I need help!!

Sam816 · Jun 1, 2021

NauticalMiles1010 said:
Thanks I dose Amino every day at night. But this coral is difficult to see the feeding response do you know what to look for? I appreciate it.

google 'coral name' + feeding response. is it a lepto?
anyways i took another look at your pic. the coral is growing on the rock to the left which is in light. I think it needs more light.

NauticalMiles1010 · Jun 1, 2021

Sam816 said:
google 'coral name' + feeding response. is it a lepto?
anyways i took another look at your pic. the coral is growing on the rock to the left which is in light. I think it needs more light.

Thanks!!! I might try to slowly amp up the light.

ekandler · Jun 1, 2021

So I’m actually running into the same issue and I’ve tried almost everything… I have a lepto that did the exact same thing, white on the ridges until the entire thing died and that coincided with birdsnest and stylo bleaching. Still haven’t identified the culprit in my system. I have so far ruled out normal parameters as the cause, I run a trident at 8.6, 440, and 1400. I also dose aminos nightly. My nutrients are 10ppm nitrate and 0.05 phosphate, right within a normal range. I don’t feed the corals often but I feed LRS reef frenzy daily which has lots of good stuff in it, so I don’t think feeding is the issue. I have 3 gyres in a 4 ft tank and I’ve reasonably ruled out flow as the problem. I have 2x Gen 5 XR30 blues running on 40%. I had people say it was too high light causing the bleaching, so I rented a PAR meter and found the PAR at those locations to be 140-150, so definitely not from over exposure to lighting. Under exposure to lighting is interesting, because the effects of that on coral shouldn’t be bleaching. I would understand lack of growth or coloration, but low lighting shouldn’t cause RTN or bleaching. I do have a peppermint shrimp but I’m skeptical that any of my livestock are causing this issue, this has happened to about 5 lepto frags and various other SPS over the past 6 months while I’ve tried to trial and error a way to a solution.

So where I am now…. I believe chloramines or other additives in my RO water could be the issue so I’m upgrading my BRS 4 stage to a 7 stage this week. I’m also in the process of ramping up my lights, although I’m skeptical that’s the cause I have nothing to lose trying it. After that I’m kinda out of ideas… unfortunately I’m grasping at straws, checking random things like the tubing I use for water changes or containers I use for my mixing station, cause all the usual stuff seems to be in check.

I know that didn’t help, but hopefully it helps you rule some stuff out too. If you want to bounce some ideas off me let me know, I’ve been down this path for a while now ha

Pistondog · Jun 1, 2021

ekandler said:
So I’m actually running into the same issue and I’ve tried almost everything… I have a lepto that did the exact same thing, white on the ridges until the entire thing died and that coincided with birdsnest and stylo bleaching. Still haven’t identified the culprit in my system. I have so far ruled out normal parameters as the cause, I run a trident at 8.6, 440, and 1400. I also dose aminos nightly. My nutrients are 10ppm nitrate and 0.05 phosphate, right within a normal range. I don’t feed the corals often but I feed LRS reef frenzy daily which has lots of good stuff in it, so I don’t think feeding is the issue. I have 3 gyres in a 4 ft tank and I’ve reasonably ruled out flow as the problem. I have 2x Gen 5 XR30 blues running on 40%. I had people say it was too high light causing the bleaching, so I rented a PAR meter and found the PAR at those locations to be 140-150, so definitely not from over exposure to lighting. Under exposure to lighting is interesting, because the effects of that on coral shouldn’t be bleaching. I would understand lack of growth or coloration, but low lighting shouldn’t cause RTN or bleaching. I do have a peppermint shrimp but I’m skeptical that any of my livestock are causing this issue, this has happened to about 5 lepto frags and various other SPS over the past 6 months while I’ve tried to trial and error a way to a solution.

So where I am now…. I believe chloramines or other additives in my RO water could be the issue so I’m upgrading my BRS 4 stage to a 7 stage this week. I’m also in the process of ramping up my lights, although I’m skeptical that’s the cause I have nothing to lose trying it. After that I’m kinda out of ideas… unfortunately I’m grasping at straws, checking random things like the tubing I use for water changes or containers I use for my mixing station, cause all the usual stuff seems to be in check.

