my sps problems stripping & going green

[deano_g]

hi guys for the last week or so all my sps and my plating corals are dieing and slowly going green ive lost about 70% so far ive dipped them and its still happening last night i went over my tank with a torch and i noticed my coralline alge is going green on the rocks does anyone have any idea whats going on? would be much appreciated if u can help! thanks, dean

 

[toothybugs]

Parameters please.

 

[deano_g]

hiya sorry forgot to add them lol KH around 8, phosphate is 0.25, nitrite 0.02, ammonia 0.05-0.1 PH is 7.8 hope this helps. cheers

 

[PhaneSoul]

Your phosphate level is killing them, causing rtn/stn and the green is algae starting to grow on the skeleton

 

[deano_g]

I'm running all in one bio pellets in my reactor and doing water changes every 2 weeks how else could i bring it down?

 

[Tweaked]

Yep, .25 is too high. Water changes can hurt you depending on your water and salt used. GFO is the quickest way to fix the levels, but fear the damage is done.

 

[deano_g]

well i dont hamy many corals left accept my leather and the gold hammer torch along with my acans i lost all my sps and i think im loosing my monty aswell ;/ what GFO would u recommend to use?

 

[PhaneSoul]

The leather and lps should survive, although not sure if they will survive long term exposure, but you might lose your monti, just depends on how hardy it is.

What your maintenance like? How old is the tank? Do you clean the stuff out of the rocks or vacuum your sandbed?

 

[Wolfex]

Oh seems low. In a properly buffers tank the ph would be around 8.2-8.4. Also what is your calcium levels? After you get the nitrates and phosphate levels in check you need to address calcium.

 

[deano_g]

i vacuum the sand occasionally this tank is about 9 months old but i had all my rock in my previous tank along with the water but had to add about 50 litres and i kept about 50% of the sand and again i added more sand to this one i some times turky baster the rocks and corals to get detritus off them if there is any on them ive just litterly added another reactor with phosguard in it to try and reduce the phosphate

 

[deano_g]

last time i checked calcium it was 400 and that was 3 days ago

 

[DDon]

How are you testing your phosphate levels as many test kits are not very accurate? Yes 0.25 is high but wouldn't expect it to kill your corals. Turn them brown, stunt growth, cause nuisance algae yes but not kill them.
Nitrite and ammonia should read zero in an established tank. Your levels are above that but could be test error. Did you do something that could have caused a mini cycle?
Have you checked salinity?
Anything happen in or around the tank that coincides with when you started to lose your corals?

 

[Tweaked]

How are you testing your phosphate levels as many test kits are not very accurate? Yes 0.25 is high but wouldn't expect it to kill your corals. Turn them brown, stunt growth, cause nuisance algae yes but not kill them.
Nitrite and ammonia should read zero in an established tank. Your levels are above that but could be test error. Did you do something that could have caused a mini cycle?
Have you checked salinity?
Anything happen in or around the tank that coincides with when you started to lose your corals?

Yes and no. If they were not used to that high of po4 and were suddenly thrown into it, than it could have that effect.

 

[DDon]

Yes and no. If they were not used to that high of po4 and were suddenly thrown into it, than it could have that effect.

Fair enough but this sounds like a pretty rapid event and I doubt phosphate just suddenly jumped and i am assuming he didn't just add the corals. I just wanted to add another point of view and not just jump on one parameter.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Why hasn't anyone said anything about the presence of ammonia? I'd address what has died in your tank.

Stirring up your sand could have caused most of this but I don't get the ammonia reading of a 9 month old tank

 

[solitude127]

A few questions
Are these your first SPS?
How long have you had these SPS in your system?
Do you dose? if so, what's your regimen?
How much does your temp swing each day?
What kind of lights do you have?

 

[solitude127]

Why hasn't anyone said anything about the presence of ammonia? I'd address what has died in your tank.

Stirring up your sand could have caused most of this but I don't get the ammonia reading of a 9 month old tank

Yes, ammonia and nitrite should not be present in a cycled tank

 

[deano_g]

hiya i have had sps for about a year i even had them in my tank before this and maybe even some in my jewl rio 125 (my first tank) my friend tested my po4 with a elios test kit he said it was 0.63 he works in a marine fish shop and i tested with my JBL kit witch has loads of tests in it im running 2 gen 3 eco tech radions with 2 mp40s aswell ive not had anything die in my tank for ages i did a test on my ammonia its about 0.5 but as i well know JBL isnt a verry good test kit witch is why ive got quite a few elios kits now just not ammonia lol my salinity is 0.25 and i have a auto top off so it dosnt get a mass swing ive killed 2 strawberry short cake frags aswell with this problem so now im not getting any new corals till its fixed

 

[solitude127]

hmm. how long have you been running the ecobak plus pellets? have you switched pellets recently?

 

[deano_g]

ive been running all in one biopelets for months and ive just started running phosguard today