Help, I killed an indestructible coral!

[Hemmdog]

Pink lemonade rtn

Healed in 2 months

Never give up on your coral.

 

[bluprntguy]

So does everyone agree with the comment that by keeping the coral at bottom of tank I’m starving it and so I should move it to the top of tank?

I don't remember ever reading anything that indicates that too little light leads to bleaching. My experience is that too little light leads to ugly brown corals.

I think it's a nutrient issue, not a light issue.

 

[bluprntguy]

Out of curiosity, what's your water temp, and are you sure about it?

 

[JustAnt]

Out of curiosity, what's your water temp, and are you sure about it?

Just checked. It’s 79 as read from a Hanna ph/temp meter

 

[JustAnt]

I don't remember ever reading anything that indicates that too little light leads to bleaching. My experience is that too little light leads to ugly brown corals.

I think it's a nutrient issue, not a light issue.

How do I bring down my nutrients? When I ran a mix of gfo/carbon in a reactor my nitrates would drop to zero but nothing looked good then.

I do have a 2 week old fuge in my sump growing sea lettuce. It’s small but I think it will work better to reduce my nutrients. The sea lettuce is growing so it using nitrates and phosphates.

 

[bluprntguy]

How do I bring down my nutrients?

If you can do 25-30% water changes every couple of days, that would probably be best way to reduce your nutrients. You should in "decent" range after about three large water changes.

GFO only lowers phosphate. IMO, an imbalance with low phosphates and high nitrates would be worse than where you are currently. I wouldn't use GFO right now.

You may want to look at carbon dosing to manage your nutrients once you've completed the water changes. Sea lettuce should help too once there is enough of it.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I agree about the lighting that was suggest was probably based on a 250 gal tank bc it didn’t make sense to me for a 50 gallon

I'm guessing that the person that commented that you don't have enough lights thinks your tank is 250 gallons and doesn't realize that it's 250 liters with a 50 gallon display. You have more than enough light for your tank IMO. If you can borrow a PAR meter, that would be helpful, but not necessary.

I'd address your nutrient issue first and leave your lights alone. Once you get nutrients dialed in, you'll be able to visualize how changes in lighting/position in the tank can affect individual corals.

I would expect that in about 2 weeks, you'd start noticing changes and in a month or so the color will hopefully mostly return.

I am very familiar with the reefer series tanks. I have a 170 and know that it is referring to liters, not gallons. If you look at the AI website, the Prime HD light puts out a maximum PAR of 84 at 24 inches below the light. That light also has a maximum wattage of 55. So, if the coral is at the bottom of a reefer 250, which has a height of 21 inches, and the light is mounted approximately 8 inches above the tank, then my statement that the coral is receiving less than 100 PAR is pretty accurate.

Red Sea recommends 2 Reefer 90 lights for that system, which combine for a total of 180 watts. Your lights at 100% are only 60% of the recommended power for lights for that system. Then you add in acclimation mode, and viola!

I do agree that you need to get nutrients in check, but around 80% of the corals food comes from lights.

 

[Gareth elliott]

How do I bring down my nutrients? When I ran a mix of gfo/carbon in a reactor my nitrates would drop to zero but nothing looked good then.

I do have a 2 week old fuge in my sump growing sea lettuce. It’s small but I think it will work better to reduce my nutrients. The sea lettuce is growing so it using nitrates and phosphates.

Nitrate = water changes coupled with controlling the feeding.

Phosphate reduction can be achieved with water changes but the effect is much slower, as phosphate also binds to argonite. If its a one time reduction like this i like well rinsed phosgaurd in a media bag.

Add bag
2 days later remove bag and test.
Repeat with new media every 2 days till you are at .1ppm
Coupled with the controlled feeding you should see stable results.

Add small amounts of phosguard at a time you dont want to shock the system removing too much too fast.

You can also achieve the same with liquid lanthium chloride. But i am not an expert on dosage.

 

[JustAnt]

If you can do 25-30% water changes every couple of days, that would probably be best way to reduce your nutrients. You should in "decent" range after about three large water changes.

GFO only lowers phosphate. IMO, an imbalance with low phosphates and high nitrates would be worse than where you are currently. I wouldn't use GFO right now.

You may want to look at carbon dosing to manage your nutrients once you've completed the water changes. Sea lettuce should help too once there is enough of it.

True,I could do more water changes. I don’t do them consistently

 

[JustAnt]

Thanks everyone for providing so many insightful comments!

 

[JustAnt]

Nitrate = water changes coupled with controlling the feeding.

Phosphate reduction can be achieved with water changes but the effect is much slower, as phosphate also binds to argonite. If its a one time reduction like this i like well rinsed phosgaurd in a media bag.

