Coral tissue necrosis

[10galtank]

Hello, all

I am having issues keeping coral happy in my tank. For the last 8-9 months, I’ve had a flawless tank. As of recently, past month or so, my corals (LPS dominated) have been closing up and losing tissue— even the new corals only days old have retracted or lost tissue. *I have experienced a tank crash about 3 weeks ago with all my corals in the tank* my local LFS and I are unsure of what caused it, could of been my two anemones feuding or the shrimp that got eaten by my anemone— still no clear answer as only my nitrites skyrocketed. However, some corals hung on, and some died; as expected. I recently purchased some more coral when my tests came back clear, but when I put them in, the following days they were fully recessed and skeleton became exposed. My tank will get slightly cloudy now, although tests are coming back clear and my tank has been established for a year now.

What could be the cause of this? Is there anything I can medicate/ dose with?

Parameters
Salinity 1.027 (gradually lowering)
Alk 11dkh (lowering with WC)
Calcium 460ppm
Magnesium (no test)
Temp 78-80F
pH 8.0-8.2
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 2-3ppm
Phosphate 0ppm

Cherry Pie Bowerbanki

Rainbow acan Lord

Sun coral

Holographic Hammer

Green Leather Tree

Fire & Ice Zoanthid

Green Purple Ricordea

x4 Grey Red Acan Lord

x2 Green Purple Acan Lord



Magnificent Foxface Rabbitfish

x2 Tomato Clownfish

Conch

Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Sand Sifting Starfish

x6 Astrea Snails

Green bubble tip anemone

Rock flower anemone



29 gallon Aqueon display tank

10 gallon custom Aqueon sump

Marineland 150w heater

Sicce syncrasilent 0.5 return pump

Overflow box

Fluval ps1 protein skimmer

4” filter sock and holder

Hydros dosing pump

XP Aqua duetto dual sensor ATO

Fluval cp1 powerhead

Aqueon 500 powerhead

 

[Kalibur2]

If these truly are your parameters then your phosphates are way to low and with Alk that high I believe is causing issues. Feed your fish more often and raise nutrients and lower your Alk as well under 10.

 

[Lavey29]

You have no nutrients so your corals are slowly starving to death over multiple months. They decline from the inside out. Now you are seeing the outward signs of their decline.

 

[10galtank]

If these truly are your parameters then your phosphates are way to low and with Alk that high I believe is causing issues. Feed your fish more often and raise nutrients and lower your Alk as well under 10.

Roger that. I’m working on lowering alk right now with water changes. What should my phosphates be at? I’m feeding coral almost daily with zooplankton bc I had an intuition that low nutrients be the prime cause. However, it still puzzles me how new coral ( a few days old) will fully retract.

 

[10galtank]

You have no nutrients so your corals are slowly starving to death over multiple months. They decline from the inside out. Now you are seeing the outward signs of their decline.

I feed almost daily now with zooplankton to make up. This is not happening over a few months. This all sporadically happened with a crash. New corals I place in my tank are retracting and losing tissue within the first few days.

 

[Toob]

OK but what caused this sudden “crash”?

 

[The_Paradox]

Try feeding the Tubastraea a couple times a day. They tend to need a lot of feedings until they get settled then once a day is usually enough. That should also help with phosphorous.

 

[Lavey29]

I feed almost daily now with zooplankton to make up. This is not happening over a few months. This all sporadically happened with a crash. New corals I place in my tank are retracting and losing tissue within the first few days.

Bottomed out nutrients equals dead corals. This process takes time and as the extensive die off multiplies it would not surprise me if bad bacteria sets in due to the weakness in the corals immune system and then new pieces added to the tank succumb also.

However, I would still check for things like rusty magnets or broken equipment leaking toxin into the tank also.

 

[The_Paradox]

Bottomed out nutrients equals dead corals.

