Frustration setting in....

[guitarvp]

Hey everyone,

I have a 100g display (120g total volume). For the past few weeks I've noticed a decline in my SPS and and LPS. My SPS has lost some color and I have had a couple of small acro frags bleach out for some unknown reason. Most recently, (about a week ago) I started noticing receding flesh on my LPS (pectina, acans, hammers). Around the same about a week prior to that I had started running GFO in a reactor with carbon. After doing some research and testing (PO4 - 0 with Hanna) I started thinking that maybe my water was too clean and the LPS were showing it. So I removed the GFO and just kept some carbon in a bag in the reactor. Additionally, I did a 35g water change a couple of days ago since it had been about a month since my last one. Since the water change things are looking worse. My goniopora has been sucked in and closed up, hammers are shrunken, my duncan looks deflated and in rough shape, and none of my SPS have they polyps extended. My green monti cap went from dull green to half bleached in a matter of 24 hours.

I have seen and removed some monti eating nudies over the past few weeks and I have treated the tank with Salifert Flatworm remover about a week ago as I've been battling zoa eating nudi's as well.

Softies to include a rainbow rose nem seem to be doing fine although they have been closed up more often than usual. Fish include 3 lyretail anthias, 1 starry eyed blenny, and 1 green mandarin, all which seem to be doing fine and are eating great.

Testing is as follows:

SG 1.025 (Milwaukee Instruments)
Temp: Between 77-78
Ph: 8.1-8.3
Nitrate: 5ppm (API)
Nitrite: 0ppm (API)
Ammonia: 0ppm (API)
Alkalinity 8.29 (Hanna)
Phosphate 0 (Hanna)
Calcium: 400 (Red Sea)
Magnesium: 1260 (Red Sea)

The tank has been up and running for about 7 months. I dose kalk through my ATO. Running two Radion Gen3 at 50% on the Ecotech Mixed Reef Schedule. I use RO/DI water for ATO and water changes and use Red Sea Coral Pro Salt.

I'm not really sure what to test for or what to do to save my corals at this point. Any help and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[guitarvp]

Monti cap bleaching...

Pectina tips tissue receding

 

[guitarvp]

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[jsker]

I feed heavy, and I am alway try to keep my Po4's down. I try to keep my Po4's between .02ppm to .04 ppm. I also put in reef nutrition products, which in turn add amino acids.

 

[Drauka99]

Only thing I see is that I would bump that Mag up close to 1400. Maybe someone else can be of more help.

 

[McMullen]

Your tank is young at 7mo and bound to have problems related to immaturity. I have battled monti nudis a few times. I'm guessing you don't have a quarantine tank for coral? My suggestion for the monti is pull it out, frag a small piece after inspecting for eggs, but 98% of that monti must go……provided it hasn't died yet. If you have other montis dip em. Just because your not seeing the nudies doesn't mean they're not laying eggs and eating the underside. I do not have experience with zooas or pectinias so I would only be guessing on advice. If your carbon is still running I would either slow it way down or take it offline for a few weeks. Fix your Phosphate! It could be with multiple stressors in the tank having a low phosphate is simply too much for coral to deal with and causing tissue recession. Your phosphate may actually be dangerously low. My phosphate sometimes reads 0 but I have algae in my display as well as cheato in the fuge, so my 0 is not the same as your 0……..if that makes since………Just another thought, I have caused problems from adding GFO and Carbon to acros in the past….bleaching and STN……don't overlook the seemingly beneficial maintenance things we do as a culprit. I also had terrible "luck," with Red Sea Pro salt. Switched from IO Reef Crystals to the RSP and my SPS hated it! Not saying the salt is bad, rather seemingly innocent changes effect things we simply cannot measure!

