Acro and Zoa deaths help

Coral Newbie · Jul 24, 2017

Hey everyone looking for some help on identifying the cause of my dying acros

Over the course of 4 days last week I lost a WWC Hyper Pink after having it for 3 months. Also looks like I'm getting loss of color on another WWC again after having it for 3 months.

In addition I have a section of zoanthids where entire line across the center seems to be dying or not opening up and I have a WWC Birds nest that is acting up.

I haven't change anything in my tank in 4 months except for 1 thing. I change from using ReaSea Ca Ak supplement to B-Ionic supplements. Once I noticed the Hyper Pink going white I tested everyday and all of the results we pretty level. I do 10% water changes every week

I just tested my water with ReaSea kits and here are the results

No3 - 3.0
Po4 - .08-.16
Kh - 10.5
Ca - 465
Mg- 1340

Mal11224 · Jul 24, 2017

I see you are using supplements. Are you sure you are not over supplementing? Acros do well in stable conditions. Have you noticed large spikes in your alkalinity? In my opinion, sps do better in the 8-9 dkh range. I would review the amount of supplements being placed in the tank. I used to use them and stopped and my sps were doing better. I believe I had too much iron in my tank from the supplements and my acros were changing colors and fading. I've never had issues with zoas but whatever is affecting your sps is likely affecting them. Think back to when your corals were doing well and what has changed and try to get back on track. Stability is key and the tank should thrive.

Dilan Patel · Jul 24, 2017

Mal11224 said:
I see you are using supplements. Are you sure you are not over supplementing? Acros do well in stable conditions. Have you noticed large spikes in your alkalinity? In my opinion, sps do better in the 8-9 dkh range. I would review the amount of supplements being placed in the tank. I used to use them and stopped and my sps were doing better. I believe I had too much iron in my tank from the supplements and my acros were changing colors and fading. I've never had issues with zoas but whatever is affecting your sps is likely affecting them. Think back to when your corals were doing well and what has changed and try to get back on track. Stability is key and the tank should thrive.

Check the alk. Usually you run high alk with ULNS but you seem to not be running a ULNS so back off the alk until 8-9ish and see if that helps. looks like you are probably buring the coral from having too much alkalinity. The corals would be growing too quickly and not allowing the zozanthelle to develop thus leading to white tips. and then death.

Coral Newbie · Jul 24, 2017

Dilan Patel said:
Check the alk. Usually you run high alk with ULNS but you seem to not be running a ULNS so back off the alk until 8-9ish and see if that helps. looks like you are probably buring the coral from having too much alkalinity. The corals would be growing too quickly and not allowing the zozanthelle to develop thus leading to white tips. and then death.

See I think my ALK is low. I was following the RedSea mix reef tank recipe and they indicate a alk of 11.5
What's ULNS?

OREGONIC · Jul 24, 2017

ULNS I believe stands for ultra low nutrient system.

Dilan Patel said:
Check the alk. Usually you run high alk with ULNS but you seem to not be running a ULNS so back off the alk until 8-9ish and see if that helps. looks like you are probably buring the coral from having too much alkalinity. The corals would be growing too quickly and not allowing the zozanthelle to develop thus leading to white tips. and then death.

I thought you wanted low alk 6.8-7.8 in a ULNS because if you run alk above 8 in those conditions you burn tips.

Mal11224 · Jul 24, 2017

It is an ultra low nutrition system. If you are using Red Sea supplements and b ionic, which I believe is ESV, then you may be over supplementing. Just something to think about especially if you recently started using it.

Coral Newbie · Jul 25, 2017

Mal11224 said:
It is an ultra low nutrition system. If you are using Red Sea supplements and b ionic, which I believe is ESV, then you may be over supplementing. Just something to think about especially if you recently started using it.

I was using ReaSea then ran out of them so I switch to b ionic instead of ordering more of the ResSea Ca and Ak.

Dilan Patel · Jul 25, 2017

OREGONIC said:
ULNS I believe stands for ultra low nutrient system.

I thought you wanted low alk 6.8-7.8 in a ULNS because if you run alk above 8 in those conditions you burn tips.

You are right I wrote it backwards. But even with his not being a ULNS I believe his alk is a little on the high side. 8-9 seems to be the happy medium. And to emphasize what mal is stating. Both red sea and B-ionic add trace elements to their calcium and alkalinity additives. if you were using red sesa before they probably have a different amount of the trace elements then then B-ionic. Thus leading to overdose of trace elements which can lead to your problem. If you look up the Red sea color program(I am using) I thik they say what the overdose looks like with the corals. If you cannot find that just look up how to know if I am over supplementing trace elements. i think the trace elements is the probelm since you switched and the balance is messed up now.