Wait, I thought we were supposed to shoot for NSW prams

 

[Luis's Nano]

I had the same issue. My problem was as others said. Tank was way too clean. I also ended up with Cyano and some other bacteria blooms along with the die off. Now I keep my phos at a range between 0.01-0.04 and my nitrates sit between 10-20 ppm. All my bacteria issues slowly went away over time and my corals started coming back and coloring up nicely. I did lose some coral but not all. This process of getting my levels back in check took some time too.

 

[Lavey29]

Wait, I thought we were supposed to shoot for NSW prams

Good luck with that approach in a glass box. ULNS was a fad some years back and very experienced reefers can still be successful with that approach today but the majority of reefers will fail due to the limitations of the glass box versus the ocean. Some things we do try and keep NSW like salinity or alk. I've only been reefing a few years but early on I saw the effects of low nutrients on my corals versus the thriving reef system I have today and nutrients levels in the recommended ranges for a mixed reef tank.

There is just no way our glass boxes will ever function completely similar to the open ocean and nature in my opinion. We can try to mirror a lot of areas but the limitations of the tank will always be present.

 

[The_Paradox]

Good luck with that approach in a glass box. ULNS was a fad some years back and very experienced reefers can still be successful with that approach today but the majority of reefers will fail due to the limitations of the glass box versus the ocean. Some things we do try and keep NSW like salinity or alk. I've only been reefing a few years but early on I saw the effects of low nutrients on my corals versus the thriving reef system I have today and nutrients levels in the recommended ranges for a mixed reef tank.

There is just no way our glass boxes will ever function completely similar to the open ocean and nature in my opinion. We can try to mirror a lot of areas but the limitations of the tank will always be present.

Love it!

Agreed. Striving for NWS analog just leads to headaches. I just see people all the time quote NSW numbers and laugh. I do run ULNS but no where near NSW as I’m at 12KH. Took better part of a decade to work out dosing so SPS didn’t try to bleach. Only reason I’m even ULNS is because I’ve never had a tank over 1ppm nitrate and that’s with hourly dosing.

 

[10galtank]

OK but what caused this sudden “crash”?

The LFS and I are unsure. We can only assume that either my two anemones (same species) were feuding, or the waste from my eaten shrimp caused a spike. Ammonia and nitrates stayed low, only my nitrites really spiked.

 

[10galtank]

I had the same issue. My problem was as others said. Tank was way too clean. I also ended up with Cyano and some other bacteria blooms along with the die off. Now I keep my phos at a range between 0.01-0.04 and my nitrates sit between 10-20 ppm. All my bacteria issues slowly went away over time and my corals started coming back and coloring up nicely. I did lose some coral but not all. This process of getting my levels back in check took some time too.

I also experienced a red cyano bloom, and also some bacteria blooms associated to cloudy water as product of my tank crash… how did you recover? What are you doing to maintain your parameters now?! Please inquire

 

[The_Paradox]

Fastest most controllable way will be to dose.

 

[Luis's Nano]

I also experienced a red cyano bloom, and also some bacteria blooms associated to cloudy water as product of my tank crash… how did you recover? What are you doing to maintain your parameters now?! Please inquire

I started feeding heavier. I also got onto a schedule with feeding reef roids and fuel. Starting this helped with alot of the bacteria bloom over time. My nitrates was sitting around 6-8ppm so I started dosing neo nitro every other day to bring it up to the sweet spot for my tank.

 

[Luis's Nano]

Also, I tested every Sunday religiously. Document everything and make small adjustments.

 

[Lavey29]

Love it!

Agreed. Striving for NWS analog just leads to headaches. I just see people all the time quote NSW numbers and laugh. I do run ULNS but no where near NSW as I’m at 12KH. Took better part of a decade to work out dosing so SPS didn’t try to bleach. Only reason I’m even ULNS is because I’ve never had a tank over 1ppm nitrate and that’s with hourly dosing.

Nice, each tank is unique and if you found the sweet spot for yours then stay the course. Different avenues to success are what makes this hobby interesting and fun.