I need help. I'm stumped.

KevinN · Jul 31, 2023

Ok so my corals are dying and i have no idea why. I know, what are your parameters? They have been steady for about 2 years now. kH 8.6, Ca 430, Mg 1365, NO3 4, PO4 0.04. I had shoulder surgery about 3 months ago so couldn't do much with the tank, and i started getting blue/green cyano. Didn't think much of it until growth stopped and my huge Monti Cap started losing skin. Then it started on the Miyagi tort, pink caddy, Homewrecker, tubbs, and Neon trumpet. Shoulder got a bit better so i did a few water changes, no change. Dosed chemiclean and the cyano went away. Levels stabilized and corals started growing again. Stn stopped. That was a month ago. It's starting on the Monti again, tubbs looks like crap, and the trumpet is losing more heads. No sign of any cyano, or visible pests. Levels are stable for now but growth is visibly stopping again. What gives and what can i do? All RODI checks out. Any ideas. I'm about to subscribe to the survival of the fittest mentality but i think I'm going to lose some real nice colonies.

fishguy242 · Jul 31, 2023

I'd say to be sure running fresh carbon and metazorb ,just in case
also maybe ICP test ?

KevinN · Jul 31, 2023

fishguy242 said:
I'd say to be sure running fresh carbon and metazorb ,just in case
also maybe ICP test ?

I did carbon and metasorb. Currently still running carbon. I'll do an icp test but all equipment has been serviced with no issues. Resolve for bad icp would only be a water change. Could it be bacterial? If so, what would the treatment be?

fishguy242 · Jul 31, 2023

Hard to say ? No3 & Po4 are borderline low IMO,may be starving coral ?

KevinN · Jul 31, 2023

fishguy242 said:
Hard to say ? No3 & Po4 are borderline low IMO,may be starving coral ?

Would you suggest raising them up?

fishguy242 · Jul 31, 2023

yes No3 30-50 min ,Po4 .1 min , Coral like it dirty IME

KevinN · Jul 31, 2023

fishguy242 said:
yes No3 30-50 min ,Po4 .1 min , Coral like it dirty IME

Ok. I'll slowly raise them up. Least see what happens. Can't get worse...

jimk60 · Jul 31, 2023

You mentioned bacteria I believe the chemiclean you dosed is an antibiotic. Maybe it knocked a bacterial infection back just enough to get things growing but didn't eliminate it completely.

KevinN · Jul 31, 2023

jimk60 said:
You mentioned bacteria I believe the chemiclean you dosed is an antibiotic. Maybe it knocked a bacterial infection back just enough to get things growing but didn't eliminate it completely.

KevinN · Jul 31, 2023

That was kinda my thought but not sure what to do next. I don't want to go nuke method with cipro for fear of killing the BB and biome.

jimk60 · Jul 31, 2023

Sounds like a case of pick your poison. Maybe dose the chemiclean again and see if it makes any difference. If so at least you'll have a pretty good idea of what s causing it.

KevinN · Jul 31, 2023

jimk60 said:
Sounds like a case of pick your poison. Maybe dose the chemiclean again and see if it makes any difference. If so at least you'll have a pretty good idea of what s causing it.

I just might. I read that blue/green cyano is poisonous. Was thinking that maybe the Coral ingested some and are suffering the effects. Who knows. This stupid Monti drug m survived my newbie phase and a rodi failure, only to be taken out by this.

rennjidk · Jul 31, 2023

KevinN said:
I did carbon and metasorb. Currently still running carbon. I'll do an icp test but all equipment has been serviced with no issues. Resolve for bad icp would only be a water change.

Maybe, maybe not. If you've been maintaining elements which you're not testing for via WCs, you could have steadily trended downward to critical levels and only now seen the results. My tank stays pretty stable, but has huge iodine consumption. I would ICP, and then if it's one or two elements critically low, purchase them and start manually dosing once a week or whenever called for.

KevinN · Jul 31, 2023

rennjidk said:
Maybe, maybe not. If you've been maintaining elements which you're not testing for via WCs, you could have steadily trended downward to critical levels and only now seen the results. My tank stays pretty stable, but has huge iodine consumption. I would ICP, and then if it's one or two elements critically low, purchase them and start manually dosing once a week or whenever called for.