Corals looking stressed. What am I doing wrong?

[JIsBusyReefing]

Hi all! For the past week and a half, some of my corals have been looking stressed and shrunken. Frogspawn, BTA, and Alveopora. Not sure why. My parameters are fine.

Nitrate: 10ppm
Phosphate: <.25ppm
PH: 8.1
dKH: 10
Calcium: 450ppm
Magnesium: 1350ppm

I've been trying to sit back and contemplate what has changed that could be causing stress. Things that have changed are:

1. I started using sodium carbonate for alkalinity instead of sodium bicarbonate.

2. I added a Ritteri that kept going to the top of the tank, which I assumed meant my lighting (x3 vipar spectra 165w units) needed to be turned up, so I bumped up the intensity5% every couple of days.

3. Chemical warfare between the BTA and Ritter maybe?

Any thoughts?

 

[Jmasonreef]

Can’t see the trend of the parameters so it doesn’t do much good for anyone. Like if alk was 8 yesterday then 10 today?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

Can’t see the trend of the parameters so it doesn’t do much good for anyone. Like if alk was 8 yesterday then 10 today?

I've never had it at 8. It can vary between 9-11. The most dramatic change in chemistry I've tested since setting up 3 months ago is PH from the soda ash. It went from 8.0 to 8.4 in an instant. Before that, PH was always consistent between 8.0-8.1. Never changed.

 

[JGT]

Hi all! For the past week and a half, some of my corals have been looking stressed and shrunken. Frogspawn, BTA, and Alveopora. Not sure why. My parameters are fine.

Nitrate: 10ppm
Phosphate: <.25ppm
PH: 8.1
dKH: 10
Calcium: 450ppm
Magnesium: 1350ppm

I've been trying to sit back and contemplate what has changed that could be causing stress. Things that have changed are:

1. I started using sodium carbonate for alkalinity instead of sodium bicarbonate.

2. I added a Ritteri that kept going to the top of the tank, which I assumed meant my lighting (x3 vipar spectra 165w units) needed to be turned up, so I bumped up the intensity5% every couple of days.

3. Chemical warfare between the BTA and Ritter maybe?

Any thoughts?

Could be any of those. I’d walk them back one at a time starting with the #2 and#3 to see if things revert.

 

[terraincognita]

did you try WC's? there may be other things in the water.

What's your water source?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

did you try WC's? there may be other things in the water.

What's your water source?

Yep. Did a 20% water change this morning. Water was mixed last night and dosed to accurately match the water parameters in the display. It's only the frogspawn, Alveopora, and BTA that are stressed. Everything else is perfectly fine. Brain coral, Toadstool, Kenya Tree, Ritteri, Zoas, Palys, GSP, Xenia, Birdsnest, Monti, Gorgonian, Torch, Hammer, Duncan, and Lobophyllia all are fine.

 

[X-37B]

How old is the tank?

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

How old is the tank?

3 months

 

[dtruitt]

You left salinity off your list. Calibrate your refractometer and double check that parameter.

Phosphate < .25 is somewhat concerning. Phosphate over 0.1 can irritate some corals, and if it's at 0.5 and you misread the test you're going to have some issues.

Swing from 8.0 to 8.4 is a bit much. Usually two part solutions will mix carbonate and bicarbonate to mitigate ph impact. Carbonate alone provides a short term boost to pH that often goes away, so dosing carbonate alone can make for some crazy pH swings if you're only dosing once every few days and you dose all at once.

 

[vetteguy53081]

DKH a little high
Salinity. . . a false reading would cause this as it may be higher than showing.
Other factors:

High flow
light too bright
alk spikes
High ot low salinity
ph low
Salt mix old
lack of feeding
Tank too new

 

[X-37B]

3 months with dry rock it looks like.
Tanks to young for most of what you have in their.
Also .25 po4 is way high and probably comming from your dry rock.
Focus on the parameters you want to run and keeping them stable would be a good start.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

You left salinity off your list. Calibrate your refractometer and double check that parameter.

Phosphate < .25 is somewhat concerning. Phosphate over 0.1 can irritate some corals, and if it's at 0.5 and you misread the test you're going to have some issues.

Swing from 8.0 to 8.4 is a bit much. Usually two part solutions will mix carbonate and bicarbonate to mitigate ph impact. Carbonate alone provides a short term boost to pH that often goes away, so dosing carbonate alone can make for some crazy pH swings if you're only dosing once every few days and you dose all at once.

Salt SG is 1.025 consistently. I have ATO that keeps it steady as well. It's not that.

When I say "<.25ppm" I mean that API doesn't test lower than that. lol! It shows as near zero coloration but that's obviously not true. It's not phosphate.

I agree. That's why I'm thinking it's most likely ph swings or messing with the lighting. From now on, I'm dosing alkalinity at a 4:1 (bicarbonate:carbonate) ratio and see how that goes I suppose. I was indeed dosing once every few days.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

3 months with dry rock it looks like.
Tanks to young for most of what you have in their.
Also .25 po4 is way high and probably comming from your dry rock.
Focus on the parameters you want to run and keeping them stable would be a good start.

A mix of dry rock and live rock. I'm daring. What can I say. Phosphate isn't .25. It's near zero. API just doesn't measure lower ranges. My parameters are stable, minus dKH and PH because I switched to carbonate rather than bicarbonate.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

DKH a little high
Salinity. . . a false reading would cause this as it may be higher than showing.
Other factors:

High flow
light too bright
alk spikes
High ot low salinity
ph low
Salt mix old
lack of feeding
Tank too new

10 dKH is fine. Salt SG is 1.025 and accurate. I have two hydor Koralias 1500GPH facing each other. Moderate flow. Alk + PH swings are occurring, yes. PH isn't low. Salt was mixed fresh last night. I feed plenty and battle nitrate as a result (though not too bad). Tank was doing amazing up until recent changes this past week.

 

[Jmasonreef]

8 to 8.4 is a pretty quick change how are you dosing Carbonate? It has to be very slowly or pH swings will irritate corals.

 

[JIsBusyReefing]

8 to 8.4 is a pretty quick change how are you dosing Carbonate? It has to be very slowly or pH swings will irritate corals.

I dose half of the total calculated amount, wait a few hours, and then dose the rest.

I agree. That was way too much and too quick of a jump (both in alk and ph) and I was immediately concerned about that but others told me not to worry about it. I didn't buy it. I see stuff irritated. 1+1=2.