Corals dying like clockwork

[Zbutcher]

STN is slow tissue necrosis not sudden.

As for the original question I can’t say but IME the older the system the easier it is to grow corals. I couldn’t hardly keep corals alive for my first year or so. If willing to try any kind of “magic elixir”, my SPS corals perked up when I started using Acropower in my tank.

I do have some aminos on hand that I can put in but I don't believe that's going to do much in the scheme of things. I have seen other people with great success not use a single amino

 

[Zbutcher]

Any chance there are any contaminates coming in from somewhere I.e skimmer intake from outside, AC vent over the tank..

Nope shouldn't be any contaminates. My tank is in the spare bedroom and it's behind a closed door and I have the window open in the room. I also did an ICP test and it came up clear.

Also just to touch on the other comment you made, I had the same problem at lower nutrients as well. Other people said it was starvation. Brought up nutrients same thing. I also have 0 algae.in my tank (probably from the algaevores) I also had another thread where people were saying it would cause problems for sensitive across but other corals would survive in higher nutrient systems where there's are sitting at 60 etc.

 

[Clownreef]

Nope shouldn't be any contaminates. My tank is in the spare bedroom and it's behind a closed door and I have the window open in the room. I also did an ICP test and it came up clear.

Also just to touch on the other comment you made, I had the same problem at lower nutrients as well. Other people said it was starvation. Brought up nutrients same thing. I also have 0 algae.in my tank (probably from the algaevores) I also had another thread where people were saying it would cause problems for sensitive across but other corals would survive in higher nutrient systems where there's are sitting at 60 etc.

Are pests completely out of the question?

 

[Zbutcher]

Are pests completely out of the question?

In terms of redbugs and flatworms and nudis, yes. I don't have any pest that would be killing it unless you consider an emerald crab and foxface a pest since they COULD be feeding on it. I did mention to another commenter my emerald crab was on the base of the coral while making this thread but as of 20 minutes ago I put him in the sump. The only pest I have is aiptasia though none around that coral

 

[DavidinGA]

Stray voltage?

 

[blstravler]

Have you done an ICP?

 

[Zbutcher]

Stray voltage?

Had that at the beginning and nope no stray voltage. If you want to know how BADLY I want my tank to work it went to the point I'd put my finger in the tank and ground the connection with my foot and shock myself to see if there was a stray voltage. Anyways it was a heater in the first.month and I got rid of that and it's been good in terms of voltage since.

 

[Zbutcher]

Have you done an ICP?

Yes I have. I posted in a different thread. Randy holmes-farley commented and it didn't seem like he was too worried about anything. Upon my own inspection of the results neither was I.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Sorry I can’t think of anything to help you. You’ve ruled out everything it seems. Not light, not flow, not pests, not contaminates, not nutrients, nothing on icp, can’t be your nutrients. I hope someone comes up with something to point you in the right direction.

 

[Zbutcher]

Sorry I can’t think of anything to help you. You’ve ruled out everything it seems. Not light, not flow, not pests, not contaminates, not nutrients, nothing on icp, can’t be your nutrients. I hope someone comes up with something to point you in the right direction.

Thanks man I appreciate the help regardless. I am sure some people might read the thread and think I'm crazy or not telling the truth but to everyone on here that sees this I am telling the truth with everything and I promise you I have no idea what this could be

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Thanks man I appreciate the help regardless. I am sure some people might read the thread and think I'm crazy or not telling the truth but to everyone on here that sees this I am telling the truth with everything and I promise you I have no idea what this could be

I always tell people to look for the stupidest, most simple thing in these situations as those are most often overlooked as a non issue. Good luck and let us know what you find, when you figure it out

 

[Zbutcher]

I always tell people to look for the stupidest, most simple thing in these situations as those are most often overlooked as a non issue. Good luck and let us know what you find, when you figure it out

I will. IF I figure it out.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Started with 3 month cycled biobricks. Then bought some liverock off someone that was already cycled

Pest free live rock?

 

[Zbutcher]

Pest free live rock?

Yes sir, I even had it in a separate bin before putting it in the tank to see what and if anything would come out and nothing did. The exception being aiptasia which is a non factor.

 

[mfollen]

How low does your ph get in the morning?

 

[Zbutcher]

How low does your ph get in the morning?

So before it would swing between 8-8.25.

