Zoa's, Hammer , Duncans - melting away

nanchil · Aug 8, 2018

Hello,

My tank is around 6 months old. Was doing pretty well with usual new tank allege issues... Started with easy zoas, Chalice, Acans, Favias , Hammer Heads and Frogspawn ... Been changing water (20 %) bi weekly and switched to weekly 10% water change couple of months back... All of a sudden my Duncan colony melted away within a 5 days of time... now all my Zoas are melting ... My Hammer is not opening... But mu Favias and Chalice are doing well... Tried couple of easy SPS and they melted away as well... The only major change i did a month back was added a WXM module to control the MP40s... And changed my salt from IO to Red Sea Pro ( Two months back) ... But the corals started melting away in the last two week though ... Any idea ? What am i doing wrong ? Should I take the WXM offline ? Or is it Alk swing ? But all these were doing very good for the last three months ... TIA

Here is my water parameters : ( Red Sea Kit)

Salinity - 1.026
Ca - 450 ~ 460
Alkalinity - 8 ~ 8.5 varies every day
Mg - ~ 1500
Temp - 77 ~ 79

I don't measure Phosphate and Nitrate ... No green algae and clean the glass once in 4 days ...

Thanks

Crabs McJones · Aug 8, 2018

nanchil said:
Hello,

My tank is around 6 months old. Was doing pretty well with usual new tank allege issues... Started with easy zoas, Chalice, Acans, Favias , Hammer Heads and Frogspawn ... Been changing water (20 %) bi weekly and switched to weekly 10% water change couple of months back... All of a sudden my Duncan colony melted away within a 5 days of time... now all my Zoas are melting ... My Hammer is not opening... But mu Favias and Chalice are doing well... Tried couple of easy SPS and they melted away as well... The only major change i did a month back was added a WXM module to control the MP40s... And changed my salt from IO to Red Sea Pro ( Two months back) ... But the corals started melting away in the last two week though ... Any idea ? What am i doing wrong ? Should I take the WXM offline ? Or is it Alk swing ? But all these were doing very good for the last three months ... TIA

Here is my water parameters : ( Red Sea Kit)

Salinity - 1.026
Ca - 450 ~ 460
Alkalinity - 8 ~ 8.5 varies every day
Mg - ~ 1500
Temp - 77 ~ 79

I don't measure Phosphate and Nitrate ... No green algae and clean the glass once in 4 days ...

Thanks

Could you measure your ammonia nitrite and nitrate? It could be that your water is to clean. Lps and sps need some nitrate and phosphate to thrive.

Lloyd Williams · Aug 8, 2018

I second to clean. I went through the same thing. Ultra low nutrient I think it’s called. But you gotta dose with that

nanchil · Aug 8, 2018

Crabs Mcjones said:
Could you measure your ammonia nitrite and nitrate? It could be that your water is to clean. Lps and sps need some nitrate and phosphate to thrive.

Thanks ... Sure I can do that... Will post the result in couple of hours ... but everything was doing great ... it all started in the last two weeks ... As i said, i didnt change anything other than adding WXM module...

nanchil · Aug 8, 2018

Lloyd Williams said:
I second to clean. I went through the same thing. Ultra low nutrient I think it’s called. But you gotta dose with that

Thanks... But I do feed my fishes a lot ... Should I turn off the GFO ?

Lloyd Williams · Aug 8, 2018

nanchil said:
Thanks... But I do feed my fishes a lot ... Should I turn off the GFO ?

I turned off skimmer. And GFO is something I run periodically. Instead of all the time run it when levels getting kinda high. You’ll develop a rhythm with your tank in time and it will tell you what it needs. Program equipment to run accordingly

tiggs · Aug 8, 2018

Too clean is definitely a possibility. Being that you're battling an algae outbreak, it's possible that the nuisance algae is consuming your nitrates and phosphates

nanchil · Aug 8, 2018

tiggs said:
Too clean is definitely a possibility. Being that you're battling an algae outbreak, it's possible that the nuisance algae is consuming your nitrates and phosphates

I were battling initially... but for the last 2-3 months the tank was doing good though. Thanks

Idoc · Aug 8, 2018

nanchil said:
I were battling initially... but for the last 2-3 months the tank was doing good though. Thanks

My coral QT was doing great as well and then all of a sudden my LPS frags started melting just like you are saying. My problem also started occurring after i changed my salt from Reef Crystals to HW Marinemix...alkakinity was going from a salt that is around 12 to around 9. That quick alkalinity swing as well as no nutrients are a killer, in my opinion. My nutrients were non-existent in that tank. I started dosing Sodium Nitrate and the remaining LPS that didn't perish perked back up and my Palys really opened up beautifully! Now, I'm looking into dosing some phosphate to give me that 16:1 Nitrate to Phosphate ratio. I'm currently keeping my nitrate around 2-3ppm.