Corals dying

[Colin_1122]

So I made the mistake of thinking that because I used reef crystals I wouldn’t need to test my alk, calcium, or magnesium. a bunch of my corals have been dying off so i finally ordered a test kit (Red Sea pro) and tested my water. Everything came back super high.
alk- 11.2
Ca- 525
Mg- 1500
I also only had two fish in the tank and on the API kit my nitrates were reading 0 (super difficult to tell) so I’ve been waiting for a while for a better nitrate kit and a phosphate kit to arrive. I added a firefish and a small clown goby about a week ago so I’m hoping they’ve helped get my nitrates up. I finally got the kits today and tested and my nitrate is around 2-5 and my phosphate is around .25
So I’m wondering if my corals are dying because of the 0 nitrates and hopefully should do better now that they’ve gone up a bit or from the high alk/ca/mg? Ive been battling cyano algae on my sand and rocks which has finally almost disappeared within the past few days but now I’ve got GHA (I think) all over my sand and starting on my rocks. I’ve got an AI Prime 16hd running David Saxby settings (I lowered the green/red) with a jebao sow-4 for flow. I’m using RODI that I mix myself at 1.026 salinity. Temp is 78-79. Thanks for the help!

 

[Fishko]

What kind of corals do you have in there, if you had a recent alk swing that could have killed something easily.

 

[Crashnt24]

That phosphate is a little high. There is a Phosphate to Nitrate ratio you should shoot for. With a Nitrate of 4, you should shoot for a phosphate of 0.03-0.05. Phosphates and nitrates are important, but the ratio is even more important.

Oh and high alk wont kill the corals, but alk swings might. If you don't want to maintain high alk, I would let it slowly drop while doing 10% water changes with new salt to get you levels where you want them.

 

[amps]

Your parameters are high but not toxic levels. However with high alkalinity and calcium, the corals are going to demand more food to match. Try target feeding some Reef-Roids or other coral food.

Also, it sounds like the tank might be pretty new. Some tanks just take a little time before they're capable of sustaining corals.

 

[Lostreefin]

This☝

 

[Colin_1122]

That phosphate is a little high. There is a Phosphate to Nitrate ratio you should shoot for. With a Nitrate of 4, you should shoot for a phosphate of 0.03-0.05. Phosphates and nitrates are important, but the ratio is even more important.

Oh and high alk wont kill the corals, but alk swings might. If you don't want to maintain high alk, I would let it slowly drop while doing 10% water changes with new salt to get you levels where you want them.

That’s exactly what I’ve started doing. I forgot to mention I switched to a new salt and did a 10% change a few days ago so my alk is 10.9, mg and ca are both a bit lower too. What would cause my phosphates to be high? I’m thinking it’s either from running activated carbon or maybe from feeding reef roids every week or so?

 

[Colin_1122]

Your parameters are high but not toxic levels. However with high alkalinity and calcium, the corals are going to demand more food to match. Try target feeding some Reef-Roids or other coral food.

Also, it sounds like the tank might be pretty new. Some tanks just take a little time before they're capable of sustaining corals.

I feed reef roids about once a week. The tank is pretty new, I started it in January of this year. It’s also my first saltwater tank so I have no experience with any of this

 

[Colin_1122]

What kind of corals do you have in there, if you had a recent alk swing that could have killed something easily.

Mostly lps with some zoas. All my zoas are doing well, but my lps are struggling. I’ve got a torch that’s been in the tank since I started (don’t know how it’s still alive) but is doing well. Everything else not so much. I lost a frogspawn, hammer, bubble tip anemone and two acans recently. My gsp was doing really well and grew a lot but all of a sudden closed up for the past 2 weeks or so. It’s finally starting to come back out now

 

[amps]

Considering your parameters are in range, there's two other possibilities I can think of. The first I already mentioned about maturity but 7 months should be plenty of time for things to settle in.

The second is disease. I know that for the last 3 years or so, some sort of bacterial infection has been wrecking LPS, mostly euphyllia. I lost my own tank full due to it. Iodine dips go a long way to helping but Chemiclean also works wonders and is completely safe for your tank. It will also have the side effect of finishing off your cyano. Might be worth it to pick some up and seeing if it's the magic bullet.

 

[Colin_1122]

Also should probably mention, the only filtration I have is two filter socks that I take out and clean twice a week. I have a skimmer but haven’t been running it to try to get my nitrates up. I’m thinking I might run it a little to see if that will lower my phosphates? I also have activated carbon and Purigen to try to clear up my water. Not sure why, but I’m not getting super clear water. Carbon/purigen has helped but it’s still not crystal clear

 

[Lostreefin]

I would just relax. Pick an alk that you want for your type of corals and try to find a salt that matches, maintain that all for a few months. Your nutrients need to be balanced relatively quickly, no nitrate is not good. I dose NO3 and PO4 and pick levels for those, I would stop with the reef roofs and feed fish normally, and monitor NO3 and PO4, dose if needed, and be patient. My tank to 18months to be close to balanced. Good Luck!

