Euphyilla troubles

[cifuentes98]

Having troubles with euphyilla corals had a torch frag in my 20 gallon tank for about month then closed up and died. It was opening up and doing great for 3 weeks then closed up and never opened up. And I also have other soft coral and easier LPs corals like acan and candy cane and everything else is doing great. So I decided to buy a small hammer coral to try and so far it looks like it doing the same thing. I know I just got the coral and it’s probably stabilizing but just worried it’s going to die. My parameters are pretty stable only thing is my phosphates are high around .10. Everything else is Alk-9, nitrate - 10 ppm and Salinty 1.025 anyone know what it could be all other corals are alive and healthy even have a stylophora coral doing great which I think would be harder to keep than euphyilla corals. Are phosphates too high?

 

[BryanM]

Gonna need better pics.

Phos is not too high....Mine is too high at around .7 right now, and all of my hammers, torches, etc are fine, so .1 phos is definitely not your issue.

What's flow like? How big is the tank, what lights are you running?

 

[cifuentes98]

Gonna need better pics.

Phos is not too high....Mine is too high at around .7 right now, and all of my hammers, torches, etc are fine, so .1 phos is definitely not your issue.

What's flow like? How big is the tank, what lights are you running?

Tank is a standard 20 gallon long with an aqua clear 70, one hygger wave maker, and lighting is a nicrew 65watt very budget setup but I’m not blasting with flow it’s getting indirect flow on the opposite side of the aquarium and I have it on the sand bed temporarily so it can adjust as I just got it.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Tank is a standard 20 gallon long with an aqua clear 70, one hygger wave maker, and lighting is a nicrew 65watt very budget setup but I’m not blasting with flow it’s getting indirect flow on the opposite side of the aquarium and I have it on the sand bed temporarily so it can adjust as I just got it.

Calcium? MAG #S??

 

[MadreeferNJ]

When I had this problem my parameters were fluctuating and didn't realize it. I setup a doser which helped tremendously.

 

[BryanM]

I don't know anything about that light, but I'm wondering if its strong enough

 

[cifuentes98]

Tank is a standard 20 gallon long with an aqua clear 70, one hygger wave maker, and lighting is a nicrew 65watt very budget setup but I’m not blasting with flow it’s getting indirect flow on the opposite side of the aquarium and I have it on the sand bed temporarily so it can adjust as I just got it.

Calcium? MAG #S??

Honestly haven’t tested those yet I have about 10 coral frags 3 of them are LPs being an a small acan frag 1 Duncan with 5 heads and the new hammer the rest are soft coral toadstools and zoas and 1 sps stylophora would those levels kill them if they are low I use reef crystals salt with rodi water and do a 5 gallon water change every week.

 

[cifuentes98]

Tank is a standard 20 gallon long with an aqua clear 70, one hygger wave maker, and lighting is a nicrew 65watt very budget setup but I’m not blasting with flow it’s getting indirect flow on the opposite side of the aquarium and I have it on the sand bed temporarily so it can adjust as I just got it.

Calcium? MAG #S??

Honestly haven’t tested those yet I have about 10 coral frags 3 of them are LPs being an a small acan frag 1 Duncan with 5 heads and the new hammer the rest are soft coral toadstools and zoas and 1 sps stylophora would those levels kill them if they are low I use reef crystals salt with rodi water and do a 5 gallon water change every week.

Tank is 10 months old

 

[cifuentes98]

I don't know anything about that light, but I'm wondering if its strong enough

I would think it is all my soft coral and stylophora are doing great for some reason when it’s a torch or hammer they don’t well even my Duncan and candy canes are good.

 

[BryanM]

I would think it is all my soft coral and stylophora are doing great for some reason when it’s a torch or hammer they don’t well even my Duncan and candy canes are good.

