Coral Bleaching & disappearing Overnight

[Mattt]

So my tank is 4 months old now and I have had a few Zoas, 2 Hammers, a Torch, Leather, 2 Mushrooms, 1 Montipora, and a free mystery coral that I think is a pink birds nest. I recently got too excited around Black Friday and ordered a bunch of coral. Most of what I ordered are Zoas but I thought maybe I would give something harder a try. I picked up CBs The Thing Anacropora, and TSA Exquisita which have been in the tank for a week now. I started them on the sand bed and have been slowly moving them up over the week. In the last 3 days I have woken up to 2 Zoas completely gone and today the TSA Exquisita was pure white. Every night before something dies I see my Emerald crab all over it and I dont know if he is after them. I will note that everything looked good the night before and the Zoas that dissapeared were in the tank for 2 months before the emerald crab was added and would open up during the day.

Recent changes to the tank-

2 Clowns added from qt
Adding Pods from Algae Barn & Phytoplankton

I do weekly 20% water changes on a 20
gallon cube with Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt.

Temp 77.6
Salinity 1.0261
Ph 8.1
NH3 0
N02 0
N03 0
P04 0.14 (High?)
Alk 7.7
Cal 450
Mag 1800

 

[vetteguy53081]

Alk quite low.(should be closer to 8-9) Dose alk at night as it is when ph typically drops. Mag is quite high(aim for 1350) and other levels indicate water almost too clean
One concern i do have is this is often a result of high salinity. Are you able to confirm salinity with another instrument or even take a water sample to LFS and have them confirm reading?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Air bubbles and slime mixed. Simply skim with a paper towel or algae sponge and shout clear up

 

[Mattt]

I used a freshly calibrated Hannah checker today and verified the reading to my Milwaukee as well. How do I figure out how much Alk to dose? With the purchase of new coral I expected to have to dose and I have a Coralbox doser ready to setup. As far as Mag goes it's around the same as other people have reported using TP Pro Reef how do I lower it?
I'm also running an AI Prime HD with David Saxbys settings. I was concerned the Prime would not be enough for SPS so I have a 32HD on the way already.

 

[Redfoxtang]

Actually my main concern that I see is that your N03 is 0. Acros specially don’t like it to be 0. Definitely try and bring up N03 and P04. Your DKH is fine where it’s at as long as it’s stable. So 7.7-8.3 is where I would try and keep it.

 

[Mattt]

Actually my main concern that I see is that your N03 is 0. Acros specially don’t like it to be 0. Definitely try and bring up N03 and P04. Your DKH is fine where it’s at as long as it’s stable. So 7.7-8.3 is where I would try and keep it.

How do I get my N03 up a little and do I need my P04 up more than it is?

 

[Redfoxtang]

How do I get my N03 up a little and do I need my P04 up more than it is?

If you have a skimmer turn is off for a bit and feed a little extra and watch to see if it creeps up. Go slow and test every week.

 

[Mattt]

If you have a skimmer turn is off for a bit and feed a little extra and watch to see if it creeps up. Go slow and test every week.

No Skimmer. 20 gallon AIO with filter floss, Chemipure Blue, and Pond Matrix.

 

[Redfoxtang]

No Skimmer. 20 gallon AIO with filter floss, Chemipure Blue, and Pond Matrix.

What’s your water change regimen?

 

[wkd4b11]

0 Nitrates and 1800 Mag stands out to me.
Try raising your nitrates to 5 and lower your magnesium to around 1400

Look into ESV Nitrates. Newly released product to make dosing Nitrates easier.

Emerald crabs are opportunistic feeders meaning if they're hungry, they might go for your soft corals

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Was in your position a few months ago... Try dosing some Nitrate directly (I use Flourish Nitrogen but someone can probably recommend something better) and I go for about 1 ml every other day by hand. I was unable to get them up by just feeding heavier though I am not sure why...

