Corals bleaching/losing flesh

[Chase89]

I agree I don't think the API kits are very accurate, I've been looking into the Hanna checkers and will probably be investing soon.

This has definitely been a hard lesson and I don't like losing corals. Not fun, but now I know.

 

[dankreef]

0 n&p. Don't chase ph

 

[BigJohnny]

Low nutrients and high alk, imo keep your alk below 8.3dkH if you have zero n and p. Even then I'd try to get a little n and p.
Also keep alk as stable as possible. That swing didn't help

 

[Ashish Patel]

I added 3 styloporas as my first corals 6 weeks back and having the same issue. Ironically, my acros are encrusting and seem to be holding their color much better.

These corals from my experience don't do well in a low nutrient tank. You could be starving them.. Or your giving them too much light. After 4 weeks I have noticed the colors coming back but its a slow process so don't expect it to recover in a week or even a few days (as I hoped)...

 

[Chase89]

So I've got an update!

After doing a few water changes, buying Hanna checkers for alkalinity and calcium, buying new, lower alkalinity salt, keeping my pH in check (average of 8), stopping my GFO/carbon reactor to stop removing nutrients, my reef tank was still in bad shape and getting worse.

Well today I discovered another issue! My Apex salinity prob was off and my (backup, you know 'just in case') refractometer which I calibrate everytime I use it was also incorrect, because the calibration solution was wrong!!!!

I only discovered this after buying new calibration solution for the probe. When I stuck the probe back in the aquarium and got a reading of 42.2 ppt I thought I made a mistake calibrating it.... Nope. Just my bottle of 35 ppt solution was extremely wrong!

So now I begin the slow process of bringing the salinity down and hopefully stopping this from getting any worse.

My stylophora is almost completely white, it's shed all of it's flesh and only a few of polyps remain on the lower part of it.

I'm hoping this is the last thing I find wrong. I've definitely learned to not trust my Apex.

 

[Cory]

So I've got an update!

After doing a few water changes, buying Hanna checkers for alkalinity and calcium, buying new, lower alkalinity salt, keeping my pH in check (average of 8), stopping my GFO/carbon reactor to stop removing nutrients, my reef tank was still in bad shape and getting worse.

Well today I discovered another issue! My Apex salinity prob was off and my (backup, you know 'just in case') refractometer which I calibrate everytime I use it was also incorrect, because the calibration solution was wrong!!!!

I only discovered this after buying new calibration solution for the probe. When I stuck the probe back in the aquarium and got a reading of 42.2 ppt I thought I made a mistake calibrating it.... Nope. Just my bottle of 35 ppt solution was extremely wrong!

So now I begin the slow process of bringing the salinity down and hopefully stopping this from getting any worse.

My stylophora is almost completely white, it's shed all of it's flesh and only a few of polyps remain on the lower part of it.

I'm hoping this is the last thing I find wrong. I've definitely learned to not trust my Apex.

The apex salinity probe is prone to many interferences. I wouldnt trust it. Use your refractometer for salinity. Apex probe to alert you of a problem. Like if the read drops too much turn off ato. But dont use it to tell you salt content . I had one too and was very dissatisfied.

That said, its likely your nutrients are too low. Stop gfo, feed more. if algae is non existent your nutrients are likely low. Read the article Uncertain Loss, see what you can find.