Am I killing corals with light?

[TWYOUNG]

I'm at a loss as to why most of my corals have tissue regression and die within weeks of purchase. Even Zoas are barely open. All sps and lps die. Only success thus far is Anthelia, leather and a large polyp blasto. Hanna and ati labs are wnl's but I have had significant issues with dinos. I was running my lights at 30% but recently tapered them to 20%, see attached PAR map and pic of zoas. Zoas were at 160 and now at 110.

 

[jda]

Unless you have a very bad spectrum, which is not likely, it is probably not from too much light.

 

[Zero_Cool]

Yes, you can kill corals with too much light. Symptoms in LPS, zoas and shrooms is retraction of polyps, shrinking, closing for extended time or expelling zoanthelia. In SPS they bleach out.

What are your Nitrate/Phosphate levels? You mention wnl but also a significant dino issue. Could it be low nutrients?

 

[ninjamyst]

It's not your light. Zoas can survive in low light or high light. If most of your corals are dying, it's a water issue. Wait for your ICP tests to come back but you should also be regularly testing nitrate, phosphate, alk, ca, and mg yourself.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Anything at all can be bothering your corals, but you're asking us to jump to the conclusion right away that its your lights. We have to start from the beginning, tank age, parameters, etc....

 

[TWYOUNG]

Yes, you can kill corals with too much light. Symptoms in LPS, zoas and shrooms is retraction of polyps, shrinking, closing for extended time or expelling zoanthelia. In SPS they bleach out.

What are your Nitrate/Phosphate levels? You mention wnl but also a significant dino issue. Could it be low nutrients?

I've dealt with low levels previously but for the past few months I've been phosphate 0.1-0.2 and nitrates 20-30. I've got some big fish that have done a good, perhaps a little too good of a job keeping levels up. I used to have to run nitrate and phosphate on pumps just to keep measurable levels.

 

[TWYOUNG]

Yes, you can kill corals with too much light. Symptoms in LPS, zoas and shrooms is retraction of polyps, shrinking, closing for extended time or expelling zoanthelia. In SPS they bleach out.

What are your Nitrate/Phosphate levels? You mention wnl but also a significant dino issue. Could it be low nutrients?

 

[TWYOUNG]

Anything at all can be bothering your corals, but you're asking us to jump to the conclusion right away that its your lights. We have to start from the beginning, tank age, parameters, etc....

1yo tank.

 

[Bpb]

How old is your tank and where did you source your rock and sand from?

 

[thedon986]

My LPS and SPS grew like crap/died when I had bad dinos, my soft corals didn’t seem to mind too much. Nothing was stable I was either no nutrients or too much nutrients.

 

[ReefAqua]

Most likely not from the light, probably something else in the waters, or not enough nutrients.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

It's not your light. Zoas can survive in low light or high light. If most of your corals are dying, it's a water issue. Wait for your ICP tests to come back but you should also be regularly testing nitrate, phosphate, alk, ca, and mg yourself.

I can melt zoas on the sand in my tank. I don't think that's OP's problem. But you can absolutely roast zoanthids with excessive light.

 

[TWYOUNG]

How old is your tank and where did you source your rock and sand from?

Purchased from BRS.

 

[TWYOUNG]

Most likely not from the light, probably something else in the waters, or not enough nutrients.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

One thing I notice in your pics is that the clowns are swimming right up at the water surface, this is unusual behaviour for clowns, they don't normally do that. Is there is a protein skimmer on the tank? If not, it might be a low oxygen issue, even corals need oxygen and will die without it. The water surface looks very flat, thats not ideal. This is something for you to review, perhaps aim one of the powerheads at the water surface to create agitation and gas exchange.

 

[TWYOUNG]

One thing I notice in your pics is that the clowns are swimming right up at the water surface, this is unusual behaviour for clowns, they don't normally do that. Is there is a protein skimmer on the tank? If not, it might be a low oxygen issue, even corals need oxygen and will die without it. The water surface looks very flat, thats not ideal. This is something for you to review, perhaps aim one of the powerheads at the water surface to create agitation and gas exchange.

I believe the clowns like swimming around the return nozzles. They also did this in their previous smaller tank. I'd post a video showing the flow in the tank but videos don't seem to load on this site. There is actually quite a bit of surface movement as both returns are positioned very shallow. This was necessary when I had a Royal Dottyback who would swim through the returns constantly when the return pumps were off for feedings. Positioning them very shallow means they're out of the water when the pumps shut down thus preventing this behavior and the occasional instances of said fish getting blown out should he happen to be in there when the system kicked back on lol! Yes, I run a Regal Octopus skimmer.

 

[thedon986]

Phosphates look fine, nitrates are high, have you figured out where the aluminum is coming from? Do you have bio-bricks in the sump?

 

[NitroJoe]

This may be a dumb thought, but don’t urchins eat coral? Could there be some predation happening?

 

[Pickle_soup]

I believe the clowns like swimming around the return nozzles. They also did this in their previous smaller tank. I'd post a video showing the flow in the tank but videos don't seem to load on this site. There is actually quite a bit of surface movement as both returns are positioned very shallow. This was necessary when I had a Royal Dottyback who would swim through the returns constantly when the return pumps were off for feedings. Positioning them very shallow means they're out of the water when the pumps shut down thus preventing this behavior and the occasional instances of said fish getting blown out should he happen to be in there when the system kicked back on lol! Yes, I run a Regal Octopus skimmer.

Yeah, I had to pull out my clowns from overflow boxes on a number of occasions. Mine slept there before they adopted a mushroom.

 

[Acros]

If I have to guess from the pics, I would say that the tank is not yet ready for coral. It is still dealing with the ugly stage.