new corals keep dying-what gives?

[rwb500]

about 7 weeks ago i transferred everything from a holding tank into my new 30g breeder (36x18x12" high). About a week ago, i added a bunch of corals, including some sps and a chalice frag. The sps, including a superman monti, are doing fine. The chalice lost most of its tissue within 48 hours.

2 days ago i added a clam (i already have one doing great), a favia frag, a monti cap frag, and an acan frag. the monti cap frag is doing OK (not looking great but certainly not dying), but the acans and favia are showing severe tissue loss. heres a picture:

the new clam is doing well, as is everything else including all of my old SPS corals. I also have a bunch of softies which are doing fine.

what could be the cause of the new coral deaths, and what can i do to try and save the favia and acans?

I tested everything today with both API and red sea test kits. ALK with one test was 5dkH, other kit was 7dkH. could this be the cause?

CA was ~420, nitrite and nitrate 0. I run carbon and GFO. tomorrow i'll post a pic of the new corals placement in the tank. the three LPS that have died/are dying have been in areas of relatively low flow and light.

I do weekly water changes with Red Sea Coral Pro salt. salinity steady at 1.026. I dipped the new corals in Revive.

 

[DLANDINO]

When you say, "new 30 gallon breeder" how new? Have you run an accurate P04 test? Alkalinity is definitely low and if the new corals came from a higher level, that could be the issue. Your corals are showing signs of RTN, Rapid Tissue Necrosis. Not much is known about all possible causes of this disease, if it is even a disease, but some of the problems can be, high phosphate, communicable diseases, temperature fluctuation, stray voltage, TDS(are you using an RO/DI filter?), and low alkalinity. Your alk is the first thing that I would work on. Your CA is fine but as you raise alk it will fall a bit as these two elements are in a constant give and take dance. To raise your alk you can spend $30 bucks on an expensive alkalinity "raise" powder OR you can simply take straight baking soda, NOT BAKED BAKING SODA, and add 1 and 1/8 of a cup to one gallon of RO/DI water and mix vigorously until dissolved. Using warm water helps in this dissolving process. You can continue to dose the two part of your choice but start adding 2 or 3 fluid ounces of baking soda solution as well to your tank until your DKH is up to about 10. See if this makes a difference over the coming weeks and good luck. Let me know if you have questions. I am sure that others will chime in and help.

 

[b0bab0ey]

Your alk is a little low. Bump it up to 8 or 9 (w/baking soda), and see if that solves the problem.

 

[DLANDINO]

your alk is a little low. Bump it up to 8 or 9 (w/baking soda), and see if that solves the problem.

stern fan????!!!

 

[b0bab0ey]

stern fan????!!!

You know it!!! b0bab0ey b0bab0ey

 

[DLANDINO]

He is my HERO! ALL of them actually! Now that they are on Iphone I literally listen to them from the minute I wake up and then all day at work. Like 11 hours of them! Nice to talk to a fellow fan. Sorry to hijack the thread.

 

[rwb500]

When you say, "new 30 gallon breeder" how new? Have you run an accurate P04 test? Alkalinity is definitely low and if the new corals came from a higher level, that could be the issue. Your corals are showing signs of RTN, Rapid Tissue Necrosis. Not much is known about all possible causes of this disease, if it is even a disease, but some of the problems can be, high phosphate, communicable diseases, temperature fluctuation, stray voltage, TDS(are you using an RO/DI filter?), and low alkalinity. Your alk is the first thing that I would work on. Your CA is fine but as you raise alk it will fall a bit as these two elements are in a constant give and take dance. To raise your alk you can spend $30 bucks on an expensive alkalinity "raise" powder OR you can simply take straight baking soda, NOT BAKED BAKING SODA, and add 1 and 1/8 of a cup to one gallon of RO/DI water and mix vigorously until dissolved. Using warm water helps in this dissolving process. You can continue to dose the two part of your choice but start adding 2 or 3 fluid ounces of baking soda solution as well to your tank until your DKH is up to about 10. See if this makes a difference over the coming weeks and good luck. Let me know if you have questions. I am sure that others will chime in and help.

Thank you so much for the in-depth response.

The livestock and most of the rock has been in my tanks for about 2 years. it was recently transferred to this new tank with new sand and some new rock about 7 weeks ago. I use RO/Di that measures usually 0-1ppm. I use gfo so i dont bother to test for phosphates. i presume they are 0 because i see no algae growth.

I was unaware that alk could cause rtn! i always thought ca/alk were important for long-term growth but not so much for short-term survivability. I will track those two numbers more carefully, and probably invest is some better test kits for them. too bad salifert is sold out at marinedepot. i should probably start with kalk as well.

i do have a decent aiptasia infestation, as well as some bubble algae. but i just added 4 berghia so in a few months the aiptasia should be gone. and i hope to slowly starve the bubbles with gfo and one emerald crab to take care of the leftovers. i feed very minimally. tank inhabitants are just 6 baby (~3/4") black ocellaris.

Again, thanks a lot for the help. i'll post a fts tomorrow. all 3 corals to die recently have been in the same corner.

 

[rwb500]

also i have no idea what the hell you dudes are talking about but as long as you keep helpin me out its cool

 

[Lynnmw1208]

hmm those parameters seem a little off for red sea coral pro salt. when I do my water changes my params are ca 420, mag 1450-1500 and alk 8.5-9 dkh. perhaps try rolling the bucket around to stir things up a bit?

 

[rwb500]

hmm those parameters seem a little off for red sea coral pro salt. when I do my water changes my params are ca 420, mag 1450-1500 and alk 8.5-9 dkh. perhaps try rolling the bucket around to stir things up a bit?

thanks, good tip. yeah i figured with my weekly 10-15% water changes my params would be fine. thats why i bought this salt and not just reef crystals. I need to buy a better alk test. who knows how accurate these API and red sea kits are.

 

[Lynnmw1208]

thanks, good tip. yeah i figured with my weekly 10-15% water changes my params would be fine. thats why i bought this salt and not just reef crystals. I need to buy a better alk test. who knows how accurate these API and red sea kits are.

I use the new red sea test kits for Ca, alk and mag and those are my params. I find them to be more accurate than API.

 

[Logzor]

Cut off the GFO until your corals perk back up. Corals need some phosphate and considering the current conditions in your tank the GFO could be dong a lot more harm than good. Too much GFO can result in coral starvation.

The thing is you can't possibly know if you even need to be running GFO or not without a test kit. Stop using GFO until you can accurately test for phosphates.

 

[b0bab0ey]

Cut off the GFO until your corals perk back up. Corals need some phosphate and considering the current conditions in your tank the GFO could be dong a lot more harm than good. Too much GFO can result in coral starvation.

The thing is you can't possibly know if you even need to be running GFO or not without a test kit. Stop using GFO until you can accurately test for phosphates.

+1 good call

Most people don't realize that corals need both a little phosphate and nitrate to thrive. Levels need to be just barely detectable, so low enough to feed them, but not high enough to start causing problems. It's a balancing act.

 

[rwb500]

my numbers today tested with a brand new red sea pro test kit set are:

alk: 7.7
CA: 425
Mg: 1300

These dont seem low enough to cause RTN to me, but I dont know. What do you guys think? i did remove the GFO and carbon.

I plan on adding a lot of new frags on sunday and i want to make sure the new corals will be alright.