My corals are dying! Help

[zoroi]

I'm having issues with my reef tank and I'm not exactly sure what’s going on. My corals are dying, and I could really use some help to figure it out.

Corals that are dying:

Zoanthids

• My Rasta zoanthids were doing very well, they grew 3–4x their original size and were spreading over a rock. Recently, they started losing polyps. Some have closed up and haven’t opened again (mostly the outer polyps). I gave them a Seachem coral dip and noticed the polyps on the edges have a brownish tissue
• The red zoanthids also have a few polyps that remain closed
• There was a white sponge growing next to that colony (I removed it and it hasn’t come back)
• A mixed zoa colony on another rock seems to be doing better, but some polyps are often closed (see last photo)

SPSs Corals

• About 2 months ago, my SPS were showing good polyp extension, but their colors were pale (which I wasn't too worried about)
• Lately, they’ve started losing tissue at the tips, and algae is growing on the exposed areas
• All SPS seem to be struggling, and two have already died (including a Yongei)
• The ones that are still alive aren’t looking good and show little to no growth

Today:

Before (~2 weeks):

Toches

• Most of my torch corals have been with me for a while and were growing well
• Over the past ~4 months, they’ve stopped growing and started retracting their tissue
• One of them was being touched by an anemone, but I’ve already moved it away
• All of the torches have their tissue severely retracted, even the ones that the anemone never touched

Gonioporas

• I have a few Goniopora corals. Some are doing very well, but others are struggling
• The smaller ones are nearly dead, they’ve lost tentacles and stay retracted all the time
• I initially thought it was due to vermetid worms irritating them, but now I’m not so sure
• I feel like they might die soon

Trumpet

• This was the first coral I added to the tank and it had been doing really well — it grew a lot and was always very puffy.
• Recently, though, it has stopped inflating (as you can see in the photo) and doesn’t extend its tentacles at night to catch food anymore.
• I’m not sure what happened.
• It has hydroids growing on its tissue, and I’ve also noticed some stringy filaments with bubbles coming out of it.

Today:

Before (~1 month):

Water Parameters:​

• KH: 9.4
• Nitrate: > 20 ppm (not sure the exact number)

Tank History & Context:​

• My nitrate has been high (>20 ppm) and phosphate low (0.09 ppm) for a few months. I recently upgraded to a better skimmer to help address this imbalance
• Temperature ranges between 25.5°C and 26.5°C, occasionally reaching 27°C on hotter days. Recently (during colder weather), I did a ~20% water change with cooler water (~24°C or less), and poured it directly into the display tank
• I have hydroids in the tank and frequently treat with fenbendazole

System Details

• Age: 9 months running
• Display Tank: 80x40x40 cm (~128L)
• Sump: External ~40L
• Lighting: 2x Spectra Knight V3 + Maxspect Etherium (some LEDs might be burnt, but overall PAR coverage seems okay)
• Return Pump: Dymax 1800L/h
• Skimmer: TMC 500
• Wave Maker: HSBAO 4000L/h with controller
• UV Filter: 32W Ocean Tech UV with 500L/h pump
• Temperature Control: Heater + fans managed by a temperature controller (kept between 25.5–26.5°C)
• ATO: Gravity-fed freshwater reservoir (with float valve)
• Other Filtration: Activated carbon and Purigen used occasionally
• Feeder: Automatic feeder using New Life Spectrum Ultra Red pellets

 

[Gumbies R Us]

@VintageReefer

 

[zoroi]

Someone have an idea what’s is happening? I don’t know what to do..

 

[VintageReefer]

What are your par numbers?
Your tank is still new and I could tell by looking at it. Less than a year expect problems with sps, torches, Goni.

Also some corals just don’t do well
Goni - you can buy 10 and have problems with 5. Sometimes one’s fine for months then it just stops opening and dies

Trumpet - I’ve never had long term success with. Some do. Others don’t.

Torch coral flesh band - preaching to the choir. I’ve talked to tons of people - there is no common answer for it. You’ll hear advice such as keep parameters good and stable, and yet people with this will still have flesh bands recede. Splitting process will cause flesh band recession and tearing.

Your phosphates are low for a lps tank. I run a mixed reef - lps dominant with 10 acros. All corals of all types are happy - nitrates 10 and phosphates .40
A mixed reef is the most challenging reef to keep, a lot of fine lines to walk and you need an established system.

The burned sps tips are frequently from an imbalance between alk and phosphates/nitrates.

