Corals dying

jason2459 · Dec 30, 2016

100 is a decent amount to change out weekly. That's what I would call a drastic move.

So, have the corals gotten worse then in the past week since you stopped doing the large water changes weekly?

vic5hands · Dec 30, 2016

probably touching them with your hands. use rubber gloves less stress on the coral

Pcreefer · Dec 30, 2016

I haven't done a water change in 3 weeks corals weren't looking great than all of a sudden the birdsnest half of it bleached over night that was Thursday night today there's more dead started vodka dosing again today started with 20 ml see what happens in the next month or so but I been losing a lot of coral I'm just ready to give up I don't know where the nitrates are coming from I have a deep sand bed and when I do water changes I been sucking some out

Pcreefer · Dec 30, 2016

I haven't touched my corals

Ocelaris · Dec 31, 2016

How about adding some nitrates? Seems you have too few nitrates and a tad hight phosphates. At least this would be consistent with them going down hill and then removing even more food for the zooxanthallae.

Pcreefer · Dec 31, 2016

My nitrates are 50 ppm thats high

Kungpaoshizi · Dec 31, 2016

Take the biopellets offline, could be it. Can cause necrosis if they're going to fast.
Also out of curiosity, which dip do you use? (personal curiosity, time doesn't necessarily have meaning sometimes)

Pcreefer · Dec 31, 2016

I haven't added coral in over a year and I usually don't dip my coral

Elementalj · Dec 31, 2016

Pcreefer said:
I haven't added coral in over a year and I usually don't dip my coral

I'd get some! I've found that dipping them periodically helps with their slime coat. The nitrates are bothersome for me at that level. Got any water prepped for change? If so I'd test that water nitrate as well. [emoji6]

Nick92515 · Dec 31, 2016

You cant typically dip an encrusted colony..
Sounds like a nitrate problem. Dsb.. maybe a issue.

Elementalj · Dec 31, 2016

Nick92515 said:
You cant typically dip an encrusted colony..
Sounds like a nitrate problem. Dsb.. maybe a issue.

Well, I know that. Anything left thats not encrusted should be. Whatever is producing the nitrates should be the first priority. [emoji6][emoji1611]

Pcreefer · Jan 1, 2017

My guess would be the deep sand bed and when I do water changes I'm sucking a lot of it out I'm getting red of it

helldiver · Jan 1, 2017

To me it seems like biopellets and swing in alk and temp

cb684 · Jan 1, 2017

First, in my opinion looking at corals that are suffering/dying is not a good way to assess if you solved the problem or not. It may take months after you solved the problem to see the corals starting to bounce back. A better way would be adding a new healthy frag and see how it behaves.
I would order a Triton test.
I would start using poly filter.
I would start with 1/2 to 1/3 recommended dose of ROX with a flow of 350 gallon/ day.
I would only do 10 to 20% / week water change. I would use a salt with alk that is similar to your tank.
Decreasing the light about 50% of the actual intensity and increase 5% / week may help to save some of the stressed corals.
Good luck!

cb684 · Jan 1, 2017

I would also stop the biopellets.

helldiver · Jan 1, 2017

@cb684 great advice
Move slowly and do not be over agressive.
What do you use to test phosphates
I have had problems testing with hanna so i went to redsea i found i was strippping my water to much