Corals dying, Need help!

[sawyer]

Need help!
Hi, guys. So my candy cane, torch and birdsnest seem to be dying (pls see the pics). They have been doing well for a while (a year for torch). But my zoas, duncan, pulsing xenia and gsp are still doing good. My RBTA is also doing good and it never bothered the dying ones.
I usually do 10% water change weekly. But when I noticed something's wrong yesterday, I did a 30% water change and dipped those dying ones with seachem reef dip. But it doesn't seem to work. I did water test just now, the parameters are:
ammonia 0 ppm
Ph 8.0
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
Po3 0 ppm
Ca 400 ppm
Mg 1260 ppm
Kh 8

I know that 0 ppm nitrate and po3 are not good, so I also dose red sea energy plus daily and spot feed reef roid once a week.

Is there anything I can do to save them? Or they are goner already?
Thank you in advance!

 

[Lavey29]

With 0 nitrates and 0 phosphate your corals are starving to death slowly.

 

[sawyer]

With 0 nitrates and 0 phosphate your corals are starving to death slowly.

Thank you, is there anything you would recommend me to do to raise nitrate and phosphate?

 

[Lavey29]

Thank you, is there anything you would recommend me to do to raise nitrate and phosphate?

Feed fish and corals more. When mine got low I had to double dose neophos and neonitro for multiple weeks to get measurable numbers. Do less water changes so water dirties up a bit. Maybe cut skimmer for some hours. Etc... corals will be struggling inside for months without showing stress then all of a sudden they go downhill fast as you are experiencing.

 

[sawyer]

Feed fish and corals more. When mine got low I had to double dose neophos and neonitro for multiple weeks to get measurable numbers. Do less water changes so water dirties up a bit. Maybe cut skimmer for some hours. Etc... corals will be struggling inside for months without showing stress then all of a sudden they go downhill fast as you are experiencing.

Thank you so much! One more question, Do I need to take the dying ones out or just let them in there?

 

[Lavey29]

Thank you so much! One more question, Do I need to take the dying ones out or just let them in there?

Is leave them there and see if they can recover. You never know. But if you see all color gone or any BJD starting to show then remove. They don't look terminal yet to me.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

I'm not a fan of seachem coral dip, had two pulsing Xenia die from it (blessing in disguise) I use two little fishes revive now for dipping, seems to work fine, along with hydrogen peroxide for some corals

 

[sawyer]

I'm not a fan of seachem coral dip, had two pulsing Xenia die from it (blessing in disguise) I use two little fishes revive now for dipping, seems to work fine, along with hydrogen peroxide for some corals

Wish i know that earlier... But i have dipped them already, hope it won't kill my coral

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Wish i know that earlier... But i have dipped them already, hope it won't kill my coral

Just my experience... Others vary

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is STN
What test kits are you using?

Temperature stress can increase chances of coral disease development in several ways by creating stress in the coral zooxanthellae and decreasing its resistance to infection, so assure temperature and salinity Not elevated
Some possible triggers of infection are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity
- - Changes in water flow
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticides
- Airborne Contaminants or sprays

 

[sawyer]

This is STN
What test kits are you using?

Temperature stress can increase chances of coral disease development in several ways by creating stress in the coral zooxanthellae and decreasing its resistance to infection, so assure temperature and salinity Not elevated
Some possible triggers of infection are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity
- - Changes in water flow
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticides
- Airborne Contaminants or spray

Thank you, I'm using api for water test except Mg. For Mg, I'm using salifert.
If it's STN, What should I do?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you, I'm using api for water test except Mg. For Mg, I'm using salifert.
If it's STN, What should I do?

First have water tested to assure what your real number are by taking a water sample o a trusted LFS that does Not use Api kits and see what readings they come up with and to compare with yours.
Assure your essential parameters are in range as shown below. Alk and calcium balance with each other and are important sources as is detectable po4 and no3

Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .10
phos < .04 - .06
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-11
CA 400- 440

 

[sawyer]

This is STN
What test kits are you using?

Temperature stress can increase chances of coral disease development in several ways by creating stress in the coral zooxanthellae and decreasing its resistance to infection, so assure temperature and salinity Not elevated
Some possible triggers of infection are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor

First have water tested to assure what your real number are by taking a water sample o a trusted LFS that does Not use Api kits and see what readings they come up with and to compare with yours.
Assure your essential parameters are in range as shown below. Alk and calcium balance with each other and are important sources as is detectable po4 and no3

Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .10
phos < .04 - .06
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-11
CA 400- 440

Thank you, I'm contacting lfs now.

 

[reeftankdude]

I'm not a fan of seachem coral dip, had two pulsing Xenia die from it (blessing in disguise) I use two little fishes revive now for dipping, seems to work fine, along with hydrogen peroxide for some corals

How do you use the hydrogen peroxide?

 

[Rick's Reviews]

For my GSP on an island, two plastic containers, both with aquriam water (enough to cover plus more, like half a litre? ) I place GSP in first container, scrub with soft/baby grade toothbrush, hydrogen peroxide in pipette (6%) blast it, with many doses, let it bubble away, blast, blast away for about 10 mins, place in 2nd container to rinse, clean out first container after adding more aquarium water 3rd rinse then gsp back in in aquriam, it don't look great after this but opens up so much more after