Sps dying

[Larsnauta]

Hello, im Lars 21 years old from Holland.


I have a problem, my acropora's continue to die but I can not figure out what the problem is ...

the tips of my acropora as you can see in the picture begin to lose their tissue. The other

acropora looks even worse from all tips are white and the polyps stand

not off. they are in there for 2 weeks and seemed to recover first from a broken tip but suddenly it stopped repairing and started to die. Does anyone know what's wrong here? I have the idea that something very small is missing so that they slowly die.

here some information about my tank


1. Contents of the aquarium: 250L 100x50x50


2. Contents of the filter trough: 40 L


3. How do you keep the calcium levels up to standard ?: Dosing unit


4. Do you use a phosphate filter (what kind of, what kind of media, how often / long) ?: Carbon (DRS Dutch Synthetic Reefing")


5. Do you use ozone or UV ?: yes


6. What type of skimmer do you use (brand, type) ?: aqua medic turboflotor blue 1000


7. How often do you clean the skimmer (not so much as emptying cup) : once a month


8. What are the temperature, salinity, pH, KH, nitrate and phosphate (and possibly nitrite, calcium, magnesium values?): Salt content is 1024

kh 10

nitrate 2

nitrite 0

phosphate 0.01

calcium 480

magnesium 1450

Temperature 25.6 degrees


9. What extra filters do you use? (carbon filter, refugium, pot filter, sand filter ...): bag and activated carbon


10. What kind of lighting do you use?

4x 39 Watt t5 ati and ctlite 3G runs at 25%


11. How much flow do you have exactly ?: jebao rw8 8000 l / h and 2 x pumps of 2000l / h each. Total 12000 l / h


12. What kind of corals do you like? Sps, leather, buttons.


13. What kind of fish do you like ?:

Ctenochaetus tominiensis

Siganus vulpinus

Nemo 2x

Acreichthys Tomentosus

Anampses lineatus

Paracanthurus hepatus

Synchiropus splendidus


14. How long has the system been running for 4 years?


15. How much living stone do you have ?: And how old is it ?: 20 kilos 1 year old.



16. What do you add (what, why, how much, how often) ?: Carbon 2ml per day, p04 2.5 ml per day, NO3 2ml per day.


17. Which brand of salt do you use ?: coral pro salt


18. What do you do (and how many and how often) ?: 2 blocks of frozen food per day.


19. What problems did you abandon the problem in the question? Actually none, buttons and leather corals do just fine. Sps corals slowly die.

 

[Larsnauta]

I have some white stuff a kind of slime in my sump and I was thinking maybe I add too much carbon and so get all the nutrients from the water even though I dose nitrate and phosphate

 

[afartindolphin]

That's a lot of info on your system! At first glance looks like your alkalinity could be a bit high for your nutrient levels. Are these maricultured/wild caught colonies? Those types tend to be very sensitive and can go downhill quickly even after looking good for a while and seem to prefer NSW systems. The slime could be an indicator of bacterial imbalance which could be do to the low nutrients and carbon dosing. Consider reducing your carbon dosing to let nutrients rise on their own opposed to dosing nitrate/phosphate.

 

[Larsnauta]

That's a lot of info on your system! At first glance looks like your alkalinity could be a bit high for your nutrient levels. Are these maricultured/wild caught colonies? Those types tend to be very sensitive and can go downhill quickly even after looking good for a while and seem to prefer NSW systems. The slime could be an indicator of bacterial imbalance which could be do to the low nutrients and carbon dosing. Consider reducing your carbon dosing to let nutrients rise on their own opposed to dosing nitrate/phosphate.

Hmm ok I Will try that! I thought PO4 0,01 and NO3 2 was perfect but i Will take them up to 0,04 and NO3 5. Thanks !

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Stop carbon dosing and using any other nutrient reduction media. Bring your alk down to 8 or lower and make sure you’re corals are getting adequate par. If you’re worried about nutrients cut back to 1 cube of frozen and don’t just dump it in. Release it slowly and make sure your fish consume it all before you pour more in. Fish don’t need as much food as we in the hobby tend to feed. They won’t starve but your sps are. Stop carbon dosing immediately before they are past the point of no return.
I killed thousands of dollars of sps carbon dosing and using gfo. As soon as I stopped my sps started thriving.

