LPS mouths gaping

[Ianrad91]

Hey I have a 40 gal AIO.
Parameter are
Alk: 10dkh
Cal: 420
Mag: 1500
Nitrate: 5
Phos: .08

Stock list: 2 clowns, purple/yellow damsel, royal Gramma, 20 snails, 2 hermits, 1 candy cane shrimp.

For some reason everytime I get an LPS coral it does good for a while and then I can't keep it alive I had hammers and frogspawn that were doing fine same parameters as posted also had birdsnest doing fine then one day they just started declining. Ever since then LPS never survives it just retracts and starts gaping within a few weeks I do 15% water change every week match all parameters temp ph etc recently did a 30 EOD and 2 15s after in hopes of "flushing my system" in case of a foreign substance getting in but just curious if anyone has any idea why this would be happeneing

 

[blaxsun]

Your magnesium and alkalinity are a bit on the high side, but I'd probably look at your lighting and flow (too much or too little of each).

 

[Ianrad91]

For lighting I have a hydra 26 and just followed the schedule and intensities brs did in a video they posted about the 26 and a 40 cube with lps. Flow Is actually what I think it may be was too low I added a wavemaker but idk if it will help at this point, time will tell. Thanks man idk why I didn't even think of that

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

LPS often need nitrates higher than yours to do well. Maybe try raising them slowly to 15-20. (Some folks have thriving tanks with nitrates higher than that, but no need to overshoot at first)

Related question, do you feed them anything.

 

[Ianrad91]

Yes I feed them mysis shrimp and my other corals I spot feed reef roids sparingly. Then I use 1 ml of ab+ a day cut it out after my big water change just incase but I doubt that was bugging it they're claiming 4-6ml a day on the bottle.

 

[Ianrad91]

Yes I feed them mysis shrimp and my other corals I spot feed reef roids sparingly. Then I use 1 ml of ab+ a day cut it out after my big water change just incase but I doubt that was bugging it they're claiming 4-6ml a day on the bottle.

Also yah I was struggling to get nitrates and phosphates up they were undetectable for a month so I shut off skimmer and still couldn't raise them with neo nitro or neo phos so I started feeding the reef roids and broadcasting lightly which has brought my nutrients back to where they're at. So between flow and that I think my flow was too low but u kind of knee jerked raising the low nutrients but it had to come up anyways.

 

[Ianrad91]

Well I seem to be showing signs of recovering with increased flow and decreased par here she is plumping up a tiny bit polyps are actually expanding slightly and less skeleton showing due to polyps not being pulled into centre

 

[Ianrad91]

And mostly recovered thanks @blaxsun for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[blaxsun]

And mostly recovered thanks @blaxsun for pointing me in the right direction.

Glad to hear it was something relatively easy to address. Best of luck with your future LPs additions!

 

[Ianrad91]

Glad to hear it was something relatively easy to address. Best of luck with your future LPs additions!

Thanks man completely overlooked it I had changed location of a wavemaker a few days before it started looking like **** but it just didn't register always paranoid about parameters haha.