Dragon were you having the same problem as I was having ??
Hey rick.45cal, when should I put my fuge back on line ? Cuz my sump is setup to have a fuge as mechanical filtration???
Hey island, so I took your advice I have increased the light intensity of my radions over the course of a couple weeks, 1) because I would like more growth, now that my no3 levels are dropping, 2) some of my montipora and other corals on my left side rock structure aren't looking very good, I cant tell if it's too much light or too little
Hey @Rick.45cal, I've noticed my corals colors have gotten better but my growth has been next to nothing , my Acros on the left side seem to do well. The ones on my right side seem to be dying, my left side light is at 40% and my right side is around 20 cuz I had some montoporas, and I thought new acro frags didnt need 250 par, they were doing good, now all my montis look like death and my bonsai and frog skin acro are slowly dying how do I diagnose acro problems
Are these par levels required for frags as well ?? Plus, with all the different "designer" names for fuzzy sticks how am I supposed to distinguish between higher light acros and lower light acros?? Also I'll post pictures tomorrow and I'll definitely start ramping my radions up, I do have a syneye par meter too.
Ok, very helpful, I've been wondering if maybe these corals were dying because they basically were starving because they didnt have enough light, heres some pictures the three acros on the lower right one the shelf got moved there fro. The left side a few days ago but all the corals I've taken pictures of are corals from the left side, "lower side"
If possible try ICP test. It's may get to the root of the problemHello everybody, I'm on my last limb trying to figure this out, I'm ready to test down and start over, I've got a 90 g bare bottom tank I've got three fish 1 purple tang, 1 vlamingi tang, 1 clown fish. I've had it up for three years I've never grown cheato I've never grown coraline and my corals have grown especially slow if at all, I'm so fed up with it, I'm bare bottom with minimalist aquascape and running Triton, my rodi water is clean enough, I have a theory I'd like to toss around and see what the community thinks cuz I'm so done I really am, so when I did my aquascape I ordered 85lbs of LR from brs it is the reef saver rock, and If I had to guess I bet I maybe have 60lbs in my tank if I had to guess, I just put the rest into a bin to cure about 2 weeks ago, I'm thinking I have high nitrates because I don't have enough LR in my tank.
Also for the other part of my question above I've had undectable po4 forever never had any bad green algea in my tank only brown looking nasty stuff, my corals are very pale, and grown extremely slow, and my cheato doesn't grow at all and I've got a kessil H380 over my fuge. For my skimmer I'm running a B. Magus A8, and after thinking through my equipment I chose I've decided that my skimmer is pulling WAAY too much phosphate out of the water, i can dose neophos at night to bring my level up to .03 and itll stay like that for 24hrs with the skimmer off.
If I turn my skimmer on, by the next day my po4 will have dropped back to zero,
So I am over skimming my system,
Conclusion, add more LR, and possibly a deep or just a regular non deep sand bed to refugium, and buy a new skimmer sized for my tank.
Agree or disagree ??
Share your opinion I'm open to whatever you have to say at this point.
Thank you
Hey Rick heres is my par readings, i took with my syneye par meter, geez now I feel really dumb, I never realized how low my lights were no wonder my corals are dying
Well I can tell things are getting better by color in some other corals are getting better, I bought some cheato and put it in the sump and it's been in there for about a week and it is already starting to grow, so I know things are getting better, now I gotta work on the lights getting brighter, but honestly it feels soo good knowing things are getting better it brings back my excitement of the hobby.@vdubreefer
So it looks to me like a lot of the damage, especially with your montis is related to the phosphate deficiency. The patchy dead areas are a dead give away that you had phosphate starvation in the presence of ample nitrates. The acros look like they probably suffered the same fate and, or light starvation or a combination of several things going on. You’ve solved the problem but the damage is permanent and will take a long time for the corals to recover and grow over the areas. I still have damage on several montis that suffered the same fate as yours, and that event was several months ago. My colonies are actively growing new parts, but the dead damaged areas are still a no go. Sorry but now you are realizing the long term effects of what happens in this scenario. (Stick with it, you’ll get there. It’s going to take some healing time.
To ease your mind you can always do what @Jomama suggested and do an ICP test. I personally would choose the ATI ICP-OES test because they will also test a sample of your DI water for contamination. It may not reveal anything, or it may tell you something that may be an issue to address in this process.
Regardless I think you are headed down the right path now, try and keep things stable and keep detectable NO3 and PO4 and things should gradually recover.
Here’s my monti colonies still with damage from me allowing my phosphates drop to undetectable with ample nitrates available. (This kind of damage happens EXTREMELY fast in a bright light environment, lower light environments take longer for the damage to form.). Yes that is cyano, but it’s not the cause of the damage, it is feeding on the dead tissue, or what remains in the skeleton. If you notice the outer rim of the monti is actively growing and healthy but the inner tissue is rough and struggling. (This coral is actively recovering, and was in much worse shape a few months ago). The effects of phosphate starvation in the presence of nitrates is a prolonged and drawn out process even when the drop in PO4 was a short punctuated event. :) For the record, these monti colonies were only saved because I recognized right away what was happening and reacted quickly to stop the event.