 

[Xiao]

I want to find out if the carbon agent you are referring to is activated carbon or organic carbon source?

 

[Xiao]

TM reef ACTIF
redsea carbon

 

[markalot]

Hi Lars,

it's difficult to grow Acros at 10KH, especially in a clean tank. Target natural levels closer to 7KH and let if fall naturally. They may have been shocked by the move to your tank, going from natural levels to 10KH will be a shock. Read some of the threads in this forum for more recommendations, the advice is usually the same. Rock steady parameters, KH closer to natural levels, good flow, good light but not too much. PAR target, if you measure PAR, should be 200 to 350. You can experiment with higher PAR once things have been stable for a long while.

You are trying to grow some of the hardest acros to grow, wild caught or maricultured rather than tank tested frags. Keep that in mind as well moving forward. Much like named garden plants that are proven to grow well some of the named Acropora have been in the hobby for years and have adapted to tank life, being much more forgiving than their ocean grown counterparts.

 

[Larsnauta]

I use active carbon and organic carbon both. I have halved the dose of organic carbon and that's why my PO4 went to 0.09 and my NO3 to 5. I should have done it a bit more slower but did not expect it to rise so fast. The polyps of one acro are very good! good sign I think! The other one is still Very bad but i hope that Will change soon.

The one that’s took better to my is an acropora from Australia, the other “bad” one is tank raised.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I use active carbon and organic carbon both. I have halved the dose of organic carbon and that's why my PO4 went to 0.09 and my NO3 to 5. I should have done it a bit more slower but did not expect it to rise so fast. The polyps of one acro are very good! good sign I think! The other one is still Very bad but i hope that Will change soon.

The one that’s took better to my is an acropora from Australia, the other “bad” one is tank raised.

There’s nothing wrong with 0.09 phosphates and 5 nitrates. When I stopped carbon dosing and using gfo my phosphates went up to .2 and my nitrates went up to 20 but now, over the last 3 months they’ve fallen back to 0.03 phosphates and 1-2 nitrates. WWC, Vivid Aquriums, top shelf aquatics tanks all run at 10-15 nitrates and less than 0.1 phosphates. Stop chasing low nutrients. I had low nutrients and dead coral. No I have mid range nutrients and colorful acros with crazy polyp extension.

 

[Larsnauta]

ok that's nice! I hope I will not get too much algae growth with higher nutriens

 

[29bonsaireef]

ok that's nice! I hope I will not get too much algae growth with higher nutriens

IMO, if you lower your Alk you will likely see an improvement.

 

[Larsnauta]

IMO, if you lower your Alk you will likely see an improvement.

With a water change ?

 

[AcrosOnAcros]

Alk is to high for your nutrient level

 

[DMG Reef]

Have you dipped your acros to look for pests? The random necrosis in your pics look a lot like something might be munching on them. When I was fighting AEFW, my acros looked sickly like yours. I couldn't see flatworms in your pictures, but they are very hard to spot without dipping.

 

[Larsnauta]

Have you dipped your acros to look for pests? The random necrosis in your pics look a lot like something might be munching on them. When I was fighting AEFW, my acros looked sickly like yours. I couldn't see flatworms in your pictures, but they are very hard to spot without dipping.

I dipped them but I did not see anything. I also looked for red bugs but I did not see them either.

 

[Larsnauta]

what I also notice is that there is less polyp expansion when the light is off and the coral does NOT slime anymore. That’s a good thing I think.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

ok that's nice! I hope I will not get too much algae growth with higher nutriens

You shouldn’t, but I’d rather have a little algae and healthy corals than no algae and dead corals. But maybe that’s just me.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Happy and healthy acros make the best nutrient reducers

 

[Larsnauta]

You shouldn’t, but I’d rather have a little algae and healthy corals than no algae and dead corals. But maybe that’s just me.

Good point !