Euphillia not doing well! Help please

Jekyl

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Follow vetteguy53081's advice. Don't change anything that you can't test for.
 

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Yes that is my plan, but im on a budget so Im getting the kits as I go. Until I do get these kits, any insights on how to fix the problem i have right now?
knowing where your parameters are at is key to salving your problem even if you can only afford the alk & po4 or even just the alk if you cant get both. without the test kits my best advice would be do a 20% water change since you said it's been a while, a lot of issues can be fixed or avoided with water changes. unfortunately you wont know where your parameters where at when you started having an issue. you really need the test kits.
 
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maleks.reef

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knowing where your parameters are at is key to salving your problem even if you can only afford the alk & po4 or even just the alk if you cant get both. without the test kits my best advice would be do a 20% water change since you said it's been a while, a lot of issues can be fixed or avoided with water changes. unfortunately you wont know where your parameters where at when you started having an issue. you really need the test kits.
That is true, I agree. Do you think I should prioritize the calcium kit over the po4 or the other way around? (I will hopefully get an alk kit tmrw and a calc/PO4 depending on which one is more important)
 
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maleks.reef

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Follow vetteguy53081's advice. Don't change anything that you can't test for.
Never changed anything. My tank is on autopilot really other than changing/cleaning my mechanical filtration and topping off my rodi water reservoir. There are no pests that I can see. Im leaning towards too high PO4 since I've been feeding reef roids twice a week + a fair amount of flake daily.
 

fuelman

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That is true, I agree. Do you think I should prioritize the calcium kit over the po4 or the other way around? (I will hopefully get an alk kit tmrw and a calc/PO4 depending on which one is more important)
alk first then po4 your alk/cal should be consumed somewhat evenly, po4 if it gets to low will have a negative effect on euphyllia i personally would rank po4 above cal. if po4 is sky high it will also effect your coral.
 
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maleks.reef

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maleks.reef

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What are your parameters? High phosphate usually is the cause!
Knowing your parameters would be step 1. Look up brown jelly disease for course of action and identification.
Cant tell much in the pics as they are extremely blue. There is some discussion regarding water. First thing to address is the test kit(s) youre using. What brand are you using ? API is notorious for false readings and can throw your tank off in a hurry.
Regarding brown jelly- Can you provide a pic under white lighting ? Siphon up the jelly if it actually is such with a 3/8" tubing and give it a diluted Iodine dip.
It takes a moderate level of skill to care for Hammer corals in a saltwater tank. Like most other coral species, Euphyllia requires Stable tank conditions, and is intolerant to major swings in water quality, and is sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water. Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right.
This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks. Reduce white light intensity and get it off the sand bed which sand can irritate it.
The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.
The hammer coral is considered to be an aggressive coral species that will attack its neighbors with sweeper tentacles. These are stinging nematocysts (similar to the sting of an anemone) on the end of a specialized polyp that can extend several inches away from the body of the coral. The sweeper tentacles pack a punch and will chemically burn any neighboring corals.
Hammer corals are more subdued eaters who would benefit from the occasional feeding of a meaty marine food like mysis and brine shrimp.

Goniopora is plain and simply challenging fr both the beginner and the most experienced hobbyist. For a long time Goniopora were considered an impossible coral to keep. There were even discussions online about it being unethical to keep importing them because of their poor survivability. Goniopora are a photosynthetic coral so they derive some of their nutritional requirements from light. This is done through a symbiotic relationship with dinoflagellates called zooxanthellae that live in the flesh of the coral. The dinoflagellates are actually the photosynthetic organism and the Goniopora colony derives nutrients off of the byproducts of the dinoflagellates’ photosynthetic process. Zooxanthellae is usually brown in color and the coral tightly regulates the population living in its flesh. Too little light will cause the coral to turn brown in color.
I would not recommend blasting Goniopora with a lot of light. I don’t think there are a lot of advantages to doing so. If you start to see the coral starting to turn lighter and bleach out, it is likely the result of high lighting intensity. When in doubt, favor lower lighting intensities until it is clear that the coral is demanding more.
One mistake I think some reef keepers make is providing them too much flow. If you have a powerhead blowing right at Goniopora from short range, it may kill off some of the tissue at that point of contact and cause a chain reaction to the rest of the colony.
Goniopora appreciate low to medium flow, but preferably with some randomness to it. That way you will get that gentle waving motion which helps keep the coral clean and brings food past the colony. If you see the tentacles violently thrashing about, that is probably too much flow and it would benefit from being relocated to a more calm section of the tank.
Lack of food is a big issue with these coral and there are two types of food to provide Goniopora. The first is liquid amino acids. In short, they are simple organic compounds that play a major role in building proteins as well as other biological functions at the cellular level. Corals regularly take in available amino acids from the water column so it is easy to provide them with adequate quantities by broadcast feeding an amino acid solution.
The second type of food I like are dry powdered plankton. There are several different types on the market.
The general consensus with these is to keep Phosphate levels around .05 ppm and Nitrate levels between 10-20 ppm. This is a safe zone that not too many people will dispute. If you need a recommendation there you go.
So today i bought an Alk kit and a phosphate kit. The results blew my mind.. My alk is sitting at 8.6! I haven't done a water change in 2 months, I thought it would be way less. According to red sea (which is the salt I use), at 35 ppm my alk should be at 8 dkh, so this does not make any sense unless my torches and hammer never used up any of the alkalinity in there.
My phosphates are at 0, which is very odd considering I feed flakes daily and have been feeding reef roids twice a week for 2 weeks now. I do have a diy fuge set up and a HOB skimmer and I have 3 fish in my 30 gal. So since it isn't too high phosphates or too low alk, what's the problem? Could it be too little phosphates? All my other sofites and even dragon soul torch are doing just fine.
 
