Soft corals not doing too well...clueless

Ryan9212 · Aug 8, 2019

leokan said:
I have similar issue recently, GSP, Zoa doing well but all my soft coral not doing good. I don't have any carbon or special filter.

Thinking to add poly filter as you have successful experience. May I ask what is the reason you have carbon initially? What is that for?

This is an older post but what I will tell you is that I thought it was the rusty looking hose clamp...which is why I added the poly filter. Carbon makes the water clearer and gets rid of the yellow tint. It also helps remove any toxins produced by corals like leathers specifically.

Since this post I have tried GSP about 4 times and xenia 3 times. Both will be fine for a bit then all of a sudden I see fewer and fewer polyps out on the GSP until none are out and then the whole thing rots away. Xenia same idea, it will be fine then it starts to shrivel and die off. Even when I have pieces on opposite sides of the tank.

It would be really interesting to know why I can't keep GSP and xenia alive in my tank. But I have kenya trees multiplying like there is no tomorrow, a Tyre toadstool about 10x the size from the time I posted this, montis, Acros, stylos, birds nest, frog spawn, duncan, candy cane, zoas, mushroooms, RBTA's, chalice growing nicely. But....can't keep GSP and xenia alive lol.

I am wondering if the light is frying them, I use 1 165w black box and have been growing montis on the sand bed even with it turned down. I did have the xenia in the sand bed in a corner which doesn't get much light. I did experiment with the kenya trees since I have so many...I put 1 way up high and the others in the sand and there isn't any difference.

My parameters now are:
Alk 9.8dkh
Salinity 1.026
Magnesium 1350
Calcium 410
Nitrates 25-30ppm
Phosphates 0.2ppm

So not enough nutrients is definitely not my problem. I don't know why everyone loves the ultra low nutrient system when you have to spend a ton on supplements. I get way faster growth at my current parameters. I added a kole tang and a bunch of turbo snails and have zero algae except coralline which is now a big nuisance lol.

Dr. Dendrostein · Aug 8, 2019

Ryan9212 said:
This is an older post but what I will tell you is that I thought it was the rusty looking hose clamp...which is why I added the poly filter. Carbon makes the water clearer and gets rid of the yellow tint. It also helps remove any toxins produced by corals like leathers specifically.

Since this post I have tried GSP about 4 times and xenia 3 times. Both will be fine for a bit then all of a sudden I see fewer and fewer polyps out on the GSP until none are out and then the whole thing rots away. Xenia same idea, it will be fine then it starts to shrivel and die off. Even when I have pieces on opposite sides of the tank.

It would be really interesting to know why I can't keep GSP and xenia alive in my tank. But I have kenya trees multiplying like there is no tomorrow, a Tyre toadstool about 10x the size from the time I posted this, montis, Acros, stylos, birds nest, frog spawn, duncan, candy cane, zoas, mushroooms, RBTA's, chalice growing nicely. But....can't keep GSP and xenia alive lol.

How's your flow in DT?

leokan · Aug 8, 2019

Ryan9212 said:
This is an older post but what I will tell you is that I thought it was the rusty looking hose clamp...which is why I added the poly filter. Carbon makes the water clearer and gets rid of the yellow tint. It also helps remove any toxins produced by corals like leathers specifically.

Since this post I have tried GSP about 4 times and xenia 3 times. Both will be fine for a bit then all of a sudden I see fewer and fewer polyps out on the GSP until none are out and then the whole thing rots away. Xenia same idea, it will be fine then it starts to shrivel and die off. Even when I have pieces on opposite sides of the tank.

It would be really interesting to know why I can't keep GSP and xenia alive in my tank. But I have kenya trees multiplying like there is no tomorrow, a Tyre toadstool about 10x the size from the time I posted this, montis, Acros, stylos, birds nest, frog spawn, duncan, candy cane, zoas, mushroooms, RBTA's, chalice growing nicely. But....can't keep GSP and xenia alive lol.

I am wondering if the light is frying them, I use 1 165w black box and have been growing montis on the sand bed even with it turned down. I did have the xenia in the sand bed in a corner which doesn't get much light. I did experiment with the kenya trees since I have so many...I put 1 way up high and the others in the sand and there isn't any difference.

My parameters now are:
Alk 9.8dkh
Salinity 1.026
Magnesium 1350
Calcium 410
Nitrates 25-30ppm
Phosphates 0.2ppm

So not enough nutrients is definitely not my problem. I don't know why everyone loves the ultra low nutrient system when you have to spend a ton on supplements. I get way faster growth at my current parameters. I added a kole tang and a bunch of turbo snails and have zero algae except coralline which is now a big nuisance lol.

Thanks for this update

Ryan9212 · Aug 9, 2019

Jomama said:
How's your flow in DT?

I have the 714 got return pump (before head pressure) and 3, 800 gph power heads. It was difficult to get everything angled so the sps gets higher flow and the lps/softies get lower flow

Dr. Dendrostein · Aug 9, 2019

Ryan9212 said:
I have the 714 got return pump (before head pressure) and 3, 800 gph power heads. It was difficult to get everything angled so the sps gets higher flow and the lps/softies get lower flow

What do you think a large WC but slowly and activated carbon?

leokan · Aug 10, 2019

why did you decide to remove carbon and use poly filter? Isn't that good to use them together like double insruance?

vetteguy53081 · Aug 10, 2019

Pulling carbon may help on the xenia. Also add iron as xenia requires such

balajeek15 · Aug 15, 2019

Ryan9212 said:
Thanks again for all of the responses and I apologize for the delay. I wanted to share an update because this could possibly help someone in the future.

I removed the carbon and added a poly filter. In the process I found that there was a hose clamp rusting/corroding... I removed it and within a couple of days everything started coming back to life.
I've read other stories of hose clamps rusting/corroding not being an issue but I do not see what else it could've been. Hope this can help someone. I really was going out of my mind trying to figure out the issue.

I was posting and searching answers where my zoa and gsp and cloves have same symptom but other corals are doing fine, sounds like you got yours resolved with poly filter, which i plan to get. How is your tank doing now and does your poly filter change to any color that you can identify as metals? your response would help. Thanks.

Ryan9212 · Aug 19, 2019

balajeek15 said:
I was posting and searching answers where my zoa and gsp and cloves have same symptom but other corals are doing fine, sounds like you got yours resolved with poly filter, which i plan to get. How is your tank doing now and does your poly filter change to any color that you can identify as metals? your response would help. Thanks.

It seemed like the poly filter did help but this was after I found I removed a rusty looking hose clamp in the sump. I honestly can’t seem to figure it out because I did try Xenia and gsp again after using the poly filter and removing the clamp. Both did well for a while then one day Xenia started shriveling and melting and the gsp slowly stopped coming out and just fell apart. Whatever it is, affects both Xenia and gsp and I still can’t figure it out. All other coral is fine and there are plenty of nutrients for the soft coral.

Keep me updated is the poly filter works out.

Also do you have leather corals in your tank? I’m wondering if Xenia and gsp are sensitive to the toxin released by leathers (one good reason to run carbon). I do have leathers but nothing else seems to be effected.