Hi all, LPS dying, help.

[1Clown]

Hello all new here,

I noticed my torch corals receding and the skeletons showing and now at least 2 have had 1 head each completely bare, my frogspawn is also starting to recede and realised my zoas have had next to no growth for a while. As far as I'm aware none of the tank inhabitants have been picking at my torch corals or other LPS corals. Below are details of my tank and water parameters, thanks in advance for taking the time reading this long post.

Tank, Equipment and filtration
2ft cube
2 x Kessil A360WE
2 x 4" filter socks
Deltec skimmer
Chaeto with Kessil 160WE Tuna Sun

Tank livestock - Inverts
1 or 2 blue legged hermit crabs
Red serpent star fish
Banded serpent star fish
Some nassarius snails
Some turbo/Mexican/Indonesian turbo snails
2 strawberry conch snails
1 or 2 spiny astrea snails
1 or 2 cerith snails
1 or 2 bumblebee snails
1 Fire shrimp
2 Peppermint shrimp
1 Bellus Pistol Shrimp
Maxima Clam
Derasa Clam

Tank livestock - Fish
Flame Angel
Coral Beauty
Oscellarus Clownfish
Royal Gramma
Firefish
2 x Bangaii Cardinals
Yellow Tang
Algae Blenny
Starry Blenny
Six Line Wrasse

Water parameters
Ammonia: <0.25
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Phosphate: 0.03 ppm
Copper: 0 ppm (thought I'd test it just in case, used in a seperate tank a while back for treating ich)
Salinity: 1.026
KH: 7.15
Calcium: 395
Magnesium: 1380

 

[reeferfoxx]

A picture would help also. Having any ammonia however, will/can cause things to die.

 

[stevo01]

Probably a stupid question, do you feed your Euphyllia?

 

[jsker]

Get you ammonia out with carbon, get you nitrates up to 3-5 ppm and Ca up to 450

 

[reeferfoxx]

2ft by 2ft cube seems kinda small for 11 fish even with a sump.

 

[1Clown]

A picture would help also. Having any ammonia however, will/can cause things to die.

I'll get around to posting some tomorrow hopefully.

 

[1Clown]

Probably a stupid question, do you feed your Euphyllia?

Honestly I haven't in quite some time, I usually fed mysis or D+D LPS food.

 

[1Clown]

Get you ammonia out with carbon, get you nitrates up to 3-5 ppm and Ca up to 450

I use the Salifert test kit for Ammonia and the lowest reading was what I have above of <0.25, should I go for something which is more accurate and if so what test kit?

 

[jsker]

By the way, Welcome to R2R. If there is a lot of fish there would the a lot fish poo and that means nitrates, which there are none. I say start with carbon to get rid of the ammonia

 

[1Clown]

2ft by 2ft cube seems kinda small for 11 fish even with a sump.

It is if you go by the books but I'm lucky that they all pretty much get along and seem happy, I wouldn't recommend doing it, I guess my impulse got the better of me on a number of times.

 

[reeferfoxx]

By the way, Welcome to R2R. If there is a lot of fish the there would the a lot fish poo and that means nitrates, which there are none. I say start with carbon to get rid of the ammonia

That also depends on how long the tank has been setup vs. the amount of live rock and the size of fish. Hope to see a picture soon

 

[1Clown]

By the way, Welcome to R2R. If there is a lot of fish there would the a lot fish poo and that means nitrates, which there are none. I say start with carbon to get rid of the ammonia

Thank you, I forgot to add in my first post that I do use Rowaphos and RowaCarbon in media bags in the sump.

 

[reeferfoxx]

It is if you go by the books but I'm lucky that they all pretty much get along and seem happy, I wouldn't recommend doing it, I guess my impulse got the better of me on a number of times.

It happens! We are just trying to keep your tank from crashing, is all

 

[jsker]

ahhh yes Watson good thought

 

[1Clown]

That also depends on how long the tank has been setup vs. the amount of live rock and the size of fish. Hope to see a picture soon

Age is 11 months now, unfortunately I am unable to update the original post with a couple details like this I missed out.

 

[jsker]

Thank you, I forgot to add in my first post that I do use Rowaphos and RowaCarbon in media bags in the sump.

Up your carbon and that will filter out the ammonia. Try I different kit for your nitrates. there could be an issue with the kit

 

[jsker]

Age is 11 months now, unfortunately I am unable to update the original post with a couple details like this I missed out.

Just through is in here and we will figure it out

 

[Tahoe61]

What method are using to measure SG?
How long have you been using Rowaphos and RowaCarbon?

 

[stevo01]

I would start spot feeding again (at night) with some mysis. Fish steal the food when your spot feeding during the day(I stopped doing that). With your number of fish I bet the large coralite LPS aren't getting enough to eat. It's possible your keeping your nitrites too low for your zoas. Looking at your numbers I would lengthen the time between water changes. Def keep an eye on your parameters, but it can't hurt hand feeding the euphyllias some mysis when your fish go to bed. There are a too many factors but it sounds like everything else is great so maybe somethings starving.

I have seen some awesome growth out of my purple tipped torch in a short time. It eagerly grabs mysis out of the tongs. Before I started doing this my torch was receding. Learn quick and don't forget your mistakes. I hope this might help and doesn't steer you the wrong way.

 

[1Clown]

Pictures for those who requested. I actually haven't done a water change for 10 weeks and my readings as above all seem to be pretty good, surprised no one has said my KH seems a little low?