My lps/euphylias are retracting

[PaulViljoen]

Help!!
Okay so basically since Friday I have started to notice all my corals (soft included) were not opening as much.

Today all of them are closed and my hammers, bubble and frogspawn started showing there skeleton and I am very worried.

I took my hammers and frogspawn to the lfs for the next week or month but left the bubble because it showed no sign of this. But now it is so I am trying to figure out what caused it


Parameters
Calcium 380ppm
Magnesium 1470
Alkalinity 13.4
P04 0,3
No3 2

 

[PaulViljoen]

Help!!
Okay so basically since Friday I have started to notice all my corals (soft included) were not opening as much.

Today all of them are closed and my hammers, bubble and frogspawn started showing there skeleton and I am very worried.

I took my hammers and frogspawn to the lfs for the next week or month but left the bubble because it showed no sign of this. But now it is so I am trying to figure out what caused it


Parameters
Calcium 380ppm
Magnesium 1470
Alkalinity 13.4
P04 0,3
No3 2

 

[Doctorgori]

is that algae all over those rocks? if so your params don’t support it

 

[Uncle99]

That’s phosphate is on the high end at .3ppm IMM.
Green supports that number as well.
Does your system run normally at .3ppm or is that elevated?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What kind of test kit are you using? Why is the alk so high? How old is the tank? How long have you had the coral?

 

[PaulViljoen]

is that algae all over those rocks? if so your params don’t support it

Yes I have always had algea like that

The params are what I measured today before starting this

 

[PaulViljoen]

What kind of test kit are you using? Why is the alk so high? How old is the tank? How long have you had the coral?

Salifert for calcium magnesium and alkalinity
Red sea for nitrate and phosphate.
Don't know probably just been dosing to much (I dose redsea foundation)
Tank is about 2years but I did rescape it at the start of this year
The one hammer from the start and the others I got this year somewhere in May.

 

[PaulViljoen]

That’s phosphate is on the high end at .3ppm IMM.
Green supports that number as well.
Does your system run normally at .3ppm or is that elevated?

Yeah three weeks ago I had a nem die and for the past couple months been feeding heavy because nutrients was low so the corals didn't look great.
But for the past 2 weeks everything was look beter than ever and the hammers were twice as big as I have ever seen them

 

[MrGisonni]

That alkalinity is really high. Nitrates are low.

 

[nothing_fancy]

Unfortunately the system isn't ready for corals. 13dKh is very high for a tank that I am assuming is a young system (for any system IMO). Also stability is the real question. Using dKh as an example, we don't know what your swing is. Maybe 13dKh is the high end of your alkalinity daily swing, maybe its not. Salinity, temp stability, all unknown, but judging by the photo the tank is probably not stable, most hobbyists have experienced the same so give it some time and use that time to figure out how to best stabilize the parameters of your tank. For LPS like this to start looking bad its likely that you're parameters are out of range and moving around a lot for a while as they are generally hardy corals. I would suggest starting over, making sure you have the correct salinity and that your temp is stable throughout the day. Then I would address your alkalinity, first by doing several water changes, and then by figuring out a testing schedule that works for you. Lastly I would look into your filtration scheme and do something to get your po4 lower. Something like GFO at this point would be good, and then perhaps some phosguard or just a carbon bag.

 

[Doctorgori]

I dunno that algae looks a lil rough …
…….I’ve had bad luck running alk that high
As stated .3 might turn things a lil green, I got a tank runs a lil high like that but rocks are clean…

 

[PaulViljoen]

Unfortunately the system isn't ready for corals. 13dKh is very high for a tank that I am assuming is a young system (for any system IMO). Also stability is the real question. Using dKh as an example, we don't know what your swing is. Maybe 13dKh is the high end of your alkalinity daily swing, maybe its not. Salinity, temp stability, all unknown, but judging by the photo the tank is probably not stable, most hobbyists have experienced the same so give it some time and use that time to figure out how to best stabilize the parameters of your tank. For LPS like this to start looking bad its likely that you're parameters are out of range and moving around a lot for a while as they are generally hardy corals. I would suggest starting over, making sure you have the correct salinity and that your temp is stable throughout the day. Then I would address your alkalinity, first by doing several water changes, and then by figuring out a testing schedule that works for you. Lastly I would look into your filtration scheme and do something to get your po4 lower. Something like GFO at this point would be good, and then perhaps some phosguard or just a carbon bag.

