Montipora bleaching and other hard coral issues...(Picture heavy/detailed)

[Zeal]

I would just be feeding my fish more and keeping an eye on PO4. Corals prefer the amnio acids and urea and ammonia from fish and fish poop also provide valuable carbonates. Feeding coral specific foods like reef roids is probalematic as individual coral species have very specific requrements and what is beneficial for one species is detrimental for another species.

Before I dosed the reef roids. I feed my fish at night and when I get home they get pellets and nori. Not sure what else I could feed to bring up the phosphate. I’ll be test a bit later to see what my phosphate are after feeding the whole tank reef roids yesterday twice.

also GFO reactor is off and will remain off.

I still don’t know why my red digi has like brown skin and why those other montis are bleaching. Especially the small one


The small one I got at reefapoolza and was fine at the time now it’s nearly almost dead in my tank

 

[Timfish]

I would feed more frequently, I use autofeeders and feed NLS pellets throughout the day. FWIW frozen foods can be as much as 93% water (moisture) so it can be deceptive as to the actual amount of food being fed.

 

[Zeal]

I would feed more frequently, I use autofeeders and feed NLS pellets throughout the day. FWIW frozen foods can be as much as 93% water (moisture) so it can be deceptive as to the actual amount of food being fed.

What’s NLS pellet?

 

[Timfish]

Oooops, sorry! New Life Spectrum.

 

[Zeal]

Update… come home to this…

this saga continues. What’s this brown stuff on the corals? It wasn’t there yesterday….

 

[Timfish]

Update… come home to this…

this saga continues. What’s this brown stuff on the corals? It wasn’t there yesterday….

Looks like cyano growing on skeleton where the coral has died back. I know this is frustrating but don't let this discourage you. From 2007 to 2010 I took care of a tank in an empty house that was crashed 3 times by realitors leaving doors open and an electrician turning off power. My client chose not to do any remidiation, just continue basic maintenance which mostly comprised a small weekly water change and cleaning algae off the tank. With just water changes and siphoning off nuisance algae using cpvc pipe the system recovered each time. You don't have to jump through hoops and there's a ton of stuff going on in your tank you can't test for. Be patient, do water changes and get your phosphate up above .03 mg/l.

 

[Zeal]

Looks like cyano growing on skeleton where the coral has died back. I know this is frustrating but don't let this discourage you. From 2007 to 2010 I took care of a tank in an empty house that was crashed 3 times by realitors leaving doors open and an electrician turning off power. My client chose not to do any remidiation, just continue basic maintenance which mostly comprised a small weekly water change and cleaning algae off the tank. With just water changes and siphoning off nuisance algae using cpvc pipe the system recovered each time. You don't have to jump through hoops and there's a ton of stuff going on in your tank you can't test for. Be patient, do water changes and get your phosphate up above .03 mg/l.

So I just checked my phosphates and they are 0.083

nitate 7.3. Dropped from 13 on Friday. I think it’s my chaeto

 

[Timfish]

That could be, but as your corals recover from not having enough phosphorus they will increase their consumption of nitrogen as well. But it will take some time for them to recover even if they start looking better pretty quick.

 

[Zeal]

Update… just tested and now I’m at ZERO AGAIN…. what the heck do I do

 

[Zeal]

Bump

 

[Lavey29]

How old is your tank? How often water change? What is your current alk and cal consumption per day? How much do you dose? My tank is 22 inches deep and I run my XR15s at 70% schedule on AB plus program. Do you dose trace elements between water changes? Obviously your phosphate was probably an initial source of your problems but an ICP will tell the tale too. Probably iodine and iron deficiency. Corals brown also when expelling zooplankton as a last ditch effort to survive in a bad environment.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

It sounds like you need to be dosing n03/p04 to maintain levels, unfortunately it requires more testing. I currently dose and test every 3-4 days, I use brightwell products and stick to their recommended parameters.

 

[Zeal]

How old is your tank? How often water change? What is your current alk and cal consumption per day? How much do you dose? My tank is 22 inches deep and I run my XR15s at 70% schedule on AB plus program. Do you dose trace elements between water changes? Obviously your phosphate was probably an initial source of your problems but an ICP will tell the tale too. Probably iodine and iron deficiency. Corals brown also when expelling zooplankton as a last ditch effort to survive in a bad environment.

