Euphyllia and other LPS receding

Zoajohn · Sep 3, 2019

I have been having issues with many of my LPS corals. Wall hammer, torches, lepto, chalice, acans. My tank is a fluval 13.5.

The euphyllia have been receding tissue around the edge of skeletons. I had one torch bailout both polyps, another receding on the edge of skeleton, and the wall hammer has receded from one end, exposing skeleton. My large acan colony had what appeared to be brown jelly, but an h202 dip seemed to clear it up. My lepto is bleaching despite light being low (recently battled dinos). Chalice is receding tissue from the edge of skeleton inward gradually and doesn’t seem to be stopping.

My SPS and zoas (and a few acans, fungia plates, and favia) are all thriving despite this.

Params are:
-78°
-1.026 ppt salinity
-8.3 dkh (Hanna)
-410 Ca (salifert)
-1330 mag (salifert)
-.021 phosphates (Hanna)
-0 or near zero nitrates (salifert)

Any ideas? Will upload pics later today

Robg139 · Sep 3, 2019

I’m on the same boat. Same tank too fluval evo. My torch is receding and as is one Favia I have but I know why that was it got stung. Everything else looks great and full and expanding. I would say your nutrient levels are a little low. I mean low is good but that seems real low.

Robg139 · Sep 3, 2019

What kind of lights are you using? And what about flow? I’m coming to believe my torch was receding because it was in a high flow area getting pounded by water. I moved yesterday so will see how it reacts. You can see the recession in the top of the pic.

Zoajohn · Sep 3, 2019

It’s under an AI prime HD and I just moved t out of direct flow. I am running the stock return and aqamai kps in my fluval 13.5

Robg139 · Sep 4, 2019

Yes I have the same light. I was running a Powerhead and took it out a week ago. I update the return pump to a sicce 1.5 and that seems to work just fine for me now.

reefluvrr · Sep 4, 2019

When I start seeing my LPS not happy, it usually is from low Nitrates (or how fast the nitrates drop).
I eventually got my LPS being happy at lower level 2ppm or below over a period of couple months.
HTH

Robg139 · Sep 4, 2019

You can dose nutrients a little to see if that helps, or maybe get fuel or another kind of coral food/vitamins that will bring up the nutrient level as well as feed the coral and help heal.

vetteguy53081 · Sep 4, 2019

I had very similar 3 weeks ago in my cube under the very light ( Ai prime) and reduced whites another 10% (to 14%) and moved current away from it and it has bounced right back

Zoajohn · Sep 4, 2019

vetteguy53081 said:
I had very similar 3 weeks ago in my cube under the very light ( Ai prime) and reduced whites another 10% (to 14%) and moved current away from it and it has bounced right back

My whites are only on 5-8% already ha

Zoajohn · Sep 5, 2019

One thing that aligns with my LPS issues is I changed my BRS RODI filters out to smaller micron sizes. I went from a 5 micron sediment filter to 1 micron, and 1 micron carbon block to .5 micron. Also changed my DI resin. Is there any reason this would’ve caused issues? TDS from water line is 41 in, and I’m reading 0 TDS out from my filter.

Mykawl · Sep 5, 2019

Think you just have no nutrients, get nitrate detectable, how is your nitrate 0 btw? Brightwell aquatics and Red Sea have nice amino acid supplements and Seachem fuel I think is same thing

Zoajohn · Sep 5, 2019

Mykawl said:
Think you just have no nutrients, get nitrate detectable, how is your nitrate 0 btw? Brightwell aquatics and Red Sea have nice amino acid supplements and Seachem fuel I think is same thing

I have no idea why my nitrates are 0. I target feed corals 2-3x per week, I feed fish mysis or pellets daily, and I dose brightwell aminos 2x weekly. One theory was I had too much rock in my tank. I took out a large piece two days ago to see if that slows down my nitrifying bacteria

Robg139 · Sep 5, 2019

Can we see pictures ? What test are you using ? Your nitrates shouldn’t be zero by just having a lot of live rock. I have a refugium and a lot of live rock and still nitrates aren’t zero. ESP that you dose amino something doesn’t sound right. How are the coral now any change ?

Zoajohn · Sep 5, 2019

Robg139 said:
Can we see pictures ? What test are you using ? Your nitrates shouldn’t be zero by just having a lot of live rock. I have a refugium and a lot of live rock and still nitrates aren’t zero. ESP that you dose amino something doesn’t sound right. How are the coral now any change ?

I’ll post some later today. Salifert nitrate test. Nothing seemed to change much. I gave my chalice and hammer an iodine dip this morning. Hoping it helps

Braves Fan · Sep 6, 2019

Do you have a skimmer running ,, filter socks ,, Chatto growing ,, are you doing water changes ,, stopping these should bring up your Nitrate levels ,, Nitrate level can't rise if you are removing them ,, just a thought

Zoajohn · Sep 6, 2019

Braves Fan said:
Do you have a skimmer running ,, filter socks ,, Chatto growing ,, are you doing water changes ,, stopping these should bring up your Nitrate levels ,, Nitrate level can't rise if you are removing them ,, just a thought

No skimmer, but filter floss. My nitrates are up to 5 now after the removal of some live rock, which is good. I gave the torch a peroxide bath because f it it was just slowly dying anyways. All the dying tissue bubbled up and I scraped it away gently with a small brush. It’s looking better actually this morning. Hoping it makes a recovery

Jax15 · Feb 13, 2020

Hey Zoajohn, how did this end up turning out? I’m going through a similar issue right now with my torches. SPS doing great. Did you solve it?

Zoajohn · Feb 13, 2020

Hey Jax, sorry you’re going through this too. None of the affected corals ever recovered, and I honestly can’t pin point the issue. I do still have a small blasto colony and Trachy in that tank which are unaffected. It was (and I know this is broad) either a bacterial issue, peppermint shrimp nipping at night, or water contaminant. This nano is now a thriving sps tank, and I keep euphyllia in my 30g now. Check out white band disease and see if that looks like what you’re dealing with.

Jax15 said:
Hey Zoajohn, how did this end up turning out? I’m going through a similar issue right now with my torches. SPS doing great. Did you solve it?

reefsaver · May 14, 2021

From what I've learned it is most likely a Nitrate problem because I only ever notice the recession when I do a water change. I think I'm going to dose an Aquaforest A,B and C Components/reef nutrients to see if the recession stops. I'm also halting No3Po4X dosing as it says on the bottle it can have a detrimental affect on livestock if misused. I don't think it'll supplement Nitrate but I don't really know what else to do.