Blastomussa dying back or something is picking at it? Need HELP!

[Lulu'sReef]

Hey my name is Luis and I own a 40gal Aquatop Cube AIO. Ive been upgrading it little by little and I have a lot of corals with stable parameters in my tank and Blastomussa happen to be one of my favorites! I only had 1 head of a Pineapple Blasto (which now has 5 heads) & 1 head of a Pink and Green Blasto (which now has 8 or 9 heads) both are Wellsi. I recently purchased a Purple & Neon Green Blasto Merletti (which came with 2 heads), (10+ head) Blue Raven Blasto Merletti & for a kicker i also grabbed a White Speckled Orange Blasto Wellsi. So, from one day to another they are skeletons in certain areas, it started yesterday with my Purple & Green Merletti, one head only and the other is fully intact with no issues. Now today its my White Speckled Orange Blasto Welsi, but the difference is that the "die back" or "where its being eaten" started from the middle of the Wellsi, whereas on the Merletti it started on the left side. The similarities are its only happening to a couple heads and the rest are fine. This is what leads me to believe something is possibly eating them? Live stock - I have an aptasia eating file fish 1in, 2 Clowns(Wyoming White 3in, Orange Storm 2.5in), Green Clown Goby 2.5in, Yellow Watchman Goby 2in, Peppermint Shrimp 2in , Indonesian Pistol Shrimp 2.5in, 5 Blue Hermits All Small, Conch 2in, 4 Turbo Snails Medium. My tank is about 3 months old, I upgraded from a 29gal Nanocube AIO which I had for a year. Please HELP! I really like these corals and hate to see this happening!
Pictures in order -
White Speckled Orange Blasto Wellsi
Purple & Green Blasto Merletti
Parameters as of Last week ( Waiting for Hanna Testers, currently using API Saltwater Master Test Kit)

 

[Miller535]

That looks like something eating them to me. Did you happen to dip your corals when you bought them?

 

[Leadfooted]

First thing, remove pepermints today, use the bottle trap technique.
Second, move the file fish to sump / refugium if possible. If not, I'd suggest taking to LFS.
Also, move the injured blasto's to low flow, lower light, they can still recover.

Also, watch your ALK, Blasto's can be finicky with spikes or drops in ALK

 

[kkelly007]

Presence of ammonia and nitrite? Is your tank still cycling. Blastos are fairly hardy, but these should be zero, 0.0, nil, nada, etc.

 

[Lulu'sReef]

That looks like something eating them to me. Did you happen to dip your corals when you bought them?

Funny thing is those were the first corals I dipped.

 

[Lulu'sReef]

Presence of ammonia and nitrite? Is your tank still cycling. Blastos are fairly hardy, but these should be zero, 0.0, nil, nada, etc.

I had a tiny filefish die in the tank recently. I was trying to save it. I figured that might be why its up a little.

 

[SifuMemphis]

As mentioned above, in a reef tank ammonia should be reading 0 as well as nitrite. You mentioned your tank being 3 months old, but it really shouldn't be recording ammonia or nitrite.

A tiny filefish death in the tank shouldn't raise your ammonia and nitrite levels that much imo, unless the biofilter is weak.

Also, what type of lights are you running? Are they getting too much? too little? I would also raise your p04 up slightly. Bring it to 0.03-0.1

 

[Lulu'sReef]

First thing, remove pepermints today, use the bottle trap technique.
Second, move the file fish to sump / refugium if possible. If not, I'd suggest taking to LFS.
Also, move the injured blasto's to low flow, lower light, they can still recover.

Also, watch your ALK, Blasto's can be finicky with spikes or drops in ALK

So this tank is an AIO, I have no sump unfortunately. And both of them were purchased to destroy the Wonderful World of Aiptasia i had going on. But they already did their job. And that file fish was $$. But if its gotta happen. Its gotta happen. Im gonna watch tonight and see what happens. Tomorrow ill make final decisions.

 

[Miller535]

He is using API, the ammonia and nitrite especially are more then likely false readings

 

[Lulu'sReef]

As mentioned above, in a reef tank ammonia should be reading 0 as well as nitrite. You mentioned your tank being 3 months old, but it really shouldn't be recording ammonia or nitrite.

A tiny filefish death in the tank shouldn't raise your ammonia and nitrite levels that much imo, unless the biofilter is weak.

Also, what type of lights are you running? Are they getting too much? too little? I would also raise your p04 up slightly. Bring it to 0.03-0.1

So as I previously stated, I upgraded 3 months ago. I used same water and rocks but new sand due to it being to bulky and i wanted finer sand. I have many corals and run a phosban reactor due to a phosphate issue I was having, and its done its job very well. I feed the tank & dose FUEL twice a week. I have plastic bioballs in my first chamber of my AIO, 2nd my Eshopps Protein Skimmer which then cascades into 4 different plastic bins in the 3rd chamber, where I have a sponge on the 1st one, carbon in the 2nd, Clear Blue & Bio Media in the 3rd & 2 more bags of Bio Media in the last box. Finally my last chamber has the Phosban Reactor Pump & Return, & an IM Mighty Jet Return Pump.