IS MY CORAL DYING??

I am not sure if you are new to fish keeping in general, die off is something that may be a little more common in this hobby. Sometimes fish may die for various reasons and the same with corals. Panic and making a host of changes all at once could lead to more damage. I would suggest go back to the drawing board and understand your water better.and then figure out filtration and lighting.


Test PO4, NO3, Ammonia, Ph, Alk, Cal, Mag and Salinity. Test at a given time every day for a week just to understand what is going on with your water. Understand the uptake of these elements. And once you have this sorted, then get your testing to 2 times a week. Hanna checkers would be really good for the basics like NO3 High Range and PO4 ultra low range. Check if there are any swings in salinity,Ph, Alk, Cal. Are you using an RODI system, do you have a good resin for the Di phase, are you in a region where you can check metals in your water. This would be on the website of the company that handles water systems in your city or town,

Check you filtration, get the basics right with mech. Run activated carbon to help get rid of toxins or heavy metals that MAY be in the water. I actually use a canister filter and had it optimized to a point where my nitrates and phosphates bottomed out at 0 and messed up some soft corals. 0 nutrients is never a good thing. Corals are animals like all other animals that need nutrients to survive.

Finally your lighting, when your water is out of whack the lighting aint gonna fix that. So figure this out after you sorted out your water. I have not used Maxspect products so I will not comment on that. Different corals have different requirements so please read up on each coral that you put in your tank. Read up on placement, lighting, flow, nutrients to start of with. Forget about dosing at this stage, get the basics right. Go ahead and rent a PAR meter to help with placement options and always keep more that one placement option per coral so you can move them incase they aren't happy. If you have an app then make sure you set your levels based on the PAR and Placements and FORGET ABOUT IT. Do not keep changing that. I run AI Hydras and have an acclimation function, Check if you have that on your app. Personally I would get rid of moonlights till the tank has sort of settled in and give the corals some time without lights.

You can figure out flow in tandem with your lighting . These sorta go hand in hand for me. Flow is as important as lighing and optimising it to benefit most if not all should be the goal.

Lastly, if one coral is not happy and the others are thriving and real happy then do not change anything drastically to make that one coral happy. Just move it somewhere else and see how the flow and lighting affect it. Remember keep more that one placement option per coral in your tank.

Take it slow and sometimes you will deal with dead animals in this hobby. The main thing is to look after your water and if you got that down then that will look after your fish and corals. There is no overnight fixes in my opinion for both freshwater and saltwater aquariums.
Thanks so much for the detailed reply I will take your points into consideration and follow your advice
It’s good to know I don’t need to focus on dosing just yet as that seems pretty daunting to me right now
 
Thanks so much for the detailed reply I will take your points into consideration and follow your advice
It’s good to know I don’t need to focus on dosing just yet as that seems pretty daunting to me right now
Water changes is all you need right now to keep the water stable. It has everything the corals /fish need.
What is that powerhead you have? You said you have another?
 
Water changes is all you need right now to keep the water stable. It has everything the corals /fish need.
What is that powerhead you have? You said you have another?
Yes I have that filter pointed down and that power head I have put in for flow around the surface

Sorry about the bad picture quality my hands were quite shaky
 

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Also if you’ve been having coral issues why buy more? To me if your water parameters are at 0 0 0 it’s too clean. Not to mention alk po4 and calcium levels which are the building blocks with magnesium. Test and adjust.
 
Slow and steady. Emma. I know you want to have all the cool corals and colors but need to make sure your tank parameters can support that. Everyone here is helpful and understanding. Also understanding your tank. We are here to help just ask.
 
It is on 12000K for 7 hours a day at
85% purple 85% light blue 65% dark blue 20% red 20% green and 20% yellow
I also have it on dark blue on the lowest brightness at night as a ‘night mode’
(I hope I have said that how you wanted it)
Yes, Perfect. That’s a nice light. Try these settings. Definitely too much light for that chalice. How’s it look today?

