Help- Soft corals dying!

[Scud]

Hi there, the last 2 weeks my soft corals are all acting ticked off. Not opening up, and shrinking. GSP which was vibrant and spreading fast is now receding. Made no crazy changes that I can think of. Tank is fairly new, about 4 months old now. All fish and inverts seem totally happy.

Tank Specs-
40 gallon Breeder
Seachem Tidal 110 HOB filter
5 gallon refugium (Chaeto/rubble)
2 koralia PH on opposite sides of tank

Lighting
2 165w Viparspectra reef lights
55% blue, 15% white
Blues are on 7 hours- whites are on for 4 hours of that 7.

Livestock
4 fish (bicolor Blenny, Kupang damsel, Firefish, scooter dragonet)
5 hermit crabs
8 snails
Several frags of Zoas, paly, mushrooms, Gsp.

Water Parameters
RODI from store
Salinity 1.027 (using Tropic Marin Salt according to lfs where I get water from)
Temp 76-79
Ammonia 0
Phosphates 0
Nitrates 0
Alk 8.0
PH 7
Don’t test for Mag/calcium
I do a 20% WC every 7-10 days.

wondering if low phosphates and nitrates could be the issue. I have over fed frozen mysis/ brine mix the last several days without any increase in phosphates, ammonia, or nitrates. Thought about dosing fertilizer for planted tanks.

I also having some what either looks like stringy Cyano or Dinos. Reddish in colors- comes and goes. Gets bad during the light cycles and seems to diminish at night- not completely- but to some extent. I have lots of amphipods, isopods, and what look like tiny copepods. I’ve examined the corals for parasites, I don’t see anything. Occasionally I’ll see an amphipod scurrying around the Gsp at night.


Any advice from experienced hobbyists would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hi there, the last 2 weeks my soft corals are all acting ****** off. Not opening up, and shrinking. GSP which was vibrant and spreading fast is now receding. Made no crazy changes that I can think of. Tank is fairly new, about 4 months old now. All fish and inverts seem totally happy.

Tank Specs-
40 gallon Breeder
Seachem Tidal 110 HOB filter
5 gallon refugium (Chaeto/rubble)
2 koralia PH on opposite sides of tank

Lighting
2 165w Viparspectra reef lights
55% blue, 15% white
Blues are on 7 hours- whites are on for 4 hours of that 7.

Livestock
4 fish (bicolor Blenny, Kupang damsel, Firefish, scooter dragonet)
5 hermit crabs
8 snails
Several frags of Zoas, paly, mushrooms, Gsp.

Water Parameters
RODI from store
Salinity 1.027 (using Tropic Marin Salt according to lfs where I get water from)
Temp 76-79
Ammonia 0
Phosphates 0
Nitrates 0
Alk 8.0
PH 7
Don’t test for Mag/calcium
I do a 20% WC every 7-10 days.

wondering if low phosphates and nitrates could be the issue. I have over fed frozen mysis/ brine mix the last several days without any increase in phosphates, ammonia, or nitrates. Thought about dosing fertilizer for planted tanks.

I also having some what either looks like stringy Cyano or Dinos. Reddish in colors- comes and goes. Gets bad during the light cycles and seems to diminish at night- not completely- but to some extent. I have lots of amphipods, isopods, and what look like tiny copepods. I’ve examined the corals for parasites, I don’t see anything. Occasionally I’ll see an amphipod scurrying around the Gsp at night.


Any advice from experienced hobbyists would be greatly appreciated.

Sounds like flow, when was the last time you cleaned stream/gyre pumps

 

[Katrina71]

Give your tank a couple of days without lights. Feed the tank. I'll bet your red stringy guest is consuming your nitrates. Increase flow too. Pics would help.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Let's see photo, need to see tank looks what specs you wrote

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ph is Low (aim SLOWLY) for 8.0, Salinity is a little high, Bring down to 1.025 and a half, Dinos may be your culprit. Run your blues at 20%, turn off whites, treat tank with hydrogen Peroxide at 1ml per 10 gallons and yes it is safe and siphon up as much of the dinos as you can. and trap the loose dino with filter socks or similar so that you can clean out daily.
DO NOT feed coral any food such as reef roids which is fuel for dinos. Peroxide will reduce that fuel source.
Overfeeding especially if youre aware that youre overfeeding is never a good thing. Water quality is greatly diminished.

