Coral Problem - Looking for some advice

[Tint]

Hello Reefers,

I recently posted my build HERE and now my Hammers, Duncan and Zoa's are acting shy. I have tested my PH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate and everything is where it should be. I realized I was using a salt designed for fish only tanks and have been doing small water changes twice a week with a new reef friendly salt. Here are some photos showing what the corals are doing and I hope someone can help me identify the problem.

 

[Gary S]

Do you have any pics with the white lights on? It would help to see the colors of the corals.

To me it just looks like they are retracted some because of stress from salt change but otherwise fine. Duncans are super reactive to anything changing, but are one of the hardiest corals I've ever owned. Hammers to my recollection are more sensitive, but I'm not so sure.

It looks like your corals are doing fine, and just stressed. Hard to tell with that lighting though...

 

[Tint]

Do you have any pics with the white lights on? It would help to see the colors of the corals.

To me it just looks like they are retracted some because of stress from salt change but otherwise fine. Duncans are super reactive to anything changing, but are one of the hardiest corals I've ever owned. Hammers to my recollection are more sensitive, but I'm not so sure.

It looks like your corals are doing fine, and just stressed. Hard to tell with that lighting though...

 

[PR_nano]

Bump - Could very well be reaction to the salt change. Which salt were you using prior vs now? In the build thread you mentioned 40% water change weekly.

When I changed salts I did ~10% or less weekly. Went from Instant Ocean mixing alk at ~11 to Tropic Marine at ~7

 

[Tint]

Bump - Could very well be reaction to the salt change. Which salt were you using prior vs now? In the build thread you mentioned 40% water change weekly.

When I changed salts I did ~10% or less weekly. Went from Instant Ocean mixing alk at ~11 to Tropic Marine at ~7

Hi PR_nano,

So this was happening before the salt change and in my attempt to solve the problem I started looking into everything and I realized the Instant Ocean (Sea Salt) was for fish only so now I am using Instant Ocean (Reed Crystal). I was doing a 40% change but I have been doing about 10-15% with new salt twice a week to flush out the old salt.

 

[Rjukan]

There are many people here that use plain IO salt for their reef tanks. Some dose, others don't. Im actually going to give plain IO a try after having reef crystals to start and red sea coral pro as last bucket. IO is not considered a fish only salt to the best of my knowledge.

Edit: I'm going back to IO RC since a online retailer of pet supplies has the bucket 55% off for only 40 bucks.

 

[SifuMemphis]

with salt changes, any alk / calcium swings? What was the alk prior and post ? They could just be ticked off, and will recover. Nitrates / Phosphate? Any idea what that's at right now?

 

[Tint]

Update: Everything is bouncing back nicely. Not exactly sure what was going on but here is an updated photo.