Possible mini crash?

[Oaken]

Last night all my euphyllia just randomly decided to close up and my mushroom shrinked down along with the zoas. I am concerned now bc my mushroom still doesnt look to good and my euphyllia albeit, opened up again throughout the day, is closed up abnormally again tonight. I performed about a 25% water change today and tested last night my params were
Alk 10.5
Calc 450
Mag 1300
SG 1.026
Nitrate 25
Phosph .22

I think maybe something might have swung hard but none of the tests showed any odd things but what could have happened and what should I do my mushrooms are shriveled up worse and I'm afraid they might die.

 

[Kudos]

Have you run any carbon?

 

[Hemmdog]

Did you change your light schedule or anything? 2nd guess is phosphates are to high.

 

[P-Dub]

I think that you just might want to lower your phosphates and nitrates and run carbon as have been suggested. Another water change might be in order. Don't do anything drastic. Your parameters are not terribly out of whack. There could be anything that was unforeseen that wouldn't show on a test kit. Kids put things in tanks. Cleaning lady used some chemicals in proximity. A pump may be leaching something. Flow may have changed. Check all things and proceed cautiously. Give things time. I've had corals do the darndest things for no apparent reason. Sometimes in concert and sometimes individually. Do you have other corals that seem to be acting adversely? Start with another 25% water change & add carbon and check back in with us. Give things time.

 

[Oaken]

Have you run any carbon?

Yes I do run carbon a small media bag in the filter sock

 

[Oaken]

Did you change your light schedule or anything? 2nd guess is phosphates are to high.

I changed my entire lights 2 weeks ago. Went from black boxes to t5 hydra.

 

[Oaken]

I think that you just might want to lower your phosphates and nitrates and run carbon as have been suggested. Another water change might be in order. Don't do anything drastic. Your parameters are not terribly out of whack. There could be anything that was unforeseen that wouldn't show on a test kit. Kids put things in tanks. Cleaning lady used some chemicals in proximity. A pump may be leaching something. Flow may have changed. Check all things and proceed cautiously. Give things time. I've had corals do the darndest things for no apparent reason. Sometimes in concert and sometimes individually. Do you have other corals that seem to be acting adversely? Start with another 25% water change & add carbon and check back in with us. Give things time.

Ok thanks I'll do that. My phosphates will not get under control. My macro wont grow idk why I've been fighting it for some time.

 

[Oaken]

I think that you just might want to lower your phosphates and nitrates and run carbon as have been suggested. Another water change might be in order. Don't do anything drastic. Your parameters are not terribly out of whack. There could be anything that was unforeseen that wouldn't show on a test kit. Kids put things in tanks. Cleaning lady used some chemicals in proximity. A pump may be leaching something. Flow may have changed. Check all things and proceed cautiously. Give things time. I've had corals do the darndest things for no apparent reason. Sometimes in concert and sometimes individually. Do you have other corals that seem to be acting adversely? Start with another 25% water change & add carbon and check back in with us. Give things time.

My nitrates were at 60 not long ago

 

[Kudos]

How often do you replace your carbon bag?

 

[Retro Reefer]

Probably shocked from light change, maybe substantially cut back your schedule and slowly increase back to where you want it. Also check all magnets for rust and maybe run a poly filter for a couple weeks just in case there’s contaminants in you water.

 

[P-Dub]

Ok, you have multiple things going on. If you can, I suggest placing the carbon in another high flow location other than the filter sock, preferably in the baffles somewhere. While the sock is a high flow area it is being bombarded with the crud that the filter sock is supposed to be filtering out and consequently gets clogged up and losses its efficacy prematurely. The high nitrates have been putting your corals under a bit more stress than had they been if your nitrates were in the recommended range. Same thing with the phos. Perhaps adding a bio pellet reactor will help with the nitrates. Are you regularly cleaning your sand bed? This needs to be done on a regular basis as sand has a tendency to harbor nutrients. Add all this to the fact that you changed lights without knowing how you implemented the change likely was the final nail in the coffin of that coral pushing it over the edge it had been riding.

We are making assumptions here but that is my take on it. So, follow the advice of decreasing the light intensity and take time over the next couple of weeks and months to tackle you higher nutrients. If you could get them lower, any way possible, you are on the track to getting things to not only survive but thrive. Keep us posted on what you were able to implement, co and change and the results of these. Don't do things drastically. Implement changes gradually. Have patience and let's hope your corals pull through.

Just out of curiosity what "black boxes" did you have? And, Why did you change?

