Green Slimer Bleaching on base

[anthony1222]

My green slimmer coral is bleaching from the base. I got it about a week ago and I don’t really see a lot of polyp extension. Sometimes there’s white strings coming out of the polyps which i’m guessing is stress but I don’t know what could be causing it. I’m dripping 749 mL kalkwasser.

My levels aren’t suuper consistent cause i’m trying to dial in my kalk dosing. I just started with corals and have a green slimmer frag, birdsnest frag, and acan frag.


Alk: 8.3
Cal: 520
Mag: 1260
Phosphate: 0.04
Nitrate: 25
Tank size: 84 gal

 

[Mmoore0324]

Acros can be so frustrating sometimes. If only they could talk. A few questions

1) How old is the tank?
2) what is your salinity?
3) Average Ph?
4) Last water change?
5) What do you have for flow?

Are you dosing anything other than Kalk?

 

[anthony1222]

Acros can be so frustrating sometimes. If only they could talk. A few questions

1) How old is the tank?
2) what is your salinity?
3) Average Ph?
4) Last water change?
5) What do you have for flow?

Are you dosing anything other than Kalk?

Tank is about 9 months old
1.025
7.9-8
I do 10% every week
For flow I have two maxspext xf350 gyres on the sides of the tank In alternating anti-sync mode. Honestly they’re pretty dirty right now and not outputting as much flow as they should

i’m only dosing kalk

 

[GHOSTLY]

The flucations could be the cause but bleaching from the bottom could be rtn/stn. Usually i super glue and frag around it

 

[AB's reef]

I don't use Kalk but 749ml seems a lot for a tank with only 3 small frags?
Could any Kalk users chime in?

I had a lot of corals in my tank before the weekly water changes stopped taking care of the uptake... High calcium and the lower Magnesium makes me thing that there is something else going on?...
I'd maybe make a post on the Chemistry board and provide some information about your dosing, tank size and coral stocks, they should be able to help you with getting your levels dialled in as I think the reason your chasing your numbers is precipitation related.

 

[anthony1222]

I don't use Kalk but 749ml seems a lot for a tank with only 3 small frags?
Could any Kalk users chime in?

I had a lot of corals in my tank before the weekly water changes stopped taking care of the uptake... High calcium and the lower Magnesium makes me thing that there is something else going on?...
I'd maybe make a post on the Chemistry board and provide some information about your dosing, tank size and coral stocks, they should be able to help you with getting your levels dialled in as I think the reason your chasing your numbers is precipitation related.

My alk consumption is weirdly high I consume like .3 dkh per day. I have coralline algae on the rocks so I guess that could be it. My calcium got high from the dosing even though my alkalinity stayed stable. I’m using a trident for all the testing.

 

[fandaga]

Yours looks way better than mine at the moment. I could tell you what not to do.

Can you put it in higher flow?

Edit: I was listening to podcast with Jason Fox on Reefbum. For STN/RTN he said to frag it 1/2 to 1 inch from the necrosis. That’s the only way to save the coral.

 

[Mmoore0324]

Sorry I didn’t respond last night. Just a couple random thoughts. I can’t exactly say why your slimer is struggling. Although your tank isn’t new new, it may just be missing a little something What kind of lighting do you have? Properly lighting a single branch staghorn is actually quite difficult. There will be shading unless you’re using a mix of lighting solutions that hit the frag from all angles. I actually recommend either starting with a mini colony of slimer OR gluing a single branch horizontal on the rock. While it looks less impressive, you’ll give the coral more surface access to light and it should start to encrust pretty quickly and shoot up some branches shortly after.

Just to touch on your chemistry. While 520 ca is not a problem, you’ll probably see your calcium continue to rise if kalk is your sole source of dosing. While calcium and alkalinity is dosed as “equal” amounts with kalk, most Kalk powders seem to be calcium heavy. Also, organisms which use calcification in our tanks also use 2 other elements. Magnesium and strontium. It’s completely possible that your coraline, snail shells, etc, is using more mag and strontium than calcium to lay down its base which will cause your ca to rise as you’re continuing to dose. I would recommend possibly suspending kalk and use baking soda as your buffer until calcium and mag get back in sync. I personally run Alk 6.8-7.2, ca 410 - 430, and mag 1440+. Remember that alkalinity is the buffer of ph to resist downward change. So while you may see a certain level of consumption each day, that’s doesn’t necessarily correlate into coral growth.

Finally there is also the possibility of a bacterial imbalance. Slimer is a great canary coral that will help you identify potential issues of stability. I’d maybe up your WC percentage a little bit with a good quality salt (I know, lots of opinions on that) and then just keep trying. Slimer is pretty cheap and imo an absolute staple for any reef.