Why do Euphyllias hate my tank?

[Myka]

I don't get it. In my tank I have:

SPS
Monti caps
Milles
Prostrata
Birdnest

LPS
Lobo brain
Open brain
Candy Cane
Galaxea
Bubble
Fox
Pagoda
Duncan


Soft
GSP
Gorgonian (non-photosynthetic)

There corals all do very well, and grow well, have nice coloring. When I add SPS they have good polyp extension within 30 minutes. LPS may take a couple hours. My Gorg took 30 hours.

I had a Hammer that had the hammer shaped tips on it, when I put it in my tank it lost the hammer tips and only had Torch type tips. It took a long time, and a lot of repositioning to get my Hammer happy. It was happiest when I removed all my powerheads. In the 8 months that I had that little Hammer it did not grow any new heads. My Duncan is also very fussy...but I think they are known to be fussy...it still grows well though.

The only corals I have EVER lost were Euphyllias. I have killed the last 3 Euphyllias I put in my tank within 4 days. They don't expand, turn to goo, and melt. I just put two new frags in there two days ago (a Hammer and a Frog), and neither are fully expanded yet. The Frog is doing better than the Hammer.

What is going on?

 

[Logzor]

Seeing that your sps do fine there should be no reason that your frogspawns and hammers die.

What is your in tank turnover rate? Frogspawns, hammers, and torches are very sensitive to flow.

Mine will fully expand but start to lose polyps if they are getting too much flow. Their tissue gets twisted and squeezed off.

Also, post a picture of your tank so I can see how your powerheads are aimed.

You, like me, have a mixed reef. It has taken me awhile to get all of my LPS properly placed to protect them from the high flow. I have 2900 GPH in my 55 gallon.

Also, you do not mentions your fish and inverts (besides what is in your sig), could something be picking on them at night or when you are at work?

 

[demonsp]

You dont adjust flow for coral.You want the correct flow for your tank then adjust coral to the flow.MB you have coral in most of the best placese already. This may help.

http://www.asira.org/euphyllia(hammercoral)

 

[saltycreefer]

What's your tank temp?

 

[frednwilma1999]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12003518#post12003518 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by saltycreefer
What's your tank temp?

Temp plays a big part of my euphilla I try and keep 79-80 ish. Hows the iodine level? Lugos goes a long way. I M E /I M O

 

[Myka]

My tank is a 33g, and it only has two MJ400s for powerheads since my LPS don't like my powerheads. One MJ400 blasts my SPS, and one blasts my Gorgonian. Neither put much flow on any of my LPS. The Frog probably gets the most flow, but even then it's just gently 'blowing in the wind'. The powerheads are on a RedSea Wavemaker, so neither are constant. The lighting is one of those crappy 2x39w Glo units (hey they look pretty lol), but it has Giesemann bulbs in it...a 5500K Midday, and a True Actinic. Duration is 11 hours per day.

There is a Remora skimmer and an AquaClear 200 (running RowaPhos) that do put more flow in there as well. The Remora is hanging off the left side, and the AC is hanging off the right side.

The only invert in there is a Peppermint shrimp. He hides during the day, I have no idea what he gets up to at night. No hermits (although I was thinking of adding a few Scarletts). I have Stomatella, Astrea, Nassarius, and black Cerith snails.

Tank temp is 78/80 night/day. I don't add Iodine, and have never tested it. I use IO salt if that helps.

I took some pics so you can see the powerheads. You can see my GSP is retracted, but that is because it likes the flow of my Remora, and the skimmer is turned off right now to feed my Gorgonian, and my GSP hates it when I do that. My SPS are all frags in the upper left corner. My Hammer is dead centre, the Frog is off to the right. I also took pics of the Hammer and the Frog in question. The Frog is looking ok right now...although one head isn't fully expanded. The Hammer you can see the furthest right head is looking really bad.

 

[demonsp]

Sorry but this tank looks to new for all that coral.

 

[Myka]

The tank is 15 months old. I just gave it a big cleaning last week. Coralline doesn't grow much in my tank...

 

[demonsp]

Poor coraline growth is the first sign.
You need to test your own water. Calcium very important for coraline and Alk and PH and ammonia and Phosphate and salinity.
What do you test for and the readings?

 

[Myka]

I use Salifert test kits:

pH 7.8 - 8.0
Am 0
Ni 0
Na 0 to barely a trace
Calcium 400-425
Alk 8-10 dKH
Mg 1350-1360
Phos trace to 0.03 (although I haven't tested it since I changed brands of phos media)
Salinity 1.025-1.026

These numbers have been steady for about 10 months.

I use SeaChem Reef Builder, but I'm going to change to the Reef Buffer 8.3 to help my pH.

