New corals! Help please!

[lubashmike]

Was 8 ish on 3/2 but been climbing since was at 20 yesterday before the water change.

On 3/3 i did start adding Seachem clarity(i know now is Bs and doesn’t help with ammonia) and Seachem fuel (maybe that’s why i had the copper in the tank?)

Is 18 alk a at a point where it is toxic? How do i remove?

18 dKH is too high. Are you adding something that is increasing alkalinity (kalk, 2 part, AFR, baking soda, etc)? If so, I’d stop. How is it being measured?

i check using a Hanna checker. I think i figured it out there, i added reef buffer few days ago to help increase ph.
Should i do a small water change to drop it or just let the tank eat it to come down?

That could do it. How much buffer did you add? If you’re adding buffer, use small amounts in a single use. A little goes a long way. You can always add more if need be. I would continue doing daily water changes. The corals will also consume it, but water changes will normalize it faster. The water change will also help lower your ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates.

Should i do another 5 gals today since i did 10 yesterday?

Yes, let’s see what that does. We want ammonia and copper to be zero and not detectable, respectively, as soon as possible. Once that happens, you can start doing smaller water changes, 1-3 gallons, every day to lower alkalinity, nitrates, and phosphates.

Good target values for nitrates and phosphates for most reef tanks are 5-20 ppm and 0.03-0.1, respectively. In very established, stable tanks, some people are able to run elevated levels of both, but the values above are good targets.

Awesome! I will do that tonight and re test

 

[BonnieB]

First, take a breath, you’ve gotten some really good advice here. Saltwater is a challenging hobby, but it is a rewarding hobby as time goes on and you build your reef. I want to address the alkalinity issue that you’re asking about. Alkalinity should be between 8-11 DKH. And lowering it too quickly is dangerous as well as it being too high or too low. The goal is for you to lower it by one DKH at a time until you can get it to a stable level. Personally, I like to have my DKH between 8.4 and 8.9. Water changes that are low (20% as indicated in other posts) that are done more frequently should be better than doing large water changes less frequently. I have the LED 115 as well and in my hundred gallon with LPS mainly Corals right now, I have it set for 45% intensity with the lights building to that 45%, then holding for four hours at that intensity, and then slowly going back down to 100% blues. The other thing that I noticed that you keep talking about is the five drops of iodine. I would be very careful with the iodine as well as as that can be dangerous when given too much. For my hundred gallon it only takes 3 to 4 drops. So five drops in your size tank is a lot. Don’t add any for a while. The water changes in the proper water chemistry. When you do those changes should give you the appropriate amount of iodine for the amount of corals you have in your tank right now. Let your tank normalize and the alkalinity come down through the water changes before you do anything new in your tank. That means no additional fish or Corals. Your nitrates could be high because you’re over feeding the clown fish. Monitor what you feed, I rinse my frozen foods before I feed my tank, which in my case has helped lower nitrates. They should only get the food they can eat in 1-2 minutes and food shouldn’t be left sitting on the sand. If food is dripping and you don’t have clean up crew that are sand cleaners then feed less. With a tank that does not have SPS Corals, you do want nutrients in the tank (not too high though), so you wanna make sure you’re not bottoming those out as well. This is a hobby that takes an extreme amount of patience and even with years of experience, reefers have issues with the tanks that are unexpected or unexplained. We all make mistakes and hopefully learn to address them before they become tragic. Don’t lose hope. Just take it one step at a time!

 

[lubashmike]

Was 8 ish on 3/2 but been climbing since was at 20 yesterday before the water change.

On 3/3 i did start adding Seachem clarity(i know now is Bs and doesn’t help with ammonia) and Seachem fuel (maybe that’s why i had the copper in the tank?)

Is 18 alk a at a point where it is toxic? How do i remove?

18 dKH is too high. Are you adding something that is increasing alkalinity (kalk, 2 part, AFR, baking soda, etc)? If so, I’d stop. How is it being measured?

i check using a Hanna checker. I think i figured it out there, i added reef buffer few days ago to help increase ph.
Should i do a small water change to drop it or just let the tank eat it to come down?