 

[P-Dub]

My nitrates were at 60 not long ago

Exactly. They were too high putting stress on your corals. Additional lighting changes likely put them over the edge. Ideally, your corals should be in water 5-10 ppm nitrates MAX. I would consider 3-4 ideal.

 

[Oaken]

How often do you replace your carbon bag?

Once every 2 weeks or so

 

[Oaken]

Probably shocked from light change, maybe substantially cut back your schedule and slowly increase back to where you want it. Also check all magnets for rust and maybe run a poly filter for a couple weeks just in case there’s contaminants in you water.

Thank you

 

[Oaken]

Ok, you have multiple things going on. If you can, I suggest placing the carbon in another high flow location other than the filter sock, preferably in the baffles somewhere. While the sock is a high flow area it is being bombarded with the crud that the filter sock is supposed to be filtering out and consequently gets clogged up and losses its efficacy prematurely. The high nitrates have been putting your corals under a bit more stress than had they been if your nitrates were in the recommended range. Same thing with the phos. Perhaps adding a bio pellet reactor will help with the nitrates. Are you regularly cleaning your sand bed? This needs to be done on a regular basis as sand has a tendency to harbor nutrients. Add all this to the fact that you changed lights without knowing how you implemented the change likely was the final nail in the coffin of that coral pushing it over the edge it had been riding.

We are making assumptions here but that is my take on it. So, follow the advice of decreasing the light intensity and take time over the next couple of weeks and months to tackle you higher nutrients. If you could get them lower, any way possible, you are on the track to getting things to not only survive but thrive. Keep us posted on what you were able to implement, co and change and the results of these. Don't do things drastically. Implement changes gradually. Have patience and let's hope your corals pull through.

Just out of curiosity what "black boxes" did you have? And, Why did you change?

I appreciate it. I had vipar spectras 165w 3 of them and I changed cause the coloration wasnt good and my corals were bleaching the par was very odd obviously scattered

 

[Oaken]

Ok, you have multiple things going on. If you can, I suggest placing the carbon in another high flow location other than the filter sock, preferably in the baffles somewhere. While the sock is a high flow area it is being bombarded with the crud that the filter sock is supposed to be filtering out and consequently gets clogged up and losses its efficacy prematurely. The high nitrates have been putting your corals under a bit more stress than had they been if your nitrates were in the recommended range. Same thing with the phos. Perhaps adding a bio pellet reactor will help with the nitrates. Are you regularly cleaning your sand bed? This needs to be done on a regular basis as sand has a tendency to harbor nutrients. Add all this to the fact that you changed lights without knowing how you implemented the change likely was the final nail in the coffin of that coral pushing it over the edge it had been riding.

We are making assumptions here but that is my take on it. So, follow the advice of decreasing the light intensity and take time over the next couple of weeks and months to tackle you higher nutrients. If you could get them lower, any way possible, you are on the track to getting things to not only survive but thrive. Keep us posted on what you were able to implement, co and change and the results of these. Don't do things drastically. Implement changes gradually. Have patience and let's hope your corals pull through.

Just out of curiosity what "black boxes" did you have? And, Why did you change?

I have started dosing prodibio to try reducing. I was told not to siphon my sand bed I have a sand sifting star and a good cuc that has done a good job but obviously I've over fed. Sad part is my macro will not grow and help

 

[P-Dub]

Just outta curiosity, who told you NOT to clean your sand bed? AND, what size tank is this & how deep is your sand bed? With regards to growing macro, it is possible that you have things out-competing the macro for nutrients. What size is the refugium, what macro are you trying to grow & what lighting are you using?

 

[Oaken]

Just outta curiosity, who told you NOT to clean your sand bed? AND, what size tank is this & how deep is your sand bed? With regards to growing macro, it is possible that you have things out-competing the macro for nutrients. What size is the refugium, what macro are you trying to grow & what lighting are you using?

I think an LFS near me. They said that stirring my sand bed would raise the Nitrates. I have a sand sifting star and a good CUC, but my lights are T5 Hydras hybrid with a 1 hr a day T5 schedule. My whole sump is like 29 gallons, and the refugium is probably 7 gallons, small, not a ton of heavy current through it, but good flow.

 

[P-Dub]

You should clean your sandbed with every water change. You don't necessarily have to be meticulous about it but it does need to be done. whatever you miss will be fodder for the star and the rest of your cuc. There s plenty of info on this site to assist in how. The LFS, in my opinion, perhaps gave you bad advice. Still didn't catch how deep your sand bed is? What tank inhabitants do you have now?