 

[ooja3k]

Ph is a bit low...

but with all those good parameters it is hard to believe that you have little-no coralline growth... My parameters are near there, but my ph is a constant 8.2, and i have soo much coralline in less than half the time that your tank has been set up...

 

[Myka]

Maybe I will get coralline once I change buffers...?

 

[Logzor]

Edit: Just noticed you posted your parameters. Strange you do not have coraline growth. I have used seachem with no problems.

Unless you scrape, the entire back of your tank should be covered at this point. Check alk and calcium levels. This might be your problem. Getting you alk over 8 DKH and your calcium over 400 should give a nice coraline bloom. At least, this has been my experience. Take a variety of peoples advice on this arena...

Have any close ups of your sps? They look bleached/brown.

There are a ton of heads on that frogspawn, expensive piece, I have one that only has 2-3 heads and expands larger than a softball. They look like they can be saved, though. Just get your parameters up!

I hate to sound harsh but I do not want you losing all of those corals.

Everything else, as far as your stocking, flow, and other equipment, it sounds fine.

 

[Myka]

I just scraped all the coralling off the glass panes. There were lots of toonie sized patches, but it definately wasn't "covered".

Some of the SPS are fairly fresh frags (month old), and went through travel, they are coloring back up now. They are putting on growth quite nicely. My camera doesn't pick up their colors well either because the rock they are on is basically white, so it flashes the camera, and my camera doesn't focus that close even on 'macro' setting. It's just a point and shoot. The older frags have good coloring and grow well (I think...). I have a purple monti cap which most people seem to bleach out to brown with purple polyps, but mine is 'lilac' with purple polyps, my other monti caps are nicely colored as well (red/orange and green). The birdnest is nice and pink.

I don't want to lose them either!!! The big piece is the Hammer. The Hammer was a frag trade, so it didn't cost me anything, BUT I don't want to lose such a beautiful piece!!! I actually had no idea it was going to be so big! It was only supposed to be 3-4 heads!

 

[ooja3k]

How much flow do you have in that tank...

I have 3 Koralias: 1 #1 and 2 Nanos, and with my return pump, its pushing roughly 37x turnover in my 30long... My frogspawn loves it!!

I am starting to think that the flow might be too low... Your maxijets may have been giving them too much "direct" flow, but if you increase your "random" flow it might help.

 

[Myka]

My tank is currently at...gotta calculate...6.5x turnover LOL!!!! This is just powerheads though. If you count the filters then it's currently at 21x turnover. I've had it at 10x, 15x, 25x, and 35x (just including powerheads). The corals are the happiest at this new 6.5x turnover.

I used to have two MJ1200s and two MJ400s blowing indirectly, but my LPS weren't too impressed. I used to have a MJ1200 that blew across the back pane behind the rocks, but I took that out about two months ago, and replaced it with a Koralia 2 that blew out across the front pane. The Koralia put out quite a bit of flow, and my SPS liked it, but my LPS hated it. I took the Koralia out, and repositioned the corals grouping the SPS together, and adjusted the two MJ400s to only hit the Gorgonian and the SPS (they get direct flow off the MJ400s). All my corals are happier than ever with this new powerhead arrangement I did two weeks ago. Even that Hammer that never grew was waaaay happier than it ever was before, but I traded it off last week because I was tired of it not growing.

One of the ones I lost was a $70 Frog about four months ago. That hurt.

Maybe I'll take a short video of my Frog tomorrow when the lights are back on so you guys can see how hard/soft it is blowing in the current.

 

[ooja3k]

With or without filters, 6.5x turnover is insanely to low in my opinion for a reef tank...

Something else must be going on in your tank, not flow related...

I would up the flow in your tank... But i'd like to see what others have to say.

 

[Logzor]

I may have missed it, what kind of water do you use? Tap or filtered?

I am tryin to think of other details that might matter.

 

[Myka]

I have my own RO/DI that produces tds 0 ppm. It is brand new, I just started using it at the end of December. Before that I was buying RO water from the grocery store which had tds of 2-9 ppm depending how old their filters were.

I do 5 gallon waterchanges every 2-4 weeks. I mix the saltwater for 1-7 days with a powerhead and a heater. I got a new pail of IO a couple months ago, and I haven't tested the batch yet...I keep forgetting. I'll do that tonight or tomorrow before I do my waterchange.

I also think 6.5x turnover is insanely low, but like I said, I've tried many other flow combinations, and I find that all my LPS are happiest at this flow. Detritus isn't building up, so I'm assuming nothing is being harmed. That 6.5x turnover is being directed at the corals who like the flow, which the corals who don't like flow are not being hit.

Maybe I need to try using Koralia 1's or Nanos instead of the MJs, but I'm reluctant to change anything to do with the flow right now as my corals have never looked happier.