A few of my arcos are losing tissue in a way I've never seen before. It's like the tissue is being scrubbed off and the dying flesh is white and are small fluffys. It doesn't look like rtn or stn I've seen in the past. Maybe it's super slow tissue necrosis over large areas? I'd like to try and stop it before the corals are fully gone, but I'm not sure if this is from a specific thing or many things and stress. I've had these corals for maybe 6 years, so they are not new corals.
I'm going to preface this with saying, I am really bad at doing water changes, usually doing them once every 3-4 months. I also don't test much unless I see things going bad (I know, terrible habits). I do dose the tank with a homemade 2 part daily and weekly dose homemade magnesium solution along with red sea's trace elements A-D weekly.
I have a 75 gallon display and 15 gallon sump. It has been up for 2 years after I moved, so the tank contents are very old (minus the sand). A week ago I did two 40% water changes one day after the other as my nitrates were very high (80ppm). I also added PhosGuard and changed out my carbon. I was going to do another water change just now and noticed the corals losing tissue. So far it's just the red planet arco (all 4 different colonies) and green slimer acro (one of two colonies). My other acros and sps coral are ok so far. Actually, my psammocora has gained back color already, going from brown to green. Two of the red planets have polyp extension and all slimers have polyp extension. I also changed my lighting time as the corals in my tank were all brown, going from 10 hours of light at 50% overall intensity to 6 hours of light at 70% overall intensity (3 radion xr15 G6). Maybe it's the light change, maybe it's the change in levels from the water changes, maybe something else. I'm not really sure. Any ideas what it might be or what I should do?
My ph test kit was bad, so couldn't test that. All these kits are new, a mix of salifert and aquaforestkits. My goal was to get nirates down to 10ppm, phosphate to .03, and KH up to 8. The KH is going to take a lot more time though.
Current parameters:
Phosphates: 0.25 ppm
Nitrates: 20 ppm
KH: 4.2
Mg: 1290 ppm
Ca: 380 ppm
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 80 F
Salinity: 1.025
Parameters 1 week ago:
Phosphates: 0.5 ppm
Nitrates: 80 ppm
KH: 4.5
Mg: 1410 ppm
Ca: 415 ppm
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 81.5 F
Salinity: 1.025
I'm going to preface this with saying, I am really bad at doing water changes, usually doing them once every 3-4 months. I also don't test much unless I see things going bad (I know, terrible habits). I do dose the tank with a homemade 2 part daily and weekly dose homemade magnesium solution along with red sea's trace elements A-D weekly.
I have a 75 gallon display and 15 gallon sump. It has been up for 2 years after I moved, so the tank contents are very old (minus the sand). A week ago I did two 40% water changes one day after the other as my nitrates were very high (80ppm). I also added PhosGuard and changed out my carbon. I was going to do another water change just now and noticed the corals losing tissue. So far it's just the red planet arco (all 4 different colonies) and green slimer acro (one of two colonies). My other acros and sps coral are ok so far. Actually, my psammocora has gained back color already, going from brown to green. Two of the red planets have polyp extension and all slimers have polyp extension. I also changed my lighting time as the corals in my tank were all brown, going from 10 hours of light at 50% overall intensity to 6 hours of light at 70% overall intensity (3 radion xr15 G6). Maybe it's the light change, maybe it's the change in levels from the water changes, maybe something else. I'm not really sure. Any ideas what it might be or what I should do?
My ph test kit was bad, so couldn't test that. All these kits are new, a mix of salifert and aquaforestkits. My goal was to get nirates down to 10ppm, phosphate to .03, and KH up to 8. The KH is going to take a lot more time though.
Current parameters:
Phosphates: 0.25 ppm
Nitrates: 20 ppm
KH: 4.2
Mg: 1290 ppm
Ca: 380 ppm
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 80 F
Salinity: 1.025
Parameters 1 week ago:
Phosphates: 0.5 ppm
Nitrates: 80 ppm
KH: 4.5
Mg: 1410 ppm
Ca: 415 ppm
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 81.5 F
Salinity: 1.025