AnthonyStark
New Member
Hi! So i started with my 20L nano reef, and eventually moved it's inhabitants over to a 40g breeder reef tank. The reef has been in this tank a few months now, but over the last couple days i've had a few concerns, so i thought i'd see if the community could give me any insight into what might be wrong. First lemme list my coral; i have rainbow frag, a jd hornet frag, an emerald on fire frag, and a small fire and ice colony, an asst colony, and a large blasto colony. As well as three mushrooms, and a kenya tree.
Since changing the tank from a 20 nano to the 40breeder "nano" there hasn't been any fluctuation in anything other then my ph, which dropped dramatically to around 6.something a couple weeks back. I purchased a ph buffer that would only raise it to, and not above, 8.3. Been doing weekly water changes, using the buffer in when i do, and life in the tank has seemed like it's been exploding in growth. Between the discovery of tons of benign bristle worms, to the addition of about 40 new baby tube and feather duster worms. I also have two osc. clownfish in the tank, one coral banded shrimp, and two emerald crabs, as well as two small blue legged hermits, and one large green striped hermit, and a large curlicue anemonae.
Everythings been amazing, up till about 5 days ago. It started with the orange bams closing, the next day the emerald on fire also closed, and since neither have reopend. At first i thought nothing of it and just started monitoring a little more hardcore, but now i'm really worried. This morning i woke up and the emerald (which had two zoas on the frag) had detached from the ceramic disk it was shipped in and one of the zoa "heads" was gone. Bams still haven't opened either. Every other coral in the tank seems like it's been doing fine, with the exception of these two small ones, and my fire and ice colony.
The fire and ices were on the ceramic disk, wedged into a portion of my live rock so it would grow off the disk onto the rock. It seemed like it was doing just fine, the colony which came in with about 10 heads on it, sprouted about 7-8 more, and was extending off the disk onto the live rock. I was so excited seeing my "bridge" of live coral stretching out. About 4 days ago i noticed a white growth under the coral heads extending downwards. Theres a few, and they all look almost like calcium deposits or "roots" stretching from the bottom of the coral downwards towards the live rock/base. I didn't think anything of it as the coral seemed like it was doing amazing, i assumed teh coral was just making apendages to attach to the rock.... till the "bridge" of coral dissapeared, leaving 4 heads attached to the live rock. Since then it seems like the original colony has begun to shrink, 2 heads aren't there that had been. At first i thought maybe with it "purging" some of it's heads onto the live rock it was just a natural thing that had occured, not i'm not so sure if the main colony is dieing or if this white growth is a disease or something.
Like i stated before, except for these three corals, the other 5 asst types of zoas, anemonae, mushroom, and kenya tree are all doing great. Even the fire and ice still have gorgeous colors, it just looks like the colony is shrinking.
Salinity was a little high, checked in at 1.0265
Ammonia is 0
ph is 8.2
nitrate and nitrites are also basically immeasurable.
Using two H.0. T5 lights fixtures; A coralife and a deep blue, both with an actinic and a day bulb. 9 hrs daylight a day. Temperature is also at 80-81F.
I'm not using a skimmer, and the tank has a aqualife 55 filter and a Marineland 400 maxi-jet.
What do we think? It's weird only some of the coral is infected. What should i do with the white growths? Should i be concerned? I'm just worried, don't wanna lose my entire tank... And want to save what i can. Especially since some of the coral i have was a gift. Idk. Sad days.... Hopefully you guys might be able to point me in the right direction, and quick!
Since changing the tank from a 20 nano to the 40breeder "nano" there hasn't been any fluctuation in anything other then my ph, which dropped dramatically to around 6.something a couple weeks back. I purchased a ph buffer that would only raise it to, and not above, 8.3. Been doing weekly water changes, using the buffer in when i do, and life in the tank has seemed like it's been exploding in growth. Between the discovery of tons of benign bristle worms, to the addition of about 40 new baby tube and feather duster worms. I also have two osc. clownfish in the tank, one coral banded shrimp, and two emerald crabs, as well as two small blue legged hermits, and one large green striped hermit, and a large curlicue anemonae.
Everythings been amazing, up till about 5 days ago. It started with the orange bams closing, the next day the emerald on fire also closed, and since neither have reopend. At first i thought nothing of it and just started monitoring a little more hardcore, but now i'm really worried. This morning i woke up and the emerald (which had two zoas on the frag) had detached from the ceramic disk it was shipped in and one of the zoa "heads" was gone. Bams still haven't opened either. Every other coral in the tank seems like it's been doing fine, with the exception of these two small ones, and my fire and ice colony.
The fire and ices were on the ceramic disk, wedged into a portion of my live rock so it would grow off the disk onto the rock. It seemed like it was doing just fine, the colony which came in with about 10 heads on it, sprouted about 7-8 more, and was extending off the disk onto the live rock. I was so excited seeing my "bridge" of live coral stretching out. About 4 days ago i noticed a white growth under the coral heads extending downwards. Theres a few, and they all look almost like calcium deposits or "roots" stretching from the bottom of the coral downwards towards the live rock/base. I didn't think anything of it as the coral seemed like it was doing amazing, i assumed teh coral was just making apendages to attach to the rock.... till the "bridge" of coral dissapeared, leaving 4 heads attached to the live rock. Since then it seems like the original colony has begun to shrink, 2 heads aren't there that had been. At first i thought maybe with it "purging" some of it's heads onto the live rock it was just a natural thing that had occured, not i'm not so sure if the main colony is dieing or if this white growth is a disease or something.
Like i stated before, except for these three corals, the other 5 asst types of zoas, anemonae, mushroom, and kenya tree are all doing great. Even the fire and ice still have gorgeous colors, it just looks like the colony is shrinking.
Salinity was a little high, checked in at 1.0265
Ammonia is 0
ph is 8.2
nitrate and nitrites are also basically immeasurable.
Using two H.0. T5 lights fixtures; A coralife and a deep blue, both with an actinic and a day bulb. 9 hrs daylight a day. Temperature is also at 80-81F.
I'm not using a skimmer, and the tank has a aqualife 55 filter and a Marineland 400 maxi-jet.
What do we think? It's weird only some of the coral is infected. What should i do with the white growths? Should i be concerned? I'm just worried, don't wanna lose my entire tank... And want to save what i can. Especially since some of the coral i have was a gift. Idk. Sad days.... Hopefully you guys might be able to point me in the right direction, and quick!
