How to know it's over...

[Mackinback]

How do you know when your coral is done for.. caput.. too far gone to recover?
I ask because I ran into a situation where my mineral levels were way too high.
I found the reason to be I switched to RS coral pro salt, and it was wayy too much for my mini reef.
My polyps and palm tree coral (I think) seemed ok with it.. But my LPS seemed to have taken it the hardest.. I switched back to the purple Instant Ocean (no minerals) last week and just wondering how long to expect recovery or even if they will. Some of my stony coral is losing it color as well.
I can post pics if needed.
IMO I don't think anythings completely dead, but any help at recovery would be great.

Thanks,
MacK

 

[Victoria M]

Hi Mack,
sorry you are encountering marine tank challenges. all f us do, at one time or another. There are so many reasons that corals do poorly. You may be thinking it was the salt and minerals when it is something else entirely. did you have commercial testing done? Please post pictures. Do you carefully match salinity and temp when changing your water? How do you measure salinity? What size tank do you have? how long has it been set up? how much water do you change?

 

[Jason mack]

Did you have an alk spike ....are you my brother ...??? ( just kidding )
Can you list your tanks params before and after changing salts ...it can take months for corals too recover ...I'm going through something similar ....

 

[reef lover]

Never get rid of lps skeleton...throw it in the back youll be surprised what pops up new babies.

 

[klm2500hd]

Never get rid of lps skeleton...throw it in the back youll be surprised what pops up new babies.

This. I have a sunset monti that "died" 2 years ago, and has turned into a 2" plate in the last few months. I also have a softball sized lobo that I had written off many years ago, shrunk down to about half the size of my pinkie nail during a tank crash.

 

[Muttley000]

Amazing how they can come back! I never throw anything away!

 

[Mackinback]

thanks for the replys all.. Yeah it's defiantly been a struggle these last 2 months..
Tested 2 days ago
High PH - 8
Ammonia - 0.25
N02 - 0
N03 - 10
Salinity - 1.027
P04 - .5
KH - 11.5
MG - 1440

As for Cal.. I've been using the API master kit for the last 8 mos, which I get a reading of 380... But just recently got the RedSea coral pro and that reads 460.

 

[Jason mack]

I would say the ammonia is s false reading ..that happens a lot. Your phos is high and your alk ...
What salt do you use ??

 

[Aquavaj]

Red Sea Pro Salt mixes to elevated levels so depending on how big of a water change you did there could have been a large alk spike. The blue bucket mixes to more optimal levels so I would go with that if you want to stick with RS.

 

[Mackinback]

Yeah I thought I was doing the right thing when I started using the RedSea Coral Pro.. But since I have a 9gal, it was throwing my levels super high. My first readings using my foundation pro test kit were giving me readings of 11.8kh, 1800 mg, po4 was 3 and cal was off the charts.

I would say the ammonia is s false reading ..that happens a lot. Your phos is high and your alk ...
What salt do you use ??

As of 11/14 I'm back to the purple Instant Ocean. I've done a couple water changes to bring those number down (and it did a little).

Hi Mack,
sorry you are encountering marine tank challenges. all f us do, at one time or another. There are so many reasons that corals do poorly. You may be thinking it was the salt and minerals when it is something else entirely. did you have commercial testing done? Please post pictures. Do you carefully match salinity and temp when changing your water? How do you measure salinity? What size tank do you have? how long has it been set up? how much water do you change?

Sorry I didn't answer your Q's.. I posted about a month ago (in the general forum) when I started having complications, and I was throwing out all sorts of questions, but not getting much back. So I said I would keep it slim this post. But let me answer you.
1. Commercial testing meaning what exactly?
2. I match salinity if salinity is good (It does go up as my tank is rimless and open. So more water loss than most I think). But I put in water at 1.026-1.027. Temp may be off some. But this didn't seem to bother the tank my first 6 months)
3. I use a refractometer .
4. 9gal
5. I purchased it established back in February. Seller said it was up 6mo's before that, and LR was from another tank of his which was established for 1yr.

 

[Mackinback]

So I am at wits end with this problem.. lol
I am now at about a week since switching back to Instant Ocean (purple) salt.. And the only thing that seems to be doing fine is the palm-tree polyps..
Even this invasive stuff is not happy.

And one of my last hardy corals is showing signs....