 

[Crashnt24]

That’s exactly what I’ve started doing. I forgot to mention I switched to a new salt and did a 10% change a few days ago so my alk is 10.9, mg and ca are both a bit lower too. What would cause my phosphates to be high? I’m thinking it’s either from running activated carbon or maybe from feeding reef roids every week or so?

When I was dealing with a bad phosphate to nitrate ratio in my tank last year, my corals were dying too. I couldn't keep any acro, my hammer was shriveled up, my monties were dull and had no growth, zoas shrinking.

I ran GFO while dosing nitrogen. After I pulled all the phosphates out of the rock and sand, my corals took off! I mean really took off! They colored up real nice and are encrusting everything.

Phosphates could have been stored in your rock and sand without you even doing anything to put them there. I suggest running a small amount of GFO until you reach you target levels. Then remove the GFO and test daily for awhile until you learn where your tank wants to level out at. It gets much easier from there and you can start testing once a week.

Good luck!

PS: my tank is sitting at 4 Nitrate, 0.03 Phosphate. The levels don't matter as much as the ratio. You could have 10 nitrate and 0.12 phosphates and still be good. Ratio is key

"Nitrogen, Carbon and Phosphorus* 
 ( N : C : P )

Ratio in mol... 147 : 12400 : 1" Trition recommended N P ratio.

 

[Colin_1122]

Another weird thing, I added a Duncan to my tank a while ago. It was doing really well at first and then closed up all of a sudden. It stayed tightly closed for a few weeks and then opened back up but it’s tentacles are super short. The coral itself seems fine, it grew a few new heads but it doesn’t have the long tentacles that it did originally. I thought this was weird so I recently got another one and it’s tentacles have also shortened a lot. I’ll try to get a pic

 

[Texas Rick]

So I made the mistake of thinking that because I used reef crystals I wouldn’t need to test my alk, calcium, or magnesium. a bunch of my corals have been dying off so i finally ordered a test kit (Red Sea pro) and tested my water. Everything came back super high.
alk- 11.2
Ca- 525
Mg- 1500
I also only had two fish in the tank and on the API kit my nitrates were reading 0 (super difficult to tell) so I’ve been waiting for a while for a better nitrate kit and a phosphate kit to arrive. I added a firefish and a small clown goby about a week ago so I’m hoping they’ve helped get my nitrates up. I finally got the kits today and tested and my nitrate is around 2-5 and my phosphate is around .25
So I’m wondering if my corals are dying because of the 0 nitrates and hopefully should do better now that they’ve gone up a bit or from the high alk/ca/mg? Ive been battling cyano algae on my sand and rocks which has finally almost disappeared within the past few days but now I’ve got GHA (I think) all over my sand and starting on my rocks. I’ve got an AI Prime 16hd running David Saxby settings (I lowered the green/red) with a jebao sow-4 for flow. I’m using RODI that I mix myself at 1.026 salinity. Temp is 78-79. Thanks for the help!

How old is your tank?

 

[Colin_1122]

When I was dealing with high phosphates and low nitrates my corals were dying too. I ran GFO while dosing nitrogen. After I pulled all the phosphates out of the rock and sand, my corals took off! I mean really took off! They colored up real nice and are encrusting everything.

Phosphates could have been stored in your rock and sand without you even doing anything to put them there. I suggest running a small amount of GFO until you reach you target levels. Then remove the GFO and test daily for awhile until you learn where your tank wants to level out at. It gets much easier from there and you can start testing once a week.

Good luck!

I’m not familiar with GFO so I’ll have to do some research on it. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Colin_1122]

How old is your tank?

I started the tank in late January of this year

 

[Colin_1122]

Here is what I’m talking about with the tentacles of the Duncan. Not sure if this is related to the water chemistry or lighting/flow. I’ve tried moving it around the tank and it hasn’t seemed to make a difference. You can also see the GHA all over my sand

 

[CookieRdReef]

I dose Brightwell NeoNitro for nitrates. My phosphates have also been higher than nitrates. Dose nitrates and turn skimmer back on to reduce phosphates. Phosguard can also reduce phosphates. Might try posting pics. People on this site have a great eye for problems on corals.

 

[Colin_1122]

Ok so I removed the carbon. It was the same carbon that I use in my freshwater tank filters so it’s not specifically for saltwater. I’m wondering if maybe that leeched phosphates? I left the purigen in because without either purigen or carbon the water will get super cloudy (not sure why). I’ll get some pics of the tank in a minute

 

[Colin_1122]