For my alk I was doing about 2 ml of EVS part A in the morning and 1 ml of part B at night. Just take a stab at a number, keep up with it for a few days and recheck.

Are you using IO Reef Crystals btw?

EDIT: I would first just remove about half of the Matrix. Missed that part.

 

[Mattt]

What’s your water change regimen?

I do a 20 - 25% once a week. I am using RODI and TM Pro Reef

0 Nitrates and 1800 Mag stands out to me.
Try raising your nitrates to 5 and lower your magnesium to around 1400

Look into ESV Nitrates. Newly released product to make dosing Nitrates easier.

Emerald crabs are opportunistic feeders meaning if they're hungry, they might go for your soft corals

How does one go about lowering Mag? My fresh mixed SW also reads around 1800.

 

[Mattt]

Was in your position a few months ago... Try dosing some Nitrate directly (I use Flourish Nitrogen but someone can probably recommend something better) and I go for about 1 ml every other day by hand. I was unable to get them up by just feeding heavier though I am not sure why...

For my alk I was doing about 2 ml of EVS part A in the morning and 1 ml of part B at night. Just take a stab at a number, keep up with it for a few days and recheck.

Are you using IO Reef Crystals btw?

EDIT: I would first just remove about half of the Matrix. Missed that part.

Ok I will try removing half tha Matrix. I also have Red Sea foundation ABC, Trace Colors, and Coral nutrition along with a doser. I'm not dosing anything currently but I'm trying to keep track of Alk, Mag, Cal this weekend to see what I need to start dosing.

 

[Redfoxtang]

Lowering mag will come from water changes with salt mix with a low mag mix. I would skip water changes to maybe 2-3 weeks instead of every week until your get your N03 up. Your keeping your tank to clean.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

I know this is an error from being a newb but when I start I failed to take into account salinity variation when determining dosing. Keep everything topped off...

+1 on skipping a WCs. Going from weekly to every other helped me keep my tank a little dirty.

 

[Mattt]

Lowering mag will come from water changes with salt mix with a low mag mix. I would skip water changes to maybe 2-3 weeks instead of every week until your get your N03 up. Your keeping your tank to clean.

I will give that a try as well. I'm using mostly Red Sea test kits and I was just reading that they can read high on Mag. I might run a sample to my LFS tomorrow morning or try a different test if anyone has recommendations.

 

[Redfoxtang]

Definitely give your LFS some water to test. I have also read that Mag reads high with Red Sea kits!

 

[Mattt]

I know this is an error from being a newb but when I start I failed to take into account salinity variation when determining dosing. Keep everything topped off...

+1 on skipping a WCs. Going from weekly to every other helped me keep my tank a little dirty.

When I mix my water I aim for 34.5ppt and with evap in the tank my ATO keeps it at 35ppt. I'm new to this and just starting to research dosing. How does salinity swing factor into dosing?

 

[wkd4b11]

When I mix my water I aim for 34.5ppt and with evap in the tank my ATO keeps it at 35ppt. I'm new to this and just starting to research dosing. How does salinity swing factor into dosing?

Since you're new to reefkeeping. The best advice I can give you is keep it simple.
Reading the forums is good to learn but it's also bad when you start trying everything and anything because people say it helps their corals grow and color up. If you do want to try new additives and what not, make your changes slowly. I start everything with half the dose it says on the back of the bottle and gradually increase it to full dose.

I've been doing this for I think 6 years now, and the best coral growth and coloration I've gotten is from keeping everything extremely simple. I use instant ocean salt and do 10% water change every 2 weeks to a month. Whenever I have time basically.

Don't chase numbers because people tell you your parameters are wrong. It's not wrong... As long as you're in the range to match natural sea water and your parameters are consistent, you can grow coral. Stability is key

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

If you have an ATO that does it I would imagine that it would be negligible. My issues mainly revolved around testing it when I was trying to do a manual top off every other day. Shouldn't factor in much for you if salinity is fairly constant, I was testing against swings from 34 to 35 at the start.