Corals in trouble

[saltyfilmfolks]

Just wondering if I should do any water changes or wait and see. Gonna go through water tests again tonight and see if anything has changed but few frags have gone pale/white or are gonners at this point so not sure what went so way off course. All my testing hasn’t shown anything extremely drastic and the fact that not everything has reacted the same way has me Scratching my head.

Yea. With so many variables it’s hard to diagnose.
But if you mainly suspect nutrients as the cause of paling then I’d skip water changes.

Fwiw , I’ve had a tank of corals when half died or nearly died and thonothers we’re fine even had it happen when one half were sps dying and the others were sps too. Even acros. So that’s common.

 

[Ernie C]

So I’ve stopped dosing anything other than nitrates to maintain a steady presence and lower light intensity. Some corals are just bleaching and dying. Parameters are stable but battling dinos. I’ve given up on trying to figure things out. Few Corals look unaffected and fish and inverts also seem fine. Could there be something else wrong I’m not testing for or could the dinos cause corals to bleach and die? Not sure if I should do anything or just watch the tank turn into a fowlr tank. Never had these issues with my old clunky frankenstein tank. Once I went fancy with an expensive setup, it’s all been down hill. Any encouraging words of wisdom would be great.

 

[Justin Cook]

Stability is key in this hobby but man is it fun upgrading! I feel your pain. When I finally pitched my overflow in favor of a reef ready tank I also upgraded my lights and skimmer. Man, did my corals suffer from all of the changes at once. I was never able to pinpoint what the problem was but I have a happy and productive reef again and it's been great for 10 years. I wish I could help but I'm a basic level hobbyist at best. What I can tell you is that once things settle down, you'll have a better setup for years to come.

If I were in you shoes, I'd turn down the light intensity and see what happens. You can always lowly bring it back up. I still think my biggest issue was a big light upgrade (to T5s) and a bigger skimmer combining for cleaner water and intense light.

 

[Backreefing]

Ride them to there wheels fall off . Dino’s will pass , so will all the bad . I don’t know if you have sent the water to be tested professionally or not it may help ? I hear it’s $50 . Good luck

 

[Ernie C]

Anyone know where I can send the water in? I’ll ask lfs this weekend.

 

[Backreefing]

Bump

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

This is the icp test I use
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/icp-water-analysis-coralvue.html

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Just wondering if I should do any water changes or wait and see. Gonna go through water tests again tonight and see if anything has changed but few frags have gone pale/white or are gonners at this point so not sure what went so way off course. All my testing hasn’t shown anything extremely drastic and the fact that not everything has reacted the same way has me Scratching my head.

Having who-knows-what go off the tracks who-knows-when and figuring it out later is kinda calling a coin flip and then losing the coin.

Whatever happened (presumably, in this case, a single stress event) already happened, and the wheels are already in motion for your corals to deal with the stress...and they either will or they won’t.

Big help, eh?

Well, the key here is to intervene as little as possible to get your most important parameters back in line, and then let the corals come back on their own. Generally speaking...generally...if your critical parameters are where they need to be, there aren’t any obvious toxins in the tank, etc, and your coral still goes downhill, then there probably wasn’t a lot you were going to be able to do about it.

So, you’re in dust-settling mode right now. Keep your parameters stable and let the survivors work back to good health. If you have a couple of iffy specimens that have little parts that are hanging on a little, do the old ‘shove it in the upper back corner’ trick and see if they come back.

Like @jda said, you have to find the balance between doing and not doing. Less is more right now. Good luck.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

These might help too Ernie
https://www.marinedepot.com/Poly_Fi...oly_Bio_Marine-PB1111-FIFMMEPM-PB1111-vi.html

 

[Ernie C]

Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions. I’m just going to sit back and watch for a while. Trying to keep dinos at bay with syphoning/filter but not making much progress. I’ll try the poly filter and see if it helps just Incase there’s anything bad in there and see if after a while things balance out. I’ve moved some frags to a small 5 gallon I had with some rubble and cheato. Dinos don’t seem to grow in there and some zoas opened up after a few days in there.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Alright
So you’re corals are “bleaching”? Or are you getting tissue necrosis? Dinos thrive in ultra low nutrient environments so I would raise your nutrients. Not by adding no3 or po4 but by turning your skimmer off and feed your fish more. I haven’t had dinos since I added a UV sterilizer and my no3 and po4 are almost zero, but I don’t have a skimmer and my tank has 50 acros in it. I think skimmers are not needed. Another process that helps with Dino’s is a 48-72 hour blackout. No light at all. Completely black it out with black trash bags and turn your chaeto light off. I’m a little hesitant to recommend that if your acros are stressed because no light for 48 hours can starve them and push them over the edge. I’ve done the black out before and it worked and I later added the UV sterilizer and they haven’t been back.

