Sps browning/beaching? Also Ich discovered

[Reeferparty]

What's up RC?! New to the forums. I've been lurking for a few months and have found you guys to be quite helpful! I have a mixed reef by primarily dominated by LPS with a few NPS. Over the past 3 weeks I've noticed my sps browning for sure and possibly bleaching a bit. I think it may be from excess nutrients but lighting/flow maybe an issue as well. Thought you guys would know better than I do and help me get to the bottom of it. Here's my tank specs

45 gallon jbj with sump besides the built in in the rear.

Skimmer on at all times/except during and 2-3 hours after feeding. I have been broadcasting 1 capful of zooplankton everyday for the past 2 weeks and spot feeding my suncoral. Fish get fed once a day with a mixture of frozen mysis/flakes/pellets.

Water changes every Sunday 20%.

Prime HD light 6 inches above water. On from 8:30am to 5:30pm with 3:30 hour ramp.
Color spectrum:
UV 55-60%
Violet 65%
Royal 65%
Blue 65%
Green 5%
Red 1%
White 10%

Parameters:
Temp 75-78
PH 8.0-8.2 API
Ammonia .5 or less API
Nitrate 5.0 API
Nitrite 0 API
Phosphate 0 or undetectable Salifert
Calcium 400-420 Red Sea
KH 9.0 Red Sea
Mag 1480 Red Sea

Fish:
Pair of onyx true percs
Solar wrasse
Cleaner wrasse (died from ich last night)
Mandarin (beginning to start taking pellets!)

As for ich it was just discovered last night. Cleaner wrasse was affected most, swimming erratically. I pulled him quick. The solar wrasse has a few spots but still eating and not too stressed. [emoji58]Hospital/QT tank setup and waiting to stabilize until tonight then I will try my best to catch all my fish during feeding and treat using hyposalinity.

 

[Reeferparty]

Only picture I have at the moment

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[Pittsburgh]

Nutrients is a real possibility. API nitrates test kit, while very good for high range, is rather useless in the SPS world. The difference between 5ppm and 10ppm or higher is impossible to tell really.... In my experience, unless that API test kit shows 0 nitrates, as in perfectly yellow color no matter how you look at it, SPS won't be happy.

 

[Reeferparty]

Nutrients is a real possibility. API nitrates test kit, while very good for high range, is rather useless in the SPS world. The difference between 5ppm and 10ppm or higher is impossible to tell really.... In my experience, unless that API test kit shows 0 nitrates, as in perfectly yellow color no matter how you look at it, SPS won't be happy.

Thanks for the reply! What test kit for nitrates do you recommend?


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[Pittsburgh]

I personally use Red Sea.

 

[Piper27]

How old is the tank and what corals are they? Wild, mariculture, or tank raised? Sps browning is related to to much nutrients or not enough light while paling or bleaching would be the opposite so pictures of the coral would help more.

 

[Reeferparty]

My tank is 4 months old, I have 1 Acro frag I got from my LFS not sure if it's wild or what. But others are all either mariculture and tank raised.

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[outssider]

the birds nest has a lot of dead spots ! it wont grow back. If you want to save it you'll need to frag it up. it grows fast though. looking at the color it seems to be getting the right amount of light. when they get too much light the polyps tend to get very light green.

 

[Esper]

Your acropora looks dead to me. :sad2:
The montipora behind it looks healthy. :rollface:
The birdsnest has tissue necrosis at the base and other spots.

What do you use for water flow? It's not obvious from the pictures. I'm sure you know that SPS generally like higher flow than LPS.

"Water Flow is More Important for Corals Than Light, Part V" http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature

How much does alkalinity drop in a single day? What do you use for supplementation? Nano tanks lose alkalinity fast. I have a lightly stocked 20 gallon, and it loses 1.0-1.5 dkh per day. Kalkwasser couldn't keep up.

When in doubt, do large water changes. 20% weekly is good, but you may not actually be doing enough over the long term. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/

"Figure 2. Nitrate concentration as a function of time when performing water changes of 0% (no changes), 7.5%, 15% and 30% of the total volume each month. In this example, nitrate is present at 0 ppm at the start, and is accumulated at a rate of 0.1 ppm per day when no water is changed."

 

[Esper]

Looking at your pictures, I see a small Koralia on one side. Do you have anything else providing flow?

 

[Piper27]

Now that I see your first post you say you have ammonia reading on an API test kit? This would be why things are dying imo. The tank is not cycled properly or your filtration is not up to par with what your feeding. Get some better test kits once things stabilize because API is not good for much except cycling a tank.
The across in the tank look completely dead I would guess as well.

