corals going down...

[tautog83]

so tank is about 9 months old , put some sps in there at the 6 month mark , all was well getting good growth until i noticed growth just stopped completely. at this point i had lost 1 coral and i said hrmm weird , tested everything , alk at a little over 8 and a little nitrates ( basically just detectable) . i fed a little heavier , and watched .. over the course of the next 3 weeks im losing every sps frag i have .. fish are fine , lps doesnt seem to be bothered . the sps are getting getting algae at the tips and then turning gray and just crumbling . ive never experienced this before, no turning white . i dont have a phosphate test kit but no algae growing besides stuff on the glass which is growing in about 2 days . nitrates have gone up a tiny bit but could this really be it? im thinking its some kind of metal or something, im not sure . i ordered an icp test to see what is going on. i took the mp40s apart and everything looked fine . anybody else experience this?

 

[SeaDweller]

Sounds like what happened before my crash 2 years ago. The distinct graying and then boom! All dead. I attribute my issue to my RO filters being depleted before I knew about it. Basically the ASO valve wasn’t turning the unit off, so water was still being processed thru it. I think water contamination did my tank in.

 

[ycnibrc]

Check your nutrients no3 n po4 must be low like close to 0.

 

[gtrider]

Hi - sorry about the problems you're having. Can you share what type of lighting you run and where you're sourcing your water?
Also more parameters might be helpful.
Any changes to the tank after you noticed the first coral die?

 

[tautog83]

Yea I was thinking about changing my ro filters , I have low TDS incoming so I guess maybe I stretched them out too long . It's just crazy, I have never seen corals turn to gray rubble before . Like I said im.not sure what phosphates are but ya nitrates are low but do you think that could cause it ? I mean I had growth before with same lvls then out of blue ... tank is red sea 750 with 3 radions xr30s with diffuser on 85 % on ab. I just think it's something in the water column ...

 

[gtrider]

i added SPS around the same time you did- 6mo. my tank is 1.5yrs old now. i've lost 2 frags out of a 20 or so. def swap out the ro filters.. just good hygiene in general. it very well might be low nutrients. i've never had that issue.. my p04 runs around .4ppm

 

[Crustaceon]

A few questions:

Tank specs?

What’s your maintenance schedule and how much water do you change at a time?

How are you dosing alk/cal/mg?

So far, I would say having low nitrates could be the problem but as a certain zeovit user here explains, you want your nitrates and phosphates really low. Keeping in mind this is if you are running a ULNS and are on the razor’s edge of a tank crash if you don’t supply enough aminos/etc. every day, if not several times a day to feed the corals, just as with carbon dosing. IMO, it’s simply safer to run a nitrate level between 3-5 ppm and keep phosphates around .03-.08 ppm. My other concern and reason for asking about your maintenance schedule/methods is stability. Unstable tank parameters, especially alkalinity will nuke sps corals very rapidly.

 

[tautog83]

Just run carbon in media bags in the the filter cups .I do about 20 gallons every 5 or 6 weeks since my bioload isnt crazy. I'm manually dosing 2 part right now but my dos is on the way (had to wait for my bday ..lol) but consumption is only about 30ml or so a day . My TDS still says 0 but I'll change it out and make some new water . Depending on icp result I'll try again and really try and bring nitrates up and use some ammimos.

 

[Crustaceon]

Tank size?

 

[tautog83]

Red sea 750xxl

 

[tautog83]

Bumpp

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I am having very similar issues right now too. Everything was doing great then a slow decline. Stable water parameters even sent in an ICP test and it came back looking really good. My no3 has been undetectable until about 3 weeks ago and po4 in the 0.04-0.02 range. Only things I can seem to be an issue are the low nutrients and my ATO dumped 5g into my sump lower salinity to 1.022 from 1.025, that was over a month ago. So kind of imbalance has occurred. Hopefully we both can get things back on the right track.

 

[tautog83]

Sending my icp test in tomorrow , I just want to be certain it's a nutrient issue . Replaced my rodi filter already so just have to go through the motions now . Only lost 5 frags or so and not anything crazy but was just bummed as it seemed to happen overnight . Never seen a coral just turn gray and crumble lol

 

[maroun.c]

I'd wait for the icp results and if they don't point anything specific way out of norm I'd proceed with the following:
Checking for metal or rusting magnets in the tank
Checking all equipment are working optimal
Decreasing the lights a bit as I believe it makes corals rest a bit
Change carbon and do it again every week for a month
Run a poly filter and change couple times at 1 week interval
Rund larger water changes every 3-4 days (30-40%) for 2 weeks
Make sure it refractometer is well calibrated and check salinity
Check TDS of ur water and if high change prefilters and RO membrane.
Hope ull be able to point out the cause

 

[Crustaceon]

I think the biggest clue here is the stoppage of coral growth and algae popping up on the tips. It sounds like burned tips to me and typically has to do with the level of available nutrients being too low in relation to the level of alkalinity. If it were me, I would let the alk fall to 7-7.5, wait for the ICP test to come back, all the while doing nothing else to impart further stress to your corals. If you had source water quality issues (metals, etc.), I would expect it to affect the entire coral and not the extremities first but we won’t know for sure until the results come back (someone send me a single polyp zoa frag if it shows nothing abnormal ). I absolutely would not do a single water change until nitrate levels increase and even then would get back on track by doing tiny ones just for the sake of adding trace elements. Keep in mind that every time you do a water change, you reduce overall nitrate levels, which would be extremely counterproductive in your case.

 

[tautog83]

Yea honestly my biggest tank before this was 80 gallons so I guess I just have the mindset of ok it's time for a water change .

 

[bellasdad0911]

PO4 is too low guaranteed. Dose and bring it up to .05-.1

 

[tautog83]

so got my icp results back , anybody see anything that really stands out ? the salinity was an oops on my end i recalibrated and its all set now..i guess it could be still starving them out but im trying to feed more and im just getting nothing. algae on the tips, all color lost and dead. the lights and everything else should be fine as i had a good month of growth until it just decided to come to a screeching halt and bottom out . im trying to feed more and starting red sea sea elements for the iodine but i honestly don't think that is the culprit here. Im little high on the aluminum which is from marinepure spheres that i don't really need . I'm starting to take then out slowly( i only had about 12 in there from the start). I'm not sure how to get the pdf to translate to english...

 

[Sky]

From your description, I’d say it’s nothing to do with your water parameters. I think it’s the intensity of your light . 85% is too high , maybe lower it to 65% . Have you check your PAR? And what’s your light spectrum ?

 

[tautog83]

85 with diffusers though , and torches at same lvl no problem . Like I was saying I had almost 3 weeks of good growth before this . I'm not positive on par lvls and im.running ab program with 3 XR 30s over a 750xxl red sea. I can try to lower it and see because I'm out of options lol