I know that didn’t help, but hopefully it helps you rule some stuff out too. If you want to bounce some ideas off me let me know, I’ve been down this path for a while now ha

Your 4 stage will remove chloramines, just not as efficiently.
Get some chlorine test strips to check rodi for chloramine.

ekandler · Jun 1, 2021

Pistondog said:
Your 4 stage will remove chloramines, just not as efficiently.
Get some chlorine test strips to check rodi for chloramine.

Yeah I actually did this and it returned back 0 for chlorines, which depending on how you look at it is good and bad ha

my biggest issue is I’m unable to keep any SPS and no one has been able to help me, so I’m just kinda throwing the kitchen sink at this problem at this point. If not chloramines, maybe there’s something else I’m not aware of the 7 stage will pull out. But I have a pretty basic tank, well running fuge and skimmer, dosing aminos and 2 part for stable parameters and running nice lights, yet any SPS frag I get is dead in a week completely white. I’ve asked the question on here and other places and all people say is check salinity or whatever, but I know that stuff isn’t my issue at this point cause I have a 3 year old healthy LPS/softie tank. I would like to think there’s a cause for this and I can find the solution, rather than just accepting I can’t keep SPS…. Which seems crazy cause I have friends to try much less than I do with thriving acro colonies.

Pistondog · Jun 1, 2021

ekandler said:
Yeah I actually did this and it returned back 0 for chlorines, which depending on how you look at it is good and bad ha

my biggest issue is I’m unable to keep any SPS and no one has been able to help me, so I’m just kinda throwing the kitchen sink at this problem at this point. If not chloramines, maybe there’s something else I’m not aware of the 7 stage will pull out. But I have a pretty basic tank, well running fuge and skimmer, dosing aminos and 2 part for stable parameters and running nice lights, yet any SPS frag I get is dead in a week completely white. I’ve asked the question on here and other places and all people say is check salinity or whatever, but I know that stuff isn’t my issue at this point cause I have a 3 year old healthy LPS/softie tank. I would like to think there’s a cause for this and I can find the solution, rather than just accepting I can’t keep SPS…. Which seems crazy cause I have friends to try much less than I do with thriving acro colonies.

What softies? Do you run gac?
Some softies, leathers, give off chemicals to inhibit competition. Gac removes some.

ekandler · Jun 1, 2021

Pistondog said:
What softies? Do you run gac?
Some softies, leathers, give off chemicals to inhibit competition. Gac removes some.

No leathers, I have zoas, ricordias and other mushrooms, and clove polyps. Basically everything else is LPS. And Yes, I do run carbon, I have a BRS reactor running their ROX 0.8 carbon.

NauticalMiles1010 · Jun 1, 2021

ekandler said:
So I’m actually running into the same issue and I’ve tried almost everything… I have a lepto that did the exact same thing, white on the ridges until the entire thing died and that coincided with birdsnest and stylo bleaching. Still haven’t identified the culprit in my system. I have so far ruled out normal parameters as the cause, I run a trident at 8.6, 440, and 1400. I also dose aminos nightly. My nutrients are 10ppm nitrate and 0.05 phosphate, right within a normal range. I don’t feed the corals often but I feed LRS reef frenzy daily which has lots of good stuff in it, so I don’t think feeding is the issue. I have 3 gyres in a 4 ft tank and I’ve reasonably ruled out flow as the problem. I have 2x Gen 5 XR30 blues running on 40%. I had people say it was too high light causing the bleaching, so I rented a PAR meter and found the PAR at those locations to be 140-150, so definitely not from over exposure to lighting. Under exposure to lighting is interesting, because the effects of that on coral shouldn’t be bleaching. I would understand lack of growth or coloration, but low lighting shouldn’t cause RTN or bleaching. I do have a peppermint shrimp but I’m skeptical that any of my livestock are causing this issue, this has happened to about 5 lepto frags and various other SPS over the past 6 months while I’ve tried to trial and error a way to a solution.

So where I am now…. I believe chloramines or other additives in my RO water could be the issue so I’m upgrading my BRS 4 stage to a 7 stage this week. I’m also in the process of ramping up my lights, although I’m skeptical that’s the cause I have nothing to lose trying it. After that I’m kinda out of ideas… unfortunately I’m grasping at straws, checking random things like the tubing I use for water changes or containers I use for my mixing station, cause all the usual stuff seems to be in check.

I know that didn’t help, but hopefully it helps you rule some stuff out too. If you want to bounce some ideas off me let me know, I’ve been down this path for a while now ha

Thanks for the help man!!!!!!