Losing corals – need help w/troubleshooting

[Lyss]

Originally it was my three SPS frags. Then some LPS started to go south. Now it’s more LPS, as well as a mushroom softie, and my blue sympodium isn’t opening as fully as it used to.

So long story short, I had a mixed reef with softies, some LPS and a few SPS frags that were all doing great. Then a few things went wrong that I know of, but after fixing each of those things I’m still having a hard time.

The first thing that went wrong was my refractometer lost calibration, and by the time I realized it my sg had dropped to 1.020. I worked over a couple of weeks to bring it back up, but corals continued to struggle and some died.

Next thing that went wrong was I dosed aminos and ended up with a green cyano bloom on the sand and one of the smaller island rocks. I did a combo of manual removal and water changes to get rid of that. Once it was gone my nitrates jumped up to about 50 ppm, and I’ve been doing weekly water changes to get those back to normal (normal for me is somewhere in the 10 -15 range). Phosphate also jumped up to between .1 and .2. I added Chemipure Elite and they are now back to my normal range which is .04 to .06. Corals still struggling.

Then two weeks ago, and I realize this was not the best time to do it, I switched from coral pro to blue bucket salt. I was having trouble being able to dose All for Reef w/o also dosing some Cal and Mag separately to keep params up. I didn’t want my alk to be so elevated, so made the decision to switch to the blue bucket. I did this by letting alk drop naturally over the course of a couple weeks, and let everything even out until it most closely matched the blue bucket salt, then did my usual 20 – 25% water change.

I’m happy w/the new salt and so far have only needed to dose AFR. Everything has been very stable for the past couple of weeks. So that’s a positive. Unfortunately the coral issues continue, with more LPS and one of my softie mushrooms doing very poorly, and my blue sympodium not opening up as much as it used to.

My zoas, ricordeas, and toadstool leathers look amazing and happy. And my micro lords look good as well – they are the only LPS corals to not be terribly affected. But everything else either looks very, very sad or is in the process of dying. Inverts and fish are all just fine, it’s only the corals.

What am I missing/not thinking of? I’d like to get my tank back on track so I can restock and have a happy mixed reef like it once was.

This is the last photo I have of an earlier iteration of the tank as it was before all this coral trouble started

My parameters are below:

Alk 8.2 (was running at 11.5 prior to salt switch)
Cal 445
Mag 1440
Nitrates still dropping down from 50 after cyano issue -- normally runs 10 -15 ppm
Phosphate .04 - .06
Temp between 77 and 78 (usually pretty steady at at 77.6)
Sg 1.026

 

[ZoWhat]

* feed fish in less amounts. Any food left after 3mins of feeding is too much food. All food needs to be consumed in under 3mins. TIME IT WITH YOUR PHONE!

* do weekly 10% water changes. find a method where you can knock it out in under 10mins by having premix ready to go -and- the ability to export old water and input new fairly quickly

* 2x a week no3 and po4 water tests. Plan out your maintenance based on these tests. If no3 remains above 15, consider dosing 80 proof vodka daily

 

[Lyss]

* feed In less amounts

* do weekly 10% water changes. find a method where you can knock it out in under 10mins by having premix ready to go -and- the ability to export old water and input new fairly quickly

* 2x a week no3 and po4 water tests. Plan out your maintenance based on these tests. If no3 remains above 15, consider dosing 80 proof vodka daily

Forgot to add, I’ve been dosing NoPox all along — pretty sure that fueled the cyano, so I dialed it way back until cyano was gone. In addition to weekly water changes I’ve begun to slowly increase that dose again.

Sounds like I should pretty much continue on the path I’ve been on. Maybe I’m just too eager to see positive changes quickly in the corals.

 

[ZoWhat]

Forgot to add, I’ve been dosing NoPox all along — pretty sure that fueled the cyano, so I dialed it way back until cyano was gone. In addition to weekly water changes I’ve begun to slowly increase that dose again.

Sounds like I should pretty much continue on the path I’ve been on. Maybe I’m just too eager to see positive changes quickly in the corals.

NoPox is basically 2 part 80 proof vodka (ethanol) to 1 part 5% Vinegar to 1 part rodi water.

Exact formula is in the Randy Holmes-Farley section on R2R

Saves money to just do your own. Here in Ohio a 5th of 80 proof vodka runs $12 for the cheapest bottom shelf stuff. Vinegar $6/g


.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Your sympodium still looks gorgeous.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Looks nice to me

 

[Tbg299]

Originally it was my three SPS frags. Then some LPS started to go south. Now it’s more LPS, as well as a mushroom softie, and my blue sympodium isn’t opening as fully as it used to.

So long story short, I had a mixed reef with softies, some LPS and a few SPS frags that were all doing great. Then a few things went wrong that I know of, but after fixing each of those things I’m still having a hard time.

The first thing that went wrong was my refractometer lost calibration, and by the time I realized it my sg had dropped to 1.020. I worked over a couple of weeks to bring it back up, but corals continued to struggle and some died.