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vetteguy53081

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So today i bought an Alk kit and a phosphate kit. The results blew my mind.. My alk is sitting at 8.6! I haven't done a water change in 2 months, I thought it would be way less. My phosphates are at 0, which is very odd considering I feed flakes daily and have been feeding reef roids twice a week for 2 weeks now. I do have a diy fuge set up and a HOB skimmer and I have 3 fish in my 30 gal. So since it isn't too high phosphates or too low alk, what's the problem? Could it be too little phosphates? All my other sofites and even dragon soul torch are doing just fine.
My suspect- light, water flow or both
What brand kits did you get?
 
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maleks.reef

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My suspect- light, water flow or both
What brand kits did you get?
Salifert. I even repeated my po4 test, still 0!
I think my flow is fine because these corals thrived for a long while before suddenly closing up. Regarding light, I have a 70w aqua knight light, most of my softies have been growing under this light however I did decrease the intensity a bit last week. I keep my lights on for 9 hours with 30 mins sunrise and 30 mins sunset.
I think I see some cyano on the sand as well, which is to be expected given the 0 po4 right?
 

vetteguy53081

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Restore light to original settings and run 12 hours daily
Inspect stem/skeleton for any bugs also
 
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maleks.reef

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Restore light to original settings and run 12 hours daily
Inspect stem/skeleton for any bugs also
So you think my light intensity and photoperiod are too low? What about the 0 PO4?
These issues started long before I decreased my lights by the way. Also, I am not seeing any zoas reaching for the light, they are all flat and opened up except that one colony that closed with GSP 2 days ago.
 

fuelman

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I should add though, my gsp has been closed up for 2 days and my watermelon zoas have been closed up for 2 days as well. I think too little phosphates is the issue right?
zero po4 is bad yes. that needs to come up, you can broadcast feed the reef roids to get it up off zero. like vetteguy said check for any pest, but zero po4 will make your euphyllia or any lps go south for sure.
 
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maleks.reef

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zero po4 is bad yes. that needs to come up, you can broadcast feed the reef roids to get it up off zero. like vetteguy said check for any pest, but zero po4 will make your euphyllia or any lps go south for sure.
Would the 0 PO4 be the reason why my gsp and 1 zoa frag are closed up as well? Neither of them are new to the tank or have experienced any changes lately so I find this odd. Also, does 0 PO4 cause cyano?
 

fuelman

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Would the 0 PO4 be the reason why my gsp and 1 zoa frag are closed up as well? Neither of them are new to the tank or have experienced any changes lately so I find this odd. Also, does 0 PO4 cause cyano?
being that your alk is fine & that was a big concern, i would look a the zero po4 as the most likely problem, lps & softy's like some nutrients if you have none they start to starve. i suspect that's exactly what's happening. cyano is usually a high nutrients issue but also has been reported with low nutrients, so it's hard to say if it's for sure connected directly to your current po4 issue.
 

Jekyl

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What is your nitrate at?
 
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maleks.reef

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Update: The green torch is melting away... what do I do to help it??? (I put it in this position so the damage is clear in the picture). I thought I saw algae on it so I turkey blasted it a bit and all of a sudden I see polyps breaking away from it..
WhatsApp Image 2021-05-07 at 6.22.07 PM.jpeg
WhatsApp Image 2021-05-07 at 6.22.07 PM (1).jpeg
 

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