Help, I killed an indestructible coral!

[ZoWhat]

Given what looks like Dino growing on your substrate....I would get my bacteria in balance before trying another Acro. Get stable NO3 PO4 numbers for 2mos

 

[JustAnt]

Given what looks like Dino growing on your substrate....I would get my bacteria in balance before trying another Acro. Get stable NO3 PO4 numbers for 2mos

Oh know you think I have dinos!?! My substrate is covered in something. If I stir the sand it comes back in a day. It seems it’s only on the surface of the substrate

 

[HOOPDEEZ]

Looks like it could be cyano as well, which would be more likely in a system with high nutrients. Cyano grows well in areas with inadequate flow, which could be part of the problem. I also think it could be shock from a different light source. It seems unlikely to bleach from too little light if it was initially placed in the middle of the tank.

 

[AquaRaider44]

Thanks for the feedback. I am fearful to get into that situation of zero nitrates&phosphates but I guess I’ve let them get to high.

Doser arrives Thursday. Got myself a used 1 yo GHL 2.1 doser

I probably wouldn't have the issue of them being 0 if I didn't use a double dose of everything and followed the directions . I would rather error on the side of low and have to feed to keep it up.

 

[AquaRaider44]

Looks like it could be cyano as well, which would be more likely in a system with high nutrients. Cyano grows well in areas with inadequate flow, which could be part of the problem. I also think it could be shock from a different light source. It seems unlikely to bleach from too little light if it was initially placed in the middle of the tank.

I agree with you it didn't bleach from too much or too little light but it does need more light. I think it bleached from those dang nitrates.

 

[JustAnt]

Ok the plan to save the green slimmer is in play:

1- I dosed 90ml of B-ionic magnesium today. According to the instructions this should raise my Mg by 15ppm a day or 100 ppm per week. So in a week I should be at 1300.

2-I moved the green slimer to the Frag rack which is high up near lights ,but not directly under the light.

3- I am making saltwater for a water change to help bring the nitrates down

4- I started cutting back on feeding. No more phyto feast or oyster feast this week and moving forward will feed the corals 1x a week. Fish will receive 1 cube per day 6 days a week.

Anything I missed??? Thanks!!!

 

[Reef Nutrition]

We have customers that feed Oyster-Feast and Phyto-Feast every day without issue. Over feeding anything will result in excess nutrient, if that is what's happening here. Calling our products "nutrient bombs" is a little misleading. There are people that have never used our feeds that have this same issue.

@JustAnt What is the dose you are using with our products? A very simple solution is to decrease the dose instead of decreasing feeding frequency.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Chad

 

[ilyad]

Ok the plan to save the green slimmer is in play:

1- I dosed 90ml of B-ionic magnesium today. According to the instructions this should raise my Mg by 15ppm a day or 100 ppm per week. So in a week I should be at 1300.

2-I moved the green slimer to the Frag rack which is high up near lights ,but not directly under the light.

3- I am making saltwater for a water change to help bring the nitrates down

4- I started cutting back on feeding. No more phyto feast or oyster feast this week and moving forward will feed the corals 1x a week. Fish will receive 1 cube per day 6 days a week.

Anything I missed??? Thanks!!!

I think your plan of action is pretty good. Just to give you some additional information that I learned in my personal trial and errors. SPS usually bleach super fast if its too much light, they'll lose their color in 24-48 hours. SPS will brown out if its just not enough light or correct amount of light but very high nutrients. SPS can bleach slowly if you dont give enough light.

When I was first dialing in my LED lights on my tank everyone kept saying to be careful with LED and start at like 30% intensity, which is what I did. Once I introduced SPS, I saw them slowly bleach, and though that the lights were too much and hence kept moving the SPS lower or adjusting my lights to less... went down all the way to 20%. Finally, someone gave me the same breakdown I just wrote for you up top, and I started to raise my lights slowly over time and now sit at about 45% intensity... which is much higher than where I even started. Any new corals adjust fairly quickly so I know that the light isnt too strong.

Here are a few more things to keep in mind... now that the coral is super stressed, you need to increase its light slowly (so putting it on a frag rack and moving it up and up little by little is a good plan). But that being said, I think staghorns (which the green slimer is part of) do prefer higher light as they are typically found in more shallow lagoons in the wild, and get pretty high amounts of light.

 

[JustAnt]

We have customers that feed Oyster-Feast and Phyto-Feast every day without issue. Over feeding anything will result in excess nutrient, if that is what's happening here. Calling our products "nutrient bombs" is a little misleading. There are people that have never used our feeds that have this same issue.

@JustAnt What is the dose you are using with our products? A very simple solution is to decrease the dose instead of decreasing feeding frequency.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Chad

Hi Chad
First, I love your products and have been using them for 3yrs. The fact that you guys have a booth every year at NY reefapalooza is fantastic. I pick their brains all the time and this year when I spoke to them about a clam I was buying they gave me a sample of food especially for bivalves.

Now about the amount I’m dosing. I don’t think I’m dosing it in excess but you tell me. My tank is a RedSea reefer 250 liters so let’s say 55 gallon display and about 10 gallon sump. Based on this I have been dosing 1/2 teaspoon a day, which I felt was conservative based on the dosing instructions of 1-2 teaspoons per 100 gallon. Knowing that do you still think I should decrease the dose instead of the feeding frequency?

Appreciate your input! Thanks

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Hi Chad
First, I love your products and have been using them for 3yrs. The fact that you guys have a booth every year at NY reefapalooza is fantastic. I pick their brains all the time and this year when I spoke to them about a clam I was buying they gave me a sample of food especially for bivalves.

