Is this the beginning of the end?

[Peach02]

Honestly, if you want my opinion, which you probably don't considering my last comment (which was honest although not helpful), in order to sustain enough copepods and microfauna for the mandarin, the tank needs much more nutrients going into it; enough nutrients to cause microalgae to grow which will host all the animals the mandarin fish needs to eat. This increase in nutrients may cause an increase in nuisance algae... but that's kind of the deal when trying to sustain a high level of microfauna for a mandarin to survive long term.

So I would say, start feeding all your animals more and increase the light. Expect algae to grow and possibly increase clean up crew to compensate.

I'll double my feeding and set up that white worm culture. With the female mandarin since I'd seen the male eat frozen I thought it was good and I was just told to reduce light?

 

[IslandLifeReef]

@Katrina71 @stahlja @Paul Sands
Temperature 27 degrees Celsius
Salinity 1.027
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
pH 8.0
Calcium 450-500
Alkalinity 8.4
Magnesium 1800 (didn't have time to retest before work)
No copper as all my inverts are fine

Torch coral died while I was at school and gsp seems hadly hurt but it fell so that's understandable

Temp is on the high side. Nitrates are on the low side. If Mag is correct, it is really high. Don't know about Mandarins, but higher temps add stress to everything. I would start by lowering your temp gradually to 25 C.

 

[Peach02]

Temp is on the high side. Nitrates are on the low side. If Mag is correct, it is really high. Don't know about Mandarins, but higher temps add stress to everything. I would start by lowering your temp gradually to 25 C.

Will do

 

[FacebookJail]

1800ppm magnesium is way too high, strangely high in fact. I haven't experienced it but have heard that things start heading downhill around 1600ppm.... results seen from fighting bryopsis with high mag levels.

 

[Peach02]

1800ppm magnesium is way too high, strangely high in fact. I haven't experienced it but have heard that things start heading downhill around 1600ppm.... results seen from fighting bryopsis with high mag levels.

How would you recommend lowering it.
I also am going to retest the magnesium since I don't know how it could of gotten that high since I'm not dosing

 

[FacebookJail]

How would you recommend lowering it.
I also am going to retest the magnesium since I don't know how it could of gotten that high since I'm not dosing

You can do water changes using a salt with lower magnesium

Aquarium Salt Mix Guide

Learn how to properly mix saltwater with various brands of aquarium salt from the experts at That Fish Place - That Pet Place & thatpetplace.com.

www.thatpetplace.com

Based off that chart Tropic Marin (regular), Red Sea (regular/blue bucket), and Kent marine are your best options.

Aside from that the only other way is time.

I'm curious to how it got that high though? Or if perhaps its a false reading.... (I think old test kits tend to read high?)

 

[Peach02]

You can do water changes using a salt with lower magnesium

Aquarium Salt Mix Guide

Learn how to properly mix saltwater with various brands of aquarium salt from the experts at That Fish Place - That Pet Place & thatpetplace.com.

www.thatpetplace.com

Based off that chart Tropic Marin (regular), Red Sea (regular/blue bucket), and Kent marine are your best options.

Aside from that the only other way is time.

I'm curious to how it got that high though? Or if perhaps its a false reading.... (I think old test kits tend to read high?)

I use natural sea water so I don't think thats the issue. I think it was a false reading I was rushed for time to get to work ill retest tonight

 

[Reesj]

Temp is on the high side. Nitrates are on the low side. If Mag is correct, it is really high. Don't know about Mandarins, but higher temps add stress to everything. I would start by lowering your temp gradually to 25 C.

I seriously Dont belive you need tanks tempratures at 25C. Thats almost impossible levels for most countries and most of the oceans in the world. Having 26-27C is mroe than fine.
Specially imo for a country like Australia wehre in sumer you going to have to find crazy chiller if you get your corals used to that lower Tempratures.

 

[Peach02]

I seriously Dont belive you need tanks tempratures at 25C. Thats almost impossible levels for most countries and most of the oceans in the world. Having 26-27C is mroe than fine.
Specially imo for a country like Australia wehre in sumer you going to have to find crazy chiller if you get your corals used to that lower Tempratures.

yea it can get up to 40 degrees Celsius several times a week down here but water tends to peak at 30 in pools but usually stays in the 25-28 range in the hot weeks so ill probably set the temperature to 26 or something to have a buffer if it goes up for a little

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I seriously Dont belive you need tanks tempratures at 25C. Thats almost impossible levels for most countries and most of the oceans in the world. Having 26-27C is mroe than fine.
Specially imo for a country like Australia wehre in sumer you going to have to find crazy chiller if you get your corals used to that lower Tempratures.

First, the OP stated earlerbthat the temp had gotten as high as 28C. 27 C is at the upper end of the recommended temperature range. Higher temperatures cause stress in both corals and fish.

As far as ocean temps go, 25C is very common in most oceans. Even the Great Barrier Reef get cooler than that.

 

[Peach02]

First, the OP stated earlerbthat the temp had gotten as high as 28C. 27 C is at the upper end of the recommended temperature range. Higher temperatures cause stress in both corals and fish.

As far as ocean temps go, 25C is very common in most oceans.

I set the temperature to 28...

 

[Reesj]

First, the OP stated earlerbthat the temp had gotten as high as 28C. 27 C is at the upper end of the recommended temperature range. Higher temperatures cause stress in both corals and fish.

As far as ocean temps go, 25C is very common in most oceans. Even the Great Barrier Reef get cooler than that.