Add bag
2 days later remove bag and test.
Repeat with new media every 2 days till you are at .1ppm
Coupled with the controlled feeding you should see stable results.

Add small amounts of phosguard at a time you dont want to shock the system removing too much too fast.

You can also achieve the same with liquid lanthium chloride. But i am not an expert on dosage.

Regarding feeding, I just feed the fish one cube a Day and coral get oyster feast or phytofeast once a day

 

[Gareth elliott]

Regarding feeding, I guess not feed the fish one cube a Day and coral get oyster feast or phytofeast

I find most cubes too large, and coral foods a bit nutrient dense for daily feeding.

For the large cubes i cut them and refrigerate so use over 2-3 days and use coral foods sparingly like once or twice a week.

Personally i have adjusted my feedings to use hikari cubes. Smaller and use coral gumbo in place of any coral foods as my fish eat this too. I leave phyto for feeding my pod culture and then dose just the pods.

How i separate two different tanks so different foods. The cube with the carnivore diet is a diy cube for herbivores.

Let thaw feed half of it refrigerate feed the rest tomorrow

 

[Hemmdog]

Regarding feeding, I just feed the fish one cube a Day and coral get oyster feast or phytofeast once a day

Stop the oyster feast and phyto feast, those are huge nutrient bombs. Quit those and I bet your nutrients will drop very quickly. Not dangerously quick, healthy quick. Only feed those like once every two weeks or even less.

 

[JustAnt]

Stop the oyster feast and phyto feast, those are huge nutrient bombs. Quit those and I bet your nutrients will drop very quickly. Not dangerously quick, healthy quick. Only feed those like once every two weeks or even less.

I’ll do that but they seem to like the food. I guess I have to remember lift is more important to them than food

 

[lewisriverfisherman]

I agree with cutting way back on oyster feast and phyto feast. 1 time a week will help alot with your nitrate issue.
By paying attention to what lighting the frag came from will also give you a good indication of where you should place it in your tank. A little acclimation never hurt no coral.

 

[Hemmdog]

I’ll do that but they seem to like the food. I guess I have to remember lift is more important to them than food

They do like it but daily is still to frequent. If you had trouble keeping nutrients in your tank I would still only advise to feed that stuff; max a very tiny amount(2ml’s) once every 3 days.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I think low mag and high nitrates and possible low water flow on bottom may be contributors to issue

 

[AquaRaider44]

Not an expert but I have never had success with SPS in my old tank due to high nitrates. I implemented three new things on my new tank which helps with nitrates and phosphates under my heavy load and double coral feeding weekly. I had a double size algae scrubber for my old tank which helped but was not the end-all on nitrates or phosphates.

https://www.seachem.com/purigen.php - using double dose - not sure this helped
https://www.seachem.com/matrix.php - using double dose - definitely helped a bit
https://www.seachem.com/denitrate.php - using double dose - THE MOST HELP

I think I could remove the other products but I added the dinitrate and used it at the recommended speed so that it was anaerobic and I test the water coming out of the reactor and it is at least 1ppm lower than my tank water!

I now have issues keeping my phosphates and nitrates above 0. I have to feed the coral twice a week to keep up with the bacteria and coral demand.

This coral is not dead!

You need

A. More light.
B. Better water quality and maybe better stability A doser even a cheap jeabo would be nice if you plan to keep more SPS or even want your other corals to florish.

 

[JustAnt]

Not an expert but I have never had success with SPS in my old tank due to high nitrates. I implemented three new things on my new tank which helps with nitrates and phosphates under my heavy load and double coral feeding weekly. I had a double size algae scrubber for my old tank which helped but was not the end-all on nitrates or phosphates.

https://www.seachem.com/purigen.php - using double dose - not sure this helped
https://www.seachem.com/matrix.php - using double dose - definitely helped a bit
https://www.seachem.com/denitrate.php - using double dose - THE MOST HELP

I think I could remove the other products but I added the dinitrate and used it at the recommended speed so that it was anaerobic and I test the water coming out of the reactor and it is at least 1ppm lower than my tank water!

I now have issues keeping my phosphates and nitrates above 0. I have to feed the coral twice a week to keep up with the bacteria and coral demand.

This coral is not dead!

You need

A. More light.
B. Better water quality and maybe better stability A doser even a cheap jeabo would be nice if you plan to keep more SPS or even want your other corals to florish.

Thanks for the feedback. I am fearful to get into that situation of zero nitrates&phosphates but I guess I’ve let them get to high.

Doser arrives Thursday. Got myself a used 1 yo GHL 2.1 doser

 

[smartwater101]

That sps isn’t bleach it’s dead. There is no flesh left on it

The side receiving light has polyps out and, if you look closer, even the dark side has polyps.

The coral is clearly not dead.