 

[Ernie C]

I think the corals that went had bleaching and necrosis eventually. Few pieces still look normal and others just unhappy. The acros I have don’t seem affected except one that keeps getting covered with dinos. I have a large bubble that for the most part is fully open. But I’m down to only a few corals at this point. Fish and inverts also seem ok. I tried a green machine uv but it didn’t seem to have any effect so not sure if it was working or not as you can’t see the bulb. I’m hesitant to spend another big chunk of change on another piece of equipment as some of the better UVs are over $100. I could try the black out but I’ve read they are temporary and don’t want to keep messing with the tank honestly. [emoji20]

 

[ckalupa]

If the UV is not sized correctly or the flow rate through it is too high it won’t offer any help against anything. Green Machine are pretty small 5-9 watt units.

 

[Ernie C]

If the UV is not sized correctly or the flow rate through it is too high it won’t offer any help against anything. Green Machine are pretty small 5-9 watt units.

It is a 24w unit. I have a 93 gallon system minus rock volume. Should I figure out if it’s still working and give it a try again?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I forget , are you running agressive Carbon like a reactor?
You may want to get some purigen as well.

At this point yes , triton or other icp tests.
ATI also does one. It’s in thier web site I believe. They also have you seen in the rodi water.

It’s bummer man. Sorry it hasn’t worked out.

 

[ckalupa]

@Ernie Crucet it’s all about exposure time to the light. For sure I would try it to see if it is working? Watch the flow rate as that determines to exposure time to the UV. Also- those bulbs have a “life” and need replacing after some use as they slow their UV output (wear out). That can be a bit small for 90 gals but not terrible.

 

[Ernie C]

I'll check out my UV, its relatively new, only used it a month or so the first time. Going to keep trying, I just never had these types of issues and i've had tanks for like 20 years but honestly, in the past, i was never checking parameters or dosing stuff as much as i do now and always think of the "don't chase numbers advice" . Always learning something new in this hobby. I don't think I'll give up any time soon but i might end up with a FOWLR tank and not by choice. As always, appreciate your feedback and advice! "Never Give Up, Never Surrender!"

 

[Ernie C]

Ok so this might be a long post but I’m baffled by what’s going on based on the measures I’ve take. I stopped dosing everything. I haven’t tested water in a few days. I removed most frags that still seemed to have a bit of life to a small 7 gallon in hopes some of them may come back from certain death. I put some Polly filter in the sump and removed socks. Turned skimmer back on left the cheato and turned off power heads to stop dinos from going everywhere. Here is what I’ve noticed. My bubble coral is twice it’s size probably due to less flow. I’ve had him for like 20 years so glad he looks ok. The few corals I couldnt remove actually look decent and some brown acros I have had for a long time show a good amount of green now to my surprise. Sunset monti looks good too and I noticed another acro frag has encrusted the plug since all this started and looks better than usual. Skimmer is pulling out what I think are Dinos since I only have the return pump moving water and into the sump With no power heads. Dinos seem less and easier to suck out through filter sock. Going to keep this up for a bit and see but just seems odd how some pieces seemed to like this chaos. Or is this me going insane?

 

[AlexKintner]

How did things turn out? Hope you're in recovery mode.

 

[Ernie C]

How did things turn out? Hope you're in recovery mode.

The frags I moved to the tank are back in the display with almost a full recovery. Only lost like 3 frags. Everything else was fine. Got a 55 watt cheap uv over the tank and that kept everything great for a month or so. I thought I could remove the ugly uv but a few days later started to see some Dino’s starting up so UV went back on. And two days later back to normal. Going to look into a high quality uv that I can put in the cabinet over the sump and hope That does it. Here are some of the frags that made it from the brink.