need advise with my corals

[jjoos99]

My tank has been not well for a couple of months now. I have lost several of my acros. some have faded out quite a bit. Some still have good color but most all have lost their normal p/e. Several have stn from the base. A month or so back I tested and my nitrate shows less then 1ppm and phos was at .07 I dont hardly ever have to clean my glass. I decided to shut down my skimmer to dirty up my water some. I retested last week and my nitrates are still the same but my phos has spiked to .7 I have been able to get the phos down to 0 dosing lanthanum chloride. I am wondering if I should start adding some nitrate to see if anything improves. From what I have read low nitrate could cause the fading color but what about the loss of p/e and stn? I am really frustrated as to what might be wrong. Pests are not an issue. Any ideas or suggestions.
thanks
Jeff

 

[rt67ghy]

0.07 PO4 is fine. I think the problem of fading and STN started with low NO3. I would increase NO3 to at least 5ppm which should improve the colours but you also need to take steps to deal with the stn. If you can I'd advise dipping the corals every day in lugol's iodine (less harsh on the coral than some of the other medications available) until reversal of stn.

 

[toothman]

I have used Lan chloride with good results. I think acros do better with nitrates 2-3ppm. I have also added sodium nitrate with out any problem, It is very strong, I would use a test kit scooper and add one scoop a day and see what happens. Your phos will rise back since most likely phos is in rocks and substrate. Consider carbon dosing or gfo.http://static.faunamarin.de/manuals/ZEO-Light-lite_EN.pdf

Very good system for dosing.

 

[Coralreefer1]

I dose with Lugol's weekly as this helps with coral health, not to mention invert health as well.

 

[ReefBum]

Have you had any major swings in Alkalinity? That could be a potential culprit.

 

[jjoos99]

My phos level was actually at .7 not .07 My alk will generally stay pretty steady. It was on the low side at 7 when I had finished dosing lanthanum.
Is there anything else that would cause very little algae on my glass other then low nutrients? It has been over a week and there is very little algae on my glass. I also have no algae in the tank and lost my pod population
How much should I try and raise my nitrates per day? How much do you guy dose lugals?
thanks
Jeff

 

[rt67ghy]

0.7 Po4 is a bit high. How much was alk before you dosed lanthanum?
Algae only grows if you have NO3 and PO4 in water. Since you have no algae it's a sign that your NO3 is probably close to 0. With high PO4 and 0 NO3 no algae will grow so increasing NO3 is recommended for the health of your corals. Remember the zooaxanthellae hosted by photosynthetic corals is algae and they need NO3 for growth. To increase NO3 all you need to do is feed your tank more; there is no hard and fast rule to rate of increasing NO3 per day but I would try to raise it to 5ppm over 2 days.
I have 200g water volume and I add 10 drops of Lugol's per week. Adding 1 drop per 20 g I think should be fine.

 

[jjoos99]

I dont know if this would be anything to help with but my lps corals are all still doing good. The only one that seems to be effected would by my gonipora which is not expanding at all. The torches and frogspawn look great.
I have raised my no3 into the 5ppm level but am still seeing new death each day. I think by the time I get the triton test that I order and results back everything will be almost gone.
This is driving me crazy. Looking at the tank I have corals that havent lost any color and I dont see any stn, just decreased p/e, but then a coral 6 inches away is 1/2 dead and color faded badly. I just have to assume some can handle what ever is going on better then others. The worst hit has been my red planet and my ssc which is all but a total loss.
thanks for the support
Jeff

 

[cugly]

Check if you have bugs. Treat with interceptor and see if the polyps come out.

 

[rt67ghy]

I dont know if this would be anything to help with but my lps corals are all still doing good. The only one that seems to be effected would by my gonipora which is not expanding at all. The torches and frogspawn look great.
I have raised my no3 into the 5ppm level but am still seeing new death each day. I think by the time I get the triton test that I order and results back everything will be almost gone.
This is driving me crazy. Looking at the tank I have corals that havent lost any color and I dont see any stn, just decreased p/e, but then a coral 6 inches away is 1/2 dead and color faded badly. I just have to assume some can handle what ever is going on better then others. The worst hit has been my red planet and my ssc which is all but a total loss.
thanks for the support
Jeff

Since your sps are dying I'd run a lot of GAC preferably in a reactor to absorb the chemicals. Dying corals release chemicals which can affect your other corals killing every sps in the tank. I'd toss the GAC every 3 days and run a new batch until the deaths have ended. This won't cure the corals but should prevent the healthy corals from being affected. At the same time I'd religiously dip the dying acros in iodine every day for 30 minutes for as long as necessary to stop the progression of stn and hopefully reverse it. You have nothing to lose at this point.