What am I doing wrong? Coral death while some thrive?

Reefer Dan · Mar 18, 2022

I have a 7 month old tank with 50/50 dry and mariculture rock. I believe I am finishing the tank uglys soon, I have some cyano but it isn’t spreading. Working on getting rid of it.

Flow: 2 Nero’s, jebao 5000 sump pump (35/40 watts setting with 2 RFGs
Lighting: 3 kessil 360x, aquatic life 48” (4x54w) T5 fixture (3x ati blue+, 1 coral+)
-T5 light is new within the last month, so I decreased LEDs by 10% and have acclimated fo T5s up to 3.75 hours (+15 minutes weekly).
-T5 currently runs from 14:00-17:45
Fish: neon goby, clownfish, pink streaked wrasse, rainford goby — I know I need more fish but my LFS/online hasn’t had what I’ve been looking for for quite some time.

Parameters:
pH 8-8.3
Temp: 76-77 F
Calcium: 415-425 ppm
Alk: 8.0-8.5 dkh
Phosphate: 0.03-0.08 ppm
Nitrate 3-5 ppm
Magnesium 1350-1380 ppm

Water change schedule: ~10% per month - wondering if this is a problem and I need to either increase frequency (thinking 5%/wk) or do a trace element supplementation?

Filtration - filter floss (changed every 2-3 days) and protein skimmer

Feeding: LRS reef frenzy, pellets, mysis, pe calanas, flake — mixture of 2 of these twice a day, eating within 1 minute (set a timer every time). Feed Phyto feast (0.75 tsp) 2x/week

Problems:
-SPS - some lose flesh but not polyps (then coralline grows over), others do STN/RTN, and others are thriving such as my Oregon tort colony.
- LPS:some dying back daily (favias and leptastrea have consistent die off daily after lights out) while others extremely happy - torch, chalice, blasto.
-Softies aren’t having any problems, mushrooms included
-Maxima clam has some bleach spots on mantle but otherwise seems happy (moved higher a week ago)

Photos: Hawkins a week later, favia death Over last few weeks, letastrea death, other sps in the area doing fine (the dead frag has been dead a while)?, tank shot, kessil schedule, Nero 5 schedule, clam.

any ideas?

vetteguy53081 · Mar 18, 2022

I see cyano which may suggest higher nitrate and phosphate
With mixed reef which I run, sps and lps release their own toxins in which one affects the other
For that, I BBB use chemipure blue to absorb toxins and keep nitrate and phosphate in check

Macdaddynick1 · Mar 18, 2022

Large colony probably RTNd due to low flow, low light intensity didn’t help either. If you’re trying to keep dense colonies like that, and if it came from the wild especially you’ll need a lot more flow. I mean ALot. Frags don’t usually suffer from that problem. The yellow dragon has a good color on it which tells me the light intensity is very low, mine is under another coral altogether, that’s a low light acro for me. So I would crank up the light some, and flow by getting at least two more pumps, they don’t have to be fancy, may be some 6025s or 6015s with a modded flow nozzle. If that dead coral is Hawkins, it was grown in a very very strong flow. I would argue to get your No3 to at least 10 if anything since you’ll be raising your lights, but honestly where you’re at isn’t a big problem.

Reefer Dan · Mar 18, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
I see cyano which may suggest higher nitrate and phosphate
With mixed reef which I run, sps and lps release their own toxins in which one affects the other
For that, I BBB use chemipure blue to absorb toxins and keep nitrate and phosphate in check

Interesting idea — I did forget to mention I used carbon to try and eliminate the toxins they generate. My flow was much less and so I think things accumulated in that area triggering cyano, but maybe I am off base? Never tried chemipure though, maybe I will look into it.

Macdaddynick1 said:
Large colony probably RTNd due to low flow, low light intensity didn’t help either. If you’re trying to keep dense colonies like that, and if it came from the wild especially you’ll need a lot more flow. I mean ALot. Frags don’t usually suffer from that problem. The yellow dragon has a good color on it which tells me the light intensity is very low, mine is under another coral altogether, that’s a low light acro for me. So I would crank up the light some, and flow by getting at least two more pumps, they don’t have to be fancy, may be some 6025s or 6015s with a modded flow nozzle. If that dead coral is Hawkins, it was grown in a very very strong flow. I would argue to get your No3 to at least 10 if anything since you’ll be raising your lights, but honestly where you’re at isn’t a big problem.

I hadn’t considered these aspects. I thought with insufficient light, the corals brown and so my concern was too high light. Valid point on the dragon acro as I do know those are lower light.
Do you suggest I increase duration of T5 faster or increase led intensity?
Flow — I’m at about 40x turnover during the lighting period, how much flow are we talking?

Lavey29 · Mar 18, 2022

I agree with some of the other posts. How old is your tank? Have you done a recent ICP test to check all parameters? Do you have good coraline growth which is an indicator that your tank can sustain SPS?

Reefer Dan · Mar 18, 2022

Lavey29 said:
I agree with some of the other posts. How old is your tank? Have you done a recent ICP test to check all parameters? Do you have good coraline growth which is an indicator that your tank can sustain SPS?

I have not done an icp — I am considering doing this. Definitely have very good coralline growth. Tank is about 7 months old 50/50 dry and mariculture rock (kp aquatics) mix.

zheka757 · Mar 18, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
I see cyano which may suggest higher nitrate and phosphate
With mixed reef which I run, sps and lps release their own toxins in which one affects the other
For that, I BBB use chemipure blue to absorb toxins and keep nitrate and phosphate in check

What's is BBB stands for?

Lavey29 · Mar 18, 2022

Goonter said:
I have not done an icp — I am considering doing this. Definitely have very good coralline growth. Tank is about 7 months old 50/50 dry and mariculture rock (kp aquatics) mix.

Mine is almost a year and I have just started introducing SPS over the last 2 months. I was told to stick with small frags. Buying mini colony or full colony and moving it into a new tank typically does not go well. Small frags can adapt better to their new environment versus an established colony.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 18, 2022

zheka757 said:
What's is BBB stands for?

BBB is when you have an iPhone that wants to add its own words- ignore it as was not intended

vetteguy53081 · Mar 18, 2022

Goonter said:
Interesting idea — I did forget to mention I used carbon to try and eliminate the toxins they generate. My flow was much less and so I think things accumulated in that area triggering cyano, but maybe I am off base? Never tried chemipure though, maybe I will look into it.

I hadn’t considered these aspects. I thought with insufficient light, the corals brown and so my concern was too high light. Valid point on the dragon acro as I do know those are lower light.
Do you suggest I increase duration of T5 faster or increase led intensity?
Flow — I’m at about 40x turnover during the lighting period, how much flow are we talking?

I’m not a fan of chemipure. I prefer to reduce white light which fuels it and siphon up then add 1.5ml of liquid bacteria such as micro bacter 7 during the day to compete with the cyano bacteria And then 1ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 gallons at night for a week.
After cyano subsides, you can add cleaner snails such as cerith, trochus, nassarius, nerite to keep it in check