All my LPS are retracted!

[Boochika]

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.

Well right now all my corals are upset including my old ones. Only gsp which doesn't die and zoa's which are new doing well. I'm going to go slow. Carbon. Water change. ICP and act. Nothing too dramatic too fast.

 

[ScottB]

UNLESS you have some pretty strong algae growth in the tank, the answer is not enough nutrient.

If I ran nitrates around zero, all my corals would be shutting down & dying. How old is your PO4 reading? Is it a Hanna ULR reading?

More fish poop please. Dose if you have to. Don't dose nitrates though until you are certain you have plenty (>.06ish) of PO4.

 

[Boochika]

I measure P04 and nitrates every 4 days.

I do have some algae growth, but it's isolated to only a few rocks, my defacto algae scrubber/refugium.

I'm planning to clean them all completely this weekend prior to my water change so I'm algae free and see where my nutrients go from there.

I'm not planning to dose any nutrients at all until I get my ICP back and understand where my nutrients are coming from.
I feed frozen PE mysis, and I'm curious if anyone has ever measured P04 from frozen foods specifically.

My rock is reef saver rock from BRS but it's been in the tank for over 2 years. Sand is carib sea aragonite crushed coral. Can't believe it's still leaching P04.

 

[ScottB]

I measure P04 and nitrates every 4 days.

I do have some algae growth, but it's isolated to only a few rocks, my defacto algae scrubber/refugium.

I'm planning to clean them all completely this weekend prior to my water change so I'm algae free and see where my nutrients go from there.

I'm not planning to dose any nutrients at all until I get my ICP back and understand where my nutrients are coming from.
I feed frozen PE mysis, and I'm curious if anyone has ever measured P04 from frozen foods specifically.

My rock is reef saver rock from BRS but it's been in the tank for over 2 years. Sand is carib sea aragonite crushed coral. Can't believe it's still leaching P04.

What test kits for PO4 and NO3?

At 80G, you have enough room for a nice zebrasoma tang to help keep the rocks clean. They won't eat mature GHA, but prevent it with constant grazing. Or a one spot foxface rabbit.

See what the ICP says, but don't be afraid of nutrients. Yes, NSW measures low, but the amount of flow there is pushing fish turds around is way different than our little tanks.

Here is 10-15 nitrates and .07 - .16 of phosphates:

 

[Boochika]

What test kits for PO4 and NO3?

At 80G, you have enough room for a nice zebrasoma tang to help keep the rocks clean. They won't eat mature GHA, but prevent it with constant grazing. Or a one spot foxface rabbit.

See what the ICP says, but don't be afraid of nutrients. Yes, NSW measures low, but the amount of flow there is pushing fish turds around is way different than our little tanks.

Here is 10-15 nitrates and .07 - .16 of phosphates:

Thanks Scott, I'm looking to add a Kole Eye, Tomini, or Yellow tang. But since I've had some bad experiences with livestock the past couple months I'm going to get water figured out and system figured out then add them. Is foxface reef safe?

I should add my tank is a 4ft 80 gallon.

 

[ScottB]

Thanks Scott, I'm looking to add a Kole Eye, Tomini, or Yellow tang. But since I've had some bad experiences with livestock the past couple months I'm going to get water figured out and system figured out then add them. Is foxface reef safe?

I should add my tank is a 4ft 80 gallon.

All nice choices of tangs. I keep a TON of tangs and rabbits. They are the hardest working (ornamental) fish in the ocean.

My spotted kole only eats film algae; has never touched any food I feed. Work, work, work.

Yes, foxface are reef safe. They can get a bit large, but don't need to run as much as tangs.

 

[Boochika]

All nice choices of tangs. I keep a TON of tangs and rabbits. They are the hardest working (ornamental) fish in the ocean.

My spotted kole only eats film algae; has never touched any food I feed. Work, work, work.

Yes, foxface are reef safe. They can get a bit large, but don't need to run as much as tangs.

Could I keep a fox face and kole in an 80g or too much? I'm really just looking for one as a show piece, but since my rock work is so low there is a lot of swimming space.

 

[ScottB]

You will find different opinions around here on that, but I had two medium size tangs in a 65G for years no trouble.

Right now in an 80G frag I have a large orange shoulder tang and a large foxface. At some point I need to move them over to my larger DT. They just do such a great job in there I hate to lose them.

 

[Boochika]

Did a water change this week and I finally have some nitrates in my tank though very trace. Also have some really strange green algae spots showing up on the glass I never had when I dosed NoPox, so maybe the stuff actually helps.

On a bummer note I had to remove the acan during water change and take a look and it appeared to be infested with vermetid snails! I couldn't see them when it was in the tank but they were all under the bottom of the skeleton and some on the sides. Is there anything I can do to get rid of these and is there anyway to rid my tank of them?

 

[Boochika]

I received my ICP test back today and it seems I have some tin in my water but no iron. Poly filter should be here by today or tomorrow, but since I've done this ICP I've performed a 40 gallon water change. Doesn't matter I'm going to run the filter anyway. Has anyone else had tin show up and negative effects from their tank? I'm sure it's not good for the corals, but I'm just curious.

Test also said I'm on the low end of magnesium at 1300 and low end on iodine. I will self test today after my water water change.

I did show some pink on my Red Sea Nitrate Pro test Monday so nitrates are returning. Corals do not look better though.

Last thing I could think it would be is flow or lighting, but there's now way it's too much lighting with all the LPS getting under 100 par at this point and being in there for weeks should have light acclimated by now. Thinking about putting my Tunze 6105 on wave mode and leaving the Koralia on pulse. This will give more gentle swaying back and forth flow-wise.

 

[Uncle99]

When making changes, you may not see an improvement for months.
resist the impulse to change other things, likely, only adding stress.

