CORALS DROPPING LIKE FLIES

[trvsty]

Hey everyone I have an emergency! Suddenly a lot of my corals aren't doing well and I've had 2 deaths. In the past few days a hammer died and birdsnest fully bleached out. I thought it could have been because I started running GFO and it worked a little too well. I stopped the GFO for now, at least until I can figure out what's wrong. But right now my other birdsnest and bird of paradise are starting to look bad. My frogspawn has been retracted all day today. I think the tank could have gone through some kind of swing because I just took a ton of algae out after an outbreak. Is there anything i can do to stop the coral death before it takes more?? Just tested the tank yesterday and did a water change 3 days ago.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: .5ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
Alk: 8
Calc: 410
Mag: 1480
Nitrite and nitrate are higher than usual since there's no algae.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Hey everyone I have an emergency! Suddenly a lot of my corals aren't doing well and I've had 2 deaths. In the past few days a hammer died and birdsnest fully bleached out. I thought it could have been because I started running GFO and it worked a little too well. I stopped the GFO for now, at least until I can figure out what's wrong. But right now my other birdsnest and bird of paradise are starting to look bad. My frogspawn has been retracted all day today. I think the tank could have gone through some kind of swing because I just took a ton of algae out after an outbreak. Is there anything i can do to stop the coral death before it takes more?? Just tested the tank yesterday and did a water change 3 days ago.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: .5ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
Alk: 8
Calc: 410
Mag: 1480
Nitrite and nitrate are higher than usual since there's no algae.

How old is this tank?

 

[trvsty]

About 4 months.

 

[Flippers4pups]

About 4 months.

Okay, the reason I asked is that your showing Nitrite. Are you using API test kits?

What's your phosphate?

 

[DeniableArc]

G’day! Have you got a phosphate test kit ? Lots of negative things happen when you strip all available p04

 

[trvsty]

Don't have a phosphate test kit anymore since I'm getting back into the hobby. Any good recommendations?

 

[ISFNick]

Don't have a phosphate test kit anymore since I'm getting back into the hobby. Any good recommendations?

Hanna 100%. Nothing beats digital readout.

 

[laverda]

Don’t use GFO without knowing your PO4 levels first. You probably striped the water too clean and also caused an ALK drop/ swing using GFO. A tank that new should not have a PO4 issue unless your way over feeding it. The same goes for dosing. Don’t dose what your not measuring for.

 

[homer1475]

Don’t use GFO without knowing your PO4 levels first. You probably striped the water too clean and also caused an ALK drop/ swing using GFO. A tank that new should not have a PO4 issue unless your way over feeding it. The same goes for dosing. Don’t dose what your not measuring for.

Was just going to post this same thing, but you beat me too it.

Was wondering why the OP was using GFO but had no idea what their PO4 level was. You do know GFO is only for phosphate removal?

And as stated above, never add any chemicals(GFO in this case) to your tank you can't test for.