Corals are Dying - Help Please. Documentation, parameters and YouTube video included

[bobssecrtsn]

You should try this out. Adjust your LEDS to have only blue, dark blue, UV ETC turn off reds whites green. Turn your t5 back on.

 

[EMeyer]

The OP has asked several times but I havent seen it answered yet.

Yes, your alk is too high. Dont buffer it down, just allow it to fall on its own. Aim for 7.5. Make sure you're using a salt mix that has normal alk (7-8) or reduce its alkalinity before water changes.

The alk isnt causing your nuisance algae problems (thats the dry rock), but high alk kills corals in my experience.

 

[kireek]

I've shut off the T5s for now. I'm going to leave them off for a while and see how things react.

My Mag is around 1380 now. Is that still to low? That's the upper end of the green zone in the Triton results.

My tank is in my finished basement, usually I'm the only one down there watching TV, so there's not much carbon dioxide in the room.

Should I buffer the alk down?

Oh good,your Mag is fine.I definitely would not dose Alk at this time.This should go down on it's own . Continue to test your water often and I think you should be golden.

 

[ScottB]

OP you have done a great job documenting the situation & history. I will also say you have followed the standard playbook very well. Even so, your experience is not that uncommon for the present maturity of your biome. Take heart; I feel like you have the chops for SPS husbandry.

Admitting my imperfect knowledge of the chronology of coral additions and the dino episode, I will still speculate that the SPS trouble is some combination of:

a) Nutrient swings (hi/low/hi/med) associated with the dino episode.
b) ALK levels a tad higher than the typical grow out tanks of today's online coral vendors. (Unless you are in EUR) HW Salt mixes to 9 according to BRS, so I would not be supplementing higher myself.
c) Biome immaturity. Some just take longer others to reach SPS puberty.

Sure, we have all seen a tank or two that flourished early with SPS. But those are the exceptions. What you are describing is more the norm IMO.

Keep doing what ur doing. I think you are super close to hitting the sweet spot. Slow, modest interventions while the biome does its thing.

 

[Aquaman102]

The OP has asked several times but I havent seen it answered yet.

Yes, your alk is too high. Dont buffer it down, just allow it to fall on its own. Aim for 7.5. Make sure you're using a salt mix that has normal alk (7-8) or reduce its alkalinity before water changes.

The alk isnt causing your nuisance algae problems (thats the dry rock), but high alk kills corals in my experience.

Part of the challenge is my Alk is always "high". When I test it's always in the 9.1 - 10.6 dkh range.

I've always used the HW Reefer mix.

Statement from the BRS website: Upon BRS analysis - hw-Marinemix Reefer contained Calcium at 445-450 ppm, Alk of 9.0 dKH, Magnesium at 1380 ppm.

Maybe I need to try a different salt to get it down lower than 9.. Hesitant to make any more changes right now though.

 

[ScottB]

Part of the challenge is my Alk is always "high". When I test it's always in the 9.1 - 10.6 dkh range.

I've always used the HW Reefer mix.

Statement from the BRS website: Upon BRS analysis - hw-Marinemix Reefer contained Calcium at 445-450 ppm, Alk of 9.0 dKH, Magnesium at 1380 ppm.

Maybe I need to try a different salt to get it down lower than 9.. Hesitant to make any more changes right now though.

In an absolute sense, 9 is not high. In Europe it is very common to run higher. Red Sea program is higher. That said, most of our online vendors are running lower. Also, lower ALK is safer if nutrients get low.

 

[Oldcoder]

Aquaman102, I am going thru the exact same thing as you symptoms are identical corals loosing heads Zoas melt and Chalice corals recede the tissue. I have also gone thru cyno followed by dinos. I have taken almost identical actions so far with no luck my rust colored dinos on the sand have turned bright green I am wondering if they are still dinos or something else.
For what it is worth my alk is 8.1 and Mg is 1440. I have three Kessils running at 55% over the four foot tank. I have concluded that the dinos are releasing toxins so I started aggressive carbon seems to have helped or at least slowed down the deaths. I am using a reactor and changing the carbon weekly. However as Dr. Fauci would say the evidence is entirely anecdotal, and death at this point is slowed no recovery.
I was curious did your dinos turn green? Mine were confined to the sand mostly and rust colored under a Microscope they were dino shaped.
I will never do a dry rock tank again...

