28 Gal LPS & Softy tank crashing

[chunkeylover59]

Water parameters:
Alk: 9
SG: 1.026
Mag: 1350
Phos: .15 (I've been battling high phosphates for pretty much the entire time I've had this tank)
Calcium: 450
Nitrate: 17
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0

Hello everyone, I would be extremely grateful for any advice you can offer to my current situation. Please let me know if there is any other information I can provide.

Full Explanation:

A few months ago my Can colony started having some issues (not opening up, receding etc.). I tried doing dips to see if there was a pest or bacteria, moving it to a lower light/lower flow area but ultimately nothing helped and I lost the colony. During the Dips I didn't notice any pests fall off, or one the coral.
Sadly over the past few months this issue has continued with nearly all of my other LPS, and my mushrooms all started to jump from their spots down to the sand bed.

So far I have lost all my Acans, my Duncan, my last favia is holding on by a thread, my hammers/frogspawn arent opening up much, all my mushrooms seem to be moving a lot/unhappy.

I got a new RODI because I thought maybe there was an issue with my old system, but even after over a month of weekly water changes (did 30% for the first 3 weeks, and back to 10% since then) nothing has changed.

I had my LFS rest my water to make sure my instruments were all giving accurate readings (the seem to have been)

I have sent an ICP test kit out for both my tank water and RODI water, but I'm still waiting for the results.

It is worth noting that about 2 months before these issues started I got a new light for my tank. For those 2 months everything seemed to be improving (puffier corals, more colour detail etc.) Ive tried turning the intensity of the lightdown, as well as reducing the hours the light is on.

TL;DR: My tank is crashing and Im having trouble identifying the issue.

Things I've tried:
- New RODI
- Big water changes
- Dipping corals (revive and Hydrogen Peroxide)
- Reducing light intensity and duration
- watching for pests


Things I'm wondering if I should try:
- Moving remaining corals to my QT tank (and filling that tank with freshly mixed RODI water)
- Switching my tank light back to my old one

Yesterday my Torch didn't open up as much as it normally does (has been one of the few corals that seemed unaffected by all of this), and it still didn't open today so I took a closer look and it looks like the flesh has been picked at or something, but I I've never seen anything picking at any of my corals.

I also noticed some weird trail of dirt on the carcass of my Duncan coral.

Pictures below of my torch today, and Duncan carcass.

 

[JerryB1232]

Im not an expert, but one thing you can do is look up all of your equipment such as pumps/powerheads to find out if they commonly release heavy metals into the water. Check all food and dosing you put into the tank for contaminants as well. Check all magnets for water intrusion. Start simple by eliminating everything to do with mechanical and water chemistry then move to possible bacterial infections and research that.

 

[get-salty]

Hi there,

With po4 of .15 on an LPS tank is 100% fine - not high at all.
can you give more details on your dipping process ?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What type of light do you have and what intensity? How old is the tank? Can we see a tank pic? What do you have for flow?

WE need more info...It seems like your handling them a lot, moving them, dipping them, holding them to take pics, also reducing light and flow... its a lot of stress for corals. If a coral is unhappy it should be left unhappy, not dip it and not touch it, corals have mood swings sometimes.

 

[Lavey29]

Think you answered the question to your problem when you mentioned new light 2 months before the struggles started.

 

[njmaddreefer]

What is the new light and how do your par levels compare before and after?

 

[chunkeylover59]

Im not an expert, but one thing you can do is look up all of your equipment such as pumps/powerheads to find out if they commonly release heavy metals into the water. Check all food and dosing you put into the tank for contaminants as well. Check all magnets for water intrusion. Start simple by eliminating everything to do with mechanical and water chemistry then move to possible bacterial infections and research that.

Thank you, that's a good idea. I'll look into that

 

[chunkeylover59]

Hi there,

With po4 of .15 on an LPS tank is 100% fine - not high at all.
can you give more details on your dipping process ?

Sure, I take some tank water and mix it with the dip solution following the instructions. After that I add the coral and set a timer, and try to gently move the coral around in the solution, as well as actually dipping it in and out a few times

After it's been in the dip for the recommended amount of time I give it a rinse with some clean tank water and then add it back to the tank.

I also then check the dip solution for any pests that may have jumped off

 

[chunkeylover59]

What type of light do you have and what intensity? How old is the tank? Can we see a tank pic? What do you have for flow?

WE need more info...It seems like your handling them a lot, moving them, dipping them, holding them to take pics, also reducing light and flow... its a lot of stress for corals. If a coral is unhappy it should be left unhappy, not dip it and not touch it, corals have mood swings sometimes.

Fair enough. I try not to handle them very often. This whole process has happened over the course of months, so I haven't done all these things at once. The first thing I did with each coral was to just leave them alone, but after a couple weeks with no improvement, and often a worsening situation, I figured I had to act.

Light is Current USA 24-36in
Blue intensity 50%
White intensity 20%
The tank is about 2 yrs old, 28 Gal. For flow I have a seachem Tidal 75 power filter


I have some tank pics in my tank thread, but I've attached a pic I took today.

 

[chunkeylover59]

Think you answered the question to your problem when you mentioned new light 2 months before the struggles started.

