Coral die off

[chip shop]

Shipment of coral arrived yesterday, 2 hammers and a xenia. I woke up this morning and all of them had basically melted away so I just took them out of the tank. I was worried as the coral came while I was at school but my mom had brought them inside. When I got back I temp acclimated for a little bit, the xenia looked pretty bad already one of the hammers was pretty retracted and the second looked ok. I then drip acclimated for 30-40 mins then added them in the tank. I turned the lights down and put them on the sandbed. Both hammers started to release some slimy string and the xenia was slumped over. Next morning the xenia was disintegrating and the hammers were turning into a slimy puddle. Also ordered some trochus snails and they haven't been moving and their feet are shriveled in their shells. What happened? Stress from shipping? I'm thinking of just going to my lfs next time. I only ordered online because of the price and variety. I have 2 clownfish in the tank and they are doing perfectly fine.

Here's my testing results
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Alkalinity: 9 ish
Ph: 8
Phosphate: 0
Magnesium; 1500 ish
Calcium above 500

How long were they left outside and what was outdoor temperature

 

[Jarrito]

Did a little bit of research. This salt mixes to pretty high calcium, magnesium and alkalinity. For a beginner, k would highly recommend a salt mix that mixes to a lower alkalinity. Alkalinity this high is really difficult to maintain stable and corals will not do well if there are big alkalinity shifts.

It’s really hard to know why your alkalinity is dropping so much without anything to consume them in the tank.

You asked earlier about the snails: typically snails do not do well in really high magnesium levels so I’m wondering if the levels are actually higher than what you’re measuring. How are you measuring those mag levels?

Also, are you measuring salinity directly from your tank or is this just based on the fresh saltwater?

Last question in this long battery and I do apologize I just want to help… is your refractometer calibrated and if so, how was it calibrated? I’m saying this because when I first started in the hobby I miss calibrated my refractometer and it turned out that my salinity was 1.038 instead of 1.026. Needless to say, I put some coral in my tank that died overnight.

I use red sea and salifert tests and tested magnesium with salifert. I just checked RO water on my refractometer and it was 1.000 It was calibrated with a screwdriver to change the knob on the top of the refractometer. A little hard to explain. Could the big alkalinity change have caused the corals to die?

 

[Jarrito]

How long were they left outside and what was outdoor temperature

they were brought in my house where it's probably around 67 ish degrees F and were there for about 5 hours before i got back from school

 

[crazyfishmom]

I use red sea and salifert tests and tested magnesium with salifert. I just checked RO water on my refractometer and it was 1.000 It was calibrated with a screwdriver to change the knob on the top of the refractometer. A little hard to explain. Could the big alkalinity change have caused the corals to die?

Possible. But alkalinity swings tend not to kill LPS that quickly.

Big alkalinity swings like that will make hammers very unhappy but tends to cause bailout maybe a week or so after the event.

For calibrating a refractometer, it’s ideal to buy calibration fluid at 35 ppt instead of using RODI. RODI will not necessarily measure 1.000 though theoretically it should.

 

[Jarrito]

Possible. But alkalinity swings tend not to kill LPS that quickly.

Big alkalinity swings like that will make hammers very unhappy but tends to cause bailout maybe a week or so after the event.

For calibrating a refractometer, it’s ideal to buy calibration fluid at 35 ppt instead of using RODI. RODI will not necessarily measure 1.000 though theoretically it should.

Ok. Thank you for all the help. I think I'll wait a little while before adding coral again. What would you recommend that's easy to keep? I was thinking about zoas but idk what to do after this.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Ok. Thank you for all the help. I think I'll wait a little while before adding coral again. What would you recommend that's easy to keep? I was thinking about zoas but idk what to do after this.

A frag or two of cheap zoas are great early corals. Xenia is also good but I would try to buy it locally, it really doesn’t like being shipped.

I really do suspect there’s something a bit off with salinity. Also, you’re going to need more flow in your tank to keep coral; the flow from the return pump is not enough for most corals to be happy.

 

[Jarrito]

A frag or two of cheap zoas are great early corals. Xenia is also good but I would try to buy it locally, it really doesn’t like being shipped.

I really do suspect there’s something a bit off with salinity. Also, you’re going to need more flow in your tank to keep coral; the flow from the return pump is not enough for most corals to be happy.

i have a nero 3 but i just turned it off when i first got the coral to acclimate them. I'll look into the salinity more. Thank you