My tests last night show some levels are still slightly elevated, but have dropped from the highs I had while using Coral Pro salt..
I'm just posting my elevated
Ammonia - 0.25
N03 - 10 (down from 60-80)
KH - 10.9 (down from 11.8)
MG - 1420 (down from 1800)

So my questions are.. My bleaching is still progressing and irritation on others remains.. I know it was said it can take months for recovery..
1. Should I have had seen a stop in bleaching progression?
2. Is there something I can do to assist? Maybe more of a certain light?
3. (dumb question) I guess I should still feed the corals? I've been using reef roids and oyster feast.

I don't want to get crazy with the test kits, but use API Mater kit, API KH & Cal and RedSea foundation pro.. Is there something else that is imperative to reef care?

Thanks,
MacK

P.S. Jason Mack.. We are not, but we can be reef bothers maybe? But funny story.. Online nickname is Mack and RL is Monty.. haha

 

[klm2500hd]

At this point work on stability. Small regular water changes, 10% every 10-14 days, IO purple until parameters settle out where you want them. Leave lighting alone for now, nothing good happens fast in a reef tank- words to live by. Work on one thing at a time, and I am talking months here not days. Once water stabilizes then you can start playing with lights. Keep feeding the corals, your ammonia levels are cause for concern if correct, do you have a LFS that can verify? If ammonia is that high cut back on amount of feeding. At this point, as hard as it is to deal with, it is a waiting game.

The pictures you posted show quite a bit of tissue loss, but with patience and a bit of luck those corals look like they will recover. Best of luck.

 

[Mackinback]

Thanks for the reply klm.
Yeah so that's what I wasn't sure on.. small regular changes = every 2 weeks.
Is that a normal WC interval?!? I've probably done 3 in the last 2 weeks to try and get my levels down. So that could be some of the stress.
But I will switch to this. What do you mean by IO purple? I'll cut down on feeding. I did just lose my sea urchin. So there goes some of my cleanup.
I am running to my LFS, so I'll bring water in for testing.

 

[klm2500hd]

IO = instant ocean, what you have switched back to.

Water change intervals are not set in stone, adjust based on how your tank is responding. Smaller more frequent changes (even daily) would be fine. If your ammonia is truly that high, a bigger water change (along with the addition of seachem prime or similar product) the main point I am making is to slowly drop your KH levels down.

Let us know what parameters are from having LFS test water.

 

[Mackinback]

IO = instant ocean, what you have switched back to.

Water change intervals are not set in stone, adjust based on how your tank is responding. Smaller more frequent changes (even daily) would be fine. If your ammonia is truly that high, a bigger water change (along with the addition of seachem prime or similar product) the main point I am making is to slowly drop your KH levels down.

Let us know what parameters are from having LFS test water.

So my lfs said things were fine. Not sure if Ammonia was always fine, and I was just mis-reading a tint of green. But I just tested it now and it's fine.
Was a little high on salinity.. 1.027... So I'm going to keep a daily watch on that... It's a nano cube with no cover.. So a lot of evaporation (and we are not into winter season, so that is accelerated). It's freaking weird, I dropped down .5"-1" in the last 12 hrs! I'll have to keep an eye on this too.
But no real change in the corals yet.. The soft tissues of some have hardened up (acan and others).
I treat my water with Instant Ocean conditioner. But I'll just sit tight now.
I did pick up a new tank to replace this one. But won't be setting things up for another month or 2. It has a sump and skimmer. So filtration is much better than my current.

 

[PapaWhisky]

What are you using for your top-off water?

 

[Mackinback]

I've been using distilled since I got the tank (No RO yet).. So that's about 8mos

 

[Coralreefer1]

This. I have a sunset monti that "died" 2 years ago, and has turned into a 2" plate in the last few months. I also have a softball sized lobo that I had written off many years ago, shrunk down to about half the size of my pinkie nail during a tank crash.

I have never had much success with Stonies coming back to life. On occasion I will find zoanthids I thought we’re dead or lost come alive again or found growing in the most inhospitable places. You never know!

 

[Mackinback]

So I do have a question.. So if you put a fish in bad water.. You'd maybe get a week before it dies.. Ballpark..
How about coral? I'm sure it varies on type and what is off.. But would I expect an immediate response if something isn't right? I was thinking I wanted to pick up a piece of coral and see, since my zoa's & polyp seem fine. Maybe a stony or sps or the like..