 

[Aquaman102]

Aquaman102, I am going thru the exact same thing as you symptoms are identical corals loosing heads Zoas melt and Chalice corals recede the tissue. I have also gone thru cyno followed by dinos. I have taken almost identical actions so far with no luck my rust colored dinos on the sand have turned bright green I am wondering if they are still dinos or something else.
For what it is worth my alk is 8.1 and Mg is 1440. I have three Kessils running at 55% over the four foot tank. I have concluded that the dinos are releasing toxins so I started aggressive carbon seems to have helped or at least slowed down the deaths. I am using a reactor and changing the carbon weekly. However as Dr. Fauci would say the evidence is entirely anecdotal, and death at this point is slowed no recovery.
I was curious did your dinos turn green? Mine were confined to the sand mostly and rust colored under a Microscope they were dino shaped.
I will never do a dry rock tank again...

Dino's of have not turned green. Still a light brown color on the sand. I am siphoning them frequently (into a 1 micron sock in the sump) to stay ahead of them gaining a foothold.

Mine don't seem toxic, but I do have a bit of carbon running.

Fight on brother!

 

[ScottB]

Aquaman102, I am going thru the exact same thing as you symptoms are identical corals loosing heads Zoas melt and Chalice corals recede the tissue. I have also gone thru cyno followed by dinos. I have taken almost identical actions so far with no luck my rust colored dinos on the sand have turned bright green I am wondering if they are still dinos or something else.
For what it is worth my alk is 8.1 and Mg is 1440. I have three Kessils running at 55% over the four foot tank. I have concluded that the dinos are releasing toxins so I started aggressive carbon seems to have helped or at least slowed down the deaths. I am using a reactor and changing the carbon weekly. However as Dr. Fauci would say the evidence is entirely anecdotal, and death at this point is slowed no recovery.
I was curious did your dinos turn green? Mine were confined to the sand mostly and rust colored under a Microscope they were dino shaped.
I will never do a dry rock tank again...

No dinos that we see in the hobby are green. You have moved on to something new and likely less toxic. Euglena perhaps? It is green. Under a microscope, it is very small green cells under a microscope. I will see if I can find pics in another thread.

 

[ScottB]

Aquaman102, I am going thru the exact same thing as you symptoms are identical corals loosing heads Zoas melt and Chalice corals recede the tissue. I have also gone thru cyno followed by dinos. I have taken almost identical actions so far with no luck my rust colored dinos on the sand have turned bright green I am wondering if they are still dinos or something else.
For what it is worth my alk is 8.1 and Mg is 1440. I have three Kessils running at 55% over the four foot tank. I have concluded that the dinos are releasing toxins so I started aggressive carbon seems to have helped or at least slowed down the deaths. I am using a reactor and changing the carbon weekly. However as Dr. Fauci would say the evidence is entirely anecdotal, and death at this point is slowed no recovery.
I was curious did your dinos turn green? Mine were confined to the sand mostly and rust colored under a Microscope they were dino shaped.
I will never do a dry rock tank again...

Here is the link:

Help id algae

Dear all I would like to ask you for help identifying this algae. A bit of a background. We set up the aquarium last august. In December the silicon failed and we had to restart it (all rock, media from the sump, fish and coral where transferred over). Originally everything was doing great. We...

www.reef2reef.com

Obviously without tank or microscope pics it is not possible to confirm but take a look at the thread and see if you can establish a match.

 

[Oldcoder]

Well if no Dinos are green I am encouraged. I do have a toy scope I will give it a go tomorrow. See if I can figure it out thanks for the thread.

 

[Oldcoder]

Well if no Dinos are green I am encouraged. I do have a toy scope I will give it a go tomorrow. See if I can figure it out thanks for the thread.

I have been researching green dinos the last couple of days without finds any reference to it. So thanks again.

 

[Oldcoder]

Well my joy was short lived got out the microscope today. ScottB ws right I have some kind of green algae growing and the dinos are still there everywhere. Got some good views of the dinos perfect circles almost and orange sparkles on them. They actively swim. Corals still dying even with really good water parameters.
I going to replumb the UV directly to the return line and see what happens. With better nutrients the mushrooms are expanding anything with a skelton dies though. Aquaman hope your doing better. Good Luck.

 

[Aquaman102]

Well my joy was short lived got out the microscope today. ScottB ws right I have some kind of green algae growing and the dinos are still there everywhere. Got some good views of the dinos perfect circles almost and orange sparkles on them. They actively swim. Corals still dying even with really good water parameters.
I going to replumb the UV directly to the return line and see what happens. With better nutrients the mushrooms are expanding anything with a skelton dies though. Aquaman hope your doing better. Good Luck.

That sucks. I'm still siphoning the sand bed daily. Getting to the point where I'm not pulling out much detritus anymore, so that makes the think the "nutrients" in the sand bed aren't contributing.

I did put in a small Blasto coral to test the waters a bit and see how it does.