Had a few disheartening setbacks lately, the most recent being the loss of my Duncan who had been doing so well. I don't know why it started pulling its tentacles in and shrinking away, but perhaps you all can sleuth out the cause of death.
Some clues that may lead to the answer, but first, my parameters (historically):
LFS-bought Red Sea Coral Pro water, changed 10-20% 2 times most weeks, but at least once a week-
SG: 1.026
Alk: 11.5 (Salifert)
pH: 7.8 (API)
Ca: 430-440 (Salifert)
Mg: 1260 (Salifert)
NH3: 0.25 (API, effectively 0)
NO2: 0 (API)
NO3: 5-10ppm (API)
PO4: 0-0.03, but only recently started testing (Salifert)
Temp: 77, set by Inkbird +/- 1
Clues:
1. Changes in lighting: I started with the Fluval Marine 3.0 LED bar directly on top of my Fluval EVO 13.5g. The Duncan was placed approx. top of the bottom third of the tank. Light settings was heavy blues and 30-50% on whites, varying settings and schedule over time while I tinkered. Then, I added another LED bar since the feedback on the Fluval LED was so negative (i.e. not powerful enough). The second bar came from 21LED and was a ReefbarPro Blue Heavy bar. I don't have actual PAR measurements, but I know that the 21LED bar puts out much more PAR than the Fluval LED (compared using Photone android app), and it has the superior 3watt LEDs. Again, lighting schedules and intensities have varied over time and between algae battles. There have been no indications of bleaching.
2. SG/Alk: It appears my LFS has had several recent batches (over past month) where SG was 1.025 instead of 1.026, and the ALK was more in the range of 10.5 than 11.5, so lately, the baseline ALK and SG has been lower (Ca more on the 430 end than the 440 end)
3. Alk spike: I test Alk at least twice a week before my weekly and midweek water changes. I noticed during one WC that the Alk spiked to 13.9 in mid-Dec then down to 10.5 two days after WC. Always the possibility of measurement error, so I wasn't too fussed.
4. Feeding: I fed the Duncan roughly every other day with mysis shrimp. However, I did feed it a few times with brine/spirulina, and its position in the tank at times causes the pellet food I give the clownpigs to fall onto it, and I have seen it close up and swallow the pellets. I have felt that I may be overfeeding the Duncan, but found it hard to resist since it took to the food so readily. It didn't eat anything for a while, though.
5. Coral aggression: A torch was placed above the Duncan and it had two algae-stressed small zoa plugs next to it, an alveopora and a rhodactis below it. I didn't see any overt displays of coral aggression, although the RBTA I had did take a stroll and give it a hug once.
6. Flow: I changed the return pump twice to stronger return flow (now Sicce 1.0), and have a MagTool powerhead that has been moved all around trying to figure out the best flow. The Duncan has almost always been in low to moderate flow.
7. Vacation: 4-day trip, came back to dead Duncan. The hammer in the pic below was already in bad shape from BJD and not recovering, but the Duncan was a surprise. Before leaving for vacation, the Duncan was pulling its polyps in for most of the day, so it was already showing signs of a poor outcome. The housesitter fed the fish every day and refilled the ATO bottle with distilled water, but didn't touch the corals.
8. Nitrate/Phosphates bottoming out: Nitrates started dropping recently, first to 2.5 consistently and then finally to zero on API test kit. I only recently started measuring phosphates and they have been 0 or 0.03 every time.
9. Treatment for bryopsis AND brown jelly disease: was informed that the hammer (below) had BJD and advised to treat with cipro. Meanwhile, bryopsis ferns and GHA were starting to build up, so I started both Fluc + Cipro, which was added on top of weekly 1mL Vibrant that I had started a few weeks earlier (maybe mid-late november). The spread of BJD stopped (but still too late) and none of the other corals seemed affected by the treatments at the start. The Duncan symptoms began toward the end of the Fluc/Cipro treatment.
Placement and coral neighbors (green Duncan all closed up on right hand side below clownpig):
Early signs of stress, folding in on one side:
Pre-vacation, all polyps retracted (disregard my poor hammer, may it rest in peace):
Thoughts? One cause in particular? Combination of everything? I am hoping to get insight to improve so that current and future corals don't suffer and end the same way.
