Corals not opening :-(

[RC88]

Hello reefers,

Wondered if I could ask for some advice.

My corals haven’t opened up for the last few days. They seemed happy before but ever since I introduced a clear fx pro media bag, they haven’t opened up at all.

I have a Neon Green Cabbage, a Green Star Polyp,a Soft tree coral and a Finger coral white Polyp.

I ran all my tests and the results are below. They seem to be ok besides my nitrate level. Any advice on other factors that can be causing this?

I have a 100 litre 6 month old tank. Which also houses two clown fish and two damselfish. All of which seem healthy and fine.

Water parameters:

Ph - 8.2
Nitrate - 10
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - 0
Phosphate - 0.1
Alkalinity - 4.29 Mep/L or 12dKH
Salinity - 36
Temp - 25

thank you all in advance.

 

[AfaceInTheCrowd]

Your nitrate and phos are ok for the corals you have although I wouldn’t let them get higher than they are.. your alk I would say is too high and I would keep salinity at 35.. these are still ok as long as they weren’t the result of a sudden shift.
Have you done a big water change or similar big change before the Corals stopped opening?

 

[RC88]

Your nitrate and phos are ok for the corals you have although I wouldn’t let them get higher than they are.. your alk I would say is too high and I would keep salinity at 35.. these are still ok as long as they weren’t the result of a sudden shift.
Have you done a big water change or similar big change before the Corals stopped opening?

Hi and thank you for the advice. I recently had an algae problem in my tank so had to do a big water change to get rid. Took a few attempts. Could it be related?

 

[AfaceInTheCrowd]

It depends.. do you know your test results prior to doing that?

 

[RC88]

Unfortunately I don’t. For the first few months everything seemed fine, both corals and fish were happy so I only monitored ammonia and nitrate. Then I got a algae issue so decided to do a big water change, removing all sight of the algae and invested in the clear fx pro media bag.
By the sounds of it lowering my alk should help. Any advice on the best method to do this? I’ve seen daily water changes is an option along with just waiting for the corals to bring it down naturally. Thoughts?

 

[AfaceInTheCrowd]

My guess is you alk was much lower before the big WC and You’ve spiked it causing your soft corals to sulk.. they will come back they do sulk from time to time regardless so I wouldn’t worry too much. Just make sure your salt bucket is shaken well before use, and just continue doing 10% or so a week until it balances out..your tank is still new so algae is more than likely going to happen anyway.. slowly slowly, big changes aren’t good on corals, although soft corals are more forgiving,
Just work on slowly reducing nutrients by feeding less, check your fresh mixed saltwater so you can rule out bad source water etc.. but like I said before your parameters aren’t terrible

 

[vetteguy53081]

Salinity and alk slightly high
Moderate light and water flow

Salinity 35ppt
Temperature 77-79
Alk. 8-9
Ph. 8.1-8.3
Mag 1300
Ca. 450
Ammonia. .03

 

[RC88]

Thank you both, that was extremely useful. Will take the advice and just keep doing a weekly water change until the alk lowers. It’s reassuring to know that everything else looks ok’ish.

 

[Reef.]

What salt do you use? If the salt is high in alk then you may not have spiked it with a water change. I doubt those corals used a lot of alk for it to spike with a water change.

The corals could just not like the clear fx and need to get used to it.

I would recommend keeping a closer eye of your parameters rather than adding a fix to correct something that could have been caught earlier and maybe a water change or other smaller change could have solved the issue.

 

[RC88]

What salt do you use? If the salt is high in alk then you may not have spiked it with a water change. I doubt those corals used a lot of alk for it to spike with a water change.

The corals could just not like the clear fx and need to get used to it.

I would recommend keeping a closer eye of your parameters rather than adding a fix to correct something that could have been caught earlier and maybe a water change or other smaller change could have solved the issue.

Hi. Thanks. I use classic Sea Salt by Tropic Marin. A brand recommended by my local reef store. I’ve done some research on the different salts available but not decided to change just yet. Are there brands that most reefers use/prefer?

 

[Reef.]

Hi. Thanks. I use classic Sea Salt by Tropic Marin. A brand recommended by my local reef store. I’ve done some research on the different salts available but not decided to change just yet. Are there brands that most reefers use/prefer?

thats a good salt, you will get a lot of opinions on salt, out of the main brands you will not get a bad one, just people prefer different salt for different reasons.

Your salt has a KH of 9-10 so on the high side, the idea is to keep it stable at what ever lvl you feel is best to grow coral, as coral grows it gets used up so you may need to replace it to keep it stable at what lvl you have chosen, maybe not a good idea to aim for 7 when using a salt at 10KH, but if your corals use a lot of KH it could be a good choice.

I use the same salt as you but the Pro version, which has a KH of 7, my reasoning is natural sea water is around 7, you will find great tanks at all different lvls of KH, stable is the key.

 

[RC88]

That’s good to know. Perhaps worth considering a switch to Pro. I’ve not switched salts before. Any particular guidance for this or can I just start adding in with my water changes as I normally would?

 

[Reef.]

That’s good to know. Perhaps worth considering a switch to Pro. I’ve not switched salts before. Any particular guidance for this or can I just start adding in with my water changes as I normally would?

very easy to do, just use the new salt on your water changes.

if you do quite big changes then I would probably reduce them slightly as again you are aiming for stability, around 10% should be fine.

 

[RC88]

very easy to do, just use the new salt on your water changes.

if you do quite big changes then I would probably reduce them slightly as again you are aiming for stability, around 10% should be fine.

Afternoon all,

So last night I received both Mag & CA test kits and my Mag = 1400 & CA = 360. Seems my Calcium is quite low and having done some research this could be related to by irritated corals? Along with the high Alk. Would anyone recommend using a product like Seachem Reef Advantage Calcium to replenish my calcium levels?

Thank you in advance

 

[AfaceInTheCrowd]

Any calcium will do but yes that’s fine, just do it slowly weeks not hours