Tank crashing??

[Kyle Seeley]

Hi, my powerhead recently fell off the wall last night. The tank is 1 year old and I know that sand can carry toxic things. I got the tank cleaned up and performed a 20% water change. Everything seem great except now. My red symphyllia coral is producing a white mucus and it's all over the tank. Is it dying or stressed? Any help would be appreciated cause I'm super stressed as this is one of my more expensive corals

 

[Kyle Seeley]

I would post a picture but for some reason R2R is not letting me

 

[Maritimer]

Sand can harbor some unpleasantness, mostly detritus and organics. Not sure what would make your coral slime up to that extent, but some folks who might have an inkling or two are on the #reefsquad.

~Bruce

 

[redfishbluefish]

Run carbon and consider doing large water changes.

 

[Kyle Seeley]

Will do!! The tank is only 10 gallons so water changes are very easy

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yup def carbon and some GFO if you have it. If you have a spare reactor, canister filter, or HOB aquaclear that would be best. In a pinch put the bags directly on the return pump.

 

[ps2cho]

Carbon and 50% water changes each day for 3 days and see how they look after.

 

[Bdog4u2]

Some corals slime up when agitated o protect themselves or to attack another coral so it's probably trying to protect itself. 1 year old sand shouldn't be to bad as long as your tank had good flow and kept detritus from building ip on it.

 

[jsker]

Where are you nutrients at? Your tank is already stressed and to much water change will stress the system even more.
PO4 ?
NO3 ?
I would definitely run the carbon and if you PO4's are high I would use a product called phosphate RX to bring down the phosphate quicker that water changes.

 

[Kyle Seeley]

Everything is testing perfect. The brain has stopped producing a slime but the duncan coral is now doing it. Hoping I'm nearing the end of this cycle.

PO4 0
Nitrate >.5
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0

 

[jsker]

For the future you do need some phosphates, but not higher then .03 ppm and 3 to 5 ppm for corals to be healthy. Could be that the corals are starving.

 

[Kyle Seeley]

I am not sure that they would be starving. I dose phytoplankton 3 times a week. Is that not enough?

 

[Maritimer]

The zooxanthellae, the internal algae that feed the corals, need nutrients as well - just as we sprinkle nitrogen and phosphate on our lawns and gardens each spring. They're the nutrients that keep the plant part of the partnership going.

~Bruce