I this Leather Coral Dead ?

[William Norman]

Hi I am Newbie to this. My leather coral has not looked good since I brought it home. Showed pictures to my LFS where I purchased it after a week, they said it was adjusting. Now I came home from a week long business trip and the coral looks worse. It this still alive?

 

[Tahoe61]

Yes it's still alive. I would proceed with a water change and increase flow if the coral is in a lower flow area.

 

[fragit]

I would like to know a few things. First is your water really that cloudy? Second, is the coral mushy? If it is and it disintegrates when you touch it then yes it's toast. If it's still firm then it may survive. Third thing is your sand? Is that like sand box sand or beach sand?

 

[William Norman]

Yes the water is cloudy. (It happened while I was away this week). I have a 50G tank. Its now about 3 months old. I did the full cycle, then added 2 fish, waited added 2 fish, waited then added the 2 corals about 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately one of the fish in second batch had ich and died. I have been battling a ammonia spike to .5 since its death 1 week ago. I had it down to .25 to 0 before I left, but now it is back up. I did a 10% water change this morning. I just checked the coral is still hard. Yes my sand is real sand. I live in FL and it was taken about a 1 mile out, we didn't like the look of the sand our LFSs had.

Thank you for the responses.

 

[fragit]

Yes the water is cloudy. (It happened while I was away this week). I have a 50G tank. Its now about 3 months old. I did the full cycle, then added 2 fish, waited added 2 fish, waited then added the 2 corals about 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately one of the fish in second batch had ich and died. I have been battling a ammonia spike to .5 since its death 1 week ago. I had it down to .25 to 0 before I left, but now it is back up. I did a 10% water change this morning. I just checked the coral is still hard. Yes my sand is real sand. I live in FL and it was taken about a 1 mile out, we didn't like the look of the sand our LFSs had.

Thank you for the responses.

So beach sand contains a lot of silica and can cause you a lot of algae problems. Most reef tanks either have no sand(bare bottom) or have crushed coral bottoms. I would suggest getting rid of that sand and buying enough bagged live sand for your tank. Definitely do another water change and I would be running carbon. Do you have a protein skimmer? You have also introduced ich to your system, so you run the risk of infecting your existing fish and any other fish that you add to your system.

 

[William Norman]

Jesse,

How often can you do a water change ? and what % ? I don't have a skimmer. Right now I only have a hang on the back of the tank filter. I have 2 led lights that came with the tank. How do I see if they are strong enough for the coral ? They dont have any branding,

Ich - yes this weekend I am moving the fish to a hospital tank and treating with copper and then leaving my display tank to the corals and snails for 75+ days.

 

[fragit]

William, make sure your remaining fish can handle copper treatments before treating. Not all fish can go through some of these meds we use. There is a sticky thread in the fish disease forum with a nice chart that you can reference. I would change at least 20% of that water if you can. Ammonia is very toxic to animals so if your showing any than that could be stressing out your livestock. In terms of the light... most LED can grow corals. It all depends what your running the intensity at etc.

 

[GHsaltie]

I'm curious to know what readings you are getting for nitrite and nitrate. If you are still seeing ammonia after a week then your tank is not cycled. Can you list your other parameters?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So beach sand contains a lot of silica and can cause you a lot of algae problems.

Silica, not silicate.
The old guys used to battle for the best beach sand combos.

 

[William Norman]

Jesse - I will double check the reference chart. Thx

GHasltie - My other numbers are 0/0 My tank fully cycled using the dead shrimp method for 4 weeks. I waited 2 more weeks with 0/0/0 before I added my first 2 fish. My numbers stayed 0/0/0 till the fish died around week 10. I was overfeeding trying different food options trying to get the fish to eat before it died. It didn't have any external spots so I never thought it was sick.

 

[fragit]

Silica, not silicate.
The old guys used to battle for the best beach sand combos.

Could you clarify what your saying? I said silica, so now I'm confused.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Could you clarify what your saying? I said silica, so now I'm confused.

Silca and silicates are different. Silica doesn't dissolve into silicates.

 

[fragit]

Silca and silicates are different. Silica doesn't dissolve into silicates.

Okay, but doesn't beach sand contain a lot of silica? And don't diatoms feed off silica?

 

[Paul B]

If you want to know if a leather coral is dying, take it out and smell it. If you faint, the thing is dying.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Okay, but doesn't beach sand contain a lot of silica? And don't diatoms feed off silica?

play sand is silca.
Diatoms feed on silicate

So beach sand has no silicate

 

[fragit]

play sand is silca.
Diatoms feed on silicate

So beach sand has no silicate

Oh!

 

[roberthu526]

You tank is not cycled if you have ammonia. Use some bacteria product please.

 

[William Norman]

My tanked cycled 2 months ago. Everything was fine till 2 weeks ago. I had a tang die that appears to have had ich. I am planning on moving the fish to a hospital tank this weekend. I can not figure out what caused the spike because I was at triple zeros for weeks also verified by my LFS. I am feeding my 3 fish 8 pellet's in morning, a third of a cube of frozen mysis shrimp, and a whole piece of regular shrimp or muscle that I remove what is left after 5 minutes in evening.

Frustrated!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have been battling a ammonia spike to .5 since

You tank is not cycled if you have ammonia.

My tanked cycled 2 months ago.

We disagree.
Are you on rodi water?
Something is stopping the processing of ammoina(cycle) or creating ammoina. so far nothing you've noted should case an ammoina spike that a normal tank would not be able to handle.
the take away is, something is killing your bacteria.

 

[William Norman]

Salty - Not using RODI Water yet. using bottled spring water (was told it was better due to PH vs Distilled). I have tested each batch I buy for Ammonia(just in case, it always shows 0) . I treating with Prime once a week.

I started with dead rock that I bleached and cleaned and soaked overnight prior to placing in tank before the cycle process. (Still not seeing growth on it).

My cycle process went according to what everyone said it would do. I started with a piece of shrimp, left it in for a few days. Saw my Ammonia spike, then it went through the process in about 4 weeks till I got all 0. Waited 2 weeks, added 5 snails and 2 clowns. All 0s, waited 2 weeks added yellow tang and saddle puffer. Tang wasn't eating so I tried a few different foods. I might have introduced too much bio, in trying to get tang to eat. One week later I added a Zoa and a Leather, I saw a small increase in ammonia. Additional Water Change and started being extra careful to remove left over food. Tang died, saw a big spike to .5. Now it wont come down.

It is a 50G tank. I have a Aqueon 75 filter. I added additional ammonia reducer pads which I have replaced every 2 weeks. I have been rinsing the 2 carbon filter pads every other week. I have 2 SunSun 800 GPH Powerheads on each side of the tank creating a lot of water movement. I turn them off when I feed and a few times a day to create a random pattern.

I have been doing 10% water changes every few days since the ammonia spiked.

I did use Ich Attack after the Tang died as suggested by the LFS, which seemed to be a temporary fix as fish responded well. Moving to a 10 Gallon hospital tank this weekend for copper treatment.

The LFS said my salt was 1.206 so I have brought it down a little. My hydrometer was reading 1.205 so now I have it 1.203.

My Ph has been a little low per the API Test Kit - 8.2 so I have been adding eight.four to raise it.

What the heck am I doing wrong ?