All my LPS are retracted!

[Boochika]

I've posted on here a lot lately, but basically all my LPS are retracted.

My journal for more background is here, but basically water chemisty is good, lighting has been reviewed with a par meter and the only culprit I could suspect is something in my water that's harming the corals or powerhead flow set up. I have about 22 times display tank flow. Powerheads are opposing each other and turning on and off with some slight overlap. I've tried higher and lower flow rates for 3-4 day periods and nothing has seemed to perk up my corals.

Should note that GSP and ZOA's are flourishing.

My Acan is pretty much dead as it had 1 polyp bailout yesterday. I'm not sure what the issue is really. Everything I add new to my tank seems to really suffer. It may not seem like a lot to some people but we're talking $500+ and tons of time in the past 2 months to get my water chemistry perfect (I thought).

I have a few ICP tests coming today and hopefully they'll shed some light on the subject.

If anyone has experienced similar issues with near ideal (and stable) water quality and corals seeming miserable please let me know. All i have is snails in the tank. I've had 2 urchins die as well as a lawnmower blenny after I introduced them over the past month. All old livestock seems fine. Dead livestock was removed.

I do water changes every week to 2 weeks of 15 gallons in my 80 gallon system. Occasionally I will vacuum the sand and get a dark cloud of nastiness. But I make sure it all goes out the python and doesn't spread.

CLowns
Cardinalfish
Dottyback
Firefish

77-78 degrees
PH 8.03
Salinity 1.0252
Alk 8.5-9 (what is the definition of stable?)
CA 420
MG 1350
No3 - 0
Phos - .03-.07

 

[HB AL]

Safe to assume since all are reacting in the same way something in the water is bumming them out.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Given the water parameters and information you provided I would guess one of two things:

• Some sort of contaminant got in the water such as soap from your hands, or cleaning supplies or air fresheners used near the tank. Whenever I suspect something like that I typically run polyfilters and carbon and then do a sizeable water change (25%ish) to try and remove whatever contaminant might be in the tank.
• Stirring your sandbed released something toxic into the water column which killed the urchins/blenny and is irritating the corals. I know you said you made sure it all goes down the python, but that's just the funk that you can see. Do you have a deep sandbed?

Hope you can figure it out. I'm sure it's frustrating given that your parameters seem pretty good. Although undetectable is not good for corals, that wouldn't account for the urchin/blenny dying.

 

[Boochika]

Given the water parameters and information you provided I would guess one of two things:

• Some sort of contaminant got in the water such as soap from your hands, or cleaning supplies or air fresheners used near the tank. Whenever I suspect something like that I typically run polyfilters and carbon and then do a sizeable water change (25%ish) to try and remove whatever contaminant might be in the tank.
• Stirring your sandbed released something toxic into the water column which killed the urchins/blenny and is irritating the corals. I know you said you made sure it all goes down the python, but that's just the funk that you can see. Do you have a deep sandbed?

Hope you can figure it out. I'm sure it's frustrating given that your parameters seem pretty good. Although undetectable is not good for corals, that wouldn't account for the urchin/blenny dying.

My sandbed is about 2 inches of crushed coral. I do have some carbon I can put in the filter sock for now. I will do a water change this week and not touch the sandbed at all. The reason I typically vacuum it is because I seem to get a lot of brown/green algae on it.

Would carbon in a filter bag in the filter sock be safe enough for my tank? I have quite a bit of the BRS ROX carbon on hand.

 

[Jimbo662]

Have your nitrates and phosphates always been that low or have they recently dropped? LPS generally like those a little higher.

 

[fishguy242]

yes carbon can help possibly ,waiting for icp results

 

[muzikalmatt]

Two inches of crushed coral I don't think would constitute a deep sand bed, but the fact that you mentioned "a dark cloud of nastiness" made me suspect that. I have a similar sandbed in my tank and I would clean it with a turkey baster every few days. I definitely saw a lot of funk come out of it, but I've since stopped as it seemed be fueling the vermetid snail problem I currently have. Are you cleaning the sandbed frequently (like once a week) and how large is the tank? Even with a shallow sandbed if you're cleaning a large bed infrequently you can release enough funk to cause issues with the tank.