I do'nt want to get in to fight here but,
He stated that its stable around 26-27 and won't go mroe than 1C from it. So around 26-27. Even 28 if it gets soemtiem is not a huge deal imo.
Also soemtiems GBR gets cooler than 25 is not soemthing to rave about when sometiems it gets as high as 32-34C. 26-27-28 levels are nothing to worry about. Heck the ocean tempratures where I live most of the year is over 28C.

What I'm geting at is I'm quite certain his problem is not keeping his tempratures at 26-27 level as he stated!

 

[Hermie]

I'll double my feeding and set up that white worm culture. With the female mandarin since I'd seen the male eat frozen I thought it was good and I was just told to reduce light?

I'm talking about getting the mandarin to survive, having zero nitrates and then increasing lighting wouldn't be good, IMO. It's possible that if you increase nutrient levels without changing the lighting you may still see enough algae/microfauna grow to sustain the mandarin's health. However, if you increase nutrients and don't see more copepods/microfauna or even algae of any kind, I would increase lighting gradually... it's a balance...

 

[Peach02]

I'm talking about getting the mandarin to survive, having zero nitrates and then increasing lighting wouldn't be good, IMO. It's possible that if you increase nutrient levels without changing the lighting you may still see enough algae/microfauna grow to sustain the mandarin's health. However, if you increase nutrients and don't see more copepods/microfauna or even algae of any kind, I would increase lighting gradually... it's a balance...

Ok, I dimmed lighting since someone suggested the corals may of bleached

I rescaped the tank to reduce coral aggression and the mandarin is now in the sump where I'll spot feed him till he is fat and happy and used to eating out of a white worm jar

 

[Paul B]

That tank is much to clean for mandarins. Nitrates of zero is just about impossible if you feed almost anything. Either your test kits are no good or there just aren't enough nutrients there. I also use NSW
(In New York) and although the NSW has no nitrates, as soon as I put it in my tank I read 40 (which is a little to high) but my mandarins only die of old age and spawn constantly.

Fish like that will not live in a pristine tank.

 

[Peach02]

That tank is much to clean for mandarins. Nitrates of zero is just about impossible if you feed almost anything. Either your test kits are no good or there just aren't enough nutrients there. I also use NSW
(In New York) and although the NSW has no nitrates, as soon as I put it in my tank I read 40 (which is a little to high) but my mandarins only die of old age and spawn constantly.

Fish like that will not live in a pristine tank.

I'm pretty sure my test kit is wrong but that's a huge rabbit hole. I've got my mandarin in the refugugium now where I can spot feed him and he will have no competition I'm also ordering some white worms tonight and I'll see if my LFS has lobster eggs in. Ive gone into more detail in my build thread (peaches 33g reef in my signature)

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I do'nt want to get in to fight here but,
He stated that its stable around 26-27 and won't go mroe than 1C from it. So around 26-27. Even 28 if it gets soemtiem is not a huge deal imo.
Also soemtiems GBR gets cooler than 25 is not soemthing to rave about when sometiems it gets as high as 32-34C. 26-27-28 levels are nothing to worry about. Heck the ocean tempratures where I live most of the year is over 28C.

What I'm geting at is I'm quite certain his problem is not keeping his tempratures at 26-27 level as he stated!

You can believe what you want, but higher temps do cause stress in reefs. Higher temp is the number one cause for reefs bleaching. You also stated that most oceans have a hard time getting to 25C, which is false.

I'd like to see your source for the water on the GBR getting to 34C and the coral still being fine. Everything I have seen says that temps on the GBR range from 23-29C.

temperature hasn't changed more than 1 degree from 26-27 degrees

they are from about a month ago so not much help but salinity a few days ago was 1.027 and temperature was 27-28

@Katrina71 @stahlja @Paul Sands
Temperature 27 degrees Celsius

The recommended temperature range for a reef tank is 24-28C. I recommended to lower the lower temp from 27C to 25C to keep away from the upper range to reduce stress on a system that is having problems. You told me that 25C is impossible for most countries and oceans, which is incorrect. Yes, some reefs get temps slightly higher than 28C, but that doesn't mean that you should be shooting for those temps. Using that logic, some reefs get exposed to air for hours, so we should be exposing our corals to air for hours a day to simulate those conditions.

 

[Peach02]

You can believe what you want, but higher temps do cause stress in reefs. Higher temp is the number one cause for reefs bleaching. You also stated that most oceans have a hard time getting to 25C, which is false.

I'd like to see your source for the water on the GBR getting to 34C and the coral still being fine. Everything I have seen says that temps on the GBR range from 23-29C.







The recommended temperature range for a reef tank is 24-28C. I recommended to lower the lower temp from 27C to 25C to keep away from the upper range to reduce stress on a system that is having problems. You told me that 25C is impossible for most countries and oceans, which is incorrect. Yes, some reefs get temps slightly higher than 28C, but that doesn't mean that you should be shooting for those temps. Using that logic, some reefs get exposed to air for hours, so we should be exposing our corals to air for hours a day to simulate those conditions.

I've dropped the temperature the heater is set to and the tank is now running at 24-25 but the heater is set to 26 so I might need to get another

 

[Daniel@R2R]

@Peach02 how are things today?

 

[Peach02]

@Peach02 how are things today?

Torch coral = still ******
Birds nest / stylophora = recovering
Montipora = turning white on one side I’m really worried for it
Acropora = dead

Somehow a dead lobophillia is coming back to life in my refugium

Mandarin is putting on weight and getting used to a jar