Yeah it's been running for since middle 2021 and doing fine.Honestly the corals never looked like this up until today. I think that I had a really big swing of alkalinity (maybe my dosing pump malfunctioned). Starting over is a bit extreme don't you think?
I agree with water changes I all ready started and will do another 30% tomorrow
Then I will test in for the next week if my alkalinity is beter..

 

[PaulViljoen]

I dunno that algae looks a lil rough …
…….I’ve had bad luck running alk that high
As stated .3 might turn things a lil green, I got a tank runs a lil high like that but rocks are clean…

Yeah I know it looks bad. It has looked worst with a tone of hair algea in the past. There are a bunch of white rock aswell its just overwhelming in some spots.

Sometimes I wish I could start over with new rocks but these have been in for 2 years now and I just got nems so I don't want to start from the beginning

 

[PaulViljoen]

Unfortunately the system isn't ready for corals. 13dKh is very high for a tank that I am assuming is a young system (for any system IMO). Also stability is the real question. Using dKh as an example, we don't know what your swing is. Maybe 13dKh is the high end of your alkalinity daily swing, maybe its not. Salinity, temp stability, all unknown, but judging by the photo the tank is probably not stable, most hobbyists have experienced the same so give it some time and use that time to figure out how to best stabilize the parameters of your tank. For LPS like this to start looking bad its likely that you're parameters are out of range and moving around a lot for a while as they are generally hardy corals. I would suggest starting over, making sure you have the correct salinity and that your temp is stable throughout the day. Then I would address your alkalinity, first by doing several water changes, and then by figuring out a testing schedule that works for you. Lastly I would look into your filtration scheme and do something to get your po4 lower. Something like GFO at this point would be good, and then perhaps some phosguard or just a carbon bag.

Basically I am very shocked its this high because It has never been this high. It has always been around 8-9.

Thats why I am asking on here if that swing could have caused the coral problems

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Basically I am very shocked its this high because It has never been this high. It has always been around 8-9.

Thats why I am asking on here if that swing could have caused the coral problems

That would be my guess.

 

[PaulViljoen]

O

That would be my guess.

k thanks

 

[Uncle99]

Yeah three weeks ago I had a nem die and for the past couple months been feeding heavy because nutrients was low so the corals didn't look great.
But for the past 2 weeks everything was look beter than ever and the hammers were twice as big as I have ever seen them

Maybe a combination of those two things which put you in the right direction (corals look great) but maybe “overshot” the target or just too fast for some.

Water changes make good corrections to off chemistry issues.

Keep all parameters in line and very stable, little rise or fall from day to day.

Then the algae, with a little scrub by you will prevail.
Might take a month or so.

 

[PaulViljoen]

Maybe a combination of those two things which put you in the right direction (corals look great) but maybe “overshot” the target or just too fast for some.

Water changes make good corrections to off chemistry issues.

Keep all parameters in line and very stable, little rise or fall from day to day.

Then the algae, with a little scrub by you will prevail.
Might take a month or so.

Thanks I totally agree.

I mean this was the corals a week ago


And this was how bad the algea was (obviously the light is of so the gorals are closed)

 

[nothing_fancy]

Yeah it's been running for since middle 2021 and doing fine.Honestly the corals never looked like this up until today. I think that I had a really big swing of alkalinity (maybe my dosing pump malfunctioned). Starting over is a bit extreme don't you think?
I agree with water changes I all ready started and will do another 30% tomorrow
Then I will test in for the next week if my alkalinity is beter..

Nice ya I think you are on the right track then with the water changes. And no, I'd say if you had the tank running since 2021 and are still having algae and stability issues starting over is not too extreme. I actually had a similar situation with a tank that was running for 8 years until I ripped it down and started from scratch.

 

[PaulViljoen]

Nice ya I think you are on the right track then with the water changes. And no, I'd say if you had the tank running since 2021 and are still having algae and stability issues starting over is not too extreme. I actually had a similar situation with a tank that was running for 8 years until I ripped it down and started from scratch.

Okay thanks I will look into it