that.

What do you guys think?

BTW, thanks guys for all the suggestions :celeb1:

 

[jacob.morgan78]

Out of curiosity... what type of live rock do you have? Also, what type/brand carbon do you run?

 

[NeilFox]

I don't have an answer. Just curious, what is your ph? Are you testing for it. You have the DKH up there, perhaps your ph is a little high?

 

[Shoryureppa]

Out of curiosity... what type of live rock do you have? Also, what type/brand carbon do you run?

Live rock is indo and I'm running the marineland carbon on a reactor

 

[Shoryureppa]

I don't have an answer. Just curious, what is your ph? Are you testing for it. You have the DKH up there, perhaps your ph is a little high?

Never measured PH... I figured that id salinity, alk and cal ar on point ph will be too. Am I right on this? :reading:

 

[ganjero]

Yes, test phosphates.

You didn't reply on how much do you dose at a time but I think that is your issue and it's creating swings in ALK and causing the RTN. Also, are you dosing because your are "suppose to"? or have you been routinely testing and found that your tank is consuming CA and ALK at the rates you are dosing?
If you are dosing because you think you should and not really following the tank's consumption I would stop dosing. Your tank seems young and it me get what it needs from water changes until it matures, maybe and that's a maybe use kalk on your top off water if you have an ATO. When you do water changes just make sure the new water has parameters close to you display water (that's where you dose in new tanks).

Good luck

 

[zachfishman]

You didn't reply on how much do you dose at a time but I think that is your issue and it's creating swings in ALK and causing the RTN.

+1 You should slowly dose any alkalinity/buffering solution. For reference I drip dose 2-part at work to augment the Ca reactor on our main reef (~600gal), siphoning through a knotted airline hose to spread the dose out over 4-6 hours. These are for between +0.5 and +1.0 dKH increases (for a max pH increase of +0.1 over the same time period). If I need to dose more, I dose it overnight over 12 hours.

 

[NeilFox]

Never measured PH... I figured that id salinity, alk and cal ar on point ph will be too. Am I right on this? :reading:

The two are linked together but it's possible for PH and Alk to get out of balance. I'm not a chemist so i don't know the science verbatim. Some of the other guys have offered up some good advice and could explain the relationship better. Ph doesn't necessarily coorespond to DKH though. I remember having some issues with this when I first started doseing Kalk. I hope you can find a solution, some nice corals there.

Regards

Neil