 

[Boochika]

When making changes, you may not see an improvement for months.
resist the impulse to change other things, likely, only adding stress.

Thanks Uncle. I'll keep on this path with 15 gallon water changes weekly from my homemade water with the same salt, same salinity, alkalinity, etc. and see if it works out. I'm just very hesistant to still buy more corals at this time and lose money on them. Maybe in a month or so I'll buy another one and see how it does.

Sounds like you're recommending I leave my flow as is?

 

[Uncle99]

I would definitely hold off any livestock until stability has been achieved.

For me, I did not add any LPS or SPS until all my 8 parameters were rock solid, in the range with virtually no flux and when coralline started to show. I used a worksheet to record my tests.

I changed my heater because it had a variance of 3 degrees.
I stopped playing with my lights.
I stopping messing with my flow. (Random, intersecting, corals will retract if too high)
I added an ATO to keep salinity at 1.025 always.
I added a doser to keep Alk (especially alk) CA and Mg on point.
I kept my No3 at 2-5ppm with Nopox and phosphate at 0.03-.1 with Rowaphos (you do not appear to have this issue)

Stability is everything, in water and in light.
Seek this out at all times.
Somewhere down the road your tank will find its happy spot.

Now a days I am confident that everything I drop in the tank opens immediately.

Maybe something in here will help.

 

[Boochika]

This is really helpful and good advice. I'm done touching my flow and lights. I am dosing kalk in very low doses and doing weekly water changes and I'm seeing my CA stay perfect (420-430 every time i measure)

Alk has been harder for me to pin down but it's between 8 and 9. Usually around 8.5.

Temperature is always within a degree of 77.5

Salinity is on point with Tunze ATO.

PO4 and Nitrates are almost always the same at this point at nearly immeasurable NO3 and .06 PO4(been stable for 2 weeks now i measure 2 times per week).

And to your point, my surface that have had coralline algae for over a year, have JUST now started to take off. Like spread over 1-2 inches in the last month. This shows me I'm getting closer i suppose. I'd like my rocks to be covered, but I need to be patient and methodical.

I have heavy coralline on some tonga branch and at the bottom of a frag, how do i get it to spread to my rocks easily? Just let it grow adjacent to the rocks and it will grow onto it?

 

[Bam327]

This is really helpful and good advice. I'm done touching my flow and lights. I am dosing kalk in very low doses and doing weekly water changes and I'm seeing my CA stay perfect (420-430 every time i measure)

Alk has been harder for me to pin down but it's between 8 and 9. Usually around 8.5.

Temperature is always within a degree of 77.5

Salinity is on point with Tunze ATO.

PO4 and Nitrates are almost always the same at this point at nearly immeasurable NO3 and .06 PO4(been stable for 2 weeks now i measure 2 times per week).

And to your point, my surface that have had coralline algae for over a year, have JUST now started to take off. Like spread over 1-2 inches in the last month. This shows me I'm getting closer i suppose. I'd like my rocks to be covered, but I need to be patient and methodical.

I have heavy coralline on some tonga branch and at the bottom of a frag, how do i get it to spread to my rocks easily? Just let it grow adjacent to the rocks and it will grow onto it?

If you want coralline to spread I would take a rock or plug or snail shell that has it and scrape it off. Let’s the dust spread throughout your tank. I think there’s also bottled coralline that you can buy but I have no experience with that

 

[Uncle99]

If you can support coralline, your absolutely ready to move forward.

Make a coralline shake.
2 cups RODI, 5 ml CA and some coralline scrapings, put them in a mixer, blend, pour.

 

[Boochika]

If you can support coralline, your absolutely ready to move forward.

Make a coralline shake.
2 cups RODI, 5 ml CA and some coralline scrapings, put them in a mixer, blend, pour.

I feel like that too. I have fish spawning. Coralline growing but my acan and frogspawn I received totally slimed over. Zoa's doing amazing so is gsp. Favites and favia are hanging on but not thriving.

My ICP test was fine too.

Is it just placement and flow then?

 

[Uncle99]

Favias have long stingers which can easily kill.
Are they close to anything......like within 6 inches...
Want to rule that out first.

For the corals that are/have died, where did they come from, how long were they healthy before their demise?

When zoos and GSP (and Xenia for that matter) thrive, it’s usually because of higher nutrients, can you confirm what No3 and PO4 are now and how long have they remained stable...

You have a full tank pic?

 

[Boochika]

They came from Austin Aqua farms. The Acan was slimey when I put it in initially, wasn't sure if that's normal or not.

I'm going to try purchasing from a local shop to see if I get better results.

 

[Boochika]

Another one of my corals has seemingly melted away. I have no explanation for this, as I don't believe my water is to blame, lighting is not too high, and flow cant be too rough on it.

I've lost 3 corals in the past 2 months this way. They appear stressed and don't open fully. Stop opening up at night for feedings, then wither away completely. Today I noticed slime on the Favia and I went to suck it up and all the polyp came off the entire frag.

Favias have long stingers which can easily kill.
Are they close to anything......like within 6 inches...
Want to rule that out first.

For the corals that are/have died, where did they come from, how long were they healthy before their demise?

When zoos and GSP (and Xenia for that matter) thrive, it’s usually because of higher nutrients, can you confirm what No3 and PO4 are now and how long have they remained stable...

You have a full tank pic?

Here is a pic of my current tank. As you can see I'm still battling some algae on a monthly basis. I only feed .75 cube of PE mysis per day. I feed it slow making sure it's all gobbled up by fish before it drops into sand bed.

I've lost my acan, favia, and frogspawn. I have one frogspawn hanging on with a war coral also hanging on. GSP and Zoa's still doing fine. I've had a poly filter in for about a week now.