HELP ELEGANCE HAS LEFT SKELETON

[BlackiceClowns]

ELEGANCE HAS COMPLETELY LEFT SKELETON

Hi everyone
I've had this tank setup for about 1 and a half years now and I've kept it running decently well untill recently when both my elegance corals, closed up

My two elegance corals were really green and growing when one began to shrink and would not accept food anymore. Soon after I looked closer and a third of the skeleton had died. Now half has died and it has somewhat bleached. The second one recently began shrinking like crazy and in the past two hours has slowly began detaching from its skeleton.


I have not changed my flow or lighting. No changes have been made to my system

I have been away for a weeks so my parameters are slightly off but I do not suspect they could cause this many issues as the elegance issues began before I left.


The parameters are as follows

Ammonia: 0.2-0.3
Nitrate: 30
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate : 0.12-0.16
Kh : 5DKH
Calcium: 460-500
Magnesium: 1550
I do not does any minerals

I would like to add I have had no issues with my elegances for almost a year now. Everything was doing great.

I used chemi clean recently aswell

 

[jaypladook]

Quite sure somebody will chime in and give you better suggestions. But from your water parameters KH is too low while there should be no ammonia at all. Did something die recently to spike the ammonia?

A large water change can help.

 

[Shirak]

Ca and Mg are quite high for a tank with no dosing. Potentially caused by high salinity which would also cause corals to shrink up.
What is your salinity at?

As noted the alk is very low too.

Do you dose anything for alkalinity? When keeping stony corals you must dose alk to maintain 7.5dkh at least if water changes alone are not enough.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

That is a polyp bailout, as mentioned above the parameters are all off

 

[BlackiceClowns]

Quite sure somebody will chime in and give you better suggestions. But from your water parameters KH is too low while there should be no ammonia at all. Did something die recently to spike the ammonia?

A large water change can help.

I just had a trochus snail die but nothing else. Should I start dosing KH?. I'll do a 40%??? Water change tonight

 

[BlackiceClowns]

Ca and Mg are quite high for a tank with no dosing. Potentially caused by high salinity which would also cause corals to shrink up.
What is your salinity at?

As noted the alk is very low too.

Do you dose anything for alkalinity? When keeping stony corals you must dose alk to maintain 7.5dkh at least if water changes alone are not enough.

My salinity is roughly 1.026-7 so I don't believe that is the case. So definitely should start dosing alkalinity. Are there any other potential ways for CA and mg to increase without dosing.

 

[BlackiceClowns]

That is a polyp bailout, as mentioned above the parameters are all off

Any chance of saving the elegance, like tying it to a rock and waiting for the skeleton to regrow.

 

[Shirak]

I just had a trochus snail die but nothing else. Should I start dosing KH?. I'll do a 40%??? Water change tonight

You can use baking soda from the grocery store. Online calculator to determine how much you need. Put in tank volume, current Alk level and desired Alk level after dosing. Select dry sodium bicarbonate.

I think general consensus is no more then .5dkh increase per day. I think at your current level it would be ok to dose .5 tonight and .5 tomorrow to start.

What are you using to measure salinity and have you calibrated it and if so with what? Many reefers use inexpensive refractometers but calibrate incorrectly or use calibration fluid which may not be accurate.

I am not aware of Ca and Mg going that high without dosing except perhaps for some salt brands which have extra Ca and Mg possibly. What salt are you using?
Sometimes when the tank is very new Ca and spike with new sand and bare dry rock.

As for your elegance, you could try putting in a cage of some sort but I have never heard of any LPS with bailout regrowing a skeleton.

 

[Shirak]

oops link to BRS online calculator for Alk
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator/alkalinity-calculator-reef

 

[AlexandraDreadlocksPanda]

There’s very little chance of that coral surviving. Please learn to maintain basic water parameters before introducing any more livestock; spending the money on a dosing pump to aid stability would be a far more ethical and sensible purchase.

 

[BlackiceClowns]

There’s very little chance of that coral surviving. Please learn to maintain basic water parameters before introducing any more livestock; spending the money on a dosing pump to aid stability would be a far more ethical and sensible purchase.

Excuse me. Introducing more livestock. Who said I was going to. These corals have been flourishing and growing in the last 6 months. I'm sure you would know how easy nano tanks fluctuate. You are new to the app so maybe you don't know. Thanks for the advice though.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Excuse me. Introducing more livestock. Who said I was going to. These corals have been flourishing and growing in the last 6 months. I'm sure you would know how easy nano tanks fluctuate. You are new to the app so maybe you don't know. Thanks for the advice though.