My tank was set up in August 2021, I dose 10ML of B-Ionic of Alk and Calc over the course of the day, and the height of that tank is 19.7 inches. I do not dose trace elements but I do weekly 5g water changes with Tropic Marin Pro salt.

My light schedule is AB+ from 9 am-4 pm then I run straight blues from 5 pm till lights off at 8:45 pm.. at 60%.

I sent an ICP test out on Wednesday. I ordered Brightwell NeoPhos last night and I dosed some more reef roids to get the phosphate up...

When I get home from work I'm removing the chaeto...

 

[Zeal]

It sounds like you need to be dosing n03/p04 to maintain levels, unfortunately it requires more testing. I currently dose and test every 3-4 days, I use brightwell products and stick to their recommended parameters.

I got NeoPhos and going to start dosing Saturday.

 

[shwareefer]

I got NeoPhos and going to start dosing Saturday.

I know this thread has focused on your phosphates but did you ensure no pests got in your system via dipping? I dip everything but I had a tort that was STNing and then the monti nearby started as well. I chased my tail with lighting and nutrients for a while then I just decided to do another dip. 15 minutes in revive and something really small came off - I'm going with black bugs. Literally within 3 days both corals had visibly started encrusting back toward the damaged tissue and are still doing fine although I'm watching carefully in case some eggs hatch.

 

[Zeal]

I know this thread has focused on your phosphates but did you ensure no pests got in your system via dipping? I dip everything but I had a tort that was STNing and then the monti nearby started as well. I chased my tail with lighting and nutrients for a while then I just decided to do another dip. 15 minutes in revive and something really small came off - I'm going with black bugs. Literally within 3 days both corals had visibly started encrusting back toward the damaged tissue and are still doing fine although I'm watching carefully in case some eggs hatch.

I dip all my corals. It has to be nutrient issues. I mean if Phosphates are constantly at a ZERO that cannot be good for a mixed reef

Both chalices I got at reefapoolza are starting to lose a little bit of tissue and some skeleton is showing. Also one of the mushrooms I got has a spot of white on the corner which usually happens from lack of nutrients.

 

[Dburr1014]

I wouldn't pull all the cheato maybe 3/4 of it. It will slow down the consumption and maybe you can get ahead of this. How much do you have in the system? How much water volume do you have? (sorry if I missed it, didn't see it listed)
The chaeto sounds like it's also po4 limited. You raise po4 and down comes no3. You don't want them both zero or po4 zero to long.

 

[Zeal]

I wouldn't pull all the cheato maybe 3/4 of it. It will slow down the consumption and maybe you can get ahead of this. How much do you have in the system? How much water volume do you have? (sorry if I missed it, didn't see it listed)
The chaeto sounds like it's also po4 limited. You raise po4 and down comes no3. You don't want them both zero or po4 zero to long.

My mistake. Its a 105G Waterbox.

I guess I could pull out 3/4 of it and leave a very little amount. I'm just surprised that the cheato was able to pull out that much phosphates...

 

[Dburr1014]

My mistake. Its a 105G Waterbox.

I guess I could pull out 3/4 of it and leave a very little amount. I'm just surprised that the cheato was able to pull out that much phosphates...

Yes, me too. Kinda strange. That whole Redfield ratio thing. Should be more no3 but not sure how it works with limited po4.
Timfish could probably explain it way better than I can so I'm not going to even try.
But, pulling most but not all I think would be a good test.

 

[Lavey29]

My tank was set up in August 2021, I dose 10ML of B-Ionic of Alk and Calc over the course of the day, and the height of that tank is 19.7 inches. I do not dose trace elements but I do weekly 5g water changes with Tropic Marin Pro salt.

My light schedule is AB+ from 9 am-4 pm then I run straight blues from 5 pm till lights off at 8:45 pm.. at 60%.

I sent an ICP test out on Wednesday. I ordered Brightwell NeoPhos last night and I dosed some more reef roids to get the phosphate up...

When I get home from work I'm removing the chaeto...

Well couple things, at 8 months your tank is still maturing and not stabil as you have discovered. Mine was the same but significantly better at the one year mark now. Depending on how many corals you have, a 5 gallon water change on a 100g system may not be sufficient for all of your trace elements. ICP will let you know for sure. I do 10g water change on 80g system and still have to weekly dose red sea trace elements to maintain levels. I also had to double dose neophos and neonitro when my tank was at 6 months to maintain levels. Now at one year everything is much more stable.