Help SPS dying for the past 9 months

[Twocorns]

What's the brown stuff all over the first coral photo?

 

[smh254]

It's algae that has grown on dead spots.

 

[smh254]

The 2nd and 3rd pic is how it starts and the 1st is how it ends up. Then I'll go and snip off all dead parts.

 

[skim]

I was looking closer at your picks and everything seems to stable with great numbers, I would start looking for pests this is one and I have seen them do what your are seeing. Here is a pic and an article from EB.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/eb/index.php

 

[terri_ann]

Any correlation between the events and water changes? Zoas and mushrooms (softie's) give off toxins that SPS do not like... Above suggestions/thoughts are good also :0) I would rule out one possibility at a time. There definitely is a problem as a stable and healthy tank would not have the issue that you're seeing. Good luck!

 

[bklynreef]

If there are no pest issues I would think it's a phosphate issue. You PO4 should be at .03-.06 for your corals to be happy. Having no phosphate will quickly bleach your tips the algae comes in a Browns them. Your having swings of good n bad because when it's good you po4 is normal and when it bad your po4 is at zero or worse. Feed your fish n corals more then you will see if this is the case.

 

[Twocorns]

What's a good phos test kit? my salifert only goes from zero to 1, to 5, etc. doesn't have values lower than 1

 

[Twocorns]

NVM, I was thinking of a different test.

 

[twilliard]

Try to expand the thought outside of chemistry.
More often than not people will overlook something as simple as bacteria

 

[skim]

Hanna Phosphorous test will give very low readings.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Having imbalanced nutrients creates it's own host of problems, including increased coral mortality.

I'm with twillard, there is a great big biological world in there that could be causing it. Leave no stone unturned.

 

[Cory]

Id suspect flourish nitrogen. Its for plants right? They might not care as much about copper because plants can tolerate it, but corals cannot.

 

[smh254]

I dip everything the goes into the tank and I have removed and dipped multiple corals over the past year to see if I can figure out what's going on. No luck
@twilliard nice to see your still here and happy bday! Can you elaborate on the bacteria a little more? I have dipped corals in iodide with no help. I have some microbacter7 that I have never used. Do you think I should start dosing it? Flourish nitrogen is only dosed when no3 get low and this is very seldom. I have this problem even if I'm not dosing flourish. So here is my next step remove filter sock and skimmer until I get a reading on my Hanna po4 tester. Should I remove skimmer and add an air pump or just remove collection cup and let skimmer overflow into the sump?

 

[smh254]

Just took this pic and tested ALK.

 

[Cory]

Do you have a different alk test other than hanna?

1.135 grams of baking soda in 1 gallon of distilled water is 10dkh. You can make this and test your kit. Sometimes hanna has bad batches. Ive had one.

 

[smh254]

Yes Red Sea 7.6 and salifert 7.3

 

[Aquaman024]

I am battling the same problem as you .... I also tried flourish nitrogen to raise nitrate.

I read somewhere that flourish nitrogen is derived from Urea, which might not be good for SPS coral. I stopped using this and increased feeding and got rid of the biopellet reactor I was running. My nitrates stay at 1-2 ppm now. I also keep ALK between 8-9. Phosphate at zero is bad.

If you have some algae growing, algae is probably getting it before your SPS. I ran phosphate at 0 and my SPS lost all color and I saw no polyps, even with small amount of nitrate. Have you tried running blue light only to get rid of the algae? Maybe this will help your coral get the small amount of phosphate they need.

 

[smh254]

No algae in the tank other than Microalgae. I do have some cyano growing in spots.

 

[smh254]

I do have this growing on a rock in the tank which I think is so kind of microalgae. Will get a better pic when lights come on.

 

[smh254]

Ok so I'm thinking my tank doesn't like me. It seems like this problem happens more when I'm home or have people over. I live in 800sq foot condo. I can see where my pH is lower on the weekends and I can see a drop when I have guest over. I decided to recalibrate my pH probe this morning. Before calibration pH was 7.97 this is low time of the day. After calibration I got 7.70. Could this be the problem?