LPS Falling Appart

[SkuMe]

to set the stage completely i have been taking in dieing corals to pamper back to health for several people, one of which is my parents who have a RSM that they have had running for over a year. i recently (this past sat) returned some of the newly healed corals, one sun and what looks to be some kind of candy cane. both looked to be doing fine when i left their house. i got a call that they were not looking good sunday, and went by last night to find both in BAD shape. the odd thing was that the candy cane which had almost 10 full size heads when i left them was now only two and the skeletal structure was also crumbling in my hands as i lifted it from the sand bed as it had fallen from its main base. the sun however had not fallen apart like that and was simply pulled back in on itself. after seeing the condition of the corals that were doing very well in my tanks, i took better note of his other corals, and its an odd assortment, he has a hammer that is also falling apart but his large acro colony has no signs of stress or decay.

my question is, what would cause such a fast and terrible decay of the coral like that to LPS's but have no effect on SPS's? what tests should i start with? i assume ALK? as this is not my tank i am at a loss for how it is truly being maintained but he has an RODI unit, does water changes of 10-15 gallons every week on the 65'ish gallon system. his water top of practices are not the most ideal as he prefers to add a lot of water all at once rather then small amounts each day. he uses reef crystals for all water changes.

any advice to get in the right direction is much appreciated!

Neil

 

[Tek]

Test everything. Maybe ALK is too high? Without knowing the parameters it is hard to diagnose.
My frogspawn hates the high ALK at 10.5 so I am moving it to my mix reefed tank which is normally around 8.

 

[ritter6788]

Find out if anything at all is being dosed to the tank.


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[SkuMe]

Find out if anything at all is being dosed to the tank.


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the only thing that i know of is he adds very rarely a dose of brightwell liquid reef, but that is maybe once every other week or so.

 

[ritter6788]

I'd get them to stop dosing that. Test for alk.

Liquid reef states that it is a potent additive. Could be raising pH and alk too high.


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[SkuMe]

thanks i will try to get out that way some time soon to get some tests done, i am still really confused as to why only the LPS's are being affected while the SPS's look to be doing just fine. shouldn't parameters being off affect the SPS's just as much as the LPS's? the only thing i can think of is the LPS's have an exposed skeleton while the SPS's do not. that's just pulling at straws i know, but just a thought.

 

[Tek]

SPS like higher ALK while LPS/Softies tolerate closer to 7-8 which is closer to natural sea water.


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[always reefin]

All appropriate tests need to be done, alk, cal and mag. Also, what is salinity? Temp?

 

[SkuMe]

i have the tests done...... but did not bring my results with me today. so off of memory they are as fallows:
Alk nearly nothing registered, very very low
Calcium was off the charts 500 or so
Phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia all at 0
PH was around 8
water temp was 78
but , correct me if i am wrong, the big issue looks to be magnesium. it was at around 15 to 200.
all corals have now been moved to my tanks for R&R (repair and rebuild) so what is the best buffer/dosing that can bring this under control, and what might be some sources of a drop off like that with very regular water changes?
again thanks for the help on this!

 

[SkuMe]

so sorry meant to say mag was around 150-200 not 15.

 

[spspirate]

Your mag should be between 1350ppm-1500ppm. What test kit are you using? This is probably why your calcium is high and your alk is so low.

 

[SkuMe]

Your mag should be between 1350ppm-1500ppm. What test kit are you using? This is probably why your calcium is high and your alk is so low.

the kits were a red sea kit. the kit was actually so new to the LFS that it was not even fully checked into their system's inventory.

 

[bct15]

I have noticed when magnesium is low or seems like alk burn happens easier...at a lower alk. Magnesium should be above 1300 though.


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