Alkalinity increases skeletal growth. Nutrients increases tissue growth. When you have slightly high alk (over 9) and slightly low phosphates or nitrates, you end up with skeleton growing faster than flesh, causing the white tips. Suggest lowering alk to 8–8.5 and increasing phospate to .1-.2

You have various hitchhikers and pests that need to be dealt with also.

Overall the tank does still look very good and you have a few tweaks to make and time to become more established And stable.

 

[VintageReefer]

Looking at your lights you have a lot of lights for a tank that size. And they are close to the water and corals. I hope they are turned down to low percentages.

 

[zoroi]

Thanks!! I really appreciate your help.


Do you recommend doing anything specific? I think my main issue is the unbalanced nitrate and phosphate levels, nitrate is over 20 (which is too high), and phosphate is at 0.09 (I’m dosing to maintain that level).


I can’t lower my alkalinity. I’m not dosing any balling components, and I’ve been doing water changes with water at 7.6 dKH, but it still stays at 9.4


Also, should I be dosing iodine or fluoride?


Another question, what could be happening to my zoas?

What are your par numbers?
Your tank is still new and I could tell by looking at it. Less than a year expect problems with sps, torches, Goni.

Also some corals just don’t do well
Goni - you can buy 10 and have problems with 5. Sometimes one’s fine for months then it just stops opening and dies

Trumpet - I’ve never had long term success with. Some do. Others don’t.

Torch coral flesh band - preaching to the choir. I’ve talked to tons of people - there is no common answer for it. You’ll hear advice such as keep parameters good and stable, and yet people with this will still have flesh bands recede. Splitting process will cause flesh band recession and tearing.

Your phosphates are low for a lps tank. I run a mixed reef - lps dominant with 10 acros. All corals of all types are happy - nitrates 10 and phosphates .40
A mixed reef is the most challenging reef to keep, a lot of fine lines to walk and you need an established system.

The burned sps tips are frequently from an imbalance between alk and phosphates/nitrates.

Alkalinity increases skeletal growth. Nutrients increases tissue growth. When you have slightly high alk (over 9) and slightly low phosphates or nitrates, you end up with skeleton growing faster than flesh, causing the white tips. Suggest lowering alk to 8–8.5 and increasing phospate to .1-.2

You have various hitchhikers and pests that need to be dealt with also.

Overall the tank does still look very good and you have a few tweaks to make and time to become more established And stable.

 

[zoroi]

Looking at your lights you have a lot of lights for a tank that size. And they are close to the water and corals. I hope they are turned down to low percentages.

I don’t know what my PAR is, but it doesn’t seem too high
To be honest, it actually looks like it’s just enough, my lights don’t seem to be very powerful

 

[VintageReefer]

Thanks!! I really appreciate your help.


Do you recommend doing anything specific? I think my main issue is the unbalanced nitrate and phosphate levels, nitrate is over 20 (which is too high), and phosphate is at 0.09 (I’m dosing to maintain that level).


I can’t lower my alkalinity. I’m not dosing any balling components, and I’ve been doing water changes with water at 7.6 dKH, but it still stays at 9.4


Also, should I be dosing iodine or fluoride?


Another question, what could be happening to my zoas?

Can the zoas be removed for a dip?

 

[zoroi]

Can the zoas be removed for a dip?

Yes, I did it

 

[Lavey29]

I don’t know what my PAR is, but it doesn’t seem too high
To be honest, it actually looks like it’s just enough, my lights don’t seem to be very powerful

I agree with vintage assessment. You need to par check your tank. You have an assortment of corals which typically require different par and flow ranges but yours are side by side. Corals decline from the inside out and can take many months before you see the outward problems you are seeing now. I assume also you have ruled out obvious things like candle fumes. Lotion on hands, etc... do you run carbon and do weekly water changes? Your numbers seem fine so that generally means lighting would be the next problem sourse.

 

[EuphyllinOHk]

I don’t know what my PAR is, but it doesn’t seem too high
To be honest, it actually looks like it’s just enough, my lights don’t seem to be very powerful

I thought I had a good handle on my PAR until I got a meter in and I was waaay off. I get that some people can eyeball it, but it's really hard and you got a lot of nice (ie expensive) stuff in there so it'd be worth dialing in your light.

 

[VintageReefer]

Also everyone let’s keep in mind this is a 30 gallon tank and there are three lighting fixtures above it, and we dont know the levels. It could be way too high or way too low.

What I do know is there is almost 300w of led over a 30g tank

Two of these at 75w each

And one of these at 130w

 

[CHSUB]

fenbendazole stop using, just because some dude on the internet says it’s fine it’s probably not!