Likely true. There's plenty of members here that have trouble keeping hammers and torches.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

what intensity is the light at? It looks a little bit dim in the picture? (or could be the blue)

 

[Roatan Reef]

Tank is 10 months old

But are you testing Alk, Cal, Mag, Phos etc, even at 10 months old, you need to know numbers, so you and all of can help out. What is your Salt Gravity at??

There are always some corals that just live on...no matter what...but for others, they need to be within certain parameters, especially your salt, Cal, Mag etc. They will not be happy at all, if those are off.

 

[JPG Corals]

When I had this problem my parameters were fluctuating and didn't realize it. I setup a doser which helped tremendously.

This is my experience as well. I thought water changes were enough, but they were not. My parameters were not stable, as I was not testing regularly. I just started to dose Kalk on a DOS and am testing alk almost daily to make sure its stable. I have noticed a huge improvement in my Euphyllia growth and coloration.

Meanwhile other corals did okay and lived but the kalk and more stable alk is proving to be pretty beneficial to all my corals.

Not sure how much you are testing but I would reccomend testing more regularly to see what swings your are having if any, and consider dosing if you are having swings.

 

[reefpanda]

Check your Mg, pretty sure it goes south fast in a 20 gal and that's bad for torches

 

[cifuentes98]

Tank is 10 months old

But are you testing Alk, Cal, Mag, Phos etc, even at 10 months old, you need to know numbers, so you and all of can help out. What is your Salt Gravity at??

There are always some corals that just live on...no matter what...but for others, they need to be within certain parameters, especially your salt, Cal, Mag etc. They will not be happy at all, if those are off.

Since I started the tank 10 months ago I just felt like I didn’t need to test calcium and magnesium because the tank wasn’t filled with coral so I thought water changes would be enough but I’ll test this weekend with salifert and see if that’s the problem thanks for feedback. I do test alkalinity and mines is pretty stable at 9.

 

[cifuentes98]

what intensity is the light at? It looks a little bit dim in the picture? (or could be the blue)

When this picture was taken it was ramping down but when it was at peak the coral looked the same. The light is on 9 hours with 1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down. I’m honestly thinking it’s the magnesium at this point.

 

[cifuentes98]

When I had this problem my parameters were fluctuating and didn't realize it. I setup a doser which helped tremendously.

This is my experience as well. I thought water changes were enough, but they were not. My parameters were not stable, as I was not testing regularly. I just started to dose Kalk on a DOS and am testing alk almost daily to make sure its stable. I have noticed a huge improvement in my Euphyllia growth and coloration.

Meanwhile other corals did okay and lived but the kalk and more stable alk is proving to be pretty beneficial to all my corals.

Not sure how much you are testing but I would reccomend testing more regularly to see what swings your are having if any, and consider dosing if you are having swings.

I appreciate the feedback the alkalinity has been stable at 9 I test every week. I’m thinking it’s the calcium or magnesium might need to start dosing.

 

[Euphylliaphyle]

I don't know anything about that light, but I'm wondering if its strong enough

I run a 32w nicrew bar-style light at 80% and it's plenty on my 36g, which is the same width but half-again deeper than the 20 long. I get 110 PAR on the bottom, mid-tank front and I have a hammer on the sandbed, doing great. It does bring up a possible coral placement concern in OP's tank, though. A single 65W NICREW NavaReef 65 could be too weak around the edges. It is rated for a 24"w tank and the 20 long is 30" or so. However, I think it's still enough for Euphallia. The OP's hammer looks to be center-tank, guessing from the visible rockwork. So I don't think his is a lighting issue.

 

[Seansea]

What salt are u using? Reef crystals is notoriously low in mag. Calcium and mag are not optional in a tank with any corals that have a skeleton like euphelia. Like reef panda said my guess is your mag is low. Target 1300 and i bet u will see difference in your corals. I use salifert. Find it to be best mag test.

 

[DatReefGuy]

Honestly, you could be missing some essential elements needed. Perhaps iodine? There could be a deficiency.