Why are my corals dying

[BrettE]

And I hit post on this post before it was ready...I meant to save a draft and review first, but here we are.

Several of my corals are continuing to recede, and I don't know why.

Here's lighting. I've increased it since this pic was taken. The Lepto and the Alien skin looking thing are both looking bleached on the the top...



Current PAR levels are more like this:

 

[BrettE]

Levels over the last two months:

 

[vetteguy53081]

I've posted about some of these before, and they continue to get worse. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong here.

Your PAR numbers are quite low and barely enough for LPS what says SPS. I would supplement lights with Orphek OR3 light bars such as Sky Blue
Additionally, assure your water flow is at least moderate.
Assure there is sufficient Phospahte and nitrate and Not elevated.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Levels over the last two months:

Appears some of your parameters are going through swings

 

[BrettE]

These pics are from a week ago, I need to get updates, but I'm at work when the lights are up.

The candy cane pics are before and after:

This acan has receded more since this pic last weekend:


Here's the lepto last week. he's continue to get worse:

 

[BrettE]

Sorry I don't have up to date pics...I really meant to save this draft until I had up to date pics, then accidentally hit post..

Appears some of your parameters are going through swings

When you say that, what exactly do you mean? To me, swing implies a rapid change. I wouldn't describe any of these as swings, so that makes me think I misunderstand what people mean when they talk about that. The nitrate concerns me though. It was 0 for a bit. It was suggested to me to add some NeoNitro to bring that up, so I dosed that for a couple days, and around that time I also added a Foxface. I figured he was contributing some nitrate, so I stopped dosing the NeoNitro, and it hasn't hit 0 again.

Some of the measurement variance may be my Hanna Checkers vs the LFS Aqua Spin. The Aqua Spin always reads higher nitrates for example.

 

[vetteguy53081]

These pics are from a week ago, I need to get updates, but I'm at work when the lights are up.

The candy cane pics are before and after:

This acan has receded more since this pic last weekend:


Here's the lepto last week. he's continue to get worse:

This heavy recession and I question the pink mass which looks like eggs (may not be) as well as No3 and Po3 numbers
Other causes of recession are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sorry I don't have up to date pics...I really meant to save this draft until I had up to date pics, then accidentally hit post..


When you say that, what exactly do you mean? To me, swing implies a rapid change. I wouldn't describe any of these as swings, so that makes me think I misunderstand what people mean when they talk about that. The nitrate concerns me though. It was 0 for a bit. It was suggested to me to add some NeoNitro to bring that up, so I dosed that for a couple days, and around that time I also added a Foxface. I figured he was contributing some nitrate, so I stopped dosing the NeoNitro, and it hasn't hit 0 again.

Some of the measurement variance may be my Hanna Checkers vs the LFS Aqua Spin. The Aqua Spin always reads higher nitrates for example.

If I am reading scale right, some levels appear to rise , then drop and rise again.

 

[BrettE]

Your PAR numbers are quite low and barely enough for LPS what says SPS. I would supplement lights with Orphek OR3 light bars such as Sky Blue
Additionally, assure your water flow is at least moderate.
Assure there is sufficient Phospahte and nitrate and Not elevated.

The PAR numbers are on their way up over the next week or so. I thought a sudden change would be undesirable.

As to flow, I have no idea. I have two MP40s in there set on reefcrest at 35%. It's a 150 gallon DT. Is that moderate? I have no idea how to quantify that. My torch waves back and forth, so maybe?

 

[vetteguy53081]

The PAR numbers are on their way up over the next week or so. I thought a sudden change would be undesirable.

As to flow, I have no idea. I have two MP40s in there set on reefcrest at 35%. It's a 150 gallon DT. Is that moderate? I have no idea how to quantify that. My torch waves back and forth, so maybe?

torch moving like leaves in the wind, is ok. Any more than that may be an issue

 

[BrettE]

This heavy recession and I question the pink mass which looks like eggs (may not be) as well as No3 and Po3 numbers
Other causes of recession are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity

I don't know if it's a spike per se, but alkalinity has been slowly climbing up to 10.4 dKH over the past couple months. I dropped by Alk dosing, to let that fall back to more like 8.5 or something.