I'm not trying to be harsh, or mean. But nano tanks don't fluctuate to high parameters and extremely low parameters. The low alk didn't just happened overnight, it happened over the past few days if not weeks. This is why it is crucial to test parameters at least once a week to make sure that stuff like this doesn't happen. If you continue to spend more money on livestock without the proper knowledge to maintain parameters, not only will you keep wasting money, the livestock will keep dying and suffering. Like one person suggested, invest money right now into products that can help you keep stable parameters. Do your research, please.

 

[reneeL]

Excuse me. Introducing more livestock. Who said I was going to. These corals have been flourishing and growing in the last 6 months. I'm sure you would know how easy nano tanks fluctuate. You are new to the app so maybe you don't know. Thanks for the advice though.

Wow, I feel upset that the previous remarks were so KNOW IT All. I hope you can get things back. Your tank is over a year old and keeping 2 elegance corals alive that long. You did say you went away, trip? My elegance was fine until I left for just 3 days. Came back had issues. Hang in there. Sorry but when the coral jumps off its skeleton there is not much you can do. I tried to tie one down that had not gone completely off. It did not work. A second one started to do the same and I put in a very calm place, so far it seems to have stopped. These corals are not elegance. You would have needed to catch it I am guessing, when they first started leaving the skeleton. So sorry.

 

[MikeyZo]

I don’t think anyone is pupously trying to be mean to you or insinuate anything negative or nasty. I, sure no one on this forum has ever had their first tank with no issues and became an expert overnight. We have all made mistakes. The important part is understanding and keeping the mistakes from happening again.

What you experienced is called polyp bailout. It is literally an instinctual action on the coral’s behalf to sacrifice a sick or injured polyp in an effort to to get the rest of the colony to survive. It takes a lot for a coral to get to that point. As others have stated, your alkalinity is low, and you didn’t post your PH, but chances are that with your alkalinity that low, your PH is most likely way off too. Most corals do ok with minor fluctuations in parameters but a huge swing like that can and obviously was disastrous. No one is pointing a finger and faulting you, I think it’s just their way of turning this into a learning situation for you.

People on this forum realize, as Im sure you do as well, that corals are animals and as such we have a duty to them to try our hardest to maintain the best possible living conditions for them. They are merely saying tat before you attempt to add more corals, try to fix the issue at hand.

The issue with nanos is that a small fluctuation can rapidly get out of hand because there is so much less water volume. That’s not on you, it just is. But irregardless, the best thing to do now is to stabilize it and bring the parameters back up slowly. If you spike a fast upwards swing, even though it’s correcting the issue it may bother other corals in your tank. So do a water change, check your parameters again, and then slowly dose what you need to stabilize your ammonia, alkalinity and PH. And I would check your parameters at least once a day for a while until youre sure it has stabilized.

Good luck, we’re all here to help each other. Just remember thst.

 

[edsbeaker]

Hi,
I just wanted to ask about what test kits you are using? Seeing calcium and magnesium that high is really strange unless you are dosing them. I just wanted to make sure the test kits are reliable before you make any big changes.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

First, as others pointed out, I would be curious to know what you are using for measuring salinity and what you use to calibrate. Ensure if using refractometer or digital salinity checker that your calibration fluid is good. Possibly by a second solution to verify. Your dog seems a bit low.

I have found elegance do not like detritus. So you were gone for a while and detritus could have built up around the coral. Since you said you let things go a bit.

In my experience the corals I kept don't like direct feeding. I use benepets and broadcast feed. Some people are successful feeding them directly but mine never seemed to like. They also go through what I call an adaptation phase where they sometimes can look like death and will eventually come back just fine once adapted.

If there is no other corals having issues and the elegance is only one, it's probably time to do some maintenance cleaning.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Also just to add check the skeleton for gull crabs. They are very hard to see. Even though it has been fine for a long time, the crab may have decided to move locations on the elegance. I had gull crabs twice. But the chances of recover are low. I would find a small container to set it in. The gravel and such may injure further due to moving or sliding around as it is more exposed. You can add very very fine sand as well in the container. I have not experienced an elegance bail out. So a bit new to me.

 

[BlackiceClowns]

Update
To be completely honest all of you guys were right. My I went through my testing history and my pH had a crazy swing. My KH was way to low. Due to my panic, I wasn't really thinking straight and got offended for no real reason. I fixed my KH and pH a while back.

Thanks to all

 

[MikeyZo]

Glad everything is working out. Don’t let this discourage you. Keep up with it, and enjoy your piece of the ocean. And remember, every one on here is here to help.