Help with My Corals

[Joe Tony]

I have a 30 gallon nano tank that's well established with a clownfish pair, damsel, brittle star, reef lobster, urchin, snails, hermit crabs, pods, etc., and I have a few coral. Everything's been doing great, except for two of my four coral frags

My red monti cap had shown signs of bleaching shortly after I first got it about a month ago, and that may have been because I put it too high on the light a couple of times. Since leaving it on the bottom it more or less stopped bleaching, but it also hasn't been showing any signs of recovering despite providing it with regular feedings several times a week

And my duncan coral frag and mushroom closed up since my last water change, which I gave the tank in December, when I first got the frag.

A week or two ago I was told that I needed to get more fish in order to add some nitrate so the corals wouldn't starve. The mushroom has since fully recovered and the duncan is more open now than it was but it's still not fully open with that tentacly/anemone look that they're supposed to have. I've also had a few duncan corals in the years passed that also behaved this way. I fed the fish more and put plankton in a bit more often as well, and just today I pulled the lighting intensity back from 40% to 10%. The light is a VIPRASPECTRA LED

I currently don't have a means of providing an accurate test for water parameters but will be getting some salifert and hanna test kits in the near future, but considering everything else is showing no signs of an issue, including my candy cane coral and my mushroom, my parameters don't seem to be out of whack.

What I'd like to know is if there's anything else I could be doing or am missing that would help the red monti recover from the bleaching, and to have the dunan coral finally open up again. Like, should I add a fourth fish to the mix? Here's the coral frags:

 

[Jonify]

A lot of times, several significant water changes can right the ship, if it's a chemical thing. Absent that, I'm not sure running a light rated for your tank on 10% is the best path forward. Typically, 50% is a good medium while acclimating. Finally, I've not had good success target feeding coral when they're not doing well already ... I have better success raising nitrates and phosphates, or broadcast dosing something like Red Sea Reef Energy AB Plus. (The latter completely restored my coral after an unfortunate kalk overdose a month ago).

 

[Joe Tony]

A lot of times, several significant water changes can right the ship, if it's a chemical thing. Absent that, I'm not sure running a light rated for your tank on 10% is the best path forward. Typically, 50% is a good medium while acclimating. Finally, I've not had good success target feeding coral when they're not doing well already ... I have better success raising nitrates and phosphates, or broadcast dosing something like Red Sea Reef Energy AB Plus. (The latter completely restored my coral after an unfortunate kalk overdose a month ago).

It's definitely not normal for a duncan coral to be closed for that long right? We're talking weeks here.

 

[Jonify]

It's definitely not normal for a duncan coral to be closed for that long right? We're talking weeks here.

They'll stay closed as long as it takes to find better water quality. With super powerful lights, run on highest settings, they'll also start closed up. But if you have a decent light rated for your aquarium, light should not be the issue, so I would turn to water quality.

 

[Willu]

It's hard to point you in a specific direction without knowing your tank parameters. Try to go to your LFS and see if they can test your water for you. Do you have any information at all like temperature or salinity?

What fish do you have in your system, and other invertebrates, some animals are known to pick at corals.
Do you dose anything in your system and how much?
Also judging from what I think is algae in the picture, I really don't think you have a nutrient deficiency or more specifically a nitrate deficiency in your aquarium. But like I said, it's hard without knowing anything.

 

[anthonygf]

It's definitely not normal for a duncan coral to be closed for that long right? We're talking weeks here.

My 30 head duncan at about 4 years old was closed up for several months, tried everything to please it. Then I switched salt from IO/RC to Fritz and now is open and happy, this was a few months ago. Well recently I went back to IO/RC because of the price half of Fritz, now is closing up again. I make sure water parameters are the same when doing water change. So yes I think they can close up for several months and recover. When I get a chance I will go back to Fritz.

 

[anthonygf]

My 30 head duncan at about 4 years old was closed up for several months, tried everything to please it. Then I switched salt from IO/RC to Fritz and now is open and happy, this was a few months ago. Well recently I went back to IO/RC because of the price half of Fritz, now is closing up again. I make sure water parameters are the same when doing water change. So yes I think they can close up for several months and recover. When I get a chance I will go back to Fritz.

By the way, I had no problems with IO/RC for close to 5 years with that Duncan so what is up with the salt lately!

 

[Joe Tony]

By the way, I had no problems with IO/RC for close to 5 years with that Duncan so what is up with the salt lately!

So you think I should switch to Fritz instead of IO/RC? I've actually never used Fritz before

 

[Joe Tony]

It's hard to point you in a specific direction without knowing your tank parameters. Try to go to your LFS and see if they can test your water for you. Do you have any information at all like temperature or salinity?

What fish do you have in your system, and other invertebrates, some animals are known to pick at corals.
Do you dose anything in your system and how much?
Also judging from what I think is algae in the picture, I really don't think you have a nutrient deficiency or more specifically a nitrate deficiency in your aquarium. But like I said, it's hard without knowing anything.

I have a clownfish pair and a yellowtail damsel. As far as invertebrates go:
-Emerald crab
-Turbo, trochus, astrea, cerith, and nassarius snails
-Hermit crabs
-Brittle star
-Purple reef lobster
-Tuxedo urchin

I try to be careful not to get any of those other crabs that are known to take out coral like arrows and sally lightfoots and I keep the emerald crab and reef lobster well fed. Besides the damsel occassionally chasing the clownfish, everyone gets along well enough.

And I have healthy populations of copepods, amphipods, bristleworms, micro feather dusters, clams, and others. Tank's been running for well over a year and some of the live rock is over two years old.

