Encrusting corals... Help!!!

[Henryt]

Hello fellow reefers. Need help in determining why all of my encrusting corals have perished.
This pic is from July 9th. Now all of the corals in the circles have bleached.
Could chemical warfare be the culprit?

Specs, 57g 36x18 with 30g sump and 60g fuge
2 kessil a360's
Apex controller
Biopellets + macro algaes in tank
Matrix Carbon + Purigen
Protein Skimmer
ph min 8.22 max 8.34 avg 8.28
temp avg 79.85
orp avg 420
kh avg 9.18
calcium avg 380
mg avg 1365
NO3 avg 2
PO4 avg 0.10

Use red sea pro salt, w/c every 2 weeks 20g
feed fish daily, corals every other day

Thank you in advance for your help

Taken July 9th

Taken August 11th

 

[CodyRVA]

First red flag for me is you post averages for your parameters. To what extend are your parameters swinging over a 24 hour period? How long have you had those frags? Did you add them all at the same time? Your PO4 is a bit high.

 

[Henryt]

I test weekly for the tests. So the values are weekly. The ph temp and orp are from the apex unit. My hannah kit is the low range not the ultra low. So there have been weeks I would run at 00 po4. The corals were added end of may/early June.

 

[CodyRVA]

I test weekly for the tests. So the values are weekly. The ph temp and orp are from the apex unit. My hannah kit is the low range not the ultra low. So there have been weeks I would run at 00 po4. The corals were added end of may/early June.

How much fluctuation from week to week? Any change in lighting, flow, etc? Possible any of your critters could be the culprit?

 

[Henryt]

I do have emerald crabs and two pencil urchins plus snails. could any of them be the culprit? Could the torch, frogspawn and bubble coral be the issue? Or the sponge or leather?
Which parameters are you interested in? I can chart it.

 

[brandon429]

I vote no on chemical warefare or allelopathy, we keep all those specimens in two gallon setups np. of course the frags are smaller but you'd be surprised at some pico reefs, take Maritza's vase reef for example that's got as many species of corals, just smaller.

Its param or nutrient based, sweepers can be possible but I looked for that and didn't see the recurring risk. I always like to see any collateral shots of corals that did add mass here. new frags receding to me isn't the same as established frags that added mass, then receded. we can often find accompanying events

big water changes are a great start for unknown aquarium issues since they're harmless to run in the normal condition.

 

[Henryt]

I always saw the emeralds picking at them. The zoas and softies are ok as is the birdsnest

 

[CodyRVA]

I always saw the emeralds picking at them. The zoas and softies are ok as is the birdsnest

I mean, you could put something on a frag rack just to rule out the emeralds. I personally would get rid of those boogers anyways, but thats just my .02

 

[Henryt]

its so strange even my toadstool died too. But the others are ok.