HELP! Corals closed after sump install.

[Xmoji]

Hi everyone. I am starting to get really nervous about the condition of my corals. About a week ago I installed a sump to my reef tank. I have since noticed a change in color of my coral, negative change, a lot of the coral polyps are closed or are not extending like they used to. My hammer coral seems to have tissue recessing. Here is some background info on the tank.

The tank has been running for about a year and a half. The tank is a 29 gallon it used to have a hob skimmer and canister filter. I was religious with the husbandry of the tank. Weekly water changes, cleaning the canister filter, cleaning skimmer and things looked great. My corals were thriving and my tank looked healthy.

The reason why I switched to a sump was to clean up the look of the dt and to installing batter quieter skimmer. I added a diy 3 chamber sump out of a new 30 gallon tank. I used silicone by aqueon which was meant for aquariums. This new sump has only been running for about a week and the health, color and overall condition of the colors has declined considerably. Pink birdsnest, Duncan's, pink lemonade, meteor shower, blue acro and acans are closed for most of the day. When they do open they are only open for a little while and are not fully extended. My hammer with 12+ head heads was so healthy and the under skin was so thick and healthy is now recessed and seems to be rtning. If I knew this would have happened I would have stayed with my old setup.

Here are today's water parameters
DKH 9
Mg 1600
Ca 450

Any help, thoughts or ideas are appreciated. :sad:

 

[eg8r210]

Are you noticing any algae issues? Could be a mini-cycle happening. How long did you let the silicone cure? I have always given it a couple days however there are some people on the forums that get drastic and wait a month before adding water.

 

[Xmoji]

Yeah actually I started to notice some cyano on the sand bed. I had that issue once before and got rid of it but it just starting to come back.

I let the silicone cure for about 2-3 days before I added water.

 

[Big Dog]

Sump have a fuge with LR?

 

[Xmoji]

Yes, two pieces of LR with some chaeto and caulerpa.

 

[Stephanie11]

Also check which kind of silicone you used. Some have an anti bacterial agent. A few don't. Rule of thumb is let cure for a week before water.

 

[Xmoji]

I used the one for aquariums, picked it up at the lfs by aqueon.

 

[Big Dog]

What did you use for plumbing?

 

[eg8r210]

You might just be going through a small cycle due to the extra water.

 

[Skydvr]

Depending on what you had for media in the canister and how you maintained it, you may have greatly reduced you bacterial colony and caused a cycle. If you were doing something like just running carbon and changing it out every couple of weeks, you probably wouldn't see a change from that, but if you had media with a large surface area (sponges, rings, etc) and didn't transfer that over to the sump, you probaly would see a cycle of some sort.

What is your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings?

Did you use live rock or dry rock? If the rock itself was live rock, but not fully cured you may be seeing a cycle from that. Possibly phosphates from the rock as well, may want to test phosphate. Dry rock could add to the phosphates and cycle from debris in the rock.