Help a frustrated reefer out

[Justin Thain]

Hello fellow reefers,
i am reaching out because i really could use some help, and at a lose. I am having difficulty keeping SPS (birdsnest) alive, and from what i read, it shouldn't be that hard. I have purchased several different types and they only stay around for 2-5 weeks, before succumbing to some mystery culprit. The typical stages the coral goes through, is as follows; I introduce the species into my tank, and all appears fine for a couple of days. Then after a week or two, the polyps start to seem to be following off in random places. With the rest of the polyps not exactly happy, but not all the way closed up. Then slowly but surely more and more polyps start to disappear, with no real pattern, until it looks like a dog with mange. Here are the pictures of the most recent victims, keep in mind the large birdsnest it now just a white stick.




Now for the specifics, my tank is a 150gallon (tall) with a 35 gallon sump. The whole system is about 10 months old. I have a refugium with the light cycle inverted with my display tank. My display lights consist of 4 xr15 radion pro's set to 60% intensity. I have 100ml of biopellets in a phosban reactor. i have a de-nitrite reactor, and running GFO and activated carbon. Dosing with Kalkwasser, and 2 part BRS solutions.

My parameters
NH3 - 0
Nitrate -20 to 40 ppm
Nitrite - 0
Phosphate - 0.03 ppm
Calcium - 410 ppm
Alkalinity - 9.5dkh
Magnesium - 1400ppm
Salinity - 1.025

To help with my troubleshooting i had a triton analysis, here are the results






I also have lost other corals, like monti caps, and some acros. I do have red planet acro that hasn't died on me, although is also hasn't grown much over the past 8 months. I have some acans which seem to be doing great, along with frog spawn and bicolor hammer head.

This issue has been going on for about 5 months now, and i have tried many different things (one at a time) to see if it resolves my problem. More frequent water changes, less frequent, higher light, lower light, more flow, less flow. Again i want to stress that any changes i do, i do very slowly over a long period of time to see if any positive changes take place. I have not had swings in my Ph, alkalinity, or calcium. I also haven't seen any fish nibbling on the corals (all reef safe fish). Nor have I seen pest, (I also look in the evenings).

I am at a loss of what my next move should be.

Thoughts?

 

[Diesel]

It seems all you # are in check except the No3.
What do you test with on your No3?

Looking at your corals it looks like I see bite marks on your Birdnests first pic.
The second one looks like it's starving.
What kind of light you have it under?
What kind of filters/reactors are you running?
Flow....... tell us something about your flow?

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

 

[Justin Thain]

I believe what you're seeing in the first picture is where algae has started to grow over the skeleton, but I could be wrong.

The lights are 4 radion xr15 pro, set on 60 percent intensity.

Filter is a normal filter sock, realtors are listed above, running GFO, activated carbon, de-nitrate reactor, biopellets.

Main Flow is from the maxspec 150 gyre, also have a small prop wave maker for additional random flow.

 

[do_0b]

I find with SPS the main thing is keeping the big 3 consistent (ca, mg, alk) do you have a doser? Try lowering your nitrates its on the high end. Also is the coral in a medium to high flow area?

 

[mniemann]

That's a lot of lighting capabilities, check your par.

 

[dacianb]

My first LPS was dropped in tank at NO3 of 40. Nice and green piece became brown, no extensions at all and then half dead in few days (white skeleton).
I made massive efforts to lower the level and when I reached NO3 - 5 I saw some heads coming out again. After almost one month kept at 0-0.25 NO3 heads are out all day long, but still a very dull coloration.
The dead parts are dead and will never recover - I just hope to be encrusted again.
Since then, I added 5 more pieces all doing great - nothing changed to the tank except NO3.

Depend by your test kit this NO3 of 20-40 can be over 40

 

[Diesel]

I found it questionable that you're running GFO, activated carbon, de-nitrate reactor, biopellets all at the same time and you getting a reading of 20 to 40 ppm on your No3.
IMO you made a error on testing.
With all that to lower your No3 they must be starving on food which results also the color on your bird nest.
Than again I see algae growing on the rocks which is a result of high No3.
Your target No3 needs to be below 5ppm or even better between 3 and 2 ppm.
Also I don't rule out pest, you mentioned that you looked for pest but AEFW you can't see on the corals till you dipped it and see them coming off.

 

[reefwiser]

What is your acclimation of these corals to your tank water. An how are you acclimating them to your lighting. In cases of 2 to 3 weeks the general cause is acclimation.
We did a SPS insider on this.

 

[wish]

I think you should dip (coral rx) your birds nest an hour or later when the lights turn off.

 

[June2881]

What kind of fish do you have?

 

[Justin Thain]

What kind of fish do you have?

Bellus Angel
Blue hippo
Blonde naso
Sail fin
4 clown fish
3 Blue chromis
2 purple firefish
2 Leopard wrasse

 

[sir bonkers]

Man you sure are running a lot of products. In my experience I have ran either bio pellets or gfo but never at the same time. In both cases my corals looked terrible. Also I have never ran gfo next to a refugium since essentially they're both targeting the same thing, phosphate. I think that with the amount of products you're using the water is too clean and is starving your corals out of some essential nutrients they need. Have you tried getting a second opinion? Have a reef buddy test your water and see what comes back.

 

[Justin Thain]

I hear what you're saying, although the reason i put those supporting devices in place was because the refugium wasn't cutting it. I had high phosphate (1.0ppm) and my nitrate was 20-40 (testing with different vendors, and LFS). i have never been able to get my Nitrate below 20, even with water changes, which is why i started running biopellets. 4 weeks ago is when i hooked up the biopellet reactor, and introduced ~1/4 of the recommended level (currently running 100ml). Was planning on this weekend increasing the amount.

Thanks everyone for throwing out ideas, by no means am i discounting what you're saying. Just trying to provide all the info, in a compact format.

 

[June2881]

In my experience, If your phosphate and phosphorous are going to be that low you need to bring your alk down. And it also seems pretty odd that your nitrates are that high, I'd agree with some others, ask a friend or lfs to check your nitrates for you. Also, a buddy of mine had a pair of bellus Angels that were making snacks out of sps corals and some lps. Suppose to be reef safe but with fish it's commonly trial and error.

 

[horseplay]

Many things can be responsible. You have to work to eliminate the possibilities. A few things I noticed you might want to consider.

1. Running too many reactors. I would turn off all except BP and work on getting NO3 below 10ppm. Once your NO3 reach a low level increase feeding and increase BP dosage accordingly. You want high import/high export.
2. Your light might be too strong. Do you acclimate corals in the low light area?
3. Salinity should be 35ppm/1.0264. Yours a little low. Do you calibrate your refractometer?
4. I would get ALK down to NSW level 7dkh. Keep in mind there is a margin of error when measuring ALK and your may very well be higher than 10. High Alk + strong light and low nutrient is a bad combination for SPS.
5. You might have bugs. I am not really familiar with this so can't really offer any opinion.