CORAL expert advice needed!!

[RC88]

Hello fellow refers,

I wonder if I can ask for some advice. I have two corals that have been closed/irritated for 3 weeks now. Having done some tests I noticed that my alk was on the high end at 12dKH and calcium was low around 360. (Understand these are the main parameters for keeping healthy coral)

The salt I was using had 10dKH so decided to change that to a 7dKH mix and now my dKH levels have been lowering, this week it’s on 11dKH and I also dosed some calcium in the tank and that’s now reading 450.

(Please note that they were all fine and happy before this)

I thought this would resolve my upset corals but when I ran all my tests again I noticed that I had ammonia. And having thoroughly checked my tank I can’t find anything that may be causing it apart from the corals? Could they be dead and causing the spike? I have started carrying out daily water changes to bring the ammonia down and it’s gone down by 0.4 but want to make sure it’s not being caused by my corals as I assume that I would continue having ammonia spikes if I don’t remove.

I have posted some pictures below of my corals, let me know if you think they are dead and if I should remove them from the tank. Thank you all

 

[Dom]

Which test kit are you using to check ammonia?

 

[rwreef]

Also what type of lights are you using?

 

[RC88]

I’m using Red Sea. I have always used it and has shown levels of 0 Ammonia before, so I assume it’s reliable? With regards to lighting I use the NICREW 50W Aquarium LED Reef Light - I appreciate this could probably do with an upgrade. My tank is 100 litres.

 

[Pkunk35]

I just want to say, nothing is dead from those pics!!
Test kits (and users) can be off many times so many people will double check values with a LFS or ICP test once in a while.
Are the lights off? They look normal but closed/nighttime mode. Are they closed all day now but used to open?

 

[RC88]

Thanks - that’s a good suggestion. I will take a sample to my local fish store. I have been keeping the lights off recently for the majority of the day to see if anything changed but nothing yet. I had the lights on for 8 hours a day for the last two weeks and they didn’t open. Previous to that they used to open up when the lights came on yes. Used to behave as expected.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Corals seem to be normal. Add some chemipure elite which will keep phosphate and nitrate in check and reduce ammonia slightly.
I would also suggest taking a good water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test your water for you and verify your readings and for comparison with your results

 

[Fishyfish22]

The first coral looks like green star polyps(gsp) while the second is some kind of leather. They're not particularly reliant on dKH in a tank.

Are they new? They don't look dead, you'd see the second one shriveled more if it was. If they're newer coral they might just be breaking in.

I used to use the red sea test kits for alk,mag, and calcium. Those particular three I realize dwere wildly inconsistent. I sat and tested them all 5 times in a single water sample and the results ranges drastically, I no longer use or reccomend them. Red sea for anything else I seem to be fine with however.

When it comes to dKH, it's not so much what exact number you run so long as it's consistent. The recommended range is between 8-12. Despite this, you do more harm if you raised the dKH from 9 all the way to 11 or vice versa in a single water change than you would if it consistently ran at 7 or 13. Unlike calcium or magnesium for coral its more important that this is the same numer repeatedly than just within range.

 

[RC88]

You are bang on. The corals that I have are a Neon Green Cabbage (The only coral that has been behaving as expected) a Green Star Polyp and a Finger coral white Polyp. The tank is fairly new. I’ve had it for 6 months. The corals I’ve had for 4 months. They used to thrive up until the last two weeks so thought they had already broken in. If it turns out that I have no ammonia. What could be causing this upset? Below are my most recent test results. Also what test kit would you recommend instead of Red Sea?

Ph - 8.2
Nitrate - 20
Alkalinity - 11dKH
Phosphate - 0.4
Calcium - 450
Salinity - 34
Ammonia - 0.8
Magnesium - 1400

 

[Pkunk35]

So I just reread the first post: you must have been dosing alk to get a 10dkh salt to a 12dkh reading? As someone mentioned earlier, dosing calc and alk isn’t going to be necessary for soft coral, only consistency which can usually be had with regular water changing for softies.
IMO I would stop all dosing (including coral foods if any are fed, only target feed fish), continue with a weekly water change, turn the lights back on (on a timer) and leave them alone. Sometimes “tweaking” or experimenting with the tank is what causes everything to be out of whack. Continue to observe and See if those polyps start to open again.

