Problem with some corals

[willforr]

Hey all, I’ve recently made some changes to my water chemistry because my corals haven’t been opening. I changed my alkalinity from 7.5 to 11 and decided to also change my salinity from 1.023 to 1.024. I did this over time to not stress the corals, but it seems they still have not taken the change lightly. My Duncan coral died today, and my zoanthids, green star polyps, and part of my Kenya tree have still not been open for about a week. For now, I’m trying to keep things stable so they can recover, all my other parameters are fine, and so are the fish I’m just starting to get a bit concerned. So could someone give me advice as to what I could do to help the recovery process? Help would be much appreciated, thank you!

 

[blaxsun]

I’d be curious what you have for flow in your tank aside from the return outlets?

 

[MaxTremors]

Why did you change the dkh to 11? Personally, I think 8.5-9 is just about perfect, most salt mixes mix around this level, and it gives you leeway in either direction should you overdose or have a dower malfunction. You might see slightly better growth at higher dkh, but it’s not that much. Also, I would continue to raise your salinity to 1.025 or 1.026 (34-35ppm), natural sea water is around 35ppm or 1.026. I’m guessing it was the Alk that is causing your problems, how quickly did you raise it? What are you other params, and what kind of lighting, flow, and rock do you have?

 

[willforr]

Yeah, I raised it to 11 because I went to get my water tested at the fish store and he said 11 to 11.5 is where you want to keep it at. I did it over the course of 4 days because that’s what the instructions said, looking back at it I probably should’ve done it longer than that. In terms of lighting, I have two ai hydra 32’s (I attached a picture of the settings), two return pumps and I added another water pump too. I also have about 30 pounds of live rock in the tank.

 

[MaxTremors]

Yeah, I raised it to 11 because I went to get my water tested at the fish store and he said 11 to 11.5 is where you want to keep it at. I did it over the course of 4 days because that’s what the instructions said, looking back at it I probably should’ve done it longer than that. In terms of lighting, I have two ai hydra 32’s (I attached a picture of the settings), two return pumps and I added another water pump too. I also have about 30 pounds of live rock in the tank.

4dkh in 4 days is pretty fast. I probably would’ve done it over a couple weeks (I wouldn’t raise it that high to begin with, but for that amount of change I would’ve taken a couple weeks). If the salt you’re using is that high (reef crystals and a few others), then running your tank at the level the salt mixes at is a good idea, if the salt you use mixes lower, I would slowly lower it to match it. 11dkh isn’t harmful, it just doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room (over 12 can be stressful for corals), which is why I shoot for 8.5-9 and use salt that mixes around there. So you should find out what the salt you use mixes at and then try to keep your tank at that level, stability is what is important. I would also up the salinity to 1.025-1.026.

 

[willforr]

I try to keep my salinity stable, but do you think the corals will overcome that change at all?

 

[X-37B]

Pic and tank parameters?
How old is tank?
Temp
SG 1.0264
Alk 7.5 was fine
Ca
Mag
No3
Po4

 

[willforr]

It’s kind of hard to take a good picture of my tank. I took some close ups of the bad corals, and you’ll have to zoom in on the main picture. It’s a 50 gallon all-in-one system. I got it set up in April, and put in my first fish May of this year. Also, to be honest I don’t test everything, because I didn’t choose any hard corals to keep but, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all at zero. I’m working on bringing my nitrate up just a little with the Red Sea energy AB+. My temperature fluctuates between 78-80 throughout the day too.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

I would stop listening to your LFSH for advice. Going from 7.5dkh to 11 in 4 days is a bad idea. High alk is good for growth if your water parameters is stable with a nutrients to support the growth. I keep my reef at 8-8.5 dkh.

If your going to keep corals you are going to need to test for the big 3. Alk, magnesium, and calcium along with nitrate and phosphate

 

[Dkmoo]

4 dkh change ideally should have been done over 4 weeks, not 4 days. Its true that corals can tolerate 1 dkh daily swings but thats more like yiu are going from say 8 to 7, then you dose qt the end of the day to get it back to 8. It doesn't mean you can change 1 dkh day in one direction to move 4 dkh in 4 daya

 

[willforr]

It’s a shame no one told me that beforehand. I was just doing what I was told which was increase it over 4 days

 

[Fish Think Pink]

It’s a shame no one told me that beforehand. I was just doing what I was told which was increase it over 4 days

This chart is useful - ocean is listed as 7, you were 7.5 and told to go to 11... had you seen this below first might have at least caused you to pause and question LFS further; devil is always in the details. Hang in there! This hobby tests all our BBAs - Bounce Back Ability - BBA is also a good life skill

 

[MaxTremors]

It’s a shame no one told me that beforehand. I was just doing what I was told which was increase it over 4 days

I would trust getting advice from a place like this over your lfs. First none of us have a vested interest in selling you anything. Second, everything here is in writing and is seen by many people, so bad advice tends to get called out. As you learn more, you’ll start to realize that a lot of lfs (but certainly not all) really don’t know much.

 

[Dolphins18]

Low nutrient tanks (low nitrate and phosphate) should be kept closer to 8 alkalinity, whereas tanks with higher nutrients can benefit from higher alkalinity (10-11). I would not drop it down overnight, but try and let it come back down with water changes. Salinity is not an issue, you can keep it there or raise it to 1.026.

 

[willforr]

Thank you guys so much for the help. It seems that most of the corals won’t survive but at least the fish are doing fine and I can always buy some more corals later