Carbon in a filter bag would be fine. BRS Rox is good too as it should filter out most of the contaminants you'd encounter. Polyfilters are great because they can indicate what contaminants they are pulling out of the water with their color change.

 

[Boochika]

I clean the sand bed with every water change. Tank is 80 gallons.

Yes my nutrients have always been that low. I'm kind of rebooting my tank so these are the first new corals for almost a year.

 

[Boochika]

How long should I keep carbon going and how often should I replace it? I have about a 1/4 cup of BRS ROX in there right now.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Typically carbon exhausts itself after about a week as its inner pore structure gets clogged with organics, detritus, etc. If you want to be more aggressive you could change it every 2-3 days, but you want to be careful not to strip your water too clean as that can upset your corals as well. I'd probably run it for a week and then change it out. See if that helps with your situation. If it doesn't, then contaminants might not be your issue. (Although your ICP results should shed some light on that.)

 

[Boochika]

Thank you all for your help. I plan to use carbon for a few days then change it out. Water change of at least 25 gallons planned for tomorrow. Sending out ICP tests tomorrow as well.

I don't think I can save all the corals, but should be able to save some of them. Pretty sure my acan is a goner and I'm contemplating removing it from my tank at this point.

 

[fishguy242]

acan can really surprise you with a come back.pics?

 

[muzikalmatt]

As @fishguy242 indicated, definitely don't write your corals off yet. You'd be really surprised how far gone they can be and still come back. I have a small birdsnest colony that was almost completely dead but there's tissue on the top that is still healthy and now growing again. I hope things turn around for you. Given how invested you seem and how proactive you're being, I'm sure you'll get things back in line. Best of luck to you!

 

[Boochika]

Here it is. There are definitely polyps in there but not happy at all

 

[fishguy242]

nowhere near gone,hang tight

 

[muzikalmatt]

nowhere near gone,hang tight

Definitely! I can still see plenty of fleshy polyps. I have an acan that's been way more closed up than that before and has come back with no issues. Honestly, your issues may not be nearly as bad as you think. I know when I was first getting started, any time my corals looked even remotely upset I would panic and think something was terribly wrong with the tank. Over time I learned that occasionally some of your corals are going to look upset and in a few days they'll be back to normal. Typically you only need to worry if all of your corals are closed up and/or they're sliming. That happened once to me at which point I took quick action doing the things I mentioned (polyfilter, carbon, water change, etc) to get rid of whatever had gotten into the tank. (I think it was soap residue on my hands.)

Another thing to consider is acans love meaty foods. I try to feed mine frozen mysis every week or so and they gobble it up like crazy!

 

[Uncle99]

Nitrate should be in the 2-10ppm range, definitely not zero.

 

[Boochika]

I have been feeding occasionally. But this guy was slimed up a bit this morning. I cleaned it off by sucking it off with a turkey baster. It was actually pretty slimed up when I got it, now that I think about it. Like gooey to the touch.

Looked good for a few days after I got it then turned down hill same with my frogspawn and everything since that has gone in there.

I'll keep on the carbon and water change and see what else happens. Maybe grab a poly filter off ***zon

 

[muzikalmatt]

I highly recommend keeping polyfilters on hand for emergencies like these. They seem expensive but you typically don't need a whole one, you can cut a piece off and save the rest for another time. I bought a three pack that's lasted me forever as I only use them when I suspect something got in the tank.

 

[ADAM]

Every once in a while when coral warfare from soft corals (I suspect this is the issue) happens and all the other corals look angry, it sounds like what you may have going on. Or, you say the older corals are doing ok and the newer additions are the ones noticeably struggling. You may have an element(s) built up over time that the older corals have been able to slowly acclimate themselves to whereas the newer have not had that same slow build up.
Either way the ICP and carbon are probably your best bet for now. I get notably better results from carbon when I use it in a reactor like a Phosban 150 or similar.
If it were me, I would put the carbon in it he area where I will get the best pass thru of the bag, also I keep media like PolyFilter and TLF Metazorb (or Cuprisorb) for cases where metals may be the culprit.

Good luck, and don’t change to much to fast unless they all look to be suffering.