That could do it. How much buffer did you add? If you’re adding buffer, use small amounts in a single use. A little goes a long way. You can always add more if need be. I would continue doing daily water changes. The corals will also consume it, but water changes will normalize it faster. The water change will also help lower your ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates.

Should i do another 5 gals today since i did 10 yesterday?

Yes, let’s see what that does. We want ammonia and copper to be zero and not detectable, respectively, as soon as possible. Once that happens, you can start doing smaller water changes, 1-3 gallons, every day to lower alkalinity, nitrates, and phosphates.

Good target values for nitrates and phosphates for most reef tanks are 5-20 ppm and 0.03-0.1, respectively. In very established, stable tanks, some people are able to run elevated levels of both, but the values above are good targets.

Today’s values! I feel like today was big strides!
Salt - 1.025
Temp - 78.1
Ph- 8.1
Alk- 11.9
Ammonia- .30
Copper- .01
Phosphates- .12
Nitrates- 53.8
I see a few of the corals that clearly have given up, but also a couple decided to open up today. Not much color but they opened up and the frogspawn has all of his tentacles up not blooming but sticking up.

 

[lubashmike]

First, take a breath, you’ve gotten some really good advice here. Saltwater is a challenging hobby, but it is a rewarding hobby as time goes on and you build your reef. I want to address the alkalinity issue that you’re asking about. Alkalinity should be between 8-11 DKH. And lowering it too quickly is dangerous as well as it being too high or too low. The goal is for you to lower it by one DKH at a time until you can get it to a stable level. Personally, I like to have my DKH between 8.4 and 8.9. Water changes that are low (20% as indicated in other posts) that are done more frequently should be better than doing large water changes less frequently. I have the LED 115 as well and in my hundred gallon with LPS mainly Corals right now, I have it set for 45% intensity with the lights building to that 45%, then holding for four hours at that intensity, and then slowly going back down to 100% blues. The other thing that I noticed that you keep talking about is the five drops of iodine. I would be very careful with the iodine as well as as that can be dangerous when given too much. For my hundred gallon it only takes 3 to 4 drops. So five drops in your size tank is a lot. Don’t add any for a while. The water changes in the proper water chemistry. When you do those changes should give you the appropriate amount of iodine for the amount of corals you have in your tank right now. Let your tank normalize and the alkalinity come down through the water changes before you do anything new in your tank. That means no additional fish or Corals. Your nitrates could be high because you’re over feeding the clown fish. Monitor what you feed, I rinse my frozen foods before I feed my tank, which in my case has helped lower nitrates. They should only get the food they can eat in 1-2 minutes and food shouldn’t be left sitting on the sand. If food is dripping and you don’t have clean up crew that are sand cleaners then feed less. With a tank that does not have SPS Corals, you do want nutrients in the tank (not too high though), so you wanna make sure you’re not bottoming those out as well. This is a hobby that takes an extreme amount of patience and even with years of experience, reefers have issues with the tanks that are unexpected or unexplained. We all make mistakes and hopefully learn to address them before they become tragic. Don’t lose hope. Just take it one step at a time!

Thank you for the advise! Can you send me your led chart maybe i can duplicate?? Im lost at how to use the app
My clean up crew is 5 nissarius snails and 6 turbo snails i watch the clowns eat the food maybe a few pellets hit the sand but they get most of it. I dont see the gobis eat so i assume they find it on the bottom too

Im not adding anything just trying to save what i have at this time lol hopefully not every coral dies

 

[Marine Betta]

Was 8 ish on 3/2 but been climbing since was at 20 yesterday before the water change.

On 3/3 i did start adding Seachem clarity(i know now is Bs and doesn’t help with ammonia) and Seachem fuel (maybe that’s why i had the copper in the tank?)

Is 18 alk a at a point where it is toxic? How do i remove?

18 dKH is too high. Are you adding something that is increasing alkalinity (kalk, 2 part, AFR, baking soda, etc)? If so, I’d stop. How is it being measured?

i check using a Hanna checker. I think i figured it out there, i added reef buffer few days ago to help increase ph.
Should i do a small water change to drop it or just let the tank eat it to come down?

