What's wrong my my corals??

[rawr go aeyo]

It looks like guts coming out of my green pinstripe mushrooms- but not all of it is coming out from the mouth. It's coming out from the body too. One is completely shriveled and detaching from the rock. These mushrooms are usually pretty large and I've never seen them like this! My other super red and blue mushrooms are shriveled too- but no apical meristems.
But here's the kicker-- my finger leather and anthelia are super shriveled. And my anthelia is beyond limp. Completely retracted and bleaching? I've never seen any of my coral this ****ed. Also, when I peeled a bit of anthelia that was growing on the stock of my finger leather, it pulled the finger leather off the rock a teensy bit and brown/reddish puff came out. Not sure if it came from the anthelia I peeled off or from the finger leather.

I had my water checked- she said everything looks great. There are some nitrates but I always keep them that way because most of my corals are filter feeders (I had a carnation too- but traded it off).

Any ideas or help?

 

[rawr go aeyo]

I guess I should also say- My tank has been up for a year. I've had these pinstripes for four months or so- no problem. I've had the anthelia and the finger leather probably 6-8 months. I have a 24 gallon biocube (though I'm cycling a 40 gallon right now). And I dose with Kent Nano Reef A and B. I don't do it daily, maybe weekly. The back has everything a bio cube comes with for filtering (sponges, bioballs etc.), but I only had in bioballs for my carnation. They won't be in my new tank.

I ran a protein skimmer last night for the first time. The skinmate wasn't that bad. But it's the only thing I've done different.

Oh! I also traded for some more live rock from a guy and he had a bunch of itsby bitsy starfish come off the rock. They're a mix of white/brown and most have six stubby arms.

But that's all I've done different for all the mushrooms to freak out.

 

[sixpackgarage]

coming from the sides concerns me. Unless you can catch the starfish in the act, it's hard to say if that's your culprit. You sure there haven't been any pH or Alk spikes?

 

[organism]

Something is very wrong with your water, but we're going to need the exact parameters before being able to help you. An LFS employee telling you everything is fine doesn't help much since we don't know what they tested for and what the results were. They might not even have tested for what's wrong in your water.

The new asterina starfish aren't the issue, to me it looks like ammonia. Also I don't see any filter feeders in your tank so I'm not sure most of your tank is filter feeders. Mushrooms, leathers etc don't filter feed.

We need to know your salinity, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, calcium, alkalinity and magnesium or no one is going to be able to help you. For dosing 2 part I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be testing for those last three things anyway since overdosing can nuke your tank.

My guess is ammonia, salinity or alkalinity in that order. Could be sky high nitrates too, what are you using for water?

 

[rawr go aeyo]

My salinity is at .023, but that's using a hydrometer not a refractometer.
I'm going to go back to the LFS and have them recheck my water- and ask for specific values this time to give to you all.

I didn't have the ALK checked. I'll have that checked too.

Should I do a quick water change after I grab some water to be tested?

 

[organism]

It depends, where's the water coming from? Also what are the most recent things you've done to the tank, any water change or recent 2 part dosing, etc

 

[rawr go aeyo]

8.9 ALK
Ph 8.0
Trate 1.00

MY NITRATES ARE SKY HIGH!!
They went up overnight. I have no idea why. Do I just do a larger water change?

 

[rawr go aeyo]

I get the water from the windmill where the ppm is awesome. Then I add seachem salt and put a koralia in it.

No recent part two dosing. Maybe a week ago. The only thing I e done different recently was I ran a protein skimmer for a day.

 

[rawr go aeyo]

The windmill water is RO, carbon filtered, uv treated... Etc. everyone here uses it instead of water from the LFS.

 

[rawr go aeyo]

No ammonia or nitrites. No phosphates.

 

[BuzzPion]

Do you mean Watermill water? http://www.watermillexpress.com/

Q: How does your water compare with distilled water?

Distilled water goes through a different purification process than Watermill Express. The process of distillation removes all minerals. We leave in some minerals for taste. Our water works for all household needs including irons and humidifiers.

What does the PPM is awesome mean? Unless the PPM is zero, stop using the water.

Also, please get your own test kits and start testing your own water. The water we use and keep is THE most important thing in this hobby. Everything else is secondary. Why trust anyone but yourself?

Serious reefers don't run to the LFS every time they need to test.

 

[rawr go aeyo]

Do you mean Watermill water? http://www.watermillexpress.com/

Q: How does your water compare with distilled water?

Distilled water goes through a different purification process than Watermill Express. The process of distillation removes all minerals. We leave in some minerals for taste. Our water works for all household needs including irons and humidifiers.

What does the PPM is awesome mean? Unless the PPM is zero, stop using the water.

Also, please get your own test kits and start testing your own water. The water we use and keep is THE most important thing in this hobby. Everything else is secondary. Why trust anyone but yourself?

Serious reefers don't run to the LFS every time they need to test.

It's not from the watermill itself. But it's the same concept. Also- I don't think it's PPM. I don't know the word I'm trying to think of. But the "serious reefers" in my city all get their water from there because it's the best water available. The LFSs (three of them) have 30, 12, and 5. The "mill" has 3.
I can't remember certain terms for the life of me. But I know the community here, and all of them say to use the "mill" water because it's the best available. I do keep test kits, but I have API which I know isn't as accurate. But it does the job for weekly tests to make sure things are in line. The LFS I go to uses Salifert- so in this emergency I trusted their accuracy.

I also figured out why my pristine water had such a horrible nitrate spike. I left a stupid polisher pad in the back. Because I recently took out one of the sponged that Biocubes come with (getting rid of the sponges and bioballs) and left the polisher pad to pick up the detrius that was released from the sponge when I pulled it out. When I forgot to take it out, well... nitrate spike.

I'm doing 50% water changes every day and my nitrates went from over 200 down to about the 80's right now. I'll keep bringing them down with water changes, and I'm running Purigen and deNitrate by Seachem which seem to be helping with the levels.

I also apologize for posting this in the Mushrooms thread!! It started off as a question as to why my mushrooms were spitting out their guts when I realized my Anthelia were doing horribly- so I added them to the mix. Then realized my water quality and it all went :thumbdown:

But all the fish are doing good! I lost two of my Turbos (but I didn't like them anyway), and my Anthelia is still in remission. But I think it'll make a comeback!

 

[rawr go aeyo]

I also realized I called the guts "apical meristems". Guess that's my BioII lecture getting in my head :hmm5:

 

[rawr go aeyo]

The new asterina starfish aren't the issue, to me it looks like ammonia. Also I don't see any filter feeders in your tank so I'm not sure most of your tank is filter feeders. Mushrooms, leathers etc don't filter feed.

We need to know your salinity, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, calcium, alkalinity and magnesium or no one is going to be able to help you. For dosing 2 part I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be testing for those last three things anyway since overdosing can nuke your tank.

My guess is ammonia, salinity or alkalinity in that order. Could be sky high nitrates too, what are you using for water?

Just wanted to say thank you, for giving me you best opinion on what was wrong. It was the nitrates after all.

Also I have several feather dusters- which is what I was referring to when I mentioned filter feeders. And my carnation (that I traded off) and my softies all do better when I have some nitrates in my tank. So they have never been at zero.