Plate coral help

muso1810 · Nov 8, 2020

Dear Reefers

I have a plate coral in my tank that is not doing well and I’m unsure why. I have moved it to an area of low light and started a reactor to better export nitrates and phosphates and these are higher than I’d like. Did a 10% water change of my 275L tank.

725196 · Nov 8, 2020

Can you list exactly what all of your parameters are, even if you need to go to a LFS and have them test a water sample.

muso1810 · Nov 8, 2020

NanoReefLovers said:
Can you list exactly what all of your parameters are, even if you need to go to a LFS and have them test a water sample.

nitrates 15 ppm, phos 1.2ppm, calcium 450 ppm, mg 1280, Alk 9, salinity 1.025 ph8.2 temp 25.5 C degrees

725196 · Nov 8, 2020

It maybe the phosphates. They are fairly high. I know you did a 10% water change but you may want to do that daily for a while and use some sort of phosphate removing media or macro in a refugium.

if it does not survive, I hope it will, don’t remove it for a while. They will spit out babies and they could possibly grow in your tank.

muso1810 · Nov 8, 2020

In my reactor there is phos media, activated carbon and ammonia remove as well and I started with half the recommended amount of these to observe as to not strip my tank entirely

Cantusaurus · Dec 30, 2020

This is a much later response, but I ran into the same issue with my plate coral, only difference was mine was green. I think it is the Phosphate as well. Mine is still not doing the best, and looks similar to the picture you put. My Phosphate was at 2.7.... when I had a store test my water, my tank was going through issues and I was getting my Ammonia back to zero and did not pay as much attention to phosphate, especially since my other corals looked fine. But I did put a purple Goni in my tank and it lost a bit of tissue and a bit of skeleton showed, but it recovered and looks great now. But I believe this was due to my phosphate. It sucks, but I've been doing iodine dips and it hasn't really gotten better or worse over the past month. But yeah. Hope things otherwise are going well for you and your tank!