As far as I can tell from plots on my ink bird and apex temp has been stable.

45 days ago there was an oopsie where I dumped a bunch of RO/DI into my sump, and the salinity dropped to 1.020. Over 5 days it got back up to 1.023, then up to 1.024 over the next week or so. It's been at 1.024 ever since. I should probably get that up to 1.025.

My I turned my skimmer off when the nitrate and phosphate tanked. That may have affected dissolved oxygen. I have since turned it back on with the cup removed.

No changes in flow, no added sand.

Salt has always been Tropic Marin Pro Reef

Light intensity is def low, so I'm working on that.

It's just so disappointing. Everything was doing so well for so long. I didn't change anything that I was doing, things started getting worse. Obviously some process was occurring that I wasn't aware of that changed something and made these guys unhappy.

 

[BrettE]

torch moving like leaves in the wind, is ok. Any more than that may be an issue

Here's a short vid:

 

[BOYERZ]

What's your Ph? I may have missed it mentioned.

 

[BrettE]

What's your Ph? I may have missed it mentioned.

I don't typically measure it myself, since I hate my pH kit from salifert. I find the colors impossible to read. I have it from my Apex, but from what I understand, it's not terrible accurate.

I also thought that as long as you had sufficient Alk, pH would remain in a good spot, but maybe that's not correct.

Here's the date from the Spin Touches I've had run over the past few months:

 

[BOYERZ]

Looks relatively steady, except around the new year. Looks good.

 

[BrettE]

I question the pink mass which looks like eggs (may not be)

I'm not sure what that was. I gave this guy a dunk in Revive just in case, but that didn't have any obvious effect. It continued it's downhill trend.

 

[BrettE]

On top of unhappy corals, as I'm bringing up the lights, I'm getting a lot more algae/slime in my tank. I'm worried that that won't help keep things like nitrate and phosphate stable, since the increased algae will increase consumption of both.

 

[VintageReefer]

Salinity is low. Aim for 1.026

Alk gained over 2 dkh in a month. Many corals hate alk swings. It will kill them.
Aim to keep this around 8-9. Pick a value. Then keep it stable.

Even with 4 lights, your par is pretty low on the sand and on some of the mid level rocks. Upper rock numbers are fine. I’m not sure what lights those are but it seems penetration is weak. What lights are they, and what percent are you running the channels at?

My tank is a 75g LPS and my mp40 is on 50% and I run nutrient transport mode. When this was a mixed reef with sps and lps, I had two mp40 both running 50%. Your tank is twice the size as mine and I feel the powerheads are too low. Your torch video has gentle movement but more would not harm it

Your tank looks fairly new. It is possibly going through a phase, or hasn’t established itself enough for certain corals yet. It takes up to a year.

Do you target feed the corals? A large tank like that can make it difficult for them to catch food if you broadcast feed

 

[vetteguy53081]

I don't know if it's a spike per se, but alkalinity has been slowly climbing up to 10.4 dKH over the past couple months. I dropped by Alk dosing, to let that fall back to more like 8.5 or something.

As far as I can tell from plots on my ink bird and apex temp has been stable.

45 days ago there was an oopsie where I dumped a bunch of RO/DI into my sump, and the salinity dropped to 1.020. Over 5 days it got back up to 1.023, then up to 1.024 over the next week or so. It's been at 1.024 ever since. I should probably get that up to 1.025.

My I turned my skimmer off when the nitrate and phosphate tanked. That may have affected dissolved oxygen. I have since turned it back on with the cup removed.

No changes in flow, no added sand.

Salt has always been Tropic Marin Pro Reef

Light intensity is def low, so I'm working on that.

It's just so disappointing. Everything was doing so well for so long. I didn't change anything that I was doing, things started getting worse. Obviously some process was occurring that I wasn't aware of that changed something and made these guys unhappy.

1.025 is better. This allows for +/- 1 variance and coral thrive a little better, 1.024 is ok for fish only
You recognized some signs which is good - Just adjust slowly

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

par levels still look low to me. Ask anyone with metal halides how the corals grow under super high par - they grow like you wouldn't believe.

I feel like asking for corals to grow below 100 par is expecting too much.