Reef dying

nport19 · Oct 28, 2015

so I have had my setup for about 1 year now and all of the sudden I have noticed my corals are dying off one by one very slowly. All the water tests I have done say all the levels are fine in the tank. Anyone have any advice on this? Also I was wondering if anyone knew where I can get LED light bulbs for my 30 gallon nano tank setup.

KJ · Oct 28, 2015

Sounds like something is off on your water chemistry.
What are yours water parameters?

zwulfke · Oct 28, 2015

Had the same thing it was the sand he's releasing suffer

KJ · Oct 28, 2015

nport19 said:
I can get LED light bulbs for my 30 gallon nano tank setup

R2R Sponsor Forum

zwulfke · Oct 28, 2015

I'm selling a kessil lol

nport19 · Oct 28, 2015

I haven't recently checked the water parameters. I have very little sand in my setup so I don't think that's causing the problem. I did change out the carbon in my filter yesterday and that hadn't been done since I set it up so that might be the problem.

zwulfke · Oct 29, 2015

it may help You can always do 4 20% water changes in 4 days and see if that helps it may be something you can not test for

Derek Hill · Oct 29, 2015

What are your water parameters? What is your maint schedule?

Changing or not changing a carbon filter wont kill a tank off...need alot more details!

SifuMemphis · Oct 29, 2015

nport19 said:
I haven't recently checked the water parameters. I have very little sand in my setup so I don't think that's causing the problem. I did change out the carbon in my filter yesterday and that hadn't been done since I set it up so that might be the problem.

This could be your problem. If you do not know your parameters, you could possibly have had a swing somewhere causing your corals to die. I recently had a alk swing, and 1/3 of my sps were effected with white tips. Check to see what your parameters are at, and it would be easier for us to help you.

Oceansize · Oct 29, 2015

In your OP you say you've checked your parameters and they are fine. Then in your second post you say you haven't checked parameters recently. ???

No one can help much without knowing your parameters. I agree that 4 20% water changes in 4 days should do a lot to help fix whatever the problem is, but it would be nice to know what's wrong first so you don't do it again, or have to keep on doing emergency water changes. For a reef tank that's already been cycled, we need to know nitrates, phosphates, alkalinity, calcium, pH, and salinity.

In addition to parameters, when was the last water change? If no water changes, what are you doing for nitrate export? What are you doing to replace lost alkalinity and calcium in the tank?

A tank that small needs frequent water changes unless you've got some fancy method of nitrate export. If that hasn't been done, your most likely problems are low alkalinity and the pH swings that result from that, or dirty water from excess nitrates and/or phosphates. Also perhaps your salinity is too high if you have been topping off the tank with salt water instead of fresh, or not topping off the tank at all.

If it is only your coral that are suffering and not your fish, then it could also be a lighting issue, however fish often don't give warning signs until it's practically too late to help them, so we don't want to consider lighting as the issue until we've ruled everything else out.

I highly doubt it has anything to do with you changing out your carbon.

nport19 · Oct 29, 2015

I usually do a water change every 3 weeks or so. I dose iodide every time I do a water change. Are for the cal and alk, I just relie on the salt mix to take care of that. I am going to test my water and see what's wrong with it. I will post that up once I do it.vi do have reef energy, and trace reef sip supplements. I havnt used them because I'm not sure how to does them correctly. I only top off my tank with freshwater. And the salinity reads 1.024

brandon429 · Oct 29, 2015

we need you to post a full tank shot

iodide can be lethal as it accumulates this is a real contender. everything you are dosing is suspect and not required, not that its bad but it adds variables. feed is required and good wc

nport19 · Oct 29, 2015

Ok. I can do that and that's good to know.

nport19 · Oct 29, 2015

nport19 · Oct 29, 2015

Now before anyone goes off on me for having a tang in my setup. I have had tangs in similar setups like this and they work out great.

Oceansize · Oct 29, 2015

With a smaller tank like that, you get punished much more quickly for being inconsistent with water changes. So the "3 weeks or so" in your response may be the culprit, it depends on how wide that "or so" bit is, lol. Without more specifics, my guess is you're simply not doing water changes frequently enough, or enough volume per change. Now I'm really curious to know your parameters. Also, your salinity if officially a little low, but I doubt that it's low enough to kill your reef.

brandon429 · Oct 29, 2015

and its not that they are bad additions, its that by removing all doser variables we know for sure that all nano reef corals w respond to higher vol water changes and only feeding for total support. when the balance is good long term we can continue w those dosers if testing for them...when things are in question, going backwards to standard tank CPR which is spot feeding and large water change work that the tank isn't used to, that will fix them if you sustain it long enough.

if your tank was mine, a 100% water change would have been done days ago. if you have fish, then back to back 90% so they have room to swim.

a full water table reset is a key cheat nanos can do that large tanks cant. there isn't any coral you are keeping that would be harmed by it, in fact they respond better because you can feed more, and feeding more without poisoning your tank is what we want for sure. dose nil, feed more and water change massive, ive fixed 1000 nanos like this.

Im tang judge free. anyone not breeding them for their 110s just as guilty heh/that's about to change tho.