That could do it. How much buffer did you add? If you’re adding buffer, use small amounts in a single use. A little goes a long way. You can always add more if need be. I would continue doing daily water changes. The corals will also consume it, but water changes will normalize it faster. The water change will also help lower your ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates.

Should i do another 5 gals today since i did 10 yesterday?

Yes, let’s see what that does. We want ammonia and copper to be zero and not detectable, respectively, as soon as possible. Once that happens, you can start doing smaller water changes, 1-3 gallons, every day to lower alkalinity, nitrates, and phosphates.

Good target values for nitrates and phosphates for most reef tanks are 5-20 ppm and 0.03-0.1, respectively. In very established, stable tanks, some people are able to run elevated levels of both, but the values above are good targets.

Today’s values! I feel like today was big strides!
Salt - 1.025
Temp - 78.1
Ph- 8.1
Alk- 11.9
Ammonia- .30
Copper- .01
Phosphates- .12
Nitrates- 53.8
I see a few of the corals that clearly have given up, but also a couple decided to open up today. Not much color but they opened up and the frogspawn has all of his tentacles up not blooming but sticking up.

Huge improvement. Another water change or two should remove the ammonia completely. Do you have cuprisorb and/ or a polyfilter running? I find it hard to believe that you would still have copper in the tank even after the water changes. The uptick in nitrates is actually not a terrible thing as it’s showing that the nitrifying bacteria are doing their job. Water changes will continue to lower those as well, but don’t let your nutrients bottom out.

Alkalinity is fine especially given the amount of nutrients in your water, but you will still want it lower. What is the alkalinity of your new saltwater?

Corals are a lot more resilient than people give them credit for. It may take time, but they will color back up if conditions remain stable. Which corals do you think are goners? Some corals will look like they are on the brink of death but bounce back like nothing happened.

 

[lubashmike]

Was 8 ish on 3/2 but been climbing since was at 20 yesterday before the water change.

On 3/3 i did start adding Seachem clarity(i know now is Bs and doesn’t help with ammonia) and Seachem fuel (maybe that’s why i had the copper in the tank?)

Is 18 alk a at a point where it is toxic? How do i remove?

18 dKH is too high. Are you adding something that is increasing alkalinity (kalk, 2 part, AFR, baking soda, etc)? If so, I’d stop. How is it being measured?

i check using a Hanna checker. I think i figured it out there, i added reef buffer few days ago to help increase ph.
Should i do a small water change to drop it or just let the tank eat it to come down?

That could do it. How much buffer did you add? If you’re adding buffer, use small amounts in a single use. A little goes a long way. You can always add more if need be. I would continue doing daily water changes. The corals will also consume it, but water changes will normalize it faster. The water change will also help lower your ammonia, nitrates, and phosphates.

Should i do another 5 gals today since i did 10 yesterday?

Yes, let’s see what that does. We want ammonia and copper to be zero and not detectable, respectively, as soon as possible. Once that happens, you can start doing smaller water changes, 1-3 gallons, every day to lower alkalinity, nitrates, and phosphates.

Good target values for nitrates and phosphates for most reef tanks are 5-20 ppm and 0.03-0.1, respectively. In very established, stable tanks, some people are able to run elevated levels of both, but the values above are good targets.

Today’s values! I feel like today was big strides!
Salt - 1.025
Temp - 78.1
Ph- 8.1
Alk- 11.9
Ammonia- .30
Copper- .01
Phosphates- .12
Nitrates- 53.8
I see a few of the corals that clearly have given up, but also a couple decided to open up today. Not much color but they opened up and the frogspawn has all of his tentacles up not blooming but sticking up.

Huge improvement. Another water change or two should remove the ammonia completely. Do you have cuprisorb and/ or a polyfilter running? I find it hard to believe that you would still have copper in the tank even after the water changes. The uptick in nitrates is actually not a terrible thing as it’s showing that the nitrifying bacteria are doing their job. Water changes will continue to lower those as well, but don’t let your nutrients bottom out.

