What's wrong with my corals

[nzkiwi80]

So I've had a system running for 2 1/2 years. I had some clowns that unfortunately jumped out, have a strong healthy tang for over 2 years, a six line for over a year and another tang for 1-2 months but growing. Fish look great

I've had several corals, goni, mushrooms, aca's and a few hammer type corals - they all slowly die on me. I've even got green star polyps grass but it's not "growing"...

I do have Vermetid snails, I've removed a large rock covered in them, killed flow and trying to stave them and crush them but they've only the last 6 months.

I've got a 350L Red Seat with two hydra 32's on a preset from a Hydra facebook group, on for about 10 hours a day.

I can do water tests but what could be wrong, what tests should I be looking for? fish are fine don't forget

 

[Savage Henry]

Sounds like my tank. I am thinking my problems stem from low nutrients as I had a large amount of Chaeto growing in the sump. So, maybe check your nitrates. I also thought my tank may have copper poisoning because I had an electric cord break down side the tank. But some people have said that shouldn’t have caused a problem. I did have a minor crash and lost a lot of Stomatella snails, but they have come back full force, which suggests I don’t have a copper problem. My tank looks sterile.

 

[KrisReef]

In general, corals like light, nutrients ,(P & N) and water movement. Hard corals soak up calcium and carbonate and a little Mg and trace elements. If any of these things are not “right” the corals suffer and don’t thrive.

 

[Ziggy17]

You want to check these to start

Salinity
Alk
Calcium
Magnesium
Phospates
Nitrates

Fish are pretty hardy, corals, not so much. So while your fish can tolerate sub optimal water conditions, your corals will die off. Those parameters are a good place to start.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Corals need light, flow, and nutrients to survive, if they are not growing then one of these 3 is off. Usually when parameters are good, these threads usually come down to low light, I would suggest to rent a par meter as a first step.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Do you have photos of your corals?

 

[F i s h y]

Corals need light, flow, and nutrients to survive, if they are not growing then one of these 3 is off. Usually when parameters are good, these threads usually come down to low light, I would suggest to rent a par meter as a first step.

I agree with this, with the bio load you have nutrients are unlikely to be an issue unless you are very aggressively filtering or doing huge water changes often. I would check your lighting first. the tank you mentioned is roughly 90 gallons, i am assuming it is relatively deep, so i am guessing your lighting is inadequate.

 

[nzkiwi80]

Okay, I’ve turned my flow back on. Pulled my lights forward, they may have been more to the back of the tank than the center

Here’s some tests

- Calcium: 330-340
- Ammonia: >0.25ppm
- Nitrite: 0ppm
- Nitrate: 10ppm
- Ph: 8.4-8.8
- Magnesium: 1110
- Salinity: 1.024

Ph is very high, calcium and magnesium low… how can I fix?

I’m using Hiker Pro Salt.. might move back to Red Sea Coral Pro