4 pictures... One Story

[Nigel35]

This pagoda coral wants to make me cry... it was doing absolutely incredible and then splat it went downhill...

Here it is when looking really well:

Here it is on the way out from glory

And here it is a year later

I mean what is the deal with this character? I almost want to give up... What am I doing wrong?

 

[Arego]

The possibilities are endless without further details on pretty much everything..

 

[jurgenph]

not sure on the timeline of those pictures, but comparing the first one to the one year later, it looks like you lost most of your zoas and those mushrooms or other corals don't seem like they have grown much at all either.

do you have some shots of things that did do well in that one year?

share some details on your tank setup, maintenance and parameter test results.


J.

 

[Nigel35]

Absolutely I was waiting to hear these questions

45 Gallon AIO, transferred from its old home into a new one.

Routinely water changes weekly or biweekly.

Dosing ESV two Part 15ml Every other day or sometimes everyday depending on what is happening. Also been spottily dosing seachem iodine every now and then.

PM's (these are just averages their has been bad times and good times)

CA: 380-400 ppm API
ALK: 8-10 Hanna
NO3: 20 ppm Api
PO4: .10 ppm Red Sea
Ph: 8.0-8.3 rise and swing on a daily basis

Had incredible success and failures over this past year.

Euphallyia boomed and busted Had 30 plus head colony of Duncan's all lost but 4 heads due to BJD. Same with my frogspawn colony.

down to these 4:

I absolutely hate Brown Jelly disease if you can't tell already lol

Zoas all lost: most likely due to nudibranchs or flame angel eating them or just its owner...

Monitora digitata: My literal pride and joy!!
First looked like this after the move:

Now looks like this!

 

[Nigel35]

Oh wait! Lighting 2x USA Current Marine, Just started running and ATO and about to get a dosing pump probably later today!

 

[PeterC99]

Have found Euphyllia to be very tricky and know many a reefer that have had this issue and will no longer put Euphyllia in their aquariums anymore.

What works for me - when I find one head on a Euphyllia starting to bail, I cut that head off and usually cut the remaining Euphyllia into two or more frags. Then replace the frags in different locations in the aquarium. Sounds extreme but has worked well for me and has saved some of my Euphyllia.

 

[steallife904]

i had a flame angel nearly destroy all my coral once. never do an angel again!

 

[Nigel35]

Now that I have all those questions answered what do you guys think is the problem?

 

[Biokabe]

Well, right off the bat I notice two things that would be my first suspects:

A niger trigger, and a flame angel. Both of those are known corallivores. You can sometimes get lucky with individual specimens not nipping, and in a well-fed, large tank, their nipping habits can sometimes be spread out enough that nothing is any worse for wear.

But in a 45, they're going to hit the same things over and over again. Eventually the corals will get stressed out and may start acting exactly like you're seeing.

I'm not saying that's the explanation, or the only explanation. But it seems as good a place as any to start.

 

[Nigel35]

Well, right off the bat I notice two things that would be my first suspects:

A niger trigger, and a flame angel. Both of those are known corallivores. You can sometimes get lucky with individual specimens not nipping, and in a well-fed, large tank, their nipping habits can sometimes be spread out enough that nothing is any worse for wear.

But in a 45, they're going to hit the same things over and over again. Eventually the corals will get stressed out and may start acting exactly like you're seeing.

I'm not saying that's the explanation, or the only explanation. But it seems as good a place as any to start.

The trigger fish is out of the tank and I am not to worried about the flame. I don't mind a little nipping...