Alkalinity is fine especially given the amount of nutrients in your water, but you will still want it lower. What is the alkalinity of your new saltwater?

Corals are a lot more resilient than people give them credit for. It may take time, but they will color back up if conditions remain stable. Which corals do you think are goners? Some corals will look like they are on the brink of death but bounce back like nothing happened.

I’m more and more thinking my first copper reading was wrong at .1 because i have yet to see anything over .01 since. I do not have coprisorb. Just bio balls in the sump with carbon.

I am getting algae growth on the rocks looks a purple/ brown color

Also never tested alk of incoming saltwater but i probably should just to make sure my rodi system is working properly.

I have another 5 gallons heating up for tomorrow’s change. Should i keep the 5 gals per day going through end of week? I know long term i cant keep up with 5 gals per day and dont want the tank to get used to a daily water change

I’ll attach photos of the pulsling xenias thats are just blobs and the Kenya trees that are not trees any more. Also my green polyps have not come out they are just little stubs

 

[BonnieB]

First, take a breath, you’ve gotten some really good advice here. Saltwater is a challenging hobby, but it is a rewarding hobby as time goes on and you build your reef. I want to address the alkalinity issue that you’re asking about. Alkalinity should be between 8-11 DKH. And lowering it too quickly is dangerous as well as it being too high or too low. The goal is for you to lower it by one DKH at a time until you can get it to a stable level. Personally, I like to have my DKH between 8.4 and 8.9. Water changes that are low (20% as indicated in other posts) that are done more frequently should be better than doing large water changes less frequently. I have the LED 115 as well and in my hundred gallon with LPS mainly Corals right now, I have it set for 45% intensity with the lights building to that 45%, then holding for four hours at that intensity, and then slowly going back down to 100% blues. The other thing that I noticed that you keep talking about is the five drops of iodine. I would be very careful with the iodine as well as as that can be dangerous when given too much. For my hundred gallon it only takes 3 to 4 drops. So five drops in your size tank is a lot. Don’t add any for a while. The water changes in the proper water chemistry. When you do those changes should give you the appropriate amount of iodine for the amount of corals you have in your tank right now. Let your tank normalize and the alkalinity come down through the water changes before you do anything new in your tank. That means no additional fish or Corals. Your nitrates could be high because you’re over feeding the clown fish. Monitor what you feed, I rinse my frozen foods before I feed my tank, which in my case has helped lower nitrates. They should only get the food they can eat in 1-2 minutes and food shouldn’t be left sitting on the sand. If food is dripping and you don’t have clean up crew that are sand cleaners then feed less. With a tank that does not have SPS Corals, you do want nutrients in the tank (not too high though), so you wanna make sure you’re not bottoming those out as well. This is a hobby that takes an extreme amount of patience and even with years of experience, reefers have issues with the tanks that are unexpected or unexplained. We all make mistakes and hopefully learn to address them before they become tragic. Don’t lose hope. Just take it one step at a time!

Thank you for the advise! Can you send me your led chart maybe i can duplicate?? Im lost at how to use the app
My clean up crew is 5 nissarius snails and 6 turbo snails i watch the clowns eat the food maybe a few pellets hit the sand but they get most of it. I dont see the gobis eat so i assume they find it on the bottom too

Im not adding anything just trying to save what i have at this time lol hopefully not every coral dies

Here you go. All of my coral came in as tiny frags, like my Duncan has 3 small heads and now it’s a bush. 6-9 months of growth and I had to move from my 32g into my 100g and 70g because there was no room for things to grow and they just keep getting bigger. I’ll send some pics when I’m back home tomorrow but good light & good parameters will do wonders for your tank!

 

[dwest]

I’m more and more thinking my first copper reading was wrong at .1 because i have yet to see anything over .01 since. I do not have coprisorb. Just bio balls in the sump with carbon.

I am getting algae growth on the rocks looks a purple/ brown color

Also never tested alk of incoming saltwater but i probably should just to make sure my rodi system is working properly.

