Corals dying and lost in what to do!

[davyboy1970]

Hello really hoping you guys can help me, Some of my Sps tips and superman monti and forest fire are turning brown? My nitrate is at 25 on the Salifert kit and phosphate is 0.14 on the Hannah ULR kit which i know is high and getting them down with a algae bed and just added Siporax as well but surely they would cause this? My alk is 7.7 cal 435 and mag is 1350 and has been steady for a long time. I was using a Ati hybrid light and then changed over to 3 Atlantic V3+ light units on the 4th July 16 running the Coral colour and growth program (did start with slow acclimation mode for approx 2weeks). The browning is happening low in the tank and high up in the tank, I am really lost in what to do as i have some lovely rare corals and there dying in front of my eyes. I have done a Icp test and apart from a couple of trace elements low that need topping up i dont know what else to do. I know you guys out there use the Orphek lights and didnt know if you had any problems? Sorry about quality of the photos was using the camera on the phone.

A. Total water volume ( Please include sump, etc.)
638 Litres

B. What are your parameters? ( CA, ALK, PO4,Salinity, etc.)
Alk is 7.7, Cal 435, Mag is 1350, Po4 0.14 On a Hanna Ulr checker, Nitrate 25mg Salifert kit.

C. Type of lighting. Please include age, watts, and bulb/ballast name.
3 Atlantic V3 plus units using Apple app brand new, Previously Ati Hybrid.

D. Filtration method (Skimmer, GFO, DSB, etc.)
Algae bed, Skimmer, Gfo, Gac, just added Siporax to lower Nitrate and Phos

E. What types of corals do you keep other than SPS?
Acans, Cataphyllia, Clams

F. How long has the tank been running?
3rd April 16

G. What are you dosing? Dosing schedule?
Dosing the Ati Elements with a Ghl doser dosing over the day

H. Which brand of salt are you using?
Tropic Marin pro reef

I. What brand of test kits are you employing?
Salifert Alk, Cal, Mag, Nitrate. Hanna Po4

J. What are you using for CA/ALK supplementation?
Ati

K. What are you using for flow? (Pump names, how many, placement, etc.)
Weir in middle back of tank and Mp40 either side, 1 Mp10, Flow from the Return pump either end of the tank

 

[Irsug1]

Nitrate and phosphate are too high. High nutrients can cause browning. Get your parameters in line slowly and you should be fine.
You could dose a carbon source to help reduce, go slow. Also maybe cut back on feeding.

 

[davyboy1970]

Its strange it is only happening on certain corals and not others but will look at carbon dosing as well.

 

[twilliard]

Diatoms are taking over the weak tissue of the corals.
Tank has been up since april?
Getting your po4 down is a good first step. No3 is not as critical but keeping it under 5ppm is ideal.

 

[twilliard]

Its strange it is only happening on certain corals and not others but will look at carbon dosing as well.

Some of your corals are stronger than others that is why you are seeing this.
Also try to lower your carbon source which will reduce your doc's

 

[WetWhistle]

Did this start to happen shortly after your swapped lights? It almost looks like the tissue is getting burned and algae is growing over the dead spots. Higher nitrates will add stress if the corals are receiving to much light (light saturation) and if they are it will compound the problem. Even the lower corals could be getting way more light then they were. I myself would cut into living tissue and cut off those dead spots. Just make sure to sterilize the cutters after each cut. Just in case it is bacterial or virus.

 

[ejazzle]

My phospates are a lot higher than yours and everything is fine. What is your salinity?

 

[WetWhistle]

That can be totally true. Sometimes it takes a few factor in a tank to cause an issue. Phosphates alone can be ok but then you factor in to quick a change in lighting or say high alk, low\high salinity you compound the issue and together they cause an issue. So sometimes it is hard to pin point a single cause. Low or high salinity can cause burns as well allowing the algae to grow on the newly exposed skeleton.

 

[James Emory Verified Sponsor]

Phosphates are readily absorbed by algae or other nutrient loving animals as soon as they are formed. When you CAN read phosphates then you have a problem, now you have more phosphates that can be absorbed. You have channels 1 and 3 running at 100%. I would cut these channels back to at least 90% and then save the program as another program. You cannot delete an installed program but you can modify it and save as another program with your own title. How deep is your tank and what are the dimensions of your tank?

