Ticked off corals. Thoughts?

[Mr.Walden]

Hello fellow reefers, I'm a little on the irked side today. Over Christmas I am pretty sure my diamond goby died and I have not seen hair nor hide of the body and checked around the tank for fish jerky. So as far as I can tell he is rotting away in my tank and muching up the water. On the 29th I noticed most of my corals were irritated and my Nuclear Green Paly's and Whamin Watermelon Zoas were only opening a couple hours a day. I tested the water and everything was ship shape except for Nitrates which were between 15 and 20. So right after New Years I did a 25 gallon water change. Tested the next day and they were still 15~20. Dosed the tank with Prime, tested this morning, and still 15~20. For the past two days neither the Palys or Zoas have opened at all! I threw in a couple sifting stars (picking up the slack for the goby) and a handful of snails and hermit crabs for some extra clean up but at this point I don't know what else to do except for a ~50% water change. And I'd prefer not to go that route cause that's a lot of friggin water for a 120G. Any help guys?

 

[SKurj]

I am no help to you.. but my paly's and zoas have been doing just fine even when my nitrates are 80+... (been doing lots of 25% changes to bring that down after a few months of neglect)

Perhaps it isn't the nitrate level..

 

[Painted skin]

It's the ammonia that you should be concern about when something dies in the tank, not so much the nitrate especially at the level you're fine on the nitrate part.

 

[SushiGirl]

Did you check pH and alk?

 

[cloak]

Have you checked the polyps for pests? (nudibranchs, sundial snails, etc)

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/aeolid.shtml

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/sundial.shtml

 

[Mr.Walden]

Here's the work up of the last water test:

Nitrite 0
Nitrate 15
Ammonia 0
pH 7.8
Calcium 480
Alkalinity 8 dkh
Magnesium 1395
Specific Gravity 1.025
Temp 75-77 throughout the day

 

[Mr.Walden]

Have you checked the polyps for pests? (nudibranchs, sundial snails, etc)

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/aeolid.shtml

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/sundial.shtml

That's a very good suggestion. I skimmed over the write up and it describes almost exactly how my polyps have been behaving. Would either of those have effect on LPS or SPS? Cause my Torch, Frogspawn, and Montipora also look irritated. Thanks!