Certain LPS die, help, ideas?

[anglefishlover]

I cannot keep certain LPS, healthy corals I add almost immediately start looking poorly and die within weeks if not less. Can't keep hammers, just added a scoly and a trachy and again doing poorly. I have torches, gonis, trumpets, various encrusting LPS all thriving. Also montis, acros, stylos, softies all do just great, growing and healthy, but everytime I try these certain LPS they do poorly. Frustrating as they are some of my favorites. Tank is doing so well otherwise I cant remember the last animal I lost. I have an established 3yo reefer 350 with reefled 90s x 2, run carbon, UV, skimmer and socks. Parameters have been stable and all acceptable. 1.025, 9.0, 400, 1370, Nitrate 5, phos .03. Is there another species of coral in my tank that could be toxic? Nothing is touching new adds or even close to them. Frustrated fellow reefer looking for ideas. Thanks

 

[Tahoe61]

I cannot keep certain LPS, healthy corals I add almost immediately start looking poorly and die within weeks if not less. Can't keep hammers, just added a scoly and a trachy and again doing poorly. I have torches, gonis, trumpets, various encrusting LPS all thriving. Also montis, acros, stylos, softies all do just great, growing and healthy, but everytime I try these certain LPS they do poorly. Frustrating as they are some of my favorites. Tank is doing so well otherwise I cant remember the last animal I lost. I have an established 3yo reefer 350 with reefled 90s x 2, run carbon, UV, skimmer and socks. Parameters have been stable and all acceptable. 1.025, 9.0, 400, 1370, Nitrate 5, phos .03. Is there another species of coral in my tank that could be toxic? Nothing is touching new adds or even close to them. Frustrated fellow reefer looking for ideas. Thanks

Images might help to nail it down.
What type of LPS specifically?

 

[LPS Bum]

Your parameters seem to be ok. If all of your LPS corals die quickly upon introduction but the other corals are doing fine, I’d first look to where you’re getting the LPS. Are they healthy specimens to begin with? Are they coming in with bacterial infections or missing tissue?

Then the usual issues with certain fish nipping on them, too much light or flow, temps too high, not feeding enough, etc.

I have a majority LPS reef, and I can tell you without question that they like a low energy environment. Lower light, cooler temps, lots of plankton type foods. I give all my corals, especially my LPS, a 15-20 min iodine dip upon introduction.

 

[Shirak]

Your dissolved nutrients are pretty low to almost zero. Two you mention.. Scoly and Trachy are large with a big mouth! Mine have always done better when they can catch something to eat a couple times a week at night when their tentacles are out. Frozen mysis or an LPS pellet or two. During the day when you are feeding the fish these night time feeding coral may not get enough nutrition IMO

 

[anglefishlover]

Your dissolved nutrients are pretty low to almost zero. Two you mention.. Scoly and Trachy are large with a big mouth! Mine have always done better when they can catch something to eat a couple times a week at night when their tentacles are out. Frozen mysis or an LPS pellet or two. During the day when you are feeding the fish these night time feeding coral may not get enough nutrition IMO

Your dissolved nutrients are pretty low to almost zero. Two you mention.. Scoly and Trachy are large with a big mouth! Mine have always done better when they can catch something to eat a couple times a week at night when their tentacles are out. Frozen mysis or an LPS pellet or two. During the day when you are feeding the fish these night time feeding coral may not get enough nutrition IMO

 

[anglefishlover]

I am talking about day 1, day 2 they already look like crap. Not even a chance to feed them. They arent petering out like an acro or zoa or something that just doesnt do well in new tank or due to transport, just never take off and fade away.
These are healthy thriving corals, beuatiful hand picked specimens that crash and burn. I have gotten the most prolific farmed hammers and time after time they just die. I am talking the most basic tried and true hammers. I have torches and gonis thriving. Recently added a scoly and trachy and they just die. Not fading away like a coral does that is starving. Just retract in a day or 2 and and dont come back and die. Its bizarre and I cant figure it out. I am not a noob, have experience and well read. Have 3 tanks, 2 dozen thriving fish, prob 60+ plus thriving corals but these certain species of LPS I just cannot get to take.

 

[anglefishlover]

Sorry lights off now, but u can see coral thriving everywhere in this tank and these 2 turds dying. Been in tank 10 days!

 

[Tahoe61]

Looks and sounds like the corals are reacting to overly intense lighting. How deep is that tank? What percentage are you running the the LEDs at? Are you placing the LPS in hot spots?
Going forward I would slowly acclimate LPS to your tanks lighting.

 

[Shirak]

I'm with Tahoe61 on this. Such a drastic reaction is usually excessive light levels and sometimes water flow or a combination of the two.

Par and flow where you are putting these corals? Your other LPS? Maybe they are acclimated and the new additions are struggling from a different system?

 

[FishyHotel]

This may just be food for thought, but I had a trachy that ended up dying after I moved a Goniopora near it. I was rescaping the tank and ended up putting a Goni frag by the trachy, a torch, and a hammer. Everything in that area started to retract and pucker in a very strange way. After looking it up online it looks like Goni’s do have some toxins they can release and I think it may have been the cause. I ended up removing the gonis from my tank and noticed some increased growth from the torches and hammers afterwards. It all might be coincidence, but I’ve been hesitant to try Goniopora again because of it (and I try to stay away from anything that could accidentally cause me health issues).

I have had added several meat corals and generally after I add them they get comfortable pretty quickly, but my system is high nutrient which I think really helps those corals in particular. If you can get them to eat it will help them adapt (sorry they have been going downhill so quickly). I’ve done some reading online about their survival rates with parasites from the wild and the theory for the parasites being a bigger deal in captivity than in the wild was that their nutrition is just so much more limited in an aquarium than it would be in the wild so they don't have the caloric wiggle room to outgrow / thrive if they have had some.

If it’s possible to have them in any sort of QT and get them a few good meals (I really like chunks from a freshly shucked oyster) I wonder if they would have a little more stamina to adapt to the new system. If you aren’t running carbon you could also try that before they go in to cut down the possibility of chemical warfare.

 

[FishyHotel]

I also just noticed you have a Pygmy angel fish, it may pick at the larger fleshy corals from the get go while you aren’t looking. I had a flame-back angelfish and when I added an acantho to the tank it started picking almost right away and I had to do some observation before I saw her picking at it. I don’t think it messed with the the trachy, but I wouldn’t count it out that they are getting picked on.

I made a small cover for the acantho that allowed it to hang in there while I was on vacation out of a small scoop that I drilled holes in so water could pass through. You could try that to see if they will puff out at all during their recovery. In my experience if one of the meat corals is getting picked at it will really try to hide in the skeleton as much as possible and that might mean it doesn’t get enough energy to survive.

 

[anglefishlover]

Thanks folks, good thoughts. My tank really likes gonis. I have 3 and one that is huge, not close to the trachy so the toxin idea is interesting. Will keep running carbon. I also moved the trachy into a really low light area. It seems to be improving, not outta the woods. Scoly just flat out died in record time, almost as fast as the hammers, they only lasted a few days. Its curious and I guess sometimes u never know for sure. Its a thriving mixed reef, i mean I got just about everything in there except for these few things and the reason they arent in there is because they just die. But my mortality is otherwise great. Dont rememeber the last established inhabitant of any kind lost. And I do have 3 angels, 2 of which are pigmy, but I have 2 thriving clams, acans, blastos and no issues with them.