 

[davyboy1970]

Thankyou everyone for your input i really appreciate it I have some ATI Phosphate stop ALuminum which i will get in a reactor today. My tank is 5ft long 2.5ft wide and approx 20 inches high and lights are approx 10 inches from the water.

 

[James Emory Verified Sponsor]

Three full size V3+ units are more than enough light for your tank. You must have them mounted perpendicular to the tank's length.

 

[davyboy1970]

Yes i did have 2 originally going horizontal to each other on the tank but felt it wasnt enough ending up buying a third unit as i have 2 brace bars on top of the tank and they was creating shadowing in the tank. The extra light now lights perfectly on the tank just stumped how a beatiful piece of superman montipora can go from looking stunning to a piece that is brown and has algae forming on top of it as well as some plates have faded.

 

[Mark75]

Do not remove phosphate to quickly!

Nutrient rich systems can handle a lot of light so I am not sure bleaching from light is your problem. The only thing that stands out to me is high nutrient/low alk.

How is your sps growth?

 

[bubbaque]

Diatoms are taking over the weak tissue of the corals.
Tank has been up since april?
Getting your po4 down is a good first step. No3 is not as critical but keeping it under 5ppm is ideal.

@twilliard what can he do about the diatoms getting on the tips? I am having this exact issue, but my p04 has never been high, around .02. I put gfo in to try and get the silicates out but it seemed to drop my po4 to 0ppb on the hanna phosphorus and then some of colors started to fade in color and made the issue worse. I think I am going to lose some frags because of the "harmless" diatoms.

 

[twilliard]

@twilliard what can he do about the diatoms getting on the tips? I am having this exact issue, but my p04 has never been high, around .02. I put gfo in to try and get the silicates out but it seemed to drop my po4 to 0ppb on the hanna phosphorus and then some of colors started to fade in color and made the issue worse. I think I am going to lose some frags because of the "harmless" diatoms.

Not much can be done with the coral.
If it was my frag I would trim it and glue seal the trimmed spot.
Tissue may continue to receed depending on the overall health of the coral.

 

[bubbaque]

What about the diatoms? Already had the initial bloom months ago. I just started doing the yeast dosing to see if that helps at all, we will see, I also took photos to document it.

 

[jsker]

Are you testing the coral colors? Are you dosing the iodine element in the colors?

 

[twilliard]

What about the diatoms? Already had the initial bloom months ago. I just started doing the yeast dosing to see if that helps at all, we will see, I also took photos to document it.

I am currently in the process of a diatom study
So far there is no conclusive method for the quick eradication of diatoms.

 

[Austin S]

First I realize this isn't super helpful but I really sympathize with you. It's agonizing. I think lowering the phos is paramount. I am concerned that the lighting change caused an immediate burn on the more delicate corals and diatoms have taken over. I think reducing the intensity temporarily never causes harm. I bet your system will rally.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It's really pretty early in that tanks life to go full blown SPS. Or am I missing something. It's not even out of the ugly phase yet. Diatoms are a natural part of the process and I'd doubt that's what's on the corals it more likely cyano or micro algaes that are usually burnt out if the system during the early phases but in this case are just feeding on dead coral flesh.
There's no cure for that.
It also has gone through several fairly large changes in the system as well including light and nutrients. And this only since April.
Some laugh but a lux meter to measure intensity when acclimating is really pretty handy esp in cases like this. Yes you can just push an acclimation button but you wouldn't do that to dose calcium.
So right now there's no way to know if you are actually giving it more or less light than with the old fixture.
Yes still weird it's browning on top and middle. That shouldn't be light but also I don't know what corals are there. You may have high light corals on the middle not getting enough and going brown. Hard to say. Some of my SPS don't like high light a couple don't like anything. One seems to like everything.

I don't know if flow has been addressed yet. My Po and no are pretty high and I do have several that are a bit brown and still growing but the only recent STN has been due to a clumsy turbo a guilty reef keeper and resulting bad flow on the colony.