Forest fire digi help

[greg5578]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any advice on what's going on with my forest fire digi? It's losing its polyps
Tank has been running for a year now.
Water params attached

Thanks

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

looks like stn

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any advice on what's going on with my forest fire digi? It's losing its polyps
Tank has been running for a year now.
Water params attached

Thanks

I had one looking like that after a diadema urchin munched on it, is that a possibility?

I see that your phosphate is at zero, I generally have had problems when my nutrients drops that low.
Any other sps that seems affected?

 

[greg5578]

I had one looking like that after a diadema urchin munched on it, is that a possibility?

I see that your phosphate is at zero, I generally have had problems when my nutrients drops that low.
Any other sps that seems affected?

Hi MichaelE,

I don't have any urchins in the tank.

I've only had this happen about 3 days ago. It has been in my tank for a month. Other sps are acros which are doing alright.

Growing chaeto could be the reason of 0 phos. Should I get rid of it?

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Well your definitely losing polyps and tissue so stn

 

[ycnibrc]

Not enough nutrient in the tank. Phosphate n nitrate at zero is not good. How is the color of your sps? Pale or dark. If pale which mean not enough po4 n no3 raise it to 1.0 n 10ppm.

 

[29bonsaireef]

How old is your tank? I would look more into Alk swings and or lighting/flow. My forest fire and bubble gum digis do better in lower par.

 

[jda]

You are probably driving the N and P too low, but it is the NOPOX, not the chaeto. Having very low N and P is not dangerous with natrual methods since they can rarely take the levels to absolute zero. Organic Carbon can certianly take the levels too low.

Even at .1n and .01p, stuff thrives in my tanks, but I do not use any media or organic carbon... just fuge, water changes and export.

All of that said, it does kinda look like something is munching on the polyps.

 

[Michael Llabona]

I agree NOPOX and cheato are driving your phosphates down. You need some phoshate present. I would dial back the dose on NOPOX to a minimum. Everything in this hobby needs to happen slowly. If you were dosing and using cheato to get your nutirents down quickly then you shocked your corals.

Your rocks look new. How long have you had your system set up? If you just recently cycled your tank, it is likely the tank is still unstable to maintain SPS. Forest fire digi is probably one of the hardiest of SPS. I'm surprised your other SPS aren't having issues as well.

 

[declanisadog]

Your tank looks very new. Too new to be worried about dosing NOPX. I would cut that out for starters regardless of what the issue is here.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Hi MichaelE,

I don't have any urchins in the tank.

I've only had this happen about 3 days ago. It has been in my tank for a month. Other sps are acros which are doing alright.

Growing chaeto could be the reason of 0 phos. Should I get rid of it?

Like the others said: stop dosing NOPX and increase your feedings to slowly rise your nutrients back up.

No need to get rid of the cheato, trim it back a bit if you’re still having bottomed out nutrients after stoping dosing.

The only time I’ve managed to crash my nutrients with cheato was when I was away for almost a month and the time for the fuge-light got stuck at on...runaway growth.

 

[jda]

Probably just stopping the NOPOX is enough. Wean off it slowly over maybe two weeks. Make sure that you have 1 or 2 PPB on a Hannah ultra low phosphate and you are fine.. more is fine too, but 1 or 2 is enough. Do not even try and test nitrate... there are no test kits that will go low enough for us... rest assured that you have some if you are not dosing or using media.

 

[markalot]

I just killed a beautiful acro with NOPOX. It's not NOPOX fault, it was my fault for not understanding (forgetting) the nutrient and food relationship in the tank. Not only would I stop dosing NOPOX but I would purchase some Seachem Phosphorus and dose a drop (DROP) or two to help give the coral a better environment in which to heal.

