Coral Issues

MangoSentinels · Mar 14, 2021

Hi reefers,

Been having major struggles with my coral and was wondering if anyone here could please help me out and set me on the road to recovery.

Salinity 1.027
Ammonia 0.00 ppm
Nitrite 0.00 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Magnesium 1520 ppm
Alkalinity 10 d/KH
Calcium 452 ppm
Phosphate 0.00 ppm
PH 8.4
Temp 79°

Light: Kessil A160WE Tuna Blue
Wavemaker: Jebao Gyre (Low to Med Flow)
ATO: Tunze 3152 Osmolator
Protein Skimmer: SCA-301
Mechanical filtration: Filter Sock + High Capacity GFO reactor + Rox Carbon reactor

Tank size is 50 Gal with a 20 gallon sump. 50 lbs dry rock, 40 lbs live sand.

Fish: Ocellaris Clownfish, Midas Blenny, Banggai Cardinal, Blackcap Basslet, Cleaner Shrimp
Coral: Bubble Coral, Wall Hammer Coral, Elegance Coral

System has been running for about a year. Fish have been doing really well but I've been struggling oh so hard with coral - for whatever reason they do very poorly in my tank and I don't know why. I've had my Hammer and Elegance coral for about a month now. They were both doing great at first but 2 days ago the Elegance Coral stopped opening up for the first time and its long tentacles suddenly have gotten short and stubby. The hammer coral is opening, but not fully extending as it usually would. The bubble is probably doing the worst out of all of them and is barely extending at all. I dose 12ml of Tropic Marin All for Reef every day for trace elements. Can anyone please please please help me out? Much appreciated. Pics below.

Before:

After:

vetteguy53081 · Mar 14, 2021

Mag very high. Salt a little high. Concerning to me is the amount of zero's (ammonia-nitrate-phos)
It tells me youre likely using API test kits, well known for false reading and very unreliable. here is the ranges you want to be in:
Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .4
phos < .04
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-9
CA 440

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

How often do you feed and with what? Do you feed the coral or just broadcast? The fish load seems pretty light for a 50g tank. For a 1yr old tank it looks very clean and not much growth on the rock, glass, sand. I suspect the corals are not getting enough nutrition. Especially with a GFO reactor going. I would take the GFO reactor out for now and let your phosphates get to .03 or so. Try target feeding the corals too if they will take some food. That will help.

MangoSentinels · Mar 14, 2021

I use Hannah Checkers for Calcium, Alkalinity and Phosphates. I use Red Sea test kits for the rest.

How would I go about bringing my magnesium down?

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

I wouldn't worry about 1500ppm Mg right now. You can probably lighten the AFR dose as your Alk is a little high and Ca is ok where it is at.

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

What salt do you use?

JosephM · Mar 14, 2021

MangoSentinels said:
I use Hannah Checkers for Calcium, Alkalinity and Phosphates. I use Red Sea test kits for the rest.

How would I go about bringing my magnesium down?

Your magnesium is not the issue. I’ve ran as high as 1700 with no ill affects on corals. As other user stated, are you feeding your corals in any manner? And would definitely take GFO offline or decrease the amount or time you’re using it. I’d shoot for at least 0.03ppm P04

MangoSentinels · Mar 14, 2021

Shirak said:
How often do you feed and with what? Do you feed the coral or just broadcast? The fish load seems pretty light for a 50g tank. For a 1yr old tank it looks very clean and not much growth on the rock, glass, sand. I suspect the corals are not getting enough nutrition. Especially with a GFO reactor going. I would take the GFO reactor out for now and let your phosphates get to .03 or so. Try target feeding the corals too if they will take some food. That will help.

I feed New Life Spectrum Thera A pellets during the day and LRS Fish Frenzy at night. I was giving the system Reef Energy AB+ about once a week but I’ve stopped since I’ve started to see issues.

MangoSentinels · Mar 14, 2021

Shirak said:
What salt do you use?

Ive used Fritz RPM salt the entire time.

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

MangoSentinels said:
Ive used Fritz RPM salt the entire time.

Blue or Red? Blue is lower alk than red. And while the 10dkh alk in your tank is a tad on the high side which is probably a result of the salt mix and the 1.027 salinity, the crux of the problem IMO is the corals are starving.

Pistondog · Mar 14, 2021

MangoSentinels said:
I feed New Life Spectrum Thera A pellets during the day and LRS Fish Frenzy at night. I was giving the system Reef Energy AB+ about once a week but I’ve stopped since I’ve started to see issues.

My corals did not like AB+. Had to stop.

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

With just the 3 corals I would try target feeding them some mysis or something. Although I have better results with small pellets for hammers. The Elegance and bubble should be able to gobble up pretty good sized pieces of shrimps.

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

Have never used AB+ but many have. Not sure how effective it would be with just a few corals in a 50g tank.
How about your lighting? Single 160? What do you have them set at? Distance from the light to the corals? I see they are on the sand.

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

Pistondog said:
My corals did not like AB+. Had to stop.

Can you elaborate?

MangoSentinels · Mar 14, 2021

Shirak said:
Blue or Red? Blue is lower alk than red. And while the 10dkh alk in your tank is a tad on the high side which is probably a result of the salt mix and the 1.027 salinity, the crux of the problem IMO is the corals are starving.

I used mainly the 200 Gal Blue box, but the last 2 times that I’ve had to replenish salt I had to settle for the 50 Gal Black Bag. Didn’t know that there was a difference, foolish of me.

Pistondog · Mar 14, 2021

Shirak said:
Can you elaborate?

Reduced polyp extension.
Came back after stopping AB.

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

MangoSentinels said:
I used mainly the 200 Gal Blue box, but the last 2 times that I’ve had to replenish salt I had to settle for the 50 Gal Black Bag. Didn’t know that there was a difference, foolish of me.

I think the blue and black bag are supposed to be around 8.5dkh at 1.025 salinity. Since your salinity is 1.027 that could explain the higher alk. But salts can vary quite a bit in DKH so you do need to be careful you don't swing the alk wildly doing a water change.

Shirak · Mar 14, 2021

Pistondog said:
Reduced polyp extension.
Came back after stopping AB.

Interesting. I have tried dosing amino's and other things. Seems whenever I do I get cyano and hair algae and other stuff..

uhgster1 · Mar 14, 2021

All of your coral like to be fed. Turn off the flow and target feed. Keep the flow off until you see the elegance finish. The hammer feeding response is not dramatic, you might see it’s mouths you might not, but it definitely takes in nutrition. Your bubble is a little piggy too. Take your time and don’t mess with your chemistry. Hammers actually use a lot of magnesium for something that hasn’t been pinned down yet.