Corals seem to be dying

[mikeb5479]

Good evening all, long time reader first time poster, I'd first like to say thank you for all the help so far just from reading a ton it has already helped me out. But now I am having a new issue with some of my corals and I could really use some help!

I recently started having issues with some of my corals the past few days, mostly my hammers they were all looking great then when I added the larger orange one everything changed. I also started adding Red Sea trace colors and NO3 PO4-X (I have since stopped that) my calcium was a bit high and I’m working on brining that down (was above 500). I also read that I might need to soak them in hydrogen peroxide and a cup of tank water. One of my orange mushrooms is closing up, and now my SPS is really starting to bleach out, I did just adjust it because I didn't think it was getting enough light.

Here are my levels:
Salinity: 32.4ppt (slowly raining it as it was low 31ppt)
Temperature: 79 (I have read that's high so I lowed it back to 78, it use to be 77 for the longest time)
Calcium: 485 (tested yesterday after it being above 500 for a few weeks)
Magnesium: 1500
Alkalinity: 11.5
Nitrate: 5
Nitrite: 0.05
PH: 8.15
Phosphate: 0
Ammonia: 0.25 (been feeding a lot because I had an ick scare I will be doing another water change tomorrow)

Here are some pics of the effected corals, I did move the orange hemmer up to the middle of the tank from the sand to get a bit more light, and the others are still a bit closed up. I thought something was crawling on them or even potentially nibbling at them but I have witnessed none of that so far. The tank is the Red Sea reefer 625 G2+ (165 gallons including sump) I dose Red Sea AB+, Magnesium, Calcium, and KH. I did have the skimmer off for about a week after I dosed with Dr. Tim's First defense (Fish look great now). Any help would be greatly appreciated, tank has been up for about 9 months now and I'm now worried what might be happening.

 

[Kfactor]

the zero po4 is bad

 

[billyocean]

Alk is high and nutrients (phosphate/nitrate) are too low. Corals are likely starving..especially sps. What are you testing salinity with? If refractometer, make sure calibration fluid isn't old. What salt are you using? 79 is fine for the tank..it's not that.

 

[billyocean]

Don't do a bunch of stuff quickly as that won't help btw. You could order some NeoPhos and NeoNitro to get that n03 and p04 up for the short term and we can cross that dosing bridge when you get it..or have another way to get those numbers up. That's the quickest solution right now IMO.

 

[Lavey29]

Alk is high and nutrients (phosphate/nitrate) are too low. Corals are likely starving..especially sps. What are you testing salinity with? If refractometer, make sure calibration fluid isn't old. What salt are you using? 79 is fine for the tank..it's not that.

I agree with this assessment.

 

[A. grandis]

Good evening all, long time reader first time poster, I'd first like to say thank you for all the help so far just from reading a ton it has already helped me out. But now I am having a new issue with some of my corals and I could really use some help!

I recently started having issues with some of my corals the past few days, mostly my hammers they were all looking great then when I added the larger orange one everything changed. I also started adding Red Sea trace colors and NO3 PO4-X (I have since stopped that) my calcium was a bit high and I’m working on brining that down (was above 500). I also read that I might need to soak them in hydrogen peroxide and a cup of tank water. One of my orange mushrooms is closing up, and now my SPS is really starting to bleach out, I did just adjust it because I didn't think it was getting enough light.

Here are my levels:
Salinity: 32.4ppt (slowly raining it as it was low 31ppt)
Temperature: 79 (I have read that's high so I lowed it back to 78, it use to be 77 for the longest time)
Calcium: 485 (tested yesterday after it being above 500 for a few weeks)
Magnesium: 1500
Alkalinity: 11.5
Nitrate: 5
Nitrite: 0.05
PH: 8.15
Phosphate: 0
Ammonia: 0.25 (been feeding a lot because I had an ick scare I will be doing another water change tomorrow)

Here are some pics of the effected corals, I did move the orange hemmer up to the middle of the tank from the sand to get a bit more light, and the others are still a bit closed up. I thought something was crawling on them or even potentially nibbling at them but I have witnessed none of that so far. The tank is the Red Sea reefer 625 G2+ (165 gallons including sump) I dose Red Sea AB+, Magnesium, Calcium, and KH. I did have the skimmer off for about a week after I dosed with Dr. Tim's First defense (Fish look great now). Any help would be greatly appreciated, tank has been up for about 9 months now and I'm now worried what might be happening.

With all the respect, do you really think that light over your tank is good for the corals in any shape or form?????????
I'm sorry, but this hobby has been preaching with the wrong books about lighting for way too long!!!!
This is a perfect example of the effects of poor lighting over a ref tank for God's sake!
One can spend how much they can with bunch of crap in bottles, but if they have lights like this, please don't expect corals to thrive for any period of time. They already come from the stores damaged by their lights!
Please follow nature and adapt your corals slowly to a decent light.
This is not to flame you nor judge you in any way. I'm just helping you to understand one of the basic principals of reefkeeping.
Because I care!