 

[Reeferparty]

Your acropora looks dead to me. :sad2:

The montipora behind it looks healthy. :rollface:

The birdsnest has tissue necrosis at the base and other spots.



What do you use for water flow? It's not obvious from the pictures. I'm sure you know that SPS generally like higher flow than LPS.



"Water Flow is More Important for Corals Than Light, Part V" http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature



How much does alkalinity drop in a single day? What do you use for supplementation? Nano tanks lose alkalinity fast. I have a lightly stocked 20 gallon, and it loses 1.0-1.5 dkh per day. Kalkwasser couldn't keep up.



When in doubt, do large water changes. 20% weekly is good, but you may not actually be doing enough over the long term. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/

"Figure 2. Nitrate concentration as a function of time when performing water changes of 0% (no changes), 7.5%, 15% and 30% of the total volume each month. In this example, nitrate is present at 0 ppm at the start, and is accumulated at a rate of 0.1 ppm per day when no water is changed."

That's a purple tipped acro and it's not dead, lighting and crappy picture just can't capture the purple tips but they're there. It's just browning out a bit.

As for flow, when I first got sps', I had an aquatop 625gph powerhead at the top left of my rockwork where most of the sps' are sitting. I just got a mp10 yesterday and have been playing with more indirect pulsing flow now.

I don't test for alk daily so I don't know of how much it drops each day. I test before and after water changes and it typically doesn't fluctuate much. I do 20% water changes every week on sundays. Currently not dosing anything but reading up on possibly using kalkwasser soon.

Since posting I have stopped broadcast feeding the tank zooplankton. Less flake foods for the fish; mainly pellets and frozen mysis. Will continue to closes monitor the sps and try my best to cater to them.

 

[Reeferparty]

Looking at your pictures, I see a small Koralia on one side. Do you have anything else providing flow?

The small 425gph Koralia was a temp supplement to the 625gph aquatop I had because I was afraid that the constant direct flow would be too much(?).

I now have an mp10 that my playing around with. Roughly how much flow is recommended it? I have it on semi-short pulses on reefmode. I'm also thinking about installing either the koralia or aquatop on the opposite side of the mp10 but will it be overkill for my LPS'? Lol


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[Reeferparty]

I will post some better pictures today after my water change and also updated water parameters


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[Piper27]

Do you always have ammonia in the water? You realize a reef tank should have no visible ammonia on any test kits. And the across look completley bleached or dead, I see no polyps at all but maybe it is the camera? I dunno the Mo tiporas for shows well which makes me think they are not doing well.

 

[reefmutt]

I think your tank is just not ready for sps.
The acro in front of the orange monti is clearly dead and growing algea on it. The millie looking acro to the right may also be dead but may still have some flesh.
Flow is very important and I don't think you have enough.
Yes, you need better test kits, for sure. Red Sea are good.
0 po4 can also be a problem for sps and if your n reading is accurate, it's perfect imo.
I'd suggest you stop adding sps for several months. Watch that monti and when it looks like it's got nice new growth in it AND you've got better test results and flow, try another frag.
At 4 months old, there is almost no point in trying to diagnose problems because the basics are not quite there yet..

 

[Reeferparty]

Do you always have ammonia in the water? You realize a reef tank should have no visible ammonia on any test kits. And the across look completley bleached or dead, I see no polyps at all but maybe it is the camera? I dunno the Mo tiporas for shows well which makes me think they are not doing well.

I'm sorry, I don't usually have ammonia in my tank. I got it mixed up with nitrate.


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[Reeferparty]

Water parameters today before WC

Temp -76.4
Salinity -1.026
PH -8.2
Ammonia -0
Nitrite -0
Nitrate -5
Ca -380
Mg -1360
KH -8.4
POS -undetectable

After
Salinity -1.025
PH -8.2
Ammonia -0
Nitrite -0
Nitrate -5
Ca -460
Mg -1400
KH -10.4
PO -undetectable


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[reefmutt]

Fairly big alk shift ..
Maybe find a salt with a lower alk

 

[crawlerman]

Your alk shouldn't swing like that, that will kill acros having it swing that much every week. How much water are you changing weekly? You need to start supplementing with a 2 part to keep alk and calcium steady. you can try kalk water for topoffs, I would recommend an auto top off to keep it steady. Also I'm pretty sure the brown you are seeing is just algae growing on the dead coral. Birdsnest is alive, but not for long.