Yeah ive been thinking that too, but since there was 2 months of improvement first Im not 100% sure. And to @Mr. Mojo Rising 's point, Ive been worried about screwing with stuff too much, so I don't know if switching back to the old light at this point is just going to stress the corals out even more now.

 

[chunkeylover59]

What is the new light and how do your par levels compare before and after?

New light is Current USA 24-36in
My old light I was getting about 50-100 par at the bottom of the tank, and 200-300 a few inches down from the surface of the water

Current light par is about 75 at the surface and 20 at the bottom of the tank. I feel like that's low though, no?

 

[Lavey29]

New light is Current USA 24-36in
My old light I was getting about 50-100 par at the bottom of the tank, and 200-300 a few inches down from the surface of the water

Current light par is about 75 at the surface and 20 at the bottom of the tank. I feel like that's low though, no?

20 at the bottom? No coral will survive in that tank par. You want 300 to 400 top, 150 to 250 middle and 75 to 150 bottom as a general guidelines.

 

[chunkeylover59]

20 at the bottom? No coral will survive in that tank par. You want 300 to 400 top, 150 to 250 middle and 75 to 150 bottom as a general guidelines.

Ok, so the intensity of the light is likely not the issue then I guess. Sounds like I should start slowly increasing the intensity back up.

When the tank lights are on tomorrow I'll temporarily revert my settings to what they were before I started reducing the intensity to see if the par matches closer to what you've mentioned above.

Thank you

 

[njmaddreefer]

Ok, so the intensity of the light is likely not the issue then I guess. Sounds like I should start slowly increasing the intensity back up.

When the tank lights are on tomorrow I'll temporarily revert my settings to what they were before I started reducing the intensity to see if the par matches closer to what you've mentioned above.

Thank you

Cool, keep us posted on the progress and hope this helps

 

[BradleyP]

I

New light is Current USA 24-36in
My old light I was getting about 50-100 par at the bottom of the tank, and 200-300 a few inches down from the surface of the water

Current light par is about 75 at the surface and 20 at the bottom of the tank. I feel like that's low though, no?

I had three current USA lights and my lps was the same as yours. I had to upgrade lights and now they are happy and growing.

 

[schooncw]

Fair enough. I try not to handle them very often. This whole process has happened over the course of months, so I haven't done all these things at once. The first thing I did with each coral was to just leave them alone, but after a couple weeks with no improvement, and often a worsening situation, I figured I had to act.

Light is Current USA 24-36in
Blue intensity 50%
White intensity 20%
The tank is about 2 yrs old, 28 Gal. For flow I have a seachem Tidal 75 power filter


I have some tank pics in my tank thread, but I've attached a pic I took today.

Two things…..I would not rely on that hydrometer and your light is inadequate!

 

[Rodan]

I'm going through a similar thing, were you able to fix your issues?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

And add a powerhead in the tank, a tidal 75 is not providing enough flow throughout the tank (I have a tidal 75 on a 32 gallon so I know). Water movement inside the tank is vital and corals will suffocate without adequate flow.

Need better flow, much higher lighting, and need to replace the hydrometer with a better salinity tool, I would place a bet that your salinity is off.

 

[chunkeylover59]

I'm going through a similar thing, were you able to fix your issues?

Was planning to post an update soon once I had more of a definitive answer, but this is where I'm at now:

I'm still working through the issue, but in terms of dying, things seem to have slowed down, but not completely halted. I've been working with my LFS and we think the culprit may have been unmixed salt.
I used to buy bags of Salt, but a few months back (maybe 2-3 months before the issues started) I switched to a bucket because it was more cost effective. Unfortunately I didn't know that you should be thoroughly mixing/rolling the bucket before use.

The ICP test I sent out confirmed my LFS's suspicions that the trace elements in the tank had likely been exhausted. I've now been thoroughly mixing my salt, and just finished 3 weeks of doing 50% water changes to see if there is any improvement with the corals (Its hard to say, but I think there has been).

I sent out another ICP yesterday to see if the trace elements have improved. I will update when the new ICP test results are in. Sounds like even if my trace elements have improved I may need to be dosing at least a two part solution to make sure my corals are extra happy (and prevent this from happening again)

Upon completing these water changes my LFS was nice enough to gift me an Acan frag to add to the tank as a Guinea pig to see how it reacts to my tank while we wait for ICP results. Its been in my tank for 2-3 days so far and it seems to be getting very puffy, so fingers crossed the major issue is solved and I can start focusing on the other improvements to the tank, many of which have been mentioned by other users in this thread (thank you all again!)

Here's a pick of the frag!

 

[chunkeylover59]

And add a powerhead in the tank, a tidal 75 is not providing enough flow throughout the tank (I have a tidal 75 on a 32 gallon so I know). Water movement inside the tank is vital and corals will suffocate without adequate flow.

Need better flow, much higher lighting, and need to replace the hydrometer with a better salinity tool, I would place a bet that your salinity is off.

Thank you for the info/suggestions!

I will look into adding a powerhead to my tank.

As for the salinity, you are correct my hydrometer has been over reporting the salinity slightly (confirmed by both ICP and LFS test) and I will be getting a proper refractometer soon, but in the meantime I'm just mentally offsetting the Salinity while using the Hydrometer.