I have another 5 gallons heating up for tomorrow’s change. Should i keep the 5 gals per day going through end of week? I know long term i cant keep up with 5 gals per day and dont want the tank to get used to a daily water change

I’ll attach photos of the pulsling xenias thats are just blobs and the Kenya trees that are not trees any more. Also my green polyps have not come out they are just little stubs

I agree with you copper conclusion.

I would do weekly 10% water changes from here on out. Your tank is going to go through the ugly stages and that’s normal. The only numbers I would be concerned about are temperature, salinity, and to a lesser alkalinity for at least 6 months or so.

 

[lubashmike]

I’m more and more thinking my first copper reading was wrong at .1 because i have yet to see anything over .01 since. I do not have coprisorb. Just bio balls in the sump with carbon.

I am getting algae growth on the rocks looks a purple/ brown color

Also never tested alk of incoming saltwater but i probably should just to make sure my rodi system is working properly.

I have another 5 gallons heating up for tomorrow’s change. Should i keep the 5 gals per day going through end of week? I know long term i cant keep up with 5 gals per day and dont want the tank to get used to a daily water change

I’ll attach photos of the pulsling xenias thats are just blobs and the Kenya trees that are not trees any more. Also my green polyps have not come out they are just little stubs

I agree with you copper conclusion.

I would do weekly 10% water changes from here on out. Your tank is going to go through the ugly stages and that’s normal. The only numbers I would be concerned about are temperature, salinity, and to a lesser alkalinity for at least 6 months or so.

So 6 months of watching temp salinity and alk. Do i give them any food or dose or just let them do it themselves

 

[dwest]

So 6 months of watching temp salinity and alk. Do i give them any food or dose or just let them do it themselves

Certainly feed the fish. I don’t feed corals.

 

[lubashmike]

I’m more and more thinking my first copper reading was wrong at .1 because i have yet to see anything over .01 since. I do not have coprisorb. Just bio balls in the sump with carbon.

I am getting algae growth on the rocks looks a purple/ brown color

Also never tested alk of incoming saltwater but i probably should just to make sure my rodi system is working properly.

I have another 5 gallons heating up for tomorrow’s change. Should i keep the 5 gals per day going through end of week? I know long term i cant keep up with 5 gals per day and dont want the tank to get used to a daily water change

I’ll attach photos of the pulsling xenias thats are just blobs and the Kenya trees that are not trees any more. Also my green polyps have not come out they are just little stubs

I agree with you copper conclusion.

I would do weekly 10% water changes from here on out. Your tank is going to go through the ugly stages and that’s normal. The only numbers I would be concerned about are temperature, salinity, and to a lesser alkalinity for at least 6 months or so.

Is this the “ugly stage”?

 

[dwest]

Just the start

The brown stuff are likely diatoms and perfectly normal.

 

[lubashmike]

Just the start

The brown stuff are likely diatoms and perfectly normal.

Just the start!?! Is it bad for the tank or just ugly? Do i treat it or let it run its case?

 

[dwest]

Just the start!?! Is it bad for the tank or just ugly? Do i treat it or let it run its case?

I don’t see anything bad at all. Your tank will go through an ugly cycle. A normal path might be diatoms then red or green cyano then some type of green algae over the course of many months. As your tank matures, more desirable things like corals and coralline algae will take over.

Often, new tanks that are “treated” struggle to mature.

 

[lubashmike]

Just the start!?! Is it bad for the tank or just ugly? Do i treat it or let it run its case?

I don’t see anything bad at all. Your tank will go through an ugly cycle. A normal path might be diatoms then red or green cyano then some type of green algae over the course of many months. As your tank matures, more desirable things like corals and coralline algae will take over.

Often, new tanks that are “treated” struggle to mature.

So you are saying there is months of this!? Should i try to clean it or water changes or just ignore it and let the clean up crew go to work

 

[Matthew31]

Just the start!?! Is it bad for the tank or just ugly? Do i treat it or let it run its case?

I don’t see anything bad at all. Your tank will go through an ugly cycle. A normal path might be diatoms then red or green cyano then some type of green algae over the course of many months. As your tank matures, more desirable things like corals and coralline algae will take over.