Thank you all for the help. This community really does make it easier to keep it up, despite the setbacks.
Some clues that may lead to the answer, but first, my parameters (historically):
LFS-bought Red Sea Coral Pro water, changed 10-20% 2 times most weeks, but at least once a week-
SG: 1.026
Alk: 11.5 (Salifert)
pH: 7.8 (API)
Ca: 430-440 (Salifert)
Mg: 1260 (Salifert)
NH3: 0.25 (API, effectively 0)
NO2: 0 (API)
NO3: 5-10ppm (API)
PO4: 0-0.03, but only recently started testing (Salifert)
Temp: 77, set by Inkbird +/- 1
Clues:
1. Changes in lighting: I started with the Fluval Marine 3.0 LED bar directly on top of my Fluval EVO 13.5g. The Duncan was placed approx. top of the bottom third of the tank. Light settings was heavy blues and 30-50% on whites, varying settings and schedule over time while I tinkered. Then, I added another LED bar since the feedback on the Fluval LED was so negative (i.e. not powerful enough). The second bar came from 21LED and was a ReefbarPro Blue Heavy bar. I don't have actual PAR measurements, but I know that the 21LED bar puts out much more PAR than the Fluval LED (compared using Photone android app), and it has the superior 3watt LEDs. Again, lighting schedules and intensities have varied over time and between algae battles. There have been no indications of bleaching.
2. SG/Alk: It appears my LFS has had several recent batches (over past month) where SG was 1.025 instead of 1.026, and the ALK was more in the range of 10.5 than 11.5, so lately, the baseline ALK and SG has been lower (Ca more on the 430 end than the 440 end)
3. Alk spike: I test Alk at least twice a week before my weekly and midweek water changes. I noticed during one WC that the Alk spiked to 13.9 in mid-Dec then down to 10.5 two days after WC. Always the possibility of measurement error, so I wasn't too fussed.
4. Feeding: I fed the Duncan roughly every other day with mysis shrimp. However, I did feed it a few times with brine/spirulina, and its position in the tank at times causes the pellet food I give the clownpigs to fall onto it, and I have seen it close up and swallow the pellets. I have felt that I may be overfeeding the Duncan, but found it hard to resist since it took to the food so readily. It didn't eat anything for a while, though.
5. Coral aggression: A torch was placed above the Duncan and it had two algae-stressed small zoa plugs next to it, an alveopora and a rhodactis below it. I didn't see any overt displays of coral aggression, although the RBTA I had did take a stroll and give it a hug once.
6. Flow: I changed the return pump twice to stronger return flow (now Sicce 1.0), and have a MagTool powerhead that has been moved all around trying to figure out the best flow. The Duncan has almost always been in low to moderate flow.
7. Vacation: 4-day trip, came back to dead Duncan. The hammer in the pic below was already in bad shape from BJD and not recovering, but the Duncan was a surprise. Before leaving for vacation, the Duncan was pulling its polyps in for most of the day, so it was already showing signs of a poor outcome. The housesitter fed the fish every day and refilled the ATO bottle with distilled water, but didn't touch the corals.
8. Nitrate/Phosphates bottoming out: Nitrates started dropping recently, first to 2.5 consistently and then finally to zero on API test kit. I only recently started measuring phosphates and they have been 0 or 0.03 every time.
9. Treatment for bryopsis AND brown jelly disease: was informed that the hammer (below) had BJD and advised to treat with cipro. Meanwhile, bryopsis ferns and GHA were starting to build up, so I started both Fluc + Cipro, which was added on top of weekly 1mL Vibrant that I had started a few weeks earlier (maybe mid-late november). The spread of BJD stopped (but still too late) and none of the other corals seemed affected by the treatments at the start. The Duncan symptoms began toward the end of the Fluc/Cipro treatment.
Placement and coral neighbors (green Duncan all closed up on right hand side below clownpig):
Early signs of stress, folding in on one side:
Pre-vacation, all polyps retracted (disregard my poor hammer, may it rest in peace):
Thoughts? One cause in particular? Combination of everything? I am hoping to get insight to improve so that current and future corals don't suffer and end the same way.
Thank you all for the help. This community really does make it easier to keep it up, despite the setbacks.
