Help with LPS

[Treebeard_48]

All,

I am new to the hobby and have a newer red sea reefer 250 tank. It's been established for several (6ish) months now, however the first 4 months were plagued with issues where Windex used near the tank kept mistakenly entering the water. A word of warning on that point.

That being said it has been fine for roughly 2 months since. During the troublesome period coral was added and most all survived. The star polyp, sympodium, psammacora, zoas, torches, and frogspawn have all recovered fine. In addition I have added a couple more torches,frogspawn, acans, and hammer. All of which have done well.

However, my goniopora, alveopora, and duncan have refused to come all the way out. They are not dead as they are coming out very slightly and still have their color. I am monitoring my Calc, Mag, Alk levels and I have moved them to a shaded location and reduced the powerhead flow. Nothing has worked.

Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong? Any help is appreciated!

Thanks

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

All,

I am new to the hobby and have a newer red sea reefer 250 tank. It's been established for several (6ish) months now, however the first 4 months were plagued with issues where Windex used near the tank kept mistakenly entering the water. A word of warning on that point.

That being said it has been fine for roughly 2 months since. During the troublesome period coral was added and most all survived. The star polyp, sympodium, psammacora, zoas, torches, and frogspawn have all recovered fine. In addition I have added a couple more torches,frogspawn, acans, and hammer. All of which have done well.

However, my goniopora, alveopora, and duncan have refused to come all the way out. They are not dead as they are coming out very slightly and still have their color. I am monitoring my Calc, Mag, Alk levels and I have moved them to a shaded location and reduced the powerhead flow. Nothing has worked.

Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong? Any help is appreciated!

Thanks

Do you feed particulate foods specifically for alveopora and goniopora? What are you nitrate and phosphate levels?

 

[Treebeard_48]

Do you feed particulate foods specifically for alveopora and goniopora? What are you nitrate and phosphate levels?

I feed all my coral directly via a baster 2-3 times a week a mixture of reef roids and fuel after using reef primer.
After the chaos, my tank started another mini-cycle. My protein skimmer is still working on bringing down my nitrate levels, currently they're around 40 ppm. However my nitrite and ammonia are both 0 ppm. My phosphates are also going through their cycle. Currently they're around 0.08

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Nitrates are kind of high...I don't know that the corals would respond in the ways you're describing to nitrates. Phosphates look okay.

Do the corals show a feeding response when you use the baster?

 

[Treebeard_48]

Nitrates are kind of high...I don't know that the corals would respond in the ways you're describing to nitrates. Phosphates look okay.

Do the corals show a feeding response when you use the baster?

Yeah I know, I added some chemipure to my sock a couple days ago. Hopefully that will help with the nitrates.

I'm not sure what a feeding response is. If they are slightly protruded, they withdraw slightly. I'm not sure if that is normal.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Are you sure there is no ammonia or nitrites?

 

[Treebeard_48]

Are you sure there is no ammonia or nitrites?

Positive I have been monitoring very closely and tested with both Red Sea and API test kits to confirm

 

[Dal-Reef]

Look at adding some high quality carbo like BRS ROX 0.8 Carbon. If you have reactor that would great but also putting in a bag in high flow area would be better than nothing.

 

[Treebeard_48]

Look at adding some high quality carbo like BRS ROX 0.8 Carbon. If you have reactor that would great but also putting in a bag in high flow area would be better than nothing.

Is this to decrease Nitrates? I don't have a reactor, but am looking to acquire one eventually. I did add some chemipure in my sock

 

[Dal-Reef]

The carbon is not for removing nitrates... If you got some chemipure in there that will help just as well.

 

[Treebeard_48]

The carbon is not for removing nitrates... If you got some chemipure in there that will help just as well.

Ok cool. I appreciate you all taking time to help.

I think I might still have some Carbon left over, from the great Windex tragedy of '19, but what do you think the problem is? I.E. what am I trying to remove w/ the Carbon. Not opposed to trying, just trying to learn.

 

[Treebeard_48]

Bump. Any other ideas? Anyone else experienced this?