Not sure what my plate coral are doing. Help!

[shadow62672]

I posted yesterday. Hoping to find someone that is familiar with plate coral. Attached is pics of my orange and green plate coral. They are slowly turning white. Is it bleaching? A fungus? Need help and direction. A suggestion was ALK was low so started to raise that a bit. Other than that all the numbers are in line.

120g tank
PH 8.3
AM 0.1
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Salinity 1.024
Phos 0.25
Calcium 440
ALk 5.9
Temp 82.4

thanks!

 

[Saltyreef]

Your alk is way too low.

They are melting.....
Bring it up to above 7.5

 

[Saltyreef]

Your temp is also on the high end....78 is more of the target

 

[Jekyl]

+ 1 to both previous posts

 

[shadow62672]

Thank you. How fast or slow should I bring temp down?

 

[hds4216]

I would say that you shouldn't change it more than 1 degree per day, but I would also say that low alk is much more of a problem than the temp atm. What test kits do you use?

 

[shadow62672]

Also if melting are they a done deal? Anything I should do to them other than adjustments?

Thank you. How fast or slow should I bring temp down?

I would say that you shouldn't change it more than 1 degree per day, but I would also say that low alk is much more of a problem than the temp atm. What test kits do you use?

Reef master kits and LFS to verify

 

[hds4216]

API's test kits are not good and you should probably try Salifert or Red Sea. Much more reliable.

As to whether it can recover, that completely depends on whether it's provided with ideal, stable conditions going forward. If so, it has a much better chance.

 

[Dkmoo]

Plates are pretty resilient to recover qs long as the mouth in the middle is healthy once params are fixed. Also what light flow is it in? for now, I'd put them lower light and flow to help recover and spot feed a couple times a week.

 

[Saltyreef]

Ive had chalices melt worse than this and recover by bringing alk in range.

 

[Cantusaurus]

I agree. Parameter issues for sure. Don't overdose too, and freak out. I'll admit I've done that. Also it may be in a spot with too much flow. As long as the mouth doesn't seem damaged then try and make it activate a feeding response with small particles of food then try and feed it some mysis or something. Try not to overfeed it like once every other day to promote good health. I overfed mine with pellets... stupidly. And maybe an iodine dip in a couple days if necessary. Hope things go well

 

[Tamberav]

Ran my alk as low as 5.5 for a long while and my plates look great (as well as everything else) *shrug* pH was stable though even with the low alk. Only thing it really caused is slower growth on SPS. I had low nutrients with that alk level though. So perhaps many factors.

I know I am not the only one to run low alk: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/crazy-low-alk-but-my-corals-look-better-than-ever.555766/

It won't hurt to raise alk but don't do it too fast. Knee jerk reactions and panic is the worst.

How long have you had the coral?

 

[shadow62672]

Also if melting are they a done deal? Anything I should do to them other than adjustments?


Reef master kits and

Also if melting are they a done deal? Anything I should do to them other than adjustments?


Reef master kits and LFS to verify

I agree. Parameter issues for sure. Don't overdose too, and freak out. I'll admit I've done that. Also it may be in a spot with too much flow. As long as the mouth doesn't seem damaged then try and make it activate a feeding response with small particles of food then try and feed it some mysis or something. Try not to overfeed it like once every other day to promote good health. I overfed mine with pellets... stupidly. And maybe an iodine dip in a couple days if necessary. Hope things go well

Haha, I am freaking out. I did feed them both today some phylo feast they seemed ill pleased. Looks like they puked it back up. The green one seems a little more responsive. I will hold off on feeding until Thursday. Typically I give them reef roids and AB+ from Red Sea. I added some ALK last night. But confused on the reading. Basically took 12 drops to go from blue to yellow. It’s at the top of the scale.

 

[shadow62672]

Ran my alk as low as 5.5 for a long while and my plates look great (as well as everything else) *shrug* pH was stable though even with the low alk. Only thing it really caused is slower growth on SPS. I had low nutrients with that alk level though. So perhaps many factors.

I know I am not the only one to run low alk: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/crazy-low-alk-but-my-corals-look-better-than-ever.555766/

It won't hurt to raise alk but don't do it too fast. Knee jerk reactions and panic is the worst.

How long have you had the coral?

These particular ones I had for a month. All the others look great, except for a bird nest frag. It is starting to bleach.

 

[Tamberav]

81 degrees and 6.22 alk

However if your temp/alk are not stable. That is more of an issue.

It can’t hurt to adjust them into a more acceptable range but do so slowly and then you need to keep them there which may mean dosing.

Stability is the most important factor. Whatever number you choose... it will drift a little but don’t let it swing.

 

[Saltyreef]

81 degrees and 6.22 alk

However if your temp/alk are not stable. That is more of an issue.

It can’t hurt to adjust them into a more acceptable range but do so slowly and then you need to keep them there which may mean dosing.

Stability is the most important factor. Whatever number you choose... it will drift a little but don’t let it swing.

Your tank looks great. Surely 6.2dkh with stability is key.
And its surely better than 5.9dkh.
Not to mention his slightly lower salinity.

 

[Tamberav]

Your tank looks great. Surely 6.2dkh with stability is key.
And its surely better than 5.9dkh.
Not to mention his slightly lower salinity.

Perhaps but I ran it at 5.5 for months with the same coral. This tank runs 4.8-5.4 and we can’t argue the results. https://lareefclub.com/community/th...y-build-aka-gemsavvy.44454/page-7#post-508225

Now perhaps the OP is doing water changes with reef crystals or a high alk salt and maybe there are factors like that into play in which raising alk would be ideal.

It’s probably stability and not the number itself.

The po4 of 0.25 makes me think it might be a API po4 kit.

 

[Tamberav]

@shadow62672 what phosphate kit do you use?

My advise would be to slowly get your parameters at a more normal natural sea water range and test alk at least twice a week so you know if it is drifting.

Also consider what salt mix you use and what alk it tests at and whether or not water changes are large enough to cause swings relative to the tanks alk.

My plates have always liked lower light and gentle flow.

 

[shadow62672]

@shadow62672 what phosphate kit do you use?

My advise would be to slowly get your parameters at a more normal natural sea water range and test alk at least twice a week so you know if it is drifting.

Also consider what salt mix you use and what alk it tests at and whether or not water changes are large enough to cause swings relative to the tanks alk.

My plates have always liked lower light and gentle flow.

I use the API Reef Master kit, the flow is low where they currently sit. Water change is roughly 12 percent every 2 weeks. The waterSalt ratio is purchased at the LFS they use red sea

 

[Tamberav]

I use the API Reef Master kit, the flow is low where they currently sit. Water change is roughly 12 percent every 2 weeks. The waterSalt ratio is purchased at the LFS they use red sea

If it is the coral pro, that mixes up to 11-12 for alk which is a significant difference but not sure 12% would be enough to swing it very far.

The PO4 for API is not very useful as it only shows 0 and 0.25 and then 0.5 I believe. So we really don't know if your PO4 is 0.02 or 0.35. Although truthfully, I would not expect PO4 to be the problem unless it is actually 0 or close to. It is just... if someone wants to aim for say 0.05-0.10 PO4... the API is of no use. All the API is really telling us... is that there is probably PO4 present but we have no idea how much as the measurement scale is not refined enough for saltwater.