But now that it's summer and I fixed the screen in my window I have the window open 24/7 and it basically stays at a consistent 8.3-8.4 at all times.

 

[mfollen]

What’s your alk/ca dosing method, and what do you mean before it would swing?
How low does it get in the morning was the Q

 

[mermaid_life]

I kind of skimmed so I apologize if you shared already..... Did you start the tank with dry rock or live?

 

[Nate Chalk]

Yes I run carbon. And nope I literally at the moment only have 3 frags. A Duncan head which was good for a month. Now it's perma retracted but not dead.

A dipsastrea which is not dead but not growing. Looks normal I guess.

And this pocillipora

I have tried to not buy any corals only tester ones to try and figure out this issue. I don't like killing things.

Duncan dying screams new tank thats a beginner coral.

 

[wareagle]

Light burn from phosohates bouncing around? I haven't heard of this, what do you mean? I'm not trying to be a dick I'm genuinely ignorant

Light burn from phosohates bouncing around? I haven't heard of this, what do you mean? I'm not trying to be a dick I'm genuinely ignorant

Although elevated phosphate produced a significantly higher porosity of the calyx wall than controls, there was a significant interaction with ammonium because when the two were elevated simultaneously the result was similar to controls. A similar pattern occurred with free body wall thickness. This pattern indicates that the ratio of nutrients may be more important than the absolute concentrations in determining the outcomes in these parameters. It has been demonstrated that excess nitrogen can cause symptoms of phosphate starvation (D’Angelo and Wiedenmann, 2014), which can be offset when phosphate is simultaneously elevated. A similar effect of elevated phosphate alone may be possible but a mechanism has yet to be demonstrated.

You have high nitrates, stop bouncing your phosphate around, leave it high, or reduce nitrates, and then you can reduce phosphates slowly. That study and several other studies say that coral grow differently(flesh and skeleton) in different phosphate levels, and that you can even be simulating phosphate starvation.

Frontiers | Changes in Radial Polyp Tissues of Acropora Longicyathus After Long-Term Exposure to Experimentally Elevated Nutrient Concentrations

Coral tissues control growth and calcification processes that ultimately build coral reefs but relatively little information is available on the effects of n...

www.frontiersin.org

You can also see this in the tanks of people who carbon dose, they'll dose carbon and get the nitrates down and then they'll do something for phosphate if at all. It's very subtle and they wont spell it out for you, go look at their threads. Study the threads of people who have successfully reduced phosphates, and I bet most of them reduced nitrates first or already had lower nitrates.

Another study

A number of studies found that elevated nitrogen levels
in the water promoted zooxanthellae growth and resulted
in higher zooxanthellae densities without obvious negative effects on the corals (see review by Fabricius [3
]).
Most recently, however, we could demonstrate that
corals exposed to elevated nitrogen levels were more
susceptible to bleaching when exposed to heat and light
stress [28
]. Interestingly, the detrimental effects
observed in these experiments could be attributed to
the relative undersupply of phosphorus that resulted
from the enhanced demand of the proliferating zooxanthellae population rather than to the elevated nitrogen
levels themselves

You'll have to download it if you want it.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259525126_Impacts_of_nutrient_enrichment_on_coral_reefs_New_perspectives_and_implications_for_coastal_management_and_reef_survival

There are actually reefs in .2ppm Phosphate, but not at high nitrate.
Another study

Corals exposed to the imbalanced, HN/LP conditions, displayed a smaller polyp size and a bleached appearance that closely resembled the phenotype observed in low nutrient water (LN/LP) (Figs. 1, 2a). In contrast, the corals kept under LN/HP imbalanced nutrient levels showed a similar phenotype to the nutrient replete (HN/HP) treatment. The bleached appearance of the polyps from HN/LP conditions was associated with low numbers of zooxanthellae in the tentacle tissue (Figs. 1, 2b, Table 1), similar to the low nutrient LN/LP treatment. In contrast, the symbiont numbers in the tissue of LN/HP exposed corals were comparable to those of corals from nutrient replete (HN/HP) conditions

(PDF) Phosphate deficiency promotes coral bleaching and is reflected by the ultrastructure of symbiotic dinoflagellates

PDF | Enrichment of reef environments with dissolved inorganic nutrients is considered a major threat to the survival of corals living in symbiosis with... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

High nitrate and Low phosphate gives you the same as Low N and Low P.