Having issues with new corals. Help!

[TigNJaxx]

Hello. I have just added a new tang and a few frags. I lost the frogspawn already and have seen the elegance coral start to shrivel. Now, my Duncan that I already had and was doing well is fading. One of the Duncan's heads is gone. I dipped the elegance a couple nights ago and it appeared ok today. But tonight it's shriveling you and looks terrible again. To add to it my Duncan corals and possibly my torch don't look like they are doing too well either . They were fine previous, but also new to the tank. Water parameters are good. Calcium a little low, at 380. Water change completed.

Having a new tang and being worried about the effect the carbon may have on it For the tangs safety, I took out the carbon filter in my refugium yesterday. I am seeing brown hair algae and have been trying to maintain that. Uggg carbon or no carbon?? Could this have upset the balance? Mind you, I lost the frogspawn last week, prior to removing the carbon. Suggestions and advice needed!

 

[Duffer]

The only thing I can say is carbon for me makes my corals very unhappy,but others have success with carbon

if you are going to keep corals you will definitely want better test kits, api are junk

 

[TigNJaxx]

I knew that was coming. Lol. I will be. Starting up costs can sneak up on you. One new addition at a time.

 

[TigNJaxx]

Hello. I have just added a new tang and a few frags. I lost the frogspawn already and have seen the elegance coral start to shrivel. Now, my Duncan that I already had and was doing well is fading. One of the Duncan's heads is gone. I dipped the elegance a couple nights ago and it appeared ok today. But tonight it's shriveling you and looks terrible again. To add to it my Duncan corals and possibly my torch don't look like they are doing too well either . They were fine previous, but also new to the tank. Water parameters are good. Calcium a little low, at 380. Water change completed.

Having a new tang and being worried about the effect the carbon may have on it For the tangs safety, I took out the carbon filter in my refugium yesterday. I am seeing brown hair algae and have been trying to maintain that. Uggg carbon or no carbon?? Could this have upset the balance? Mind you, I lost the frogspawn last week, prior to removing the carbon. Suggestions and advice needed!

@T-J , @mojo8427
The worse pictures were earlier this morning. The corals have opened up some, but still don't look as healthy as they were. I have been blowing the brown hair algae off the rocks etc. and the water had been slightly cloudy. Maintenance done as well as a good 20% water change. Syphoned the sand bed as well. What else, if anything can I do? Water parameters seem good as far as I can tell. Do you think brown algae is a possibility here??

 

[T-J]

How new is this tank? How big is it? How many fish are in it?
It looks like your nitrates are around zero. I would increase them to 5-10. Do you have a PO4 test kit? If not, get one and test that as well. What kind of lighting are you using?
Also, elegance coral can be very hard to keep, even for experienced reefers.
Looking at the tank, I'm going with it's not mature enough for these corals.
And yes, dump API test kits.

 

[TigNJaxx]

@T-J​

Scared it's brown slime algae. If it is, what do I do??! I was under the understanding that elegance corals were n the easy/beginner side of coral. Newbie mistake I guess.

Tank is 75 gal, has been running for approx 9 months. I added a damsel for months, then introduced snails and crab clean up crew. After 5-6 months, I added the cardinals, then 3 shrimp. I just added the tang.

Lights are Orphek bars, Blue day. I have Orphek UV, but typically don't run them. Orphek Blue as well for late night. I run the tank without lights all night.

I have my eye on the new Hannah tester. It's going to happen soon I'm sure. Put carbon back in refugium then, or no? And mostly, is this brown slime algae? If so, remove coral and onbserve the rest? Yes, I have the po4 test. It's reads .25 I have Neptune apex running as well.

 

[BanjoBandito]

Take a look at this thread -

HELP - 2 Year Old Elegance Coral Sliming Up

Hello, Im usually on the other side of these posts, but things happen... I've had an Aussie pink tip elegance for 2 years that has done well and grown a lot. Two days ago, I noticed it wasn't as open as usual, thought nothing of it. Then after the second day of it moderately closed, I measured...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[TigNJaxx]

Po4 test after a few mins:

 

[TigNJaxx]

How new is this tank? How big is it? How many fish are in it?
It looks like your nitrates are around zero. I would increase them to 5-10. Do you have a PO4 test kit? If not, get one and test that as well. What kind of lighting are you using?
Also, elegance coral can be very hard to keep, even for experienced reefers.
Looking at the tank, I'm going with it's not mature enough for these corals.
And yes, dump API test kits.

Please see reply below

 

[attiland]

Hello. I have just added a new tang and a few frags. I lost the frogspawn already and have seen the elegance coral start to shrivel. Now, my Duncan that I already had and was doing well is fading. One of the Duncan's heads is gone. I dipped the elegance a couple nights ago and it appeared ok today. But tonight it's shriveling you and looks terrible again. To add to it my Duncan corals and possibly my torch don't look like they are doing too well either . They were fine previous, but also new to the tank. Water parameters are good. Calcium a little low, at 380. Water change completed.

Having a new tang and being worried about the effect the carbon may have on it For the tangs safety, I took out the carbon filter in my refugium yesterday. I am seeing brown hair algae and have been trying to maintain that. Uggg carbon or no carbon?? Could this have upset the balance? Mind you, I lost the frogspawn last week, prior to removing the carbon. Suggestions and advice needed!

Make sure you target the right levels
Salinity. 35 ppt
Calcium. 465 ppm !!!!!
Magnesium. 1390 ppm
Alkalinity. 8-9dKH
Nitrate. 5-2 ppm !!!!!
Phosphate. 0.1 ppm- 0.05 !!!!!

for your algae issue you better get a microscope.

 

[TigNJaxx]

Make sure you target the right levels
Salinity. 35 ppt
Calcium. 465 ppm !!!!!
Magnesium. 1390 ppm
Alkalinity. 8-9dKH
Nitrate. 5-2 ppm !!!!!
Phosphate. 0.1 ppm- 0.05 !!!!!

for your algae issue you better get a microscope.

Calcium seems to be hard for me to get into acceptable levels in this tank. Constantly battling that. Will aim for those parameters for sure! Thanks for the information!

 

[attiland]

Calcium seems to be hard for me to get into acceptable levels in this tank. Constantly battling that. Will aim for those parameters for sure! Thanks for the information!

Buy the 3 major dosing ingredients mg, ca, alk. You didn’t need it all right now but will do later anyway.
LPS can be upset about low nitrate and phosphate and low ca.

I would (and soon many will have a go at me) buy the doser too and instead of trying to do everything by water changes start to prepare for dosing.

you have some time but you need to fix your parameters for sure

 

[Mxracer65]

Calcium seems to be hard for me to get into acceptable levels in this tank. Constantly battling that. Will aim for those parameters for sure! Thanks for the information!

That suggests that your magnesium is low. If your mag is low you will struggle to maintain calcium and possibly also struggle with stable alk levels.

 

[TigNJaxx]

That suggests that your magnesium is low. If your mag is low you will struggle to maintain calcium and possibly also struggle with stable alk levels.

This was great information. Thank you all for helping me out. I research alot, but apparently missed this chapter. Lesson learned the hard way. Oops!!