euphyllia corals going south quick.

[WSM]

Hello all,

looking for some advice on why i am seeing my hammers and frogs basically shrivel up and die.
I made a post a week or so ago about what i thought was a cyano problem but later figured out it was dinos. I added this in because I wanted to point out that I did use chemi clean.

Tank is a 25 lagoon I change 5G every Friday have my own RODI system 0 TDS use red sea blue bucket salt testing is below.
alk 8.7
p04 0.03
cal 433
mag 1170
nitrate 5
ph 8.0
temp 78

A little before I dosed chemi clean I started to notice the tips of one of my hammers started to fall off it appears that the dino was wrapping around the stem and the heads were falling off. It only started with one hammer but then several others showed decline. Woke up this morning and one of my bigger pieces seems to literally be melting. acans goni zoas all seem to be okay.

ill post picture from my phone next post.

 

[WSM]

Here are the pictures

 

[19Mateo83]

Not sure if this is the answer but your mag is a little on the low side. Euphyllia seem to really enjoy it in the 1450 range. It also wouldn’t hurt to bump up your phos a bit.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

What type of lighting and flow do you have?

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Not sure if this is the answer but your mag is a little on the low side. Euphyllia seem to really enjoy it in the 1450 range. It also wouldn’t hurt to bump up your phos a bit.

this^

 

[WSM]

What type of lighting and flow do you have?

1 ai prime hd
Stock mighty jet pump & a mp10 I don’t think it’s a light or flow thing I’ve had some of the corals for 4+ months.

 

[WSM]

Here is a picture from 11/23/24.

 

[Shirak]

Chemi clean is just an antibiotic and will not affect the corals. Chemi clean will not affect Dino's. Dino's can produce toxins however but I doubt this is the main problem. Perhaps the last straw?

.03ppm PO4 and 5ppm NO3 is way way too low for Euphyllia unless they are also getting frequent supplemental feeding by catching food a couple times a week.

They will typically look good for months as they slowly recede tissue from around the outside and eventually to the top of the skeleton. At some point they will look bad very quickly as they are on their last legs and can't use their own tissue to sustain themselves. They will bail out or wither away or become susceptible to disease like BJD.

 

[WSM]

Chemi clean is just an antibiotic and will not affect the corals. Chemi clean will not affect Dino's. Dino's can produce toxins however but I doubt this is the main problem. Perhaps the last straw?

.03ppm PO4 and 5ppm NO3 is way way too low for Euphyllia unless they are also getting frequent supplemental feeding by catching food a couple times a week.

They will typically look good for months as they slowly recede tissue from around the outside and eventually to the top of the skeleton. At some point they will look bad very quickly as they are on their last legs and can't use their own tissue to sustain themselves. They will bail out or wither away or become susceptible to disease like BJD.

I’ve been dosing nitrate & phosphate but they refuse to budge always 0.03 / 5. I obviously had a bottom out & Dino’s moved in. I have a bag of carbon in one of my filter racks should I take this out? Is it keeping my nitrate & phosphate from rising?

 

[kevgib67]

This has been going on for a long time and you’re just now seeing the effects of it now. I don’t see a flesh band on any of them. I agree with low phosphate, magnesium and would like to throw in low nitrate. I too keep my magnesium above 1400. I shoot for phosphate.05-.1 and nitrate 10-15 but in my tank both run higher. I believe if you nutrient’s have been this low for a significant time they are starving. Low magnesium is adding to the decline.

 

[Shirak]

I’ve been dosing nitrate & phosphate but they refuse to budge always 0.03 / 5. I obviously had a bottom out & Dino’s moved in. I have a bag of carbon in one of my filter racks should I take this out? Is it keeping my nitrate & phosphate from rising?

The carbon is fine. Might help with Dino toxin?

Dosing for nitrates and phosphates will help. I would increase feeding of frozen mysis. I like to chop the cubes up a bunch while frozen so there is lots of little bits flying around the tank. If you can target feed them that will help but fish/hermits/shrimps etc will steal the food

 

[kevgib67]

No , carbon is fine, it you are running a skimmer turn it off or if you want it for oxygen just take the collection cup off. Decrease frequency and amount of water changes or stop completely. Buy and toss some ReefRoids in there.

 

[jabberwock]

How old is the tank? What kind of rock was used to start it?

 

[WSM]

I’ve been feeding extra heavy for the past couple weeks. Reef Roids every other day as well along with phytoplankton.

Any idea why I can’t get nutrients up?

 

[jabberwock]

No , carbon is fine, it you are running a skimmer turn it off or if you want it for oxygen just take the collection cup off. Decrease frequency and amount of water changes or stop completely. Buy and toss some ReefRoids in there.

Yep, 1 dose of reef roids got my bottomed out nutrients back in line. They bottomed out because my caulerpa mexicana took off like a rocket. I had to remove it and then add some reef roids. Only one dose was pretty much an instant fix.

 

[WSM]

How old is the tank? What kind of rock was used to start it?

About a year. I used dead rock & bought some ocean live rock as well.

 

[kevgib67]

Yep, 1 dose of reef roids got my bottomed out nutrients back in line. They bottomed out because my caulerpa mexicana took off like a rocket. I had to remove it and then add some reef roids. Only one dose was pretty much an instant fix.

I’m not basing it on personal experience but what I’ve learned, glad to hear. My tank runs phosphate at .25 and nitrates at 25. I stopped trying to bring them down almost 3 years ago because I always failed and everything is healthy and happy thus I’ve avoided ReefRoids.

 

[jabberwock]

About a year. I used dead rock & bought some ocean live rock as well.

That is not totally unreasonable, but if you have had some of the corals for almost four months, that means at 8 months you packed the tank.

Slow and steady wins the race. i would let whatever is happening unfold without adding a bunch of crazy stuff to the tank (I feel like Reef Roids are ok). You will have some die off, some will survive, and then just let it roll for another six months before adding anything new while the tank reaches stability.

 

[WSM]

It just wild the decline happened that fast I thought it could potentially be bacterial. Some of those corals were recently added. But like I said before I had some for several months. The picture of 11/23 everything was happy extended flesh bands down the stalk etc.

I’ll continue to work on getting nutrients up it just baffles me they aren’t rising even after weeks of heavy feeding, roids, phytoplankton & dosing not nitrate & phosphate.

 

[rwreef]

My2cents. After I won my battle with dinos I had several euphyllia bail heads. I also noticed during this time that once I lowered my Alk down from around 9 to 8-8.2dkh my euphyllia was happier and head bailing stopped once I got my Alk down.