LPS deflation--severe

[Matthew Seely]

Hey guys looking for some help with some LPS coral I inherited with a new tank... 36 gallon system with a canister filter (seachem phosguard, fresh carbon, seachem nitroguard just added). Candy cane coral is the most affected but spaghetti finger leather and mushrooms looked a little off as well... recently noticed some brown algea patches and figure its from a mini cycle after moving all inhabitants an hour away roughly four days ago. Have just done two 10 gallon water changes to try to combat that two days apart from eachother. Anyway--I'm no reef expert and have never had coral before but I don't want to lose any animals. Here are my parameters as of five minutes ago:

Temperature 76
Salinity 1.0255
PH 8.0
Kh 143.2
Calcium 440
Phosphate 0.25
NO3 10ppm
NO2 0
NH3 / NH4 0

Seeing my PH that low I added some buffer (aquavitro 8.4) and will add more tomorrow if its still low.
Feeding the tank a half cube of frozen mysis shrimp that are infused with spiriluna once a day...

The corals themselves have several polyps that look extremely shrivelled--more so than they are when the lights are off.. the other polyps just look deflated. speaking of lights--I'm not sure the wattage but they're LEDs from evo and these corals have thrived under that light before I was their owner so I assume that's not the issue.

Any help or advice would be awesome..

 

[recess62]

Try to avoid dumping stuff into the tank. That usually results in a bad outcome. Do you always keep the tank at 76 degrees?

 

[Matthew Seely]

Try to avoid dumping stuff into the tank. That usually results in a bad outcome. Do you always keep the tank at 76 degrees?

The person that I bought it from had it at 76...also thought it was low but figured everything had been healthy at 76 so didn't change it. Dumping stuff as in the buffer? or the two water changes?

Thank you for the help

 

[recess62]

The buffer. If you changed the pH to quickly it may have irritated the coral. What was your pH prior to adding the buffer ? Who long ago did you move the tank?

 

[recess62]

Just saw that you moved the tank 4 days ago. I would do nothing and just observe

 

[prsnlty]

Yes the buffer. They cause too quick of a change and don't last anyway. "Nothing happens quickly in reefing but bad".

I'm suspecting that the lights are the cause of the shriveling polyps and tentacles. What less are they, how far from the corals and what are the intensity settings?

 

[prsnlty]

I also agree that the move stressed them, give them a few more days but still check the light. Leds can fool the human eye and can burn corals if not set correctly and/or the proper distance from them

 

[Matthew Seely]

The PH was 8.0 prior to the addition--will test again tomorrow. I added this buffer as directed:<http://www.aquavitro.com/products/eightfour.html>
LEDs are the same distance and intensity that the corals had been doing well under with the previous owner. I wish I could tell you more about the light but it is quite a mystery to me. I can't find the model or anything like it online at the moment.

Thank you again for the help and advice. I'll update tomorrow.

 

[Matthew Seely]

So I unplugged my canister filter for the night and PH raised to 8.2 after the buffer. The corals were full and vibrant all day--I think theyre not liking one of the seachem filter medias that I used. Will remove phosban and nitraguard and see how they do.

 

[prsnlty]

They shouldn't have a problem with phosban unless it wasn't rinsed. If it was then it's the nitragard most likely.

 

[prsnlty]

Or.... did you replace all media all at once? If so, that can be the problem. It's a bit of a shock. They generally get over it in a couple of days.