LPS trouble!!

[killinit123]

Hey everyone, I'm having an issue with my lps in my mixed reef setup. about 2 weeks ago i started to notice the issue. my acans, symphillia, and plate corals have all started to retract and will not open. the symphilia is having some tissue die off. this is coming out of left field, as everything was happy and healthy for the past year some corals ive had for much longer. all of my sps and zoas/polys and also my gorgonians are doing great. tank parameters are as follows:

salinity- 1.026
ammonia- 0
nitrite-0
nitrate- 0
po4- .2
calcium- 430
mag-1350
alk-9.5
temp- when it started to get cold out dropped to 78 from 79.5 was adjusted recently back to 79.5 and constant.

If anyone has any input that would be much appreciated I am at a loss as to what could be happening. I did add a copperband butterfly about 2 months ago to help with an aptasia outbreak. he has been eating them and now there are only about 2 left in my tank. although he appears to be farming them and not just erraticated them. anyway... i have not yet seen him even look at any coral and i watch my tank regularly. maybe he could be picking at these corals at night? thanks in advance for any information/ comments/ criticism.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Your water is too clean for LPS and Soft/leathers. Some people think I'm nuts for saying this while others agree with me. Some nutrients nitrate and phosphate are needed and SPS will even thrive with some in the system. These nutrients are important to have in small numbers. Even if you go to Vivid's website they will tell you nitrate of <10 for nitrates. I would suggest for optimum to sustain all 3 types of coral to be <5

The first sign of having too clean of water is that SPS are doing great and LPS/softies or leathers aren't doing so hot. If the LPS/softies and leathers are doing good but SPS isn't then the nutrients are too high.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[killinit123]

Your water is too clean for LPS and Soft/leathers. Some people think I'm nuts for saying this while others agree with me. Some nutrients nitrate and phosphate are needed and SPS will even thrive with some in the system. These nutrients are important to have in small numbers. Even if you go to Vivid's website they will tell you nitrate of <10 for nitrates. I would suggest for optimum to sustain all 3 types of coral to be <5

The first sign of having too clean of water is that SPS are doing great and LPS/softies or leathers aren't doing so hot. If the LPS/softies and leathers are doing good but SPS isn't then the nutrients are too high.

Hope this makes sense.

yes this all makes sense and I have read on this a bit. i cut down on my weekly 10% water changes because of this. although I have never had this problem before and my parameters have always been relativley constant at these numbers. i have had some of these acan colonies for 2+ years and have not experieneced this before. but thank you for your input i will try to raise my nitrates a little bit and see what happens

 

[snorvich]

Note, however, that copperband butterfly fish are not necessarily reef safe.

 

[Mg4life0331]

Note, however, that copperband butterfly fish are not necessarily reef safe.

Keep an eye on that guy.

 

[killinit123]

Note, however, that copperband butterfly fish are not necessarily reef safe.

Keep an eye on that guy.

yes I am aware of that also, hence why I brought it up. I haven't seen him picking at any corals... yet. he does seem to be doing his job on the aptasia though. although hes smart because he will save one or two and let them grow out then eat the babies.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

As our tanks mature they become more efficient with processing nitrates and phosphates so I believe this is what you're seeing now.

 

[killinit123]

As our tanks mature they become more efficient with processing nitrates and phosphates so I believe this is what you're seeing now.

hmm deffinitley a possibility but i usually stay on top of trimming my cheato down in my refuge to try and keep po4 consumption at bay. I do this because i know there should be some po4 and i try to keep it around .02