Soft Corals Melting away

[Davisc1293]

I have a 32 cube with an assortment of mixed corals. Paraments have not been super stable but havnt seen any cause for alarm and the only coalrs showing signs of stress are the supposedly bullet proof ones. First my pulsing xenia closed up and has been slowing withering away. Then a week went by and then all the zoas closed at once. now after another few days the pink cloves aren't closed but look weak. What should I be looking for? My hammers, montis, favia, and SPS are not yet effected.

Salinity 35ppt
Alk 8.5 to 8.7 over the past month or so
cal 420
phos .06-.08 working on bringing down but when my hannah was testing .2p icp said .06 so either hannah and my other kits were way off or icp was off. and now that hannah is reading .07 maybe its in fact much much lower?
Nitate 5-10ppm
Iron was was also high in icp at 7.0 ug/l

 

[Timfish]

Has your tank seen any major temperature swings, >5° F in a day? Low PO4 will kill corals, keep it above .03 mg/l. I'd run GAC and start doing 5%-10% weekly water changes

 

[Davisc1293]

Has your tank seen any major temperature swings, >5° F in a day? Low PO4 will kill corals, keep it above .03 mg/l. I'd run GAC and start doing 5%-10% weekly water changes

No, i keep my tank in a room kept at 76 with an ac and the tank also has a fan on top hooked up to a controller. In the past month min temp was 78.6 max was 79.2

PH has gotten a tiny bit higher lately but is always between 8.29 (before lights on) and (8.4 when lights go off).

I just did an ICP at the beginning of the month but their phosphate numbers in particular did not match mine. maybe ill send another one to triton since i always keep one on hand.

My ULR meter has been consistant if i test back to back but all over the place on jun 30 it tester .49 on july 2 .3 (the same day i sent ICP sample which tested .06)

 

[Jekyl]

Lighting or flow issue? Parameters don't seem like they should be a cause.

 

[Davisc1293]

Lighting or flow issue? Parameters don't seem like they should be a cause.

ive got one wave maker on low pointed right at the rock and a nero 3 on the other side maxed at 45% on random i did recently turn the nero down from 50%

lighting hasn't changed tho AI prime i dont have a par meter but have been running
UV 65%
V 105%
RB 105%
B 100%
R 0%
G 0%
W 10%

 

[wculver]

I have a 32 cube with an assortment of mixed corals. Paraments have not been super stable but havnt seen any cause for alarm and the only coalrs showing signs of stress are the supposedly bullet proof ones. First my pulsing xenia closed up and has been slowing withering away. Then a week went by and then all the zoas closed at once. now after another few days the pink cloves aren't closed but look weak. What should I be looking for? My hammers, montis, favia, and SPS are not yet effected.

Salinity 35ppt
Alk 8.5 to 8.7 over the past month or so
cal 420
phos .06-.08 working on bringing down but when my hannah was testing .2p icp said .06 so either hannah and my other kits were way off or icp was off. and now that hannah is reading .07 maybe its in fact much much lower?
Nitate 5-10ppm
Iron was was also high in icp at 7.0 ug/l

Do you do regular water changes with reef salt that have trace elements mixed in? I see that your measureable variables are okay but the trace elements we just don't test for. The softies start to melt as the "trace elements" are depressed and as hardy as the xenia are they seem to be the first to start melting when that happens, canary in the coalmine style.

With a tank your size the water changes with the right quality salt would probably be the quickest and easiest way to return the proper chemistry to the tank.

 

[Davisc1293]

Do you do regular water changes with reef salt that have trace elements mixed in? I see that your measureable variables are okay but the trace elements we just don't test for. The softies start to melt as the "trace elements" are depressed and as hardy as the xenia are they seem to be the first to start melting when that happens, canary in the coalmine style.

With a tank your size the water changes with the right quality salt would probably be the quickest and easiest way to return the proper chemistry to the tank.

I did stop doing water changes for about 1 month but that was a few months back and have been doing regular weekly water changes with tropic marin pro reef. when i stopped doing water changes awhile ago it was to bring up my nutrients to fight dinos while i was dosing silicates to promote diatoms. I havnt dosed any in the last 2 months tho since i started do WC again but my SI was up to 5ppm on ICP so theres is a ton of sponge in the system now maybe they are sucking up the trace elements

 

[wculver]

I did stop doing water changes for about 1 month but that was a few months back and have been doing regular weekly water changes with tropic marin pro reef. when i stopped doing water changes awhile ago it was to bring up my nutrients to fight dinos while i was dosing silicates to promote diatoms. I havnt dosed any in the last 2 months tho since i started do WC again but my SI was up to 5ppm on ICP so theres is a ton of sponge in the system now maybe they are sucking up the trace elements

It's a hard call to make exactly because I don't know your tank but I can tell you water changes couldn't come close to keeping up with trace elements in my tank. If you decided to dose some trace elements I would suggest dosing 1/4 of the recommended dose and see what happens. I generally say being a little low is better than being too high, but you also cannot be near zero. Ultimate balancing act. The good news is though, unlike with most salwater things the coral have a pretty quick favorable reaction to the trace elements. Especially with the SPS, it'll really accentuate the color. Everything else will react quickly also.

 

[Jekyl]

ive got one wave maker on low pointed right at the rock and a nero 3 on the other side maxed at 45% on random i did recently turn the nero down from 50%

lighting hasn't changed tho AI prime i dont have a par meter but have been running
UV 65%
V 105%
RB 105%
B 100%
R 0%
G 0%
W 10%

Usually indirect flow is recommended rather than pointing straight at. Just a thought

 

[Davisc1293]

It's a hard call to make exactly because I don't know your tank but I can tell you water changes couldn't come close to keeping up with trace elements in my tank. If you decided to dose some trace elements I would suggest dosing 1/4 of the recommended dose and see what happens. I generally say being a little low is better than being too high, but you also cannot be near zero. Ultimate balancing act. The good news is though, unlike with most salwater things the coral have a pretty quick favorable reaction to the trace elements. Especially with the SPS, it'll really accentuate the color.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Your parameters are fine now, so there's nothing to go on really. But as you mention, the parameters "have not been super stable", and you stopped water changes "for about a month".

We dont know what that means or which parameters fluctuated by how much, so all we can really do is guess.

I would suggest to keep on the current path and stay on top of the husbandry.

 

[Davisc1293]

Thank you for the advice! today the zoas definitely looked smaller and its clear the xenia is just about done for. But everything else looks great and the meteor shower is nice and smooth again. I think the plan is to do a larger then normal water change tomorrow and change the carbon. And continue normal weekly wc after that that. If it is a trace element deficiency hopefully a 30-40% will make a noticeable difference even if only for a day or so. Im thinking with such an increase in sponge growth maybe they are sucking the elements up like you mentioned.

 

[Davisc1293]

Did a 40% water change and pulled the gfo again because po4 was low. again after just 24 hours po4 shot back up to over. 2. Idk what is cause sucj a fast increase. Needless to say it looks like i will have to keep running gfo but im at a loss because ive been feeding much lighter then usual and am still having po4 swings. Now my gsp is only half openeing. The rest of it that is more shaded is not opening at all. Still dind it strange only the easy corals are showing stress. Xenia, clove, zoas, and gsp all stressed. But favia, hammer, montis, and my sps seem ok.

 

[Lutzerman]

I'd stay away from GFO unless you're having major algae issues. .2 is okay as long as it doesn't get much higher. I killed a lot of coral in my early reefing days with GFO. I use lanthanum chloride products now if things get off. With either, go very slow. If it were me I'd let the phosphate ride for a while and see how the coral responds.