Purple 30
L blue 30
D blue 30
Red 0-1
Green 1-5
Yellow 10

Red light fuels algae growth
 
This is my coral today, test kits have arrived going to test asap after school

I’ve attached pics of all my corals and my sponge under white light that I have just taken also my current light schedule as recommended
B66E1296-D509-48A4-8C8F-5DB12A195AF1.jpeg 60563650-CC5F-48AB-8063-26D5E4D1C266.jpeg 1EAD0E65-59A9-479B-94D8-8450ABA7D4B1.jpeg 14EB99B0-8D22-4EF1-BCB9-F10DA6B3D006.jpeg 762EEAFA-F4D6-41AE-94A8-4B8A8D4433B7.png
 
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Just tested my tank
Alk: 5.4
Calcium: a few drops over 500 (more than what is in the test)
 
Low Alk, no measurable nitrate...your corals are starving.
 
This is probably a test error. Alk that is.
How did you measure?
Magnesium?
I don’t have a magnesium test kit yet as I was only able to get those two on next day delivery
I measured with the salifert test kit
 
Emma, I think you should slow down little bit and do some research about reef tanks. There is no point to spend burn $$$ and leave the hobby. It is not easy, there are a lot of variables but it is worth to go deep.

For the future reference, a golden standard asking for help is to provide all major parameters so alk, ca, mg, phosphate, nitrate, salinity, temp. ph. Forget about nitrites, they don't play that much role in a reef tank. Buy the best test kits you can get. There are hundreds articles/videos about testing water. It is an investment but it is a must.

Reef tank is way more difficult than freshwater aquarium. Many people when they start this hobby think that when tank is cycled they are ready to go. Unfortunately this is like a driving license. It gives you an opportunity to learn by yourself. You will loose a lot of fish and corals for the first 2 years, this is sad true and many of us experienced that. My tank is 2 years old and I think I have just reached the maturity level and tank stabilizes. Bigger tank, more stable. Smaller tank, more difficult.

Even experienced people have their tank crashed. My LFS has a very nice 180g tank which crashed 3 times. The owner is very experienced reefer.

Patience, hours of learning, second mortgage :)
 
I don’t have a magnesium test kit yet as I was only able to get those two on next day delivery
I measured with the salifert test kit
Let's say it is correct, you need to get it up.
Not all in one day but 1 to 1.5 per day
 
Update : I think I’ve found the problem my hydrometer arrived and I tested salinity and it was over 1.028
I’m now in the process of adding RO and taking out salt to get the correct salinity
I’ve added pics of my coral today
 

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Swing arm hydrometer? A refractomer is more accurate. Got to go, I'll explain later.
Edit: so that being said, you can use a swing arm hydrometer if you calibrate it. Is what I mean by that is when you know you have the right specific gravity in your reef tank check it with the hydrometer and you can mark it with a magic marker where the swing arm ends up and it should be good for a while there. But the actual swing arm are notoriously off when they're brand new unless you happen to get a good one that just happens to be right.
 
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I’ve Got the Salinity down to 1.026 now at least according to my hydrometer, the only reason I got a hydrometer is because I’ve heard there are a lot of variables with a refractometer and lighting, angle, amount of water and many more things can affect results and everything has to be the exact same every time you test to get an accurate result
I’m hoping my corals can make a recovery, is it likely that they will?And would it be worth getting some coral food like reef roids and feeding them to help them recover?
Here are pictures of all of my coral today
Favia, chalice (I think that one is dead), acan, sponge and candy cane

FE4AA5B6-7F1F-486A-98C7-2E7291C9A7C6.jpeg 06702CE1-C386-41B9-9136-7B11D866D252.jpeg F4F9EFCA-5940-4930-9010-463D993C0FE4.jpeg BCFE585B-F287-46F3-906C-65A420BEC26F.jpeg 44FFEFCB-1B4C-47A4-919D-3A3F9341E42B.jpeg
 
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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%

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