Throwing up the white flag... I need help

[KirbyBTF]

Problem: LPS are going downhill quick. Anemones are doing alright. Zoas are great.

Tank: 8g cadlights mini. Started with some terrible led that came with the tank. Everything was happy with that light though. The problem started when I got my bubble tip nem. I switched to a kessil H150 which didn't work out at all. I now have a fluval sea nano. I think I may have light shocked everything with the kessil.. Not sure. I added the fluval light and am using a tupperware lid to diffuse the light for acclimation. I'm at a loss here for what's going on. I dipped the euphyllia in seachem revive today and that just seemed to make it worse. Pics below. I'll provide any other information needed.

Phosphates: between 0-.03
Kh: 10 dKH
Nitrites: undetectable
Nitrates: less than 10ppm
Salinity: 1.025

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I would dim the lights way down for a week and see if they don't start to come around. Also drop your KH to around 8, that seriously could be your problem, but they need to acclimate to the more powerful lights. So do a WC and get that KH down to 8 ish.

That is if your signature is what your water is.

 

[swhobbie1]

i'd double check your phos ... the glass, sand look like they have a buildup on them that make me think the phos is higher than that. I'd also recom nitrate between 1 < 5

 

[KirbyBTF]

Yea those are my water parameters not my signature. Isn't 8-12 OK for Kh?
Phos test was done with salifert so it should be pretty accurate, but I will double check it.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

NO KH should be 7-8 and no more than 9, 9 can even be too high. Get that down to 7.5-8.5 preferably on the lower side of that.

KH of natural sea water is 7.5ish

 

[Reef Frog]

Polyps look retracted but everything looks quite alive & recoverable IMO. I agree with turning light intensity down and see what happens.

 

[KirbyBTF]

That's good to hear, the only thing that has me concerned at this point is the gaping mouth on the frogspawn. The light isn't dimmable but I'll see what I can rig up, I wanna make sure the bubble tip still gets the light it needs.

 

[Lmax8rn]

You don't need to dim the light, just decrease the amount of time they are on. I nearly killed all my LPS by introducing new T5 lighting too quickly. I then decreased the time to only 2-3 hours a day and increased very slowly, by only a half hour every month until I am now at 8 hours. If you would like additional light so you can enjoy your tank, buy a single strip blue LED. It isn't harmful, and they put off a lot of light.

 

[KirbyBTF]

I've cut it down by a few hours already, I'll cut it down a bit more though. Thanks!

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I don't agree that it is the amount of time you dial back on, I say dial back on the intensity it can run the ten or twelve hours or whatever nor normal cycle time is but cut it back on power.

I honestly don't get the logic behind cutting back the amount of time but keep it full intensity. Some one PLEASE make this make sense to me.

 

[KirbyBTF]

Personally I did it to keep them less stressed, diffuse the light and cut back the hours. More time for recovery. Idk might be way off but it made sense to me.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Personally I did it to keep them less stressed, diffuse the light and cut back the hours. More time for recovery. Idk might be way off but it made sense to me.

This is not what I was referring to. I was talking about what Lmax8rn said.

 

[KirbyBTF]

Just wanted to update. Reduced light intensity and did a large water change and within a day everything started coming back around. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Mark9]

Looks way better.

 

[KirbyBTF]

Yea I'm very happy things turned around

 

[Dkuhlmann]

That's awesome Kirby! Always happy to help, this really made my day!!!!

 

[Lmax8rn]

I was just giving advice based on my experience. It worked for me, so I shared. Apples and oranges baby...

 

[KirbyBTF]

All advice was greatly appreciated, and results came quickly.

 

[KirbyBTF]

Also should add I upgraded to a 40b so that really helped with stability.

 

[Lmax8rn]

Throwing up the white flag... I need help

This is what happened to my frogspawn, and it made a full recovery after about 6 months of proper acclimation.

This is how it looks now, bottom left corner.

NOTE: THIS IS ONLY ME SHARING MY EXPERIENCE (TO THOSE WHO ARE OFFENDED BY MY POSTS!!!)