Often, new tanks that are “treated” struggle to mature.

So you are saying there is months of this!? Should i try to clean it or water changes or just ignore it and let the clean up crew go to work

Hopefully not months. Let your clean up crew work. If you see that they are unable to keep it clean add more slowly. For example, sand bed dirty, you have 5 nassarius snails, maybe add 1-2 conches. Wait a little see how it looks and reassess

 

[lubashmike]

Just the start!?! Is it bad for the tank or just ugly? Do i treat it or let it run its case?

I don’t see anything bad at all. Your tank will go through an ugly cycle. A normal path might be diatoms then red or green cyano then some type of green algae over the course of many months. As your tank matures, more desirable things like corals and coralline algae will take over.

Often, new tanks that are “treated” struggle to mature.

So you are saying there is months of this!? Should i try to clean it or water changes or just ignore it and let the clean up crew go to work

Hopefully not months. Let your clean up crew work. If you see that they are unable to keep it clean add more slowly. For example, sand bed dirty, you have 5 nassarius snails, maybe add 1-2 conches. Wait a little see how it looks and reassess

Is it bad for the corals? They have algae in them now. I took the Kenya trees out and threw away they finally broke at the stalk so i figured they were dead and they stunk when i finally pulled them out

 

[Matthew31]

Just the start!?! Is it bad for the tank or just ugly? Do i treat it or let it run its case?

I don’t think you want it on them. If it happens I just blow off the coral. Like turkey baste it.

Some corals will have hair algae grow on them. There are creatures that will clean it off.

Say you have a hammer coral and it’s Skelton has algae on it. You can add some hermit crabs or a bristle tooth tang to clean it. Be cautious about the bristle tooth tangs. I had a yellow eye kole tang. Beautiful fish but it was so mean when it matured lol. Also, the tangs in a small tank is very controversial lol. I mentioned bristle tooth because they are the “smallest” ones

 

[lubashmike]

Just the start!?! Is it bad for the tank or just ugly? Do i treat it or let it run its case?

I don’t see anything bad at all. Your tank will go through an ugly cycle. A normal path might be diatoms then red or green cyano then some type of green algae over the course of many months. As your tank matures, more desirable things like corals and coralline algae will take over.

Often, new tanks that are “treated” struggle to mature.

So you are saying there is months of this!? Should i try to clean it or water changes or just ignore it and let the clean up crew go to work

Hopefully not months. Let your clean up crew work. If you see that they are unable to keep it clean add more slowly. For example, sand bed dirty, you have 5 nassarius snails, maybe add 1-2 conches. Wait a little see how it looks and reassess

Is it bad for the corals? They have algae in them now. I took the Kenya trees out and threw away they finally broke at the stalk so i figured they were dead and they stunk when i finally pulled them out

I don’t think you want it on them. If it happens I just blow off the coral. Like turkey baste it.

Some corals will have hair algae grow on them. There are creatures that will clean it off.

Say you have a hammer coral and it’s Skelton has algae on it. You can add some hermit crabs or a bristle tooth tang to clean it. Be cautious about the bristle tooth tangs. I had a yellow eye kole tang. Beautiful fish but it was so mean when it matured lol

Is there anyway to tell what’s alive and what’s dead and if it’s dead just get it out?

 

[Matthew31]

Just the start!?! Is it bad for the tank or just ugly? Do i treat it or let it run its case?

Can you add a few pics? I’m not well versed in soft corals tho. I’m sure someone on here can tell you if a soft coral is dead.

Things like euyphillia or lps you can tell are dead the head of the coral will be completely gone. You’ll know if it’s dead you’ll only see skeleton. It can be covered with smelly stuff as well. But just because a single head is dead doesn’t mean the entire coral is dead.

SPS they will turn white or you’ll see the skin peeling off them. Again, this is for sure dead but it’s a good sign of it dying or being dead.

Someone mentioned it will be over a course of months and you’ll see what they are talking about lol. You’ll be battling all sorts of different algae’s lol