 

[RC88]

Corals seem to be normal. Add some chemipure elite which will keep phosphate and nitrate in check and reduce ammonia slightly.
I would also suggest taking a good water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test your water for you and verify your readings and for comparison with your results

Hi - thank you for the suggestion. I currently have a clear fx pro in my tank. Would adding some chemipure elite still be useful?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi - thank you for the suggestion. I currently have a clear fx pro in my tank. Would adding some chemipure elite still be useful?

It should especially if the FX has been in there more than 4 weeks

 

[RC88]

So I just reread the first post: you must have been dosing alk to get a 10dkh salt to a 12dkh reading? As someone mentioned earlier, dosing calc and alk isn’t going to be necessary for soft coral, only consistency which can usually be had with regular water changing for softies.
IMO I would stop all dosing (including coral foods if any are fed, only target feed fish), continue with a weekly water change, turn the lights back on (on a timer) and leave them alone. Sometimes “tweaking” or experimenting with the tank is what causes everything to be out of whack. Continue to observe and See if those polyps start to open again.

I haven’t dosed alk. Not sure why my reading was 12dKH before. But after some research I found a lower dkh salt alternative from the same brand and made the switch.
It’s reassuring to know that my corals aren’t too sensitive to those elements. I will test my water at a local fish store ASAP to get an accurate reading on my ammonia. If it’s clear I will step back and do as suggested above. What lighting schedules are recomendes?

 

[DinoMagnet]

No expert here, but I as well have had something similar happen to me. With a green star polyp (not really) as mine has more purple. And a Kenya tree. Half my tree was limp and my “green star” is retracted as I’m typing this . After about a week my Kenya tree came to life and shed some branches that scattered around my tank. And my “green star” seems like it’s spreading so might have something to do with growing. Not sure again newbie just speaking from what I have seen. Since my green star does open up but closes more often than not

 

[Fishyfish22]

The corals I’ve had for 4 months. They used to thrive up until the last two weeks so thought they had already broken in.

If it turns out that I have no ammonia. What could be causing this upset? Below are my most recent test results. Also what test kit would you recommend instead of Red Sea?

for those three, i personally prefer salifert.

did you make any specific changes to the tank at around when this started occuring? softies usually like dirty (nutrient rich) water for polyps to extend.

I would also recommend the dosing to stop with the fx pro. chemipure might be usefull, but what is your end goal with them exactly?

 

[Pkunk35]

No expert here, but I as well have had something similar happen to me. With a green star polyp (not really) as mine has more purple. And a Kenya tree. Half my tree was limp and my “green star” is retracted as I’m typing this . After about a week my Kenya tree came to life and shed some branches that scattered around my tank. And my “green star” seems like it’s spreading so might have something to do with growing. Not sure again newbie just speaking from what I have seen. Since my green star does open up but closes more often than not

Its been a while since I had gsp but I seem to remember this behavior as well. The whole rock would stay closed for days but then open up again right as rain like nothing happened. Softies are def a little weird...

 

[RC88]

for those three, i personally prefer salifert.

did you make any specific changes to the tank at around when this started occuring? softies usually like dirty (nutrient rich) water for polyps to extend.

I would also recommend the dosing to stop with the fx pro. chemipure might be usefull, but what is your end goal with them exactly?

I must admit that I made a few changes to my filtration system to gain better flow. My tank has a back sump with 6 compartments and it used to have 3 large sponges. I removed two sponges and added the clear fx to give me a all in one filtration system. I’ve read that the loss of bacteria in those sponges may also have caused this behaviour. So perhaps it just needs to built itself back up again? But with regards to the clear fx the aim was to have an all in one filter media that could keep everything in check and the water clear. Perhaps that also stripped a lot of the dirty water I had?