Are these corals bleaching or is it RTN/STN?

[JCOLE]

Hello everyone! I am losing some corals and would like to get some input on what it might be. I recently upgraded from a 55 gallon to a 150 gallon 4 weeks ago. I used the old water in the sump(roughly 30-40 gallons) along with the existing rock. Added all new salt water and about 60lbs of dry rock that was curing for about 5 weeks. The frags in question where in my 55 gallon on a frag rack for about a month or so. I mounted them about 2 weeks ago. The Acropora started looking bad about a week ago. The other(stag I believe) started today. The stag looked normal yesterday. I have two of the biggest Koralia powerheads on both sides and I was thinking the flow might have been to much for my birds nest, etc. I turned off one powerhead last night and today the stag started looking bad. Didnt know if that could be a cause as well.

Lights are (4) Mars Aqua 165W LEDs. See par readings below. Doesnt seem like it is too much light.

Started dosing Kalkwasser again last week and PH and AlK has stabilized around 8.15-8.30 PH and ALK around 9.20.

Cyano has started up in my fuge and now on the sand. I checked Phosphates 2 days ago and they were at .27!! That is not good.

I was thinking of doing a 15 gallon water change tonight.

Any suggestions?

 

[BestMomEver]

Oh gosh.... I would do a water change tonight and every other night for a week or two. It sounds like your tank is cycling for some reason based on the fact that you have Cyanobacteria. If that’s the case, you’re gonna have a hard time with corals for a bit.

 

[JCOLE]

Oh gosh.... I would do a water change tonight and every other night for a week or two. It sounds like your tank is cycling for some reason based on the fact that you have Cyanobacteria. If that’s the case, you’re gonna have a hard time with corals for a bit.

Yeah that's what I figured. I bet my dry rock is leaching phosphates. Water changes here we come..... :-(

 

[SeaDweller]

That’s TN, not bleaching... hope you resolve the issue

 

[JCOLE]

That’s TN, not bleaching... hope you resolve the issue

Kinda figured. Starting to really lose its tissue now. Checked phosphates and they were at .34 last night! A lot of Water changes and hopefully it starts getting better.

 

[SeaDweller]

Kinda figured. Starting to really lose its tissue now. Checked phosphates and they were at .34 last night! A lot of Water changes and hopefully it starts getting better.

Run some gfo to bring it down if you have it.

 

[vanpire]

Kinda figured. Starting to really lose its tissue now. Checked phosphates and they were at .34 last night! A lot of Water changes and hopefully it starts getting better.

Phosphate at 0.34 is that bad. I have had my phosphate at ~0.8 and little happened. I did try to bring it down slowly, but that was because I thought my corals my have better color or grow faster. ALK might be the cause. For me, high ALK leads some corals to STN or bleach. That is just me though. Not saying it happens often to others.