Please help! Corals looking sad. (Euphyllia & fimbriaphyllia)

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

Hey guys...
I accidentally posted in a reef builders sponsor forum so I'm moving it over here.
My torch, hammer and frogspawn have seemingly taken a turn for the worst and I'm not sure why. All of my other corals are showing fully polyp extension and look very happy. I'm going to do water tests to post in the comments but I'm looking for input from those of you who are experts in this realm.

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

Lights just came on...I apologize about the quality, just snapped quick pics with my phone. I'll post photos I have of them before... Doing params in a minute.

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

Before pics...I guess I don't have a before pic of the torch

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

I'm doing the nyos nitrate test which one does it look closest to? 5ppm, 12ppm or 25 ppm?

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

Here are params...

Screenshot_20200703-073611_Samsung Notes.jpg

AmaleeC · Jul 3, 2020

Have you made any recent changes to the tank? Light intensity? Flow?

WIReefer · Jul 3, 2020

How long has the tank been running for and how long have they been in tank? What is your lighting?

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

AmaleeC said:
Have you made any recent changes to the tank? Light intensity? Flow?

Come to think of it, a few weeks ago I went away for a weekend and I did reduce the lighting to 4hrs while I was gone. 2 hrs in the morning, 2 hrs in the afternoon. Intensity stayed the same. Flow stayed the same.

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

WIReefer said:
How long has the tank been running for and how long have they been in tank? What is your lighting?

Tank has been running for a couple years now...torch has been in for almost a year, frogspawn maybe 8 or 9 months, hammer for about 3 months. Lights are ai primes over a 45 gallon.

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

Djasak said:
Come to think of it, a few weeks ago I went away for a weekend and I did reduce the lighting to 4hrs while I was gone. 2 hrs in the morning, 2 hrs in the afternoon. Intensity stayed the same. Flow stayed the same.

Should mention I did this because I started getting some algae and I was hoping the reduced lighting would help while I was gone.

Bosreef · Jul 3, 2020

Like your only running your lights for 4 hours??

They look fine to me not opened but fine.
More light and flow would be my suggestion

And 74 degrees seems real low...

CrunchyBananas · Jul 3, 2020

phosphates at 0.5 are pretty high, I feel like my torch starts sulking when I get past 0.1. I'd hit a good water change (ensure your ro/di water and cartridges are good as well) to try and bring that down some

Edit:read through comments a bit, yes 74 is quite cold, and what is your shorter photoperiod in all?

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

CrunchyBananas said:
phosphates at 0.5 are pretty high, I feel like my torch starts sulking when I get past 0.1. I'd hit a good water change (ensure your ro/di water and cartridges are good as well) to try and bring that down some

Edit:read through comments a bit, yes 74 is quite cold, and what is your shorter photoperiod in all?

Making some fresh rodi water now...the 4he photo period was just for 1 weekend a few weeks ago, my photoperiod now is back to what I was doing before at 12hrs.

CrunchyBananas · Jul 3, 2020

Djasak said:
Making some fresh rodi water now...the 4he photo period was just for 1 weekend a few weeks ago, my photoperiod now is back to what I was doing before at 12hrs.

Gotcha, Id put that on the back burner then, My guess is low temp, and high phosphates, I strive to keep it 0.03-0.1, if your phos has been sitting around 0.5 for a bit, I'd avoid any lowering methods (GFO, Aluminum Oxide, etc.) and stick with lowering gently with those water changes as to not crash your nutrients either. Good luck, hopefully with a good water change, theyll be a bit happier tomorrow

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

Bosreef said:
Like your only running your lights for 4 hours??

They look fine to me not opened but fine.
More light and flow would be my suggestion

And 74 degrees seems real low...

I did 4hrs of light for 1 weekend a few weeks ago while I was gone. Photo period now is back to normal at 12hrs. I'll fix the temp now...

Djasak · Jul 3, 2020

CrunchyBananas said:
Gotcha, Id put that on the back burner then, My guess is low temp, and high phosphates, I strive to keep it 0.03-0.1, if your phos has been sitting around 0.5 for a bit, I'd avoid any lowering methods (GFO, Aluminum Oxide, etc.) and stick with lowering gently with those water changes as to not crash your nutrients either. Good luck, hopefully with a good water change, theyll be a bit happier tomorrow

Theyve been unhappy for about a week now... I've noticed the hammer is starting to show some detachment from the skeleton around the edge...the frogspawn stays small with mouths wide open...

The phos has always been pretty high. Used to be twice that and I was suggested to do a series of water changes for a couple weeks and that's where it sits now...in doing the water changes I must have started a mini cycle because my nitrates went up and I'm seeing that brown algae in the sand...looks like diatoms which is why i reduced lighting for that 1 weekend...would you suggest a larger or smaller water change?

CrunchyBananas · Jul 3, 2020

Djasak said:
Theyve been unhappy for about a week now... I've noticed the hammer is starting to show some detachment from the skeleton around the edge...the frogspawn stays small with mouths wide open...

The phos has always been pretty high. Used to be twice that and I was suggested to do a series of water changes for a couple weeks and that's where it sits now...in doing the water changes I must have started a mini cycle because my nitrates went up and I'm seeing that brown algae in the sand...looks like diatoms which is why i reduced lighting for that 1 weekend...would you suggest a larger or smaller water change?

If that's the case, I'd start with testing your plain ro/di water, and look into adding some microbacter7 or Dr tim's to help stabilize your tank if it's mini cycling. If your source ro/di water checks out, I would get on a weekly 20% water change schedule as to not swing anything too aggressively, and perhaps add some GFO in a media bag to assist with the phosphate removal. It is anecdotal, but I've experienced polyp bailout due to higher phosphates on LPS. I've also had similar symptoms due to metals in the water, for me it was too many trace elements, and I used an ICP test to confirm it. Perhaps considering an ICP test for some insight could help pin it down as well.

Djasak · Jul 5, 2020

Just want to give an update, I ended up adding some chemi-pure blue and doing a large water change (not quite 50%) and the corals bounced back beautifully! also swapped out my heaters to ensure the tank warmed up to that 76° mark, cleaned my circulation pumps and checked the settings on my lights. Noticed that the red and green spectrums were on where I normally keep them off so I changed that as well.

Thank you for everyone's input! Disaster averted! Happy reefing!