Corals slowly dying in my tank

[cww81]

I have a 125G tank that has been running for 4 months now. Whenever I add certain corals they will start to do worse over time until death and I’m losing hope as I’m watching things die. Corals such as Zoas, gsp, mushrooms, cloves, stylos, and Duncan’s are all doing fine but my hammer, torch, and most of my sps are what is effected. I run 3 radion G5 XR15 at 50% from 10am till 6pm with a 1 hour ramp up and down. My parameters are as follows:

PH- 8.1
Salinity
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- is usually around 2, but tested today at what seems to be 0 on Red Sea kit. I’m going to test again with Hanna nitrate kit tomorrow.
phosphate- 0 to the eye on the api test kit (ran out of Hanna reagents)
alkalinity- 8.4
Calcium- 410
Mag- 1160

as you can see in the photos, the corals shown are looking quite bad and this has happened over the past month. I also have algae covering the glass and some red cyano looking algae on one rock.
I run a skimmer, refugium (Chaeto browns and looks to die out), and chemi-pure blue. If there’s anything more I can do to help you get a better understanding of my situation then let me know.

 

[cww81]

Pictures were taken right after lights came on in the morning but the corals don’t look much better after adjusting to the light each day

 

[SPR1968]

Your magnesium is very low, I would increase it up to around 1300-1350 over a few days because it affects the interaction between the other elements and if it’s low the corals potentially won’t look healthy

I would also turn the lights up as well over a week, my Radions are on around 90% power when fully ramped up but that’s on a very big tank

These are the sethings I use on my S650 which has Hydra 26 lights as a guide for you as it’s a similar size tank, just a little bigger

Your nutrients are very low so maybe try using Red Sea reef energy a few times a week to feed the corals.

I would also take the chaeto out, it’s dying off because it probably has no food and nothing to remove from the system

 

[robbyg]

Could be a host of things from low flow to super low nutrient levels to bad lighting. Don’t stress them further with quick changes.

 

[codycolina707]

I have a 125G tank that has been running for 4 months now. Whenever I add certain corals they will start to do worse over time until death and I’m losing hope as I’m watching things die. Corals such as Zoas, gsp, mushrooms, cloves, stylos, and Duncan’s are all doing fine but my hammer, torch, and most of my sps are what is effected. I run 3 radion G5 XR15 at 50% from 10am till 6pm with a 1 hour ramp up and down. My parameters are as follows:

PH- 8.1
Salinity
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- is usually around 2, but tested today at what seems to be 0 on Red Sea kit. I’m going to test again with Hanna nitrate kit tomorrow.
phosphate- 0 to the eye on the api test kit (ran out of Hanna reagents)
alkalinity- 8.4
Calcium- 410
Mag- 1160

as you can see in the photos, the corals shown are looking quite bad and this has happened over the past month. I also have algae covering the glass and some red cyano looking algae on one rock.
I run a skimmer, refugium (Chaeto browns and looks to die out), and chemi-pure blue. If there’s anything more I can do to help you get a better understanding of my situation then let me know.

i'd assume nutrients specially the chaeto dying it has nothing to absorb i had the opposite problem of you're too high of nutrients and hair algae took over a couple corals than the bottoming out of nutrients when i was trying to beat it ended up killing most the bigger sps pieces i had also i would get that mag up mines usually 1350+ with reef crystals salt and no dosing

 

[ScottR]

@SPR1968 pretty much summed it up. If I have anything to add, I’d get the Hanna reagents for the ULR checker because it is important to keep phosphates in the water. Flow wasn’t mentioned. Make sure there’s enough flow in the tank for oxygenation and nutrient exchange. I often see many reef tanks with very low flow these days and it’s often overlooked.

 

[Alexopora]

@SPR1968 pretty much summed it up. If I have anything to add, I’d get the Hanna reagents for the ULR checker because it is important to keep phosphates in the water. Flow wasn’t mentioned. Make sure there’s enough flow in the tank for oxygenation and nutrient exchange. I often see many reef tanks with very low flow these days and it’s often overlooked.

+1 on flow. Ramp it up especially for the sps or add additional powerheads if possible.

 

[AdamD76]

Do you have any fish? A 4 month old tank is super young. I would take the skimmer offline or let it flow back into the tank and like other people have said take the cheato out.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I agree with @SPR1968, if the chaeto is dying, you are probably low on the nutrients. I would also rent a PAR meter. Running those light on a 125 gal tank at 50% is probably too little light. The corals you mentioned that are doing OK tend to do fine in lower light. The corals that are giving you problems are medium to high light corals.

 

[cww81]

Ok thanks everyone, I’m am going to go up on my lighting intensity 5% a week, is that too fast or too slow? Also am going to dose mag and feed extra to see if I can add nutrients, if I don’t see a spike in a day or two I’ll turn off the skimmer. How much can I dose mag a day? I’m using Red Sea ABC and it suggests a max dose of 10 ppm per day. Will update in a few days

 

[cww81]

Hanna nitrate test comes in at 0.16 ppm

 

[cww81]

Update: the nitrates are still only at 0.31 and phosphate still at 0 after a week of no skimmer. I took the cheato that was left (around a golf ball) out 3 days ago and started dosing nitrates yesterday. I am now getting a bad algae bloom of stringy algae with bubbles on it. Am I on the right track or is there something more/less to do?

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Update: the nitrates are still only at 0.31 and phosphate still at 0 after a week of no skimmer. I took the cheato that was left (around a golf ball) out 3 days ago and started dosing nitrates yesterday. I am now getting a bad algae bloom of stringy algae with bubbles on it. Am I on the right track or is there something more/less to do?

You need phosphate as well. That stringy algae with bubbles sounds like Dino’s.

 

[lelandmarine]

You need phosphate as well. That stringy algae with bubbles sounds like Dino’s.

If it is dino’s (especially ostreopsis) could be creating some toxins that are killing coral. Here’s a link

Here’s a good website for dinoflagellates if you have a microscope. It’s really helpful to know which dinoflagellate you’re dealing with.

Identification

If you currently have pest algae in your aquarium and would like help identifying your pest, please consider mailing me a sample. I can provide an ID, and if your pest isn’t already pictured h…

algaeid.com

 

[dwest]

I don’t use chemical pure blue but it’s literature says it removes phosphates. I would run brs ROX carbon instead.

 

[lelandmarine]

Here is another guide for Dino’s