Something is definitely up

ndz98 · May 3, 2016

It just occurred to me after looking at my tank for a moment that my pod population has seemed to drastically drop. I used to have them crawling all over the back of the glass and rocks. Now I can barely find any. My lps and softies don't look to be doing to hot right now either. Something has changed and I don't know what it is. I'm going to test the water tomorrow for nitrates and phosphates to see what it's looking like. Any idea what could reduce my pod population though?

Kershaw · May 3, 2016

Water peramiters?

ndz98 · May 3, 2016

Kershaw said:
Water peramiters?

Alk-11.5 dKH
Calcium- 450 ppm
Mag- 1400
Salinity- 1.026

Unfortunately that's all I have for now until I get the new test kit in tomorrow.

ludnix · May 3, 2016

If your nutrients are lowering without being absorbed by algae then their food supply might be dwindling. I see certain animals come and go in my systems, I think it's mostly competition and their food chains balancing. It could also be a chemical cause such as some coral dip making it into the tank like bayer or copper if you use those.

Waters · May 3, 2016

When my tank was first set up, I had pods everywhere. Now, roughly a year later, I never see them. As ludnix stated, their population comes and goes. Do you have any fish that will eat them? A lot of fish like wrasses or mandarins will decimate them rather quickly.

ndz98 · May 3, 2016

Nitrate- 0-.25 ppm
Phosphate- .08-.16 ppm

ndz98 · May 3, 2016

Waters said:
When my tank was first set up, I had pods everywhere. Now, roughly a year later, I never see them. As ludnix stated, their population comes and goes. Do you have any fish that will eat them? A lot of fish like wrasses or mandarins will decimate them rather quickly.

I don't have any fish that would eat them really.

saltyfilmfolks · May 3, 2016

ndz98 said:
I don't have any fish that would eat them really.

Oh yes you do.
I've seen my grand Palys eat amphipods. Bubble coral and anemone as well.
It's also what ludnick said.
I have mandarins and pipes. So I keep a close eye. When the populations slow down its food availability they've cleaned out the tank.
I take dry Spirulina and coral frenzy and sprinkle it on top of my Chato for a couple weeks. Brings the population up.

ndz98 · May 3, 2016

I'm not sure if my phosphate and nitrate levels are okay but I would assume you want some so there are nutrients in the water for the coral to consume. So how high/low should my levels be? Do I need to feed more food to the tank?

saltyfilmfolks · May 3, 2016

little to do with that No Po Params. bugs eat algae and detritus. if theres lots, you have a bloom. if theres none the population dies off.

This reefer is having the opposite thing. good info.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-are-all-these-tiny-bugs.247282/#post-2903867

Cory · May 3, 2016

In my waterfall algae turf scrubber below it where there is water, i have billions. Also tons of bristle worms eating leftover food.

In the tank, cant find one.

ludnix · May 3, 2016

ndz98 said:
I'm not sure if my phosphate and nitrate levels are okay but I would assume you want some so there are nutrients in the water for the coral to consume. So how high/low should my levels be? Do I need to feed more food to the tank?

The phosphates are higher than ideal, but probably not a significant concern and not the cause of your lack of microfauna. Nitrates are slightly higher than ideal as well, but again probably not the issue. How old is your tank? If something is up and I'm not sure what going on, I do a water change. There's a lot of things we can test for, but there's a heck of a lot more that we can't. If you had a contamination of some sort than it's not going to show up in the tests but could still easily affect delicate animals.

ndz98 · May 3, 2016

ludnix said:
The phosphates are higher than ideal, but probably not a significant concern and not the cause of your lack of microfauna. Nitrates are slightly higher than ideal as well, but again probably not the issue. How old is your tank? If something is up and I'm not sure what going on, I do a water change. There's a lot of things we can test for, but there's a heck of a lot more that we can't. If you had a contamination of some sort than it's not going to show up in the tests but could still easily affect delicate animals.

My tank is 8 months old. I have been doing more frequent water changes the past month because I've noticed my coral wasn't looking as good as usual.

ludnix · May 3, 2016

Care to share any pictures? If you were just having the microfuana disappear at that age I wouldn't be concerned, it seems like about the right time for that to occur. Having your corals looking upset is alarming though. Do you run any carbon in the system?

ndz98 · May 3, 2016

ludnix said:
Care to share any pictures? If you were just having the microfuana disappear at that age I wouldn't be concerned, it seems like about the right time for that to occur. Having your corals looking upset is alarming though. Do you run any carbon in the system?

The first picture was a few weeks ago. The ones after are now. The rbta, frogspawn, hammers, and gsp all are not opened as much as they used to. It seems like they are slowly dying.

I run chemipure elite in my sump.

ludnix · May 4, 2016

What kind of lights are you running? If Metal Halide or T5, could it be time for new bulbs? Those LPS do look unhappy though I don't see anything in particular that would be to blame. Any recent losses or additions to the tank? Great aquascaping by the way.

So lets sum up the data so far:

Alk-11.5 dKH
Calcium- 450 ppm
Mag- 1400
Salinity- 1.026
Nitrate- 0-.25 ppm
Phosphate- .08-.16 ppm

The only thing I see going on here is slightly elevated phosphates and nitrate, but your next water change will reduce those proportionately to the volume of the water change, at least until something raises them. Hows your temperature been? Has that been in range? Does it the temperature change significantly throughout the day?

ndz98 · May 4, 2016

ludnix said:
What kind of lights are you running? If Metal Halide or T5, could it be time for new bulbs? Those LPS do look unhappy though I don't see anything in particular that would be to blame. Any recent losses or additions to the tank? Great aquascaping by the way.

So lets sum up the data so far:

Alk-11.5 dKH
Calcium- 450 ppm
Mag- 1400
Salinity- 1.026
Nitrate- 0-.25 ppm
Phosphate- .08-.16 ppm

The only thing I see going on here is slightly elevated phosphates and nitrate, but your next water change will reduce those proportionately to the volume of the water change, at least until something raises them. Hows your temperature been? Has that been in range? Does it the temperature change significantly throughout the day?

I have fairly new LED lights. The only additions to the tank besides the coral is a cleaner shrimp.

Thank you for the compliment!

Temperature stays pretty stable throughout the day at 76-78 degrees. No huge fluctuations.

ludnix · May 4, 2016

I think I would just keep up the water changes and continue to monitor the coral's progress. Sometimes when something is awry it can take a while for the corals to bounce back and it may have been an issue you have already corrected for. Hopefully others can offer some suggestion or questions, but keep on taking care of that tank, you've had them happy before and i'm sure you'll get them happy again.

ndz98 · May 5, 2016

Do you think it's possible I need to turn the light intensity up? I tried raising it by 10 percent last week but my Acan and candy cane didn't seem to like it too much.