Is there a trouble shooting guide?

nathanemmerich

New member
I have some corals doing great (birdsnest, mushrooms, Xenia, cloves) and some that are doing poorly (frogspawn and Kenya) then I have some zoanthids and palys that are doing either great or fading. Can't figure it out. It's a newer 180gallon tank with two clownfish. Water parameters are all good. Is there a checklist to go through to figure this out? Any ideas? I have played with flow and light position.

Thanks
 
I have some corals doing great (birdsnest, mushrooms, Xenia, cloves) and some that are doing poorly (frogspawn and Kenya) then I have some zoanthids and palys that are doing either great or fading. Can't figure it out. It's a newer 180gallon tank with two clownfish. Water parameters are all good. Is there a checklist to go through to figure this out? Any ideas? I have played with flow and light position.

Thanks
Following.. I'm having some of the same issues... some zoas are doing great.. others are not.. and some that haven't opened in a month

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Lets start with the basics.

What are your water paremeters? Posting that they are all good means nothing to us, we need cold hard numbers.

Alkalinity
Calcium
Magnesium
Salinity
nitrate
phosphate

What kind of lights are you using and for how long are they on?

You left us with nothing to go on to try and help diagnose the issue.
 
start with a for allelopathy. Corals, especially soft corals and especially leathers and 'invasive-species'-tendency softies like xenia and such---SPIT into the water to discourage other corals and clear territory. Carbon can absorb coral spit. You have to keep changing it, because it saturates real fast in a major snit. I used to have a leather that would helpfully turn purple (from pink) whenever there was trouble, but your indicators seem to be much quieter. Kenya is usually the other offender in a spitting match, but the frog tends just to reach out and touch its neighbors. 6 " between corals and putting the worst offenders downstream (close to the water exit) and carbon in the sump is helpful.
 
Lets start with the basics.

What are your water paremeters? Posting that they are all good means nothing to us, we need cold hard numbers.

Alkalinity
Calcium
Magnesium
Salinity
nitrate
phosphate

What kind of lights are you using and for how long are they on?

You left us with nothing to go on to try and help diagnose the issue.


^^^This^^^

start with a for allelopathy. Corals, especially soft corals and especially leathers and 'invasive-species'-tendency softies like xenia and such---SPIT into the water to discourage other corals and clear territory. Carbon can absorb coral spit. You have to keep changing it, because it saturates real fast in a major snit. I used to have a leather that would helpfully turn purple (from pink) whenever there was trouble, but your indicators seem to be much quieter. Kenya is usually the other offender in a spitting match, but the frog tends just to reach out and touch its neighbors. 6 " between corals and putting the worst offenders downstream (close to the water exit) and carbon in the sump is helpful.

^^^And This^^^

With that said Sk8r, I've always wondered, does soft coral "spit" affect stonies or just other softies?

If anything it bothers stony corals more. Skimming will help a lot.

IMHO however, this is the very best reason to run carbon in a reactor. It removes those toxins from the water like nothing else really can. I do, 24/7/365 and have for almost 30 years now. I cannot imagine not using it.
 
Soft coral spit affects everybody. And indeed, parameters matter. Low alk or high phosphate or nitrate is a potential problem. We also have a handbook with index in the sticky posts atop the forum.
 
Alkalinity 8dkh
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Phosphate 0.25ppm(need a better test kit it always reads this as the minimum)
pH 8.0
Calcium 420ppm
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78.3
Magnesium 1215ppm
 
Not to hijack your thread.. but a related question.

Is this safe or do I need to separate?
Frag came this way..

Xenia and toadstool leather I think

Leather is shedding.. but both seem fine together so far
0f41cbec017cc9e32f62353743db6c09.jpg


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Look at the temper on the toadstool---yes, move it.

And meanwhile, OP, your mg is low, or verging on alk-drop territory [alk will drop when mg drops below 1200]---bump that to 1350, best.
 
Mmm, your toadstool is more valuable. Leave it on the plug. A sharp pen-knife may serve to abrade the surface of the plug and scrape the xenia off. Xenia can become a tank-wide pest unless you are willing to monitor where they go and take ruthless measures to confine it. Scrape it off, and then set it on the bottom sand and lay a not-too-heavy bit of coral rubble or rock on it. By morning, turn the rock over, and it MAY have adhered to the rock for a happy second chance. If it demises, well, it shouldn't be too expensive---but I don't think it will. Sounds callous, but xenia can be quite, quite tough, and is far from endangered. It's pretty stuff, but in a well-balanced tank it can get really aggressive. OH! and put a carbon sock into your water flow before annoying either your xenia or the toadstool: they spit nastiness, which dissipates fast in the ocean---in our circulating tanks, not at all. That will absorb it.
 
I put twice my charcoal in this time and things perked up. Frogspawn looks great, Kenya on its way back. The zoanthids are still closed up. Should I go crazy with charcoal? That was two cups for a 180gallon tank.


Thanks
 
I put twice my charcoal in this time and things perked up. Frogspawn looks great, Kenya on its way back. The zoanthids are still closed up. Should I go crazy with charcoal? That was two cups for a 180gallon tank.


Thanks

I run a BRS single reactor full of carbon (however that much is) on both my 120DT and my 60g FT
 
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