Next thing that went wrong was I dosed aminos and ended up with a green cyano bloom on the sand and one of the smaller island rocks. I did a combo of manual removal and water changes to get rid of that. Once it was gone my nitrates jumped up to about 50 ppm, and I’ve been doing weekly water changes to get those back to normal (normal for me is somewhere in the 10 -15 range). Phosphate also jumped up to between .1 and .2. I added Chemipure Elite and they are now back to my normal range which is .04 to .06. Corals still struggling.

Then two weeks ago, and I realize this was not the best time to do it, I switched from coral pro to blue bucket salt. I was having trouble being able to dose All for Reef w/o also dosing some Cal and Mag separately to keep params up. I didn’t want my alk to be so elevated, so made the decision to switch to the blue bucket. I did this by letting alk drop naturally over the course of a couple weeks, and let everything even out until it most closely matched the blue bucket salt, then did my usual 20 – 25% water change.

I’m happy w/the new salt and so far have only needed to dose AFR. Everything has been very stable for the past couple of weeks. So that’s a positive. Unfortunately the coral issues continue, with more LPS and one of my softie mushrooms doing very poorly, and my blue sympodium not opening up as much as it used to.

My zoas, ricordeas, and toadstool leathers look amazing and happy. And my micro lords look good as well – they are the only LPS corals to not be terribly affected. But everything else either looks very, very sad or is in the process of dying. Inverts and fish are all just fine, it’s only the corals.

What am I missing/not thinking of? I’d like to get my tank back on track so I can restock and have a happy mixed reef like it once was.

This is the last photo I have of an earlier iteration of the tank as it was before all this coral trouble started

My parameters are below:

Alk 8.2 (was running at 11.5 prior to salt switch)
Cal 445
Mag 1440
Nitrates still dropping down from 50 after cyano issue -- normally runs 10 -15 ppm
Phosphate .04 - .06
Temp between 77 and 78 (usually pretty steady at at 77.6)
Sg 1.026

I would say it is most likely due to the sudden drop in salinity and alkalinity.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Forgot to add, I’ve been dosing NoPox all along — pretty sure that fueled the cyano, so I dialed it way back until cyano was gone. In addition to weekly water changes I’ve begun to slowly increase that dose again.

Sounds like I should pretty much continue on the path I’ve been on. Maybe I’m just too eager to see positive changes quickly in the corals.

When a reef system takes a few hits, it really does take time (months, sometimes) for everything to 'get back to normal'. From personal experience, I can say that it's not uncommon for some corals to not recover from the stress event(s) no matter what you do, although most pull through just fine as long as it's not a catastrophic system failure.

IME, best thing to do is to promote stability within reef acceptable parameter norms and refrain from adding/changing things (unless there truly is something that must be corrected, of course).

 

[Kona Diver]

What’s your ph doing at end and beginning of light cycle? What lights are you using?
Do you dose kalk?

 

[Lyss]

What’s your ph doing at end and beginning of light cycle? What lights are you using?
Do you dose kalk?

Haven’t ever seen ph below 8 or much above 8.1.

Light is the Red Sea one that comes w/the max nano, and I kinda decided that’s not it since things were doing great for a few months initially. Trouble beginning seemed to coincide with salinity drop.

I only dose all for Reef, which has been working perfectly w/the change to the blue bucket salt. It’s a nano and I like to keep things simple.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I counted 5 different 'additives' that you dosed to your tank recently, which are man-made chemicals made by different companies, who knows how they interact with each other? Plus with the change of salt, the water has become a very unstable environement, corals cant settle down and get used to the water if it keeps changing. I would suggest to stop dosing things and let your tank settle down.

 

[Lyss]

I counted 5 different 'additives' that you dosed to your tank recently, which are man-made chemicals made by different companies, who knows how they interact with each other? Plus with the change of salt, the water has become a very unstable environement, corals cant settle down and get used to the water if it keeps changing. I would suggest to stop dosing things and let your tank settle down.

??

I have dosed all for reef and nopox regularly fir a long time prior to any issues.

what I did dose once that caused an issue was aminos — I haven’t added any since.

I will of course continue to dose AFR to keep my parameters stable (alk/cal/mag). And the nopox was doing wonders for me so I plan to continue that. Outside of the aminos, which caused trouble and I won’t dose again, what other additives are you referring to?

 

[Lyss]

Well, this is a happy update. I've kept up with the weekly water changes, and began increasing my NoPox dose to get back to my typical dose... And nitrates are falling well (down to 24.5 from over 75, as high as the Hanna checker could read). I could see it in the corals this week -- they look a lot happier.

I did lose some corals, which is a shame, but in the end I'm glad I switched to a lower alk salt, as it has allowed me to only dose AFR to keep my big three stable.

I'll check my refractometer's calibration much more often, and skip the aminos from now on lol.