Corals Unhappy

[Nurfed]

I have a zoa that hasn’t been open in about a week. My GSP is now closing up. My chalice has died back to almost nothing. My acan that came back from the dead is the only coral doing well. Tank parameters in the screen shot.
The parameters are pretty stable with what is shown. I let the calcium come down from 500 after overdosing some bottled coralline. Since then it’s been riding 400.

 

[wculver]

I have a zoa that hasn’t been open in about a week. My GSP is now closing up. My chalice has died back to almost nothing. My acan that came back from the dead is the only coral doing well. Tank parameters in the screen shot.
The parameters are pretty stable with what is shown. I let the calcium come down from 500 after overdosing some bottled coralline. Since then it’s been riding 400.

It sounds like your tank has been in decline for a little while and based on your numbers, specifically Nitrates and Phosphates, they have crept up too far. Your nitrates should be in the 3PPM neighborhood and the phosphates should be in the .03 PPM neighborhood. So both of them are multiple times higher than what you should be shooting for. Something like a chalice will certainly die a slow death with these numbers.

The good news is if you can get those numbers down you can get some recovery but you'll need to focus on slowly bringing those down and keeping the other numbers as stable as possible in the process.

 

[Lavey29]

Numbers look good which leaves lighting and flow to check? How old is the tank? Have you done recent ICP test to check everything? Any fish nibbling coral? Any leather corals that might be releasing toxins into the water?

 

[Lavey29]

It sounds like your tank has been in decline for a little while and based on your numbers, specifically Nitrates and Phosphates, they have crept up too far. Your nitrates should be in the 3PPM neighborhood and the phosphates should be in the .03 PPM neighborhood. So both of them are multiple times higher than what you should be shooting for. Something like a chalice will certainly die a slow death with these numbers.

The good news is if you can get those numbers down you can get some recovery but you'll need to focus on slowly bringing those down and keeping the other numbers as stable as possible in the process.

My nitrates are 12 and phosphate. 1 and I have a thriving mixed reef tank. LPS corals especially need nitrates at 10 and phosphate. 05 to .1. His numbers are fine 8n my opinion but something else may be off like trace or perhaps he has a rusty magnet or something leeching.

 

[Nurfed]

Numbers look good which leaves lighting and flow to check? How old is the tank? Have you done recent ICP test to check everything? Any fish nibbling coral? Any leather corals that might be releasing toxins into the water?

I only have 3 corals currently. I’ve got carbon in a reactor and polyfilter running to catch most anything that shouldn’t be in the water. Rock is a year old. Tank is going on 4 months running again.

Running 3 ai hydra 32s at 55%. Mounted 14 inches over the waters surface.

For flow, I have a return pump pushing about 2x tank volume per hour. A jebao 180 gyre on one side. Set to low random flow. Two tunze 6045 opposite side of the tank on the medium flange setting pointed at the top of the tank with the return. Main drain is opposite of the return.

My red coris wrasse flipped the chalice about 3 weeks ago looking for food. He may be pecking at it. Hard to tell as I work 12 hours a day and have a newborn at home.

 

[Nurfed]

I think tomorrow I’m going to refresh my carbon in the reactor and swap my filter socks out. Probably swap the polyfilter while my hands are wet.

The only thing I am iffy about is the lighting. I don’t have a par meter so I can’t be positive that they aren’t getting to much light. Tank is 24 inches deep and the lights are mounted 14 inches high

 

[Lavey29]

I think tomorrow I’m going to refresh my carbon in the reactor and swap my filter socks out. Probably swap the polyfilter while my hands are wet.

The only thing I am iffy about is the lighting. I don’t have a par meter so I can’t be positive that they aren’t getting to much light. Tank is 24 inches deep and the lights are mounted 14 inches high

You may be on the right path. To low of light would result in a slow decline but sometimes corals will let you know this by over extending themselves towards the light but that is a deep tank and your lights are mounted high.

 

[Nurfed]

You may be on the right path. To low of light would result in a slow decline but sometimes corals will let you know this by over extending themselves towards the light but that is a deep tank and your lights are mounted high.

Not enough light would lead to the softies opening and stretching right? These are about 80% closed. I really don’t want to shell out for a par meter lol, I also won’t be able to convince my wife that we need one. Maybe I can find one to borrow

 

[melonheadorion]

Not enough light would lead to the softies opening and stretching right? These are about 80% closed. I really don’t want to shell out for a par meter lol, I also won’t be able to convince my wife that we need one. Maybe I can find one to borrow

i would look through the par thread and see if there is anyone that posted their par readings with the same lights. it will give you a rough estimate as to where you might be at

 

[Lavey29]

Not enough light would lead to the softies opening and stretching right? These are about 80% closed. I really don’t want to shell out for a par meter lol, I also won’t be able to convince my wife that we need one. Maybe I can find one to borrow

Their closed because of stress due to something off in their environment. I don't know anything about your lights but 24 inches deep and 14 inches high on the mount seems like quite a distance for 50% intensity. You need to google par numbers for your lights.

 

[WolvertonReef]

Not enough light would lead to the softies opening and stretching right? These are about 80% closed. I really don’t want to shell out for a par meter lol, I also won’t be able to convince my wife that we need one. Maybe I can find one to borrow

I picked up a Seneye reef meter for 200ish, comes with a decently accurate par meter.

 

[anthonygf]

I have been running my nitrates at around 25 and phosphates 0.1-0.2 for several years now and my corals are growing well and have good color. So I second that those numbers are fine.

 

[gbroadbridge]

I have a zoa that hasn’t been open in about a week. My GSP is now closing up. My chalice has died back to almost nothing. My acan that came back from the dead is the only coral doing well. Tank parameters in the screen shot.
The parameters are pretty stable with what is shown. I let the calcium come down from 500 after overdosing some bottled coralline. Since then it’s been riding 400.

There's noting wrong with your numbers so the issue must be elsewhere.

Contamination of some type? Kids or animals in the house?

 

[cotofl02]

Not enough light would lead to the softies opening and stretching right? These are about 80% closed. I really don’t want to shell out for a par meter lol, I also won’t be able to convince my wife that we need one. Maybe I can find one to borrow

Try your local LFS. I was able to rent an apogee for 48 hours and it only cost me $25. Do yourself a favor and map it out at different intensities that way you can make adjustments in the future in case you want to take a crack at different types of corals. If you know where you stand you can confidently eliminate lighting being an issue in case things start to go wrong, well worth the time and effort.