Reef dying again. Any ideas?

TheAsian0328 · Sep 20, 2016

Ok so this is the third time this has happened. All my corals are slowly dying off and shriveling up. I've address gfo, tds, parameters, temp, feeding habits, detritus, flow, lighting, and frequent water changes all in the time span of about six months. I've taken corals to a friends and had them growing and heathy in his tank. Did a 98% water change and cleaned everything before bringing them back over. They where fine and growing for about a month then started dying and shriveling up again. I have run out of ideas on what could be wrong with my tank. Anyone have an idea as to what might be going on here? Need help bad!

ReeferMaddness843 · Sep 20, 2016

What are current parameters and SG?

Have you had any test for any metals that may be leeching or any stray voltage?
A triton test may get you the answer on metals or other elements we as hobbyists don't normally test for that may be causing issues if at your wits end.
What is your water source? Same rock and sand?

ReeferMaddness843 · Sep 20, 2016

Also what type of lighting and filtration?

TheAsian0328 · Sep 20, 2016

ReeferMaddness843 said:
Also what type of lighting and filtration?

Ai prime for lighting. Intank filter basket with sponge filtration and carbon. Some of the same rock and same sand. Never thought about testing for metals so I guess I need to do that. Dk: 9.4 cal:430ish mag: 1280 salinity: 1.025 might have stray voltage and will buy a grounding probe tonight. Thank you for the ideas.

The Rook · Sep 20, 2016

How long has the tank been up?

TheAsian0328 · Sep 21, 2016

It's been up for about 10 months.

BMMMW · Sep 21, 2016

I am going throug the same thing right now. Have you checked salinity and or if refractometer needs to recalibrated or replaced?

The Rook · Sep 21, 2016

Some times it just needs to "mature" longer...

Rick.45cal · Sep 22, 2016

What are your nitrate and phosphate levels?

watchguy123 · Sep 22, 2016

Its every thing that you have to look at and its usually something obvious that we simply ignored. Start with your water. Where do you get it from or if you make your ro/di water and how do you check your filters for chlorine and tds. then the water in the tank. We are all stuck testing the big three, nitrates, phosphates and alk. If your alk is stable almost everything else will be because it is so much work to test and observe alk levels. So it then boils down to how you keep your alk stable: manual, doser, or ca reactor. Salinity, refractometers need to be calibrated to make sure you are not having fluctuations or are simply out of whack. And how do you keep your salinity stable, do you use an ATO or do you manual add ro/di water for evaporation. And triton testing is another means to validate and determine if there are bizarre levels of many things like trace elements or heavy metals. Water changes have their pros and cons but I am a pro water changer (10-15 percent weekly or so)

then there is temperature control. pH stability. Flow. Lighting. Filtration, skimmer, gfo, carbon with pros and cons to each. Its late at night so I will leave it to others to give you more things to consider and look at. None of it is hard, but it is a large laundry list of to do items to check and understand your tank.

andrew.jones50 · Sep 22, 2016

It probably has nothing to do with your water quality or flow.

You're tinkering with your tank too much. Corals like consistancy- whether that is for the good or otherwise. They dont want frantic water changes, they dont want additives or salt constantly altering the water chemistry and they definitely dont like to be moved around throughout the tank.

Do your regular water changes. Definitely do them weekly since your tank is very small. Make sure to blow out your sand and rocks with a turkey baster bi-weekly. And clean your protein skimmer cup's neck daily. Keep your water topped off daily with ro or distilled water only. Doing these few things will keep your water quality more than good enough for the corals you are keeping.

Next, keep your expectations realistic. You have coral frags. They are going to be quite tempormental until they become colonies- which will be a long time. The best thing you can do for corals specifically is to leave them alone no matter what. You have a newly established, small tank. Your best bet is to research what they like before purchase and placement. Then dont touch them after placement. Sometimes it takes many, many months for things to show full polyp extension and color. And when I say many months, I mean possibly up to six- sometimes more. Some are just going to die and you will need to take your lumps and use that a learning experience. Think hard about why- maybe it wasnt your tank as a whole at all. It's often times unhealthy specimans or poor tank placement.

revhtree · Sep 22, 2016

I recently was overdosing GFO and killing my corals. Stopped and they rebounded!

TheAsian0328 · Sep 22, 2016

Rick.45cal said:
What are your nitrate and phosphate levels?

0 and I'm not running gfo.

Atrain · Sep 23, 2016

Are you having temperature swings?

saltyfilmfolks · Sep 23, 2016

have you tried feeding like crazy?

Breakthecycle2 · Sep 23, 2016

What are you testing the salinity with?

Surfandturf · Sep 23, 2016

I did not see how big your tank is, sorry. In my opinion, if this is a nano, you need to do 10% weekly water change. I run a 10gal, so with rock, its about 8 gallons of water. What are you feeding your corals and what are your lights set too? I also have the AI prime for my tank and you can screen shot your light schedule on here. You can also manually adjust the strength of each color of light. This can be good or bad depending on if you know what you are doing. Be careful fooling around with the spectrum too much (intensity wise). Another thing about nanos is the water top off. Are you running an auto top off or are you just filling it back up daily or everyother day? This will create a variance /swing in your salt level , which affects other aspects of water chemistry. Just some things to check.