Number one lesson to remember is that while wild corals live in a very low measurable nutrient environment they are surrounded by massive flow and food. Your coral is starving to death. It's a difficult balance in a nano tank to get a clean algae free environment and at the same time keep healthy corals. People that do it usually import and export heavily. Like super heavy feeding to go along with NOPOX or other carbon dosing. I obviously don't worry much about it which is why my 40 gallon is full of algae. :)

 

[greg5578]

Many thanks for the input guys.

Tank is actually a year old but this LR was just added in the tank a month ago after curing it for a month.

Lights are XR30W G4 Pro running on SPS AB+ at 75% about 10 inches above the surface of the water.

I would stop dosing nopox and see if there are any changes.

 

[ilyad]

Many thanks for the input guys.

Tank is actually a year old but this LR was just added in the tank a month ago after curing it for a month.

Lights are XR30W G4 Pro running on SPS AB+ at 75% about 10 inches above the surface of the water.

I would stop dosing nopox and see if there are any changes.

What size tank is it? The lighting may be too much. I have a G4 Radion XR15 with a diffuser on an 18inch cube and Im only running it at 35% overall. Its mounted on the RMS mount, but my schedule is about 12 hours long with 2 hour ramp up and 2 hour ramp down. Those lights are incredibly strong. I would prob move the digi lower if everything else is doing well. The problem would be even worse if you run a ULNS set up.

 

[greg5578]

What size tank is it? The lighting may be too much. I have a G4 Radion XR15 with a diffuser on an 18inch cube and Im only running it at 35% overall. Its mounted on the RMS mount, but my schedule is about 12 hours long with 2 hour ramp up and 2 hour ramp down. Those lights are incredibly strong. I would prob move the digi lower if everything else is doing well. The problem would be even worse if you run a ULNS set up.

Hi Ilyad,

My tank is 48x24x24 and it runs for 13 hrs with a photo period of 8 hours. Also have a diffuser on.

I was told that forest fire loves the light. I'm guessing not [emoji21]

 

[ilyad]

Hi Ilyad,

My tank is 48x24x24 and it runs for 13 hrs with a photo period of 8 hours. Also have a diffuser on.

I was told that forest fire loves the light. I'm guessing not [emoji21]

The tank is plenty big for those lights, but they can definitely shock a coral if you just got it. I would move it lower/farther away a bit. Once its recovered, you can prob move it back towards higher light. I had the same thing happen to my digi, but I was too lazy to move it.. about 2/3 of it ended up dying before it got used to the light (probably also helped that the diffuser lowered the PAR), its since recovered fully back to the original size. Now I wish I took more time acclimating it to the light because it looks so nice! For whats its worth, my digi is on the same level as my Euphyllia corals.

 

[greg5578]

The tank is plenty big for those lights, but they can definitely shock a coral if you just got it. I would move it lower/farther away a bit. Once its recovered, you can prob move it back towards higher light. I had the same thing happen to my digi, but I was too lazy to move it.. about 2/3 of it ended up dying before it got used to the light (probably also helped that the diffuser lowered the PAR), its since recovered fully back to the original size. Now I wish I took more time acclimating it to the light because it looks so nice! For whats its worth, my digi is on the same level as my Euphyllia corals.

Cheers mate. I'll put it lower in the tank and see how it does

 

[RCS82]

My forest fire digi is doing great up high in the tank getting plenty of light. I don't think lighting is the issue with the tissue loss.

 

[BoomCorals]

You are probably driving the N and P too low, but it is the NOPOX, not the chaeto. Having very low N and P is not dangerous with natrual methods since they can rarely take the levels to absolute zero. Organic Carbon can certianly take the levels too low.

Even at .1n and .01p, stuff thrives in my tanks, but I do not use any media or organic carbon... just fuge, water changes and export.

All of that said, it does kinda look like something is munching on the polyps.

Completely agree except I will say if N and P are too low or zero, that’s exactly how a forest fire digi will look in my experience. Patchy bald spots. You’ll see algae form on those areas soon. All is not lost if you can bring up N and P a little.