AND USE ChemiPure BLUE

 

[Westoncase]

Need more nutrients

 

[Katrina71]

Pics are super helpful.

 

[Scud]

Sounds like flow, when was the last time you cleaned stream/gyre pumps

Flow seems good- I actually added the second power head about 3 weeks ago because the red stringy stuff was on the sand, and I felt like one wasn’t cutting it.

 

[Scud]

Ph is Low (aim SLOWLY) for 8.0, Salinity is a little high, Bring down to 1.025 and a half, Dinos may be your culprit. Run your blues at 20%, turn off whites, treat tank with hydrogen Peroxide at 1ml per 10 gallons and yes it is safe and siphon up as much of the dinos as you can. and trap the loose dino with filter socks or similar so that you can clean out daily.
DO NOT feed coral any food such as reef roids which is fuel for dinos. Peroxide will reduce that fuel source.
Overfeeding especially if youre aware that youre overfeeding is never a good thing. Water quality is greatly diminished.

AND USE ChemiPure BLUE

I forgot to mention I was using chemipure blue and elite. I actually took the chemipure blue out because of my zero phosphate reading. I chose to over feed recently to bring nutrients up.
I will give the low light, peroxide a shot. Was worried this was a Dino outbreak, and wondered if low nutrients was the reason.

 

[Scud]

Let's see photo, need to see tank looks what specs you wrote

Will post a photo shortly.

 

[Scud]

Also wondered- does anyone have thoughts on exactly why GSP and zoas don’t seem happy? Is it the low nutrients, or the Dino/Cyano? Or is it the lighting?
the Viparspectra lights seem crazy bright to my eyes. I’ve kept the whites low because of this. also forgot to mention that the coralline algae growth is starting to turn white- which I’ve read is low magnesium.

 

[BeejReef]

Might not be a magic bullet answer.
Agree to get your salinity down just a touch.
How long have the corals been in the tank doing well before the downturn?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Also wondered- does anyone have thoughts on exactly why GSP and zoas don’t seem happy? Is it the low nutrients, or the Dino/Cyano? Or is it the lighting?
the Viparspectra lights seem crazy bright to my eyes. I’ve kept the whites low because of this. also forgot to mention that the coralline algae growth is starting to turn white- which I’ve read is low magnesium.

With dino present, see if they respond to a gentle blowing with a turkey baster. They may be upset from outbreak. The fanning with baster may be enough to get response

 

[Rubblereefer]

I forgot to mention I was using chemipure blue and elite. I actually took the chemipure blue out because of my zero phosphate reading. I chose to over feed recently to bring nutrients up.
I will give the low light, peroxide a shot. Was worried this was a Dino outbreak, and wondered if low nutrients was the reason.

You should put the blue back in and get rid of the elite. Your nutrients are too low and the GFO in the Chemipure Elite is probably bringing your phosphate down to zero which softies wont like. Its definitely not a flow thing, mushrooms would be fine with VERY little flow.

 

[Scud]

Might not be a magic bullet answer.
Agree to get your salinity down just a touch.
How long have the corals been in the tank doing well before the downturn?

GSP has been in the tank for nearly 3 months, had already started to spread onto the rock, and probably doubled in size. The zoas have been in for about 4-6 weeks- lost a little color, shrunk up a bit and don’t quite open fully always.

 

[Scud]

You should put the blue back in and get rid of the elite. Your nutrients are too low and the GFO in the Chemipure Elite is probably bringing your phosphate down to zero which softies wont like. Its definitely not a flow thing, mushrooms would be fine with VERY little flow.

I meant to say I pulled out whichever one has the GFO in it. The elite I believe. The regular carbon is still in the tank.

 

[Scud]

Pics

 

[Scud]

Forgot to mention I added Mexican Caulerpa the other day- arrived in the mail looking really bad- it’s basically disintegrating in the tank. Was hoping it would bounce back. I don’t think it’s helping- will remove it today.

 

[alton]

You are starving your softies. They need some pollution. 0 phosphates and nitrates are bad for coral in general

 

[Scud]

You are starving your softies. They need some pollution. 0 phosphates and nitrates are bad for coral in general

So how do I bring it up?