Coral is melting

[bradyrollie4]

Good Morning,
To start, I am fairly new to reefing. My 40 gal has cycled and i have live rock, live sand temp at 77F, 1 sump and a skimmer. My water conditions tested good multiple times. But my new coral frag I brought home looked like it was melting away. It was a hard coral (sorry i forgot the name) but the LFS said it was easy to take care of... I also did coral dip it as well before I transferred it into the tank. Any thoughts about why this would happen? I did not feed it any extra supplements. I only had it for 3 days. Thank you for any advice/help.

 

[shakacuz]

water parameters(before and after the melting)?
any recent changes before the melting?
considering you mention being new to reefing, how new/old is the 40G? some corals, mainly SPS do better with an established tank and tend to die off with newer tanks, regardless if cycled.

also; welcome aboard the r2r board. hello from PA!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

corals in general are not easy to take care of, and hard corals are the more difficult types. Most start with soft corals, then on to lps, then sps (hard corals).

What kind of light do you have? Any flow in the tank? Tank pics are always helpful.

A newly cycled tank will go through many changes that are very challenging to corals since they like stability and don't like any changes.

Its important to know what kind of coral you are buying, and what it needs to survive, every coral is different. Research is a part of the hobby, and keeping corals successfully requires lots of googling and knowledge. And it should be done before the purchase, impulse buys rarely work out.

 

[YBF_Reeftank]

What are your parameters? That would help out a lot

 

[randomfishdude]

Images too.

 

[bradyrollie4]

I have a led full spectrum programable light bar. I just noticed today my nitrate and Nitrites spiked today. I did do a water change yesterday at 50%. I did add a bag of Argonite also this last week. One thing I will admit is I don’t know what to set my lights to. Basically self teaching myself until I found this site. Nitrate is 40ppm, nitrite is 10ppm, alkalinity is 180ppm , ph is 8.4 ppm. If anything is high do you have recommendations on solutions? I appreciate everyone’s help.

 

[randomfishdude]

I have a led full spectrum programable light bar. I just noticed today my nitrate and Nitrites spiked today. I did do a water change yesterday at 50%. I did add a bag of Argonite also this last week. One thing I will admit is I don’t know what to set my lights to. Basically self teaching myself until I found this site. Nitrate is 40ppm, nitrite is 10ppm, alkalinity is 180ppm , ph is 8.4 ppm. If anything is high do you have recommendations on solutions? I appreciate everyone’s help.

Ph is just 8.4 ... do you have dkh for alk? Nitrate is really high. What's pho4.

 

[bradyrollie4]

I have a sump and top filter filter with skimmer. 2 100watt heaters. 1 bubbler. Live sand/rock.

 

[randomfishdude]

I have a sump and top filter filter with skimmer. 2 100watt heaters. 1 bubbler. Live sand/rock.

Do you have pics of the coral?

 

[bradyrollie4]

It’s dead now.

 

[bradyrollie4]

Do I need to go grab some solution for the nitrate/nitrite spike?

 

[Mikeltee]

I wouldn't recommend any corals that you want to keep for at least 6 months/coralline taking hold. I've been in the game for 15 years and am the most impatient person on this forum. I started over in December and I won't be adding corals until at least June. The only thing I would recommend is cheap discomas and pulsing xenias, however they become pests. They are super cool to look at and the xenias are a canary in the goldmine for letting you know if something is off.

 

[randomfishdude]

It’s dead now.

Looks kinda like a kenya tree. See if that what it was. It might not be dead.

Do I need to go grab some solution for the nitrate/nitrite spike?

No. Not yet.

 

[Mikeltee]

It’s dead now.

LFS are more crooked than HVAC techs that charge $200 to swap a capacitor. They will tell you anything to make the sale. When you go back to tell them it died, they sell you a bunch if crap you don't need and a dozen more coral. I assure you that the fish they said was quarantined was not....

 

[bradyrollie4]

I do quarantine my fish before I put them in. I found that out the hard way with fresh water fish fish.

 

[bradyrollie4]

Ph is just 8.4 ... do you have dkh for alk? Nitrate is really high. What's pho4.

What’s dkh?

 

[bradyrollie4]

This is my 10 gal I have at work. This one had no issues.

 

[Cycleguy0623]

The tank dose not sound mature enough for coral. I see 0 nitrite. Corals want a fully cycled stable tank. Some can hand look e swings but with that nitrite I suspect you are still building a bacteria population to maintain tank stability.

If anything I would add some fritz turbo start or DR tims to bolster the bacteria population and hit pause on anything new for a while till readings stabilize in acceptable levels.

Everyone is different but I run nitrate 5-10 with .05 - .03 phos as goal numbers.

 

[randomfishdude]

What’s dkh?

What people usually measure alk in.

 

[Cycleguy0623]

What’s dkh?

Dkh is the common alk measurement in reefing. For example I try to keep mine at 8.5