1. Carbon offline
2. Slight increase to PO4
3. Monti problem
4. Zooanthids/Pectinia???

 

[Macdaddynick1]

+1 on AA, if you only have that 1 monti, I would suggest just tossing it all, and don't buy another monti for at least a 3-6 months, those parasites are really hard to get rid of . pectinias do like lower light, if your po4 is truly a 0 that could be giving you the problems with softies as well as sps. ( doing a waterchange cleans your water even more even if you took the gfo offline)get a bigger fish, you won't do a dent in your po4 with those fish in a 100 gal. For now, feed all of your lps and the anemone with some unwashed mysis . Also if you dose kalk over the ato, since it's summertime you could be evaporating a lot of water, hence you can be dumping too much kalk. As to the last point Red Sea could have a very high alk, if you're getting the alk spike during the w/c while your tank has very low nutrients your stuff will be receding.

 

[jsker]

@Drauka99 ice correct, your ca and my are low. Rule of thumb ca x3 =mg and a good my level is 1350 for the type of tank you are runnig

 

[guitarvp]

Thanks for the replies and advice everyone.

Carbon is off, monti's are coming out and I'll be feeding a bit more to try to increase the PO4 slightly. We'll see if there as an improvement over the next few weeks.

 

[guitarvp]

So the wife just mentioned to me that something doesn't seem to be right with the RO/DI water after changing out sediment filter, carbon blocks, and DI Resin. We use RO/DI for drinking water and I just tasted it and there is definitely something off. I was sure to run the filter for about 30min after initially changing out the canisters so I'm not sure if something is leeching from the one of the stages or what. It would make sense that the water could be the culprit since that is when most of my corals took a turn for the worse 24 hours after the water change...

 

[maroun.c]

Are you RO or RODI Water? RODI would be very bitter because of the very low TDS. It's advised to drink RO after a bypass and regulating the TDS to somewhere around 100 you also need a coconut carbon filter at last stage to improve the taste. When I place a new membrane water goes a bit more bitter due to the lower tds.

 

[guitarvp]

RO/DI...we've used it regularly without noticing any taste whatsoever which is why we thought it was off when we tasted it today.

The only other possible culprit I can think of at this point is either something with salt or something with my mixing container. I am going to buy already made saltwater from one of my LFS and keep my fingers crossed that I see some improvement. I hate having to use the process of elimination to troubleshoot and identify the issue.

 

[McMullen]

Water very well could be the culprit. Process of elimination is a pain.........and to add another thorn, so to speak, it takes days and sometimes weeks in reef systems to seen cause and effect. Keep us updated!

 

[tcarter1936]

You treated for flatworms,did you have flat worms ??? If so they are toxic when they die and probably poisoned tank I would do some more water changes and see if things stabilize

 

[guitarvp]

You treated for flatworms,did you have flat worms ??? If so they are toxic when they die and probably poisoned tank I would do some more water changes and see if things stabilize

Yes I had zoa eating nudi's and I was running carbon as recommended to help remove toxins from the nudis.

 

[tcarter1936]

I just don't see low phosphate causing such a widespread issue so fast with a variety of coral just my opinion ,I have had issues from too clean of a tank before but never had it affect most my tank. All the post carry weight but I'm on the fence on this one.

 

[tcarter1936]

I'm no expert on nudis but they are not flat worms maybe someone with more knowledge on nudis dying in tank could chime in

 

[reefpeeper]

First of all ro/di water is not good to be drinking. It absolutely strips everything beneficial from it. Second as far as the carbon u were using. Was it the first time u used it? Meaning first batch from container. It could possibly be a bad batch. I remember a while back kent had a bad batch and it affected a lot of people's tanks.

 

[guitarvp]

The carbon in the reactor was changed prior to the water change. It is BRS ROX Carbon...the carbon blocks in the RO/DI are also new and were changed prior to the water change. Didn't really know RO/DI was bad to drink as we also use a zero water pitcher for drinking water.

 

[maroun.c]

Maybe a Triton test just to eliminate a heavy metal spike in the tank.
I would change all filters in the RODI to be on safe side again as cost is minimum and especially that you're drinking the water. Would advise to T your output post RO and drink that.
A new salt bucket maybe as added security then running a water change is not risky and I would run a few to offset what is wrong.mchange Carbon in reactor and cross check your results with different test kits at LFS or a fellow reefer testing for you. I just exited a 4 years elimination process to rule out what was wrong in my tank and understand how ugly that can get