Help!! What's happening??

[PaulKreider]

So over the last couple of months I've had some problem with sps in my tanks. I lost a few frags that came through a rough shipment but that was almost expected.

But about a month ago my green slimed started looking as if it had burnt tips. My sunset monti turned completely pale(still alive) and now my $500 efflo is showing skin recession at the tips. Another weird thing to note is that the under sides of the large corals like the green slimed has no skin, and skeleton is exposed, I assumed this was from lack of light. It's the only coral showing this symptom.

Parameters:
120 g+ 40 sump with cheato
Alk- steady 11.2-11.5 for months
Cal-400 steady
Mag-1380-1420
Ph-8.3
Phosphates- 0.02
Nitrates- 0.75
All Red Sea tests


Other notable things
Two weeks ago my skimmer continuously over flooded for nearly a week with no reason (nothing was added to the tank prior)

Did a large 30g wc the week after that

I upgraded my lights to add more uv/ royal blue about 3-4 months ago.

I have been running nox Carbon in a mini reactor along with having cheato growing.

I can't think of why this is happening.. Heavy metals? Evil hermit crabs?? Parameters are steady as ever this is really stumping me.

 

[PaulKreider]

Currently at work, I will post pictures to better show the recession tonight.

 

[fragit]

Did you check your salinity after the skimmer hiccup?

 

[renato120]

I think your ALK is too high! I would slowly try to make it around 8 or 9.
Burnt tips could be too much light as well!
Everytime you switch a bulb you should raise your fixture a little or switch one per week.

 

[PaulKreider]

Salinity has been stable 1.024, it just overflowed into the sump so no water was lost.

Thinking the water is getting too clean possibly? This also happened around the time I added lights, and started running chaeto.

 

[renato120]

Unless you have too much cheato it could have be. Cheato doesnt really do anything unless its not a lot of it.

 

[PaulKreider]

If I had a copper problem wouldn't my shrimps/hermits die off first? So since they're still alive I can rule that out correct?

 

[PaulKreider]

Here's some pictures to help explain

 

[renato120]

I say lighting problem! What kind of lighting you have? How high is your fixture above the water?
High alk will burn the tips as well. For me 11.5 is way too high. Most of people here run around 8/9.

 

[PaulKreider]

Everything I've read says alk really isn't a problem <13 as long as it's not a ULNS which I am not running. And lighting wise I have DIY rapid led setup 18 cool whites/ 8 uv/ 4 blue/ 28 royal blue 3w crees on a bluefish controller.

Current lighting schedule

 

[Salty1962]

Alk is high, Ca is low and I believe these items with lighting could be causing you issues as mentioned by renato120.

 

[melev]

How do you measure .75 ppm nitrate? Do you mean 75 ppm nitrate?

 

[PaulKreider]

Red Sea nitrate kit goes from .25 to 64ppm.

 

[melev]

Red Sea nitrate kit goes from .25 to 64ppm.

The reason I asked you is because my reef recently had a major Nitrate spike and my corals looked similar on the bottom side, STNing. Nitrates were nearly 100ppm and I've got them back down to 20 at the moment. .75ppm is nothing - I don't see how that could harm your corals.

Unless you have hardly any fish and the corals are starving?

 

[PaulKreider]

For a 120 tank I currently only have

1- 4" yellow tang
2- rainfordi gobys
1- 3" chromis
2- adult percs
- 4in lyre tail anthias

I know that's pretty light especially with the amount of filtration I have going.

 

[PaulKreider]

Especially with the large amount of chaeto running right now ( ball fills the 11gallon section in fuge) and I fill my mini reactor full of carbon... I could possibly be stripping all the nutrients away?

 

[melev]

Especially with the large amount of chaeto running right now ( ball fills the 11gallon section in fuge) and I fill my mini reactor full of carbon... I could possibly be stripping all the nutrients away?

You have a very light fishload. I'd suggest adding a few more fish, or feed a little more heavily / frequently.

 

[brandon429]

Also, isn't LED shading a known SPS issue whereas no other disease is implicated? the pics above show zero light getting up and under. was wondering if this affects others sps tanks, are they keeping mass active in those shaded spots too? If so, its the heterotrophic feeding holding course, they are able to translocate nutrients produced up top + combined with direct feeding down below and they sustain?

 

[renato120]

You should have 0 nitrates with the amount of fish you have unless you feed heavy 3x a day.
Im not familiar with led's. Doing big water changes are no resolving the problem. You taking lots of good nutrients that your corals should be taking now. Did you look for any pests? I had a very similar problem And it was my lights and alk not to stable.

 

[PaulKreider]

I had red bugs about a year ago, took care of that, I've looked closely and I don't see any signs of AEFW.

I understand shading could be a potential issue with led's but when I look at the underside of my $500 efflo which shades out a lot more light than the slimer, it still has skin in tact? But I know that the missing skin underneath is most likely an issue correct?

I definitely need to add more fish, I've been wanting to add around 4 flash wrasses, but have been waiting until I build a screen top for the tank, and I set fish on the back burner till I get my sps figured out.

Renato, when you say you had alk swings, how much were they swinging? I'm getting small swings of 0.3 dkh a week about, but every now and then I forget to refill the dosing container, maybe that happens once a month and there's a larger swing.