 

[anthonygf]

So you think I should switch to Fritz instead of IO/RC? I've actually never used Fritz before

If you can why not. The Duncan was the only coral affected by the different salt. I think Fritz is good salt, had no problems when using it.

 

[anthonygf]

I have a clownfish pair and a yellowtail damsel. As far as invertebrates go:
-Emerald crab
-Turbo, trochus, astrea, cerith, and nassarius snails
-Hermit crabs
-Brittle star
-Purple reef lobster
-Tuxedo urchin

I try to be careful not to get any of those other crabs that are known to take out coral like arrows and sally lightfoots and I keep the emerald crab and reef lobster well fed. Besides the damsel occassionally chasing the clownfish, everyone gets along well enough.

And I have healthy populations of copepods, amphipods, bristleworms, micro feather dusters, clams, and others. Tank's been running for well over a year and some of the live rock is over two years old.

You have clams? I would like to see a photo of your tank, sounds amazing. I have a large squamosa in my 75 gallon, 8-10 inch. This was last October in my old 46 gallon bowfront, see all the hermits wrecking my sps coral. breaking branches off creating lots of frags. this is why I have removed most of my hermits, only have maybe 3 now. soon will just have snails and peppermint shrimp.

 

[Joe Tony]

If you can why not. The Duncan was the only coral affected by the different salt. I think Fritz is good salt, had no problems when using it.

Well I guess my only issue is I still have a big bucket of the IO/RC salt and I'd hate to waste it.

 

[anthonygf]

Well I guess my only issue is I still have a big bucket of the IO/RC salt and I'd hate to waste it.

Just save it, maybe use 75% fritz and 25% IO.
I had an aiptasia outbreak that got out of hand, tried everything to control it. The last effort was removed all live rock and frag corals and sterilize rock. This is why I am now battling a little cyano. This photo is today.

 

[Joe Tony]

Just save it, maybe use 75% fritz and 25% IO.
I had an aiptasia outbreak that got out of hand, tried everything to control it. The last effort was removed all live rock and frag corals and sterilize rock. This is why I am now battling a little cyano. This photo is today.

Very well. I'll look into getting some fritz to use

 

[Joe Tony]

You have clams? I would like to see a photo of your tank, sounds amazing. I have a large squamosa in my 75 gallon, 8-10 inch. This was last October in my old 46 gallon bowfront, see all the hermits wrecking my sps coral. breaking branches off creating lots of frags. this is why I have removed most of my hermits, only have maybe 3 now. soon will just have snails and peppermint shrimp.

The clams I have are the tiny hitchiker ones, not the super colorful tridacnas, though I do want to get a blue maxima when I upgrade. I tried to take photos of them, but they're too small to notice. The shells are disguised in the rock, and you'll see the tiny white valves they use to filter feed and extrete waste. Cool to look at for sure, and definitely a great part of a healthy cleanup crew.

As for the hermit crabs, I've also never once seen any I've kept go after any corals. All I've ever seen them do is eat algae and signs that they've take out the occasional cerith snail.

 

[Willu]

Do you use RODI water for your water changes and top off?
I saw in your other post that you were using a hydrometer, are you still using a hydrometer? And are you still dosing anything?

I use fritz with good results, but I have friends that use IO with no problem at all.

 

[Joe Tony]

Do you use RODI water for your water changes and top off?
I saw in your other post that you were using a hydrometer, are you still using a hydrometer? And are you still dosing anything?

I use fritz with good results, but I have friends that use IO with no problem at all.

I guess my reputation precedes me lol.

No. I get rid of my hydrometer after people overwhelmingly agreed it's not an accurate measurement of salinity, but I haven't done any water changes since. I just ordered a refractometer today, and when it comes I'll do a few water changes. As for the water I use, it's from gallons of distilled water.

As far as dosing goes, I still put some iron in there for my red grape caulerpa, among other macros, but more sparingly now, and weighed against iron test samples I got from my brother. I think I put in a dose or two for alkalinity in the past month, and maybe one TINY dose of iodine. I otherwise haven't been dosing anything, and am awaiting soon the means of getting test kits for calcium, alkalinity, nitrates, phosphates that'll be more accurate than the API ones I used, which people also said overwhelmingly were inefficient.

 

[Willu]

Your problem could very well be salinity, make sure once you receive your refractometer you properly calibrate it.
For a tank your size and with only 4 coral frags, I don't think you'll ever need to dose anything until you get more corals, by that I mean you won't have to dose calcium, alkalinity or magnesium, and trace elements like iodine. Water changes are completely sufficient to replenish what your corals use since you have so few.
Also, can you send a full tank picture, it might give a better idea of what is going on.

 

[Joe Tony]

Your problem could very well be salinity, make sure once you receive your refractometer you properly calibrate it.
For a tank your size and with only 4 coral frags, I don't think you'll ever need to dose anything until you get more corals, by that I mean you won't have to dose calcium, alkalinity or magnesium, and trace elements like iodine. Water changes are completely sufficient to replenish what your corals use since you have so few.
Also, can you send a full tank picture, it might give a better idea of what is going on.

You may be right about the salinity being the problem, at least as far as the duncan coral is concerned. It only closed up after I did the one water change, and given I used the hydrometer to check the parameter, salinity could be out of whack.

Then again all of my other creatures seem to be doing just fine, including my brittle star and sea urchin

Here's a picture of the tank, as well as the my candy cane and mushroom. As you can see they're doing just fine compared to the monti frag and duncan. Perhaps they're pickier about salinity than the others?

 

[Joe Tony]

I've also had fish, brittle stars, corals, urchins, shrimp in the past that have declined/died on me for seemingly no explanation, all the while I was doing weekly water changes with the hydrometer keeping things in check. It would explain a lot, actually.