Now about the amount I’m dosing. I don’t think I’m dosing it in excess but you tell me. My tank is a RedSea reefer 250 liters so let’s say 55 gallon display and about 10 gallon sump. Based on this I have been dosing 1/2 teaspoon a day, which I felt was conservative based on the dosing instructions of 1-2 teaspoons per 100 gallon. Knowing that do you still think I should decrease the dose instead of the feeding frequency?

Appreciate your input! Thanks

The amount you feed should be based on the number of inhabitants you are trying to feed. If your tank is lightly stocked, then that may be way to much, especially considering your nutrient problem.

Think of it this way, if someone told you that they had a 100 gallon tank and fed 2 cubes of food a day, would you think it was too much. Then add the information that the tank only had one small clown fish and your answer would probably change.

 

[JustAnt]

The amount you feed should be based on the number of inhabitants you are trying to feed. If your tank is lightly stocked, then that may be way to much, especially considering your nutrient problem.

Think of it this way, if someone told you that they had a 100 gallon tank and fed 2 cubes of food a day, would you think it was too much. Then add the information that the tank only had one small clown fish and your answer would probably change.

Good point. I do have a lot of corals though.
Coral:
Frogspawn
2x hammers
2x Torch
Various zoa
Various GSP
Octospawn
2x RBTA 1 large 1 small
Montipora - large
Gorgonian - Photosynthetic
2x Ricordea

Frags: (all doing fine)
Red planet
Bird of Paradise
Birds nest
Oregon blue tort
Unknown digi

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

You have a mix of problems, first your nitrates are way too high 5-15 are what I target. Your po4 is also a little high I personally don’t run any higher then 0.10 and many people don’t even like it that high. What’s your rodi water system like? I would also recommend stronger lights of at least have the coral as high as possible. Also a dosing pump is needed imo with hand dosing you will have all swings and sps won’t stand a chance which out of all of this is probably the most important STABLE ALK.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Hi Chad
First, I love your products and have been using them for 3yrs. The fact that you guys have a booth every year at NY reefapalooza is fantastic. I pick their brains all the time and this year when I spoke to them about a clam I was buying they gave me a sample of food especially for bivalves.

Now about the amount I’m dosing. I don’t think I’m dosing it in excess but you tell me. My tank is a RedSea reefer 250 liters so let’s say 55 gallon display and about 10 gallon sump. Based on this I have been dosing 1/2 teaspoon a day, which I felt was conservative based on the dosing instructions of 1-2 teaspoons per 100 gallon. Knowing that do you still think I should decrease the dose instead of the feeding frequency?

Appreciate your input! Thanks

Try a 1/4 TSP. If your parameters are off, why are your others corals not suffering? You have other SPS corals in there. This is a sincere question.

Chad

 

[JustAnt]

Try a 1/4 TSP. If your parameters are off, why are your others corals not suffering? You have other SPS corals in there. This is a sincere question.

Chad

I honestly don’t know why my other sps are doing just fine but they are. Here is a pic of birds nest and bird of paradise with polyps extended.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I honestly don’t know why my other sps are doing just fine but they are. Here is a pic of birds nest and bird of paradise with polyps extended.

I'm a big fan of Seriatopora. How long have you had this colony?

 

[JustAnt]

I'm a big fan of Seriatopora. How long have you had this colony?

I bought it at reefapalooza NY so about a month. It has shown growth already

 

[Hemmdog]

We have customers that feed Oyster-Feast and Phyto-Feast every day without issue. Over feeding anything will result in excess nutrient, if that is what's happening here. Calling our products "nutrient bombs" is a little misleading. There are people that have never used our feeds that have this same issue.

@JustAnt What is the dose you are using with our products? A very simple solution is to decrease the dose instead of decreasing feeding frequency.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Chad

My apologies I didn’t mean any form of malice whatsoever. More so trying to emphasize to use less and more sparingly if high nutrients are an issue. I use your products myself on occasion. Unfortunately for my tanks, we had a long power outage here over a month ago and about $200 of RN products went bad in my fridge I will rebuild my inventory eventually. Sorry again for improperly describing your products with blanket statements.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

My apologies I didn’t mean any form of malice whatsoever. More so trying to emphasize to use less and more sparingly if high nutrients are an issue. I use your products myself on occasion. Unfortunately for my tanks, we had a long power outage here over a month ago and about $200 of RN products went bad in my fridge I will rebuild my inventory eventually. Sorry again for improperly describing your products with blanket statements.

I appreciate your response; it means a lot.

Sorry to hear about the product that went bad. If you are at the Silicon Valley Coral Farmers Market on September 14th (http://www.coralfarmersmarket.com/cfmprotour_siliconvalley_2019_summer.htm), we can help get you stocked up with free product. Make sure to get there early so that I can get you a goodie bag.

Best,
Chad

 

[LARedstickreefer]

Corals will “bleach” from too little light too. I know, I went through $1k in corals before I found out I was trying to run 50-80 par on my acros. Got a par meter and immediately jacked my hydra26hd up to 85w. I saw improvements and then added another hydra26hd.

I have a Red Sea reefer 170 and my lights are 8in over the water line. Running 85w each gets me 150-200 par on the bottom. The corals are getting 300-350 par.

Everyone CHECK YOUR PAR!

 

[Lexatron Prime]

Nitrates are definitely high. Maybe you have heavy metals in there ...

Just do big water changes whilst your investigating.