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I'm really hoping someone here can give me some ideas about what I could be doing wrong and why all of my LPS keeps dying
I had a 100gal setup for 2 years and had no issues keeping all kinds of soft coral and LPS. At the end of October I upgraded to a 180gal, partly to get away from an algae issue and partly to get a bigger tank
All livestock that had been thriving in the old tank (fish, soft coral, LPS, clams and CUC) and a few rocks were transferred across as well as starting with a lot of new dry rock (that had been pre-cycled in a bin). For the first month everything looked fine and I had 0 issues.
Early December I still hadn't set up my doser and missed a few manual doses which caused my Alk plummet to 5dKH (from 8) and I accidently bumped it back up to 8dKH in one hit instead of spreading it out over a couple of days like intended.
In the next 2-3 days my LPS started going downhill fast. Hammers started bailing out and didn't stop, over a couple of weeks I lost all of my hammer colonies (5 each with 4-6 heads), a torch, a large chalice, 1 large acan and one mushroom even went very pale looking. As well as everything else losing a lot of tissue and looking very bad. I put all this down to stress from the Alk drop and then spike.
I got my doser sorted out and got everything stable and things seemed to have calmed down by the end of December. However since Jan things have kept going slowly downhill but ONLY LPS, clams and soft coral are fine if not thriving. Everything looks OK for a few days and then something dies and I don't know what is causing it, and repeat. My parameters since the start of the year have been pretty stable at:
Alkalinity: 7-8dKH (usually drops 1dKH over 1-2 weeks before I readjust my dosing)
Calcium: 420 - 450ppm
Magnesium: 1300ppm
Nitrate: 1 - 2.5ppm
Phosphate: 0 - 0.03ppm
PH: 8 - 8.2
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 27C
Dosing Randy's 1
I thought my issues had stopped so at the start of Feb I picked up a few large torch colonies and 2 hammer colonies. The smaller hammer lasted just under a month before all the polyps started bailing. The larger hammer colony and large torch colonies have all started bailing out in the last 2 weeks. Some polyps peel off with full polyp extension, some retract and look sick for a while before they peel off. Every other LPS but particularly my trachy have also been looking fine one day and terrible the next.
Clams are looking fantastic, soft coral is looking great, coralline algae is taking off.
I can't figure out what is causing this and I'm pretty close to my wits end.
As soon as my new hammer and torch corals started looking bad I lowered flow in case that was it (4x Jebao RW-8s at around 80%). A week later when things had kept getting worse I tried lowering the light (3x mars aqua 165W LEDs) and also moved some torch corals to lower light, lower flow places. Those I moved to lower light, lower flow areas seem to be doing OK. But not great. Still just barely surviving, but haven't died where as the remaining hammer and last torch I left in place have kept dying quite fast.
Any help would be appreciated Here are a couple of pics:
Both these were taken in the same day. It will constantly bounce back and forth between looking fine and like it will peel off.
Hammer now completely dead
Hammer still dying
The better looking torch
I had a 100gal setup for 2 years and had no issues keeping all kinds of soft coral and LPS. At the end of October I upgraded to a 180gal, partly to get away from an algae issue and partly to get a bigger tank
All livestock that had been thriving in the old tank (fish, soft coral, LPS, clams and CUC) and a few rocks were transferred across as well as starting with a lot of new dry rock (that had been pre-cycled in a bin). For the first month everything looked fine and I had 0 issues.
Early December I still hadn't set up my doser and missed a few manual doses which caused my Alk plummet to 5dKH (from 8) and I accidently bumped it back up to 8dKH in one hit instead of spreading it out over a couple of days like intended.
In the next 2-3 days my LPS started going downhill fast. Hammers started bailing out and didn't stop, over a couple of weeks I lost all of my hammer colonies (5 each with 4-6 heads), a torch, a large chalice, 1 large acan and one mushroom even went very pale looking. As well as everything else losing a lot of tissue and looking very bad. I put all this down to stress from the Alk drop and then spike.
I got my doser sorted out and got everything stable and things seemed to have calmed down by the end of December. However since Jan things have kept going slowly downhill but ONLY LPS, clams and soft coral are fine if not thriving. Everything looks OK for a few days and then something dies and I don't know what is causing it, and repeat. My parameters since the start of the year have been pretty stable at:
Alkalinity: 7-8dKH (usually drops 1dKH over 1-2 weeks before I readjust my dosing)
Calcium: 420 - 450ppm
Magnesium: 1300ppm
Nitrate: 1 - 2.5ppm
Phosphate: 0 - 0.03ppm
PH: 8 - 8.2
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 27C
Dosing Randy's 1
I thought my issues had stopped so at the start of Feb I picked up a few large torch colonies and 2 hammer colonies. The smaller hammer lasted just under a month before all the polyps started bailing. The larger hammer colony and large torch colonies have all started bailing out in the last 2 weeks. Some polyps peel off with full polyp extension, some retract and look sick for a while before they peel off. Every other LPS but particularly my trachy have also been looking fine one day and terrible the next.
Clams are looking fantastic, soft coral is looking great, coralline algae is taking off.
I can't figure out what is causing this and I'm pretty close to my wits end.
As soon as my new hammer and torch corals started looking bad I lowered flow in case that was it (4x Jebao RW-8s at around 80%). A week later when things had kept getting worse I tried lowering the light (3x mars aqua 165W LEDs) and also moved some torch corals to lower light, lower flow places. Those I moved to lower light, lower flow areas seem to be doing OK. But not great. Still just barely surviving, but haven't died where as the remaining hammer and last torch I left in place have kept dying quite fast.
Any help would be appreciated Here are a couple of pics:
Both these were taken in the same day. It will constantly bounce back and forth between looking fine and like it will peel off.
Hammer now completely dead
Hammer still dying
The better looking torch