sps in trouble, need advise

coralbeauties · Jul 1, 2015

My tank has been not well for a couple of months now. I have lost several of my acros. some have faded out quite a bit. Some still have good color but most all have lost their normal p/e. Several have stn from the base. A month or so back I tested and my nitrate shows less then 1ppm and phos was at .07 I dont hardly ever have to clean my glass. I decided to shut down my skimmer to dirty up my water some. I retested last week and my nitrates are still the same but my phos has spiked to .7 I have been able to get the phos down to 0 dosing lanthanum chloride. I am wondering if I should start adding some nitrate to see if anything improves. From what I have read low nitrate could cause the fading color but what about the loss of p/e and stn? I am really frustrated as to what might be wrong. Pests are not an issue. Any ideas or suggestions.
thanks
Jeff

Bugger · Jul 1, 2015

Do you have that two little fishes algae magnet. If so take it out take it apart and look for rust. When was the last time you changed the carbon on your ro unit.

Daytonareefing · Jul 1, 2015

I'm just wondering what lighting your using and the settings maybe how long have you been using that lighting?

Touring · Jul 2, 2015

Guys he told us the problem already. Read his post again....

jduck · Jul 2, 2015

How fast did you drop the po4?

afamousjohnson · Jul 2, 2015

Not quite.....lol
Seems the issue was already going on before the po4 spike.
Turned your skimmer off for a month?
My po4 for the last 4-5months has been anywhere from 2.5-4.....thats right pretty high. But it was consistant and my sps has done well with it and looked amazing up until last week when I crossed over tanks and added a lil amount of bio pellets.
After dropping my po4 to quickly I am now seeing issues along with stress from the move. So not always the issue.
The stn issue seems all around and unresolved - never been able to find a cause myself and know tons this happens to but it is usually random pieces here and there while others do fine along with still color and pe on the stn piece as it goes.
You might need to look closer if it is all the sps.?.

coralbeauties · Jul 2, 2015

I did probably drop my phos too fast but my issues were going on before this. The reason I am suspecting low nitrate is I have pretty much no algae growth in my tank and can go weeks without cleaning my front glass and even then it is not very bad. I have lost most all of my pod population and my mandarin died quite along time ago. I get absolutely no Coraline algae growth also. My calcium, mag, salinity, alk all are good. My alk did drop some when I dosed the lanthanum but only down to 7. The hardest hit coral is my red planet. It has stn almost half of the coral and has very little pink color. some of my corals still have very good color but reduced p/e. I would guess certain corals can withstand issues different than others.
Is there anything else what will cause the loss of algae and coraline growth other then nutrient levels?
thanks
Jeff

dbrewsky · Jul 2, 2015

what are you running for lights? do you have pictures of the corals?

dbrewsky · Jul 2, 2015

what are your parameters

kevinsmixed90 · Jul 3, 2015

you said your tank was not doing well for a few months before you did anything about it like turning off your skimmer etc... I don't trust your phos. readings either because it went from .071 to .71 seems odd to land on those numbers. maybe get different testing equipment and I would also check for rust on your glass cleaner as bugger said. pics. would be nice as would what lights at what schedule. good luck

Eckolancer · Jul 3, 2015

Keep your skimmer up and running. I had the same issue with my sps a while back and found out I had red bugs. They are very hard to see. On a red planet good luck even seeing them. I had a few smooth skin acros that made it easier to see. I ended up buying some soft chew pills for dogs that worked great. I had to order it from Australia as its banned here in the USA. Pay extra for the tracking my first package was stopped in customs so had to try and ordered a second time. It made it fine but took a while to get here. Make sure and dose 3 times with 7 days in between to kill all the eggs that hatch. After my first dose everything looked a 1000% better. You can leave your snails in the tank but will need to remove any crabs and shrimp. I caught most of my crabs but the shrimp I couldn't catch. So I dosed the tank as they started to die I pulled them and tossed them into the QT tank ran carbon by morning they were back to normal. Now doing great in the main tank again.

Eckolancer · Jul 3, 2015

Interceptor for dogs is what it is called. I have about 120 gallons of total water. I used 1/2 a large dog pill for each dose. They say that 1 pill can treat up to 400 gallons. I just wanted to be sure and kill them off. I probably could have used 1/3 and been fine. I don't do many water changes and actually didn't change the water after second dose but did do a 20% at the end as I wanted to add shrimp back. You will need to run carbon for a week just to pull it all out of the tank. One of my anemone crabs I could not catch and he did make it through the treatment just fine. Also 2 red legged hermits. But did notice the blue leg that died in the tank.

Chaz D · Jul 3, 2015

Please give everyone a little more information about your tank, will only net you more responses.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/p...-this-information-when-asking-for-help.44257/

coralbeauties · Jul 3, 2015

I have a 180 gallon tank with diy led lighting on a 8 hour schedule. The lighting is a non issue since my corals have done well for several years with the same lighting. My salinity is at 1.026, mag is at 1220, calcium 420, phos 0, nitrate below 1 on my salifert kit. I trust my hanna checker. I have removed a declining coral and used a jewelers loop and couldnt find any signs of pests. I bought some kno3 today and added a small dose of it. I still am thinking lack of nitrate due to my loss of any algae growth. I will check over the tank very closely for any rusty metals but dont think I have any. I added some high in rr pieces in the spring that I would hate to loose.
thanks for all the advise
Jeff

Piranhapat · Jul 3, 2015

Another problem your not looking at. When you shut your skimmer off. Your PH went down. Check your ph reading. It might be back since your running it again. Be careful when you shut it off. You should only shut it off during when the lights are on. And keep skimmer on when the lights are off.

Chaz D · Jul 3, 2015

I wouldn't shut your skimmer down at all, run it 24/7. Don't bother with the KNO3, just feed more. Hard to tell what your phosphate is, you mention .7 in one post and 0 in another, personally I wouldn't be chasing numbers for phosphates/nitrates nor would I be running any media to address them. You especially shouldn't be dosing lc with a 0 phosphate reading. You don't mention alk...it's by far one of the most important parameters in a sps tank, what is it? how often do you test for it? and has it been fluctuating? Are you aware the impact the lc dosing has on alkalinity and did you take that into consideration when dosing? An alk swing may leave you bleached for a few weeks or months...happens to everyone in this hobby at some point in time. Your magnesium is a little on the low side, I'd considering slowly dosing to 1300 which might improve the pe you're lacking. Other than that, be patient and try to avoid any knee jerk reactions.