 

[billyocean]

With all the respect, do you really think that light over your tank is good for the corals in any shape or form?????????
I'm sorry, but this hobby has been preaching with the wrong books about lighting for way too long!!!!
This is a perfect example of the effects of poor lighting over a ref tank for God's sake!
One can spend how much they can with bunch of crap in bottles, but if they have lights like this, please don't expect corals to thrive for any period of time. They already come from the stores damaged by their lights!
Please follow nature and adapt your corals slowly to a decent light.
This is not to flame you nor judge you in any way. I'm just helping you to understand one of the basic principals of reefkeeping.
Because I care!

Am I missing what light he has?

 

[Goaway]

Am I missing what light he has?

I think its the red sea reef lights. Whatever a g2+ is. Assumption...

 

[billyocean]

I think its the red sea reef lights. Whatever a g2+ is. Assumption...

Ahh ok..thought that was the tank model

 

[A. grandis]

Am I missing what light he has?

Does the name matter????

 

[Goaway]

Ahh ok..thought that was the tank model

ReefLED 90 or 160 light(s) & mounting arm(s) included with all REEFER Deluxe models.

They are probably terrible....

 

[billyocean]

Does the name matter????

I'm not tracking here..what's wrong with it?

 

[Lavey29]

Am I missing what light he has?

He never stated what light set up he is using. I think the other guy is assuming bad lights due to low quality pics.

 

[billyocean]

He never stated what light set up he is using. I think the other guy is assuming bad lights due to low quality pics.

I just assumed bad pics as well or maybe during a part of the schedule where it was low.

 

[ninjamyst]

With all the respect, do you really think that light over your tank is good for the corals in any shape or form?????????
I'm sorry, but this hobby has been preaching with the wrong books about lighting for way too long!!!!
This is a perfect example of the effects of poor lighting over a ref tank for God's sake!
One can spend how much they can with bunch of crap in bottles, but if they have lights like this, please don't expect corals to thrive for any period of time. They already come from the stores damaged by their lights!
Please follow nature and adapt your corals slowly to a decent light.
This is not to flame you nor judge you in any way. I'm just helping you to understand one of the basic principals of reefkeeping.
Because I care!

How do you know what light he has?? Nothing in your post makes sense. Corals damaged by store lights? And you didn't even explain what's bad light vs decent light. Wow, I am astonished at how bad your post is. Please ponder and reflect on how to create better posts in the future.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

ammonia at .25 indicates an API test kit, can you confirm which test kits you are using?
zero phosphate is bad, but again, what test kit?

Pics in white light would be helpful, the pics are very blue and cannot see clearly.

Seems to be a LOT of changes recently. I read dosing multiple products, changing temp, changing salinity, changing light intensity, turned the skimmer off....... with so many changes, almost impossible to pinpoint one thing that is stressing the corals.

 

[Dburr1014]

In A. Grands defence... He is a die hard metal halide user and doesn't think LED are good. Let's stop the flaming before the thread gets shut down and help the OP.

I didn't see any lights listed either. Please post them and schedule.
OP, high alk of 11 dkh and low to zero nutrients are really bad. PO4 @ zero is starving the coral. Carbon dosing also at low to zero nutrients is is throwing your system balance way out of whack. Carbon dosing is feeding bacteria with nothing to eat. (N & P)
High calcium is not terrible, let it come down naturally.
Low SG is a coral killer in itself. Coral may not show signs initially, it can take a few weeks.
How are you testing SG and calibrating?

 

[mikeb5479]

Thanks for all the comments! As for the lights yes they are the Red Sea 160's. I set them how my LFS has them set and their tank is beautiful, 80% blue, 20% white, they are on full strength for 8 hours a day and about 10 when the lights come on and go off. They have been set like this for a long time and haven't had an issue before. The pictures were in fact taken when the lights were NOT at their brightest, but if anyone has a better light setting I am all for trying it! The Red Sea schedules in the app are trash!

As for testing I am using Red Sea and Salifert test kits, Red Sea for calcium, nitrate, and nitrite, Salifert for the rest. Salt I measure 3 different ways, refractometer, a digital reader, and the little float arm. I have been told many times that the salinity in my tank has been too low so I have slowly been raising it over the course of about 3 months now.

I have been dosing (all Red Sea) AB+, Calcium, Alk, and KH, I printed out the sheet from Red Sea and I'm pretty close to their recommendations but they seem to be off on a couple things according to you guys. I am going to do a water change today to try and chase out the high alk as I know that's bad! I use the Red Sea salt (the blue bucket).

I do believe you all are correct that I had a lot going on in a short window, trying to battle a potential ick out break, then having to turn off the skimmer because of the dosing blah blah blah. I have kind of already accepted I am going to loose the orange hammer as it looks even worse today, and my SPS, this is the first SPS I have ever owned and I've been reef keeping since I was in high school, of course I've taken about 10 years off so all this technology is new to me.