what is going on??

[gsxr750]

I have a problem here...well first off i have a 150g reef had it set up for about a year now 2 koralia #4's and 1 koralia #3. Just recently I've been noticing that my corals are dying slowly one by one like: acans, acro, my 2 year frogspawn, birds nest and just couple days ago the hammer slowly dying, but my other corals are doing fine also fishes as well. I have done nothing differently ever since I set up the tank. The lights have been changed out last year in July and water changes every week. I tested the water all came out good but the phosphate which was at 1..

PH: 8.41
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: 5
Alkalinity: 8.5
Phosphate: 1.00
Calcium: 375
Magnesium: 900
Ammonia: 0

In the morning with no lights temperatures at 76 degrees with the lights on temperatures at 80-81. I took my water into my LFS and they pretty much came out with the same results and they cant think of anything why my corals are dying off. Can anyone think of anything else that I'm missing here?

 

[kraze3]

It could be the temp swing. The temp shouldnt fluctuate more than a degree or 2.
Give us a little more info. What kind of fish and critters are in the tank? How are they dieing, melting away, color loss, etc? WHat kind of lighting do you have?

 

[faze07hd]

HOLY PHOSPHATES!!!!!!

 

[sassafrass]

The ph seems a little high , when during the photo period was it taken? were the corals that are receding growing before now ? I am guessing your temp swing is a continous pattern and so is not out of the way it has been all along . Sometimes fish will suddenly aquire a taste for corals , what fish do you have? Have you made any other changes at all?

 

[gsxr750]

pretty much losing colors, like my birds nest turned all white. Acans just slowly disappearing, doesn't seem like anythings picking on it. I've been running 2 250 MH @20k and 2 PC Actinics. PC comes on/off half and hour than the MH. MH are turned on 8 hours a day from 2-10.

live stock:

purple tang
mystery wrasse
2 yellow wrasse
radiant wrasse
green leapard wrasse
green mandarin
red scooter
diamond goby
midas blenny
lawnmower blenny
2 bartlett anthias
2 clowns
blond naso
2 cardinals
2 cleaner shrimps
2 sand star
10 nassarius snails
dozen hermit crabs
half a dozen torchus snails
3 clams

 

[gsxr750]

Yeah there was two employees at my LFS one said that it could be the temperature and the other said it can't so i came home and unplugged the heater. I haven't done any changes at all. The acans were frags and didn't seem like they were growing.

 

[sassafrass]

That is a very high bio-load for a tank that size and not alot of flow my guess is nutrient build-up . Get some more flow . find out if you can mod your skimmer , and consider dosing vodka or reducing your bio-load.

 

[Anemonebuff]

I would guess the bioload as well. Add some GFO and skim wet and even lose some fish.

 

[hoosierpat]

I would go with Nitrates. I know that you tested it and had it tested again but that doesn't always mean much. I had a tank that I used to take care of that was loaded with fish. It had a much bigger skimmer than was needed and a large refugium. Corals would just slowly die off and I couldn't figure out why. I tested it every week and had others test it with different kits. In the end it turned out that all of the kits we were using were not reading the nitrates which were extremely high.

I would start by doing water changes, and frequent large ones. If your corals look better after the water change then that's your sign.

 

[gsxr750]

Thank you all for your help, ill start doing the large water changes like hoosierpat said but if that doesn't help looks like ill have to choose who stay and who goes. Thanks again to all.

 

[alphaferret]

Isn't 350 kinda low for calc?

 

[emilecilliers]

Re: what is going on??

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14550431#post14550431 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gsxr750
I have a problem here...well first off i have a 150g reef had it set up for about a year now 2 koralia #4's and 1 koralia #3. Just recently I've been noticing that my corals are dying slowly one by one like: acans, acro, my 2 year frogspawn, birds nest and just couple days ago the hammer slowly dying, but my other corals are doing fine also fishes as well. I have done nothing differently ever since I set up the tank. The lights have been changed out last year in July and water changes every week. I tested the water all came out good but the phosphate which was at 1..

PH: 8.41
Salinity: 1.025
Nitrate: 5
Alkalinity: 8.5
Phosphate: 1.00
Calcium: 375
Magnesium: 900
Ammonia: 0

In the morning with no lights temperatures at 76 degrees with the lights on temperatures at 80-81. I took my water into my LFS and they pretty much came out with the same results and they cant think of anything why my corals are dying off. Can anyone think of anything else that I'm missing here?

Imo your nitrate is high
phosphates is high
ca is low(should be 400-450)
magnesium is low(1300-1500)

 

[Toddrtrex]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14550680#post14550680 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by faze07hd
HOLY PHOSPHATES!!!!!!

That was my first thought too. 0.1 is considered high, so yours are really high.

Mag is low too.

Are you using RO/DI water?

First thing I would work on would be the phosphates, then the Mag then your 'rates.

 

[Henryreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14551408#post14551408 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Toddrtrex
That was my first thought too. 0.1 is considered high, so yours are really high.

Mag is low too.

Are you using RO/DI water?

First thing I would work on would be the phosphates, then the Mag then your 'rates.

Yes that is what i thought too. Both mag and pho4 are low. Ca is o.k. but a little low.

 

[MrSpiffy]

Your calcium and magnesium are both significantly low. If your magnesium is too low or high, calcium absorption by corals can be inhibited or it can cause problems with your corals. Calcium should be in the 400-450ppm range, and magnesium should be about 1300ppm.

The phosphate level is also high. As was mentioned, 0.1ppm is as high as you want phosphates to go if you're keeping sensitive corals, like acros and such.

Your dKH and nitrates should be okay. (Although I wouldn't go higher than 5-10ppm with SPS.) Bringing nitrates back down might not be necessary, but certainly can't hurt things.