Tank Crashing. My Corals are Dying.

[Tanggy]

My tank is about 2.5 years old. Started from live rock (got from LFS). Had ok success with LPS and Zoa for the 1st year and for the last year it's been doing well. I started to add sps frags when I noticed sponges in my tank (a sign of stability). I introduced about 10 frags into my tank Dec 2019. Out of the ten frags only 2 encrusted after 2 months (the other did not encrust but they were just there). So In Feb 2020: i add t5 to supplement my LED lights. My par went from 150-200 to 200-250 with the addition of the T5. I started out with 1 hr of T5 and slowly every week adding 30 minutes to the T5 being on.

For the last 3-4 wks: i've noticed my sps have started bleaching from the tip and slowly going down toward the body. Out of the 10, 3 of the sps has STN.
Just that time, one of my scoly basically melted away in a couple of days, my hammers are slowly loosing heads and just this morning I've noticed my gold torch losing 2 of it's 4 heads.

It's been a frustrating few wks. My parameters are stable. I've been recording them every couple of days. Alk:7.7. Ca: 405, Mg: 1305. Nitrate: 20, Phosphate 0.08. I've been doing 3 5 gallons water change per week (which i have reduce to only one 5 gallon per week). I dose ATI essesentials for alkalinity, CA and Mg. I also does NOPOx to help reduce high nutrients.

The only change i've done in the last 4 wks are adding T5 and macrorocks reef saver pedestal (from BRS).

I mailed in an ATI ICP test last week. Hopefully it should be ready soon.

Please help.

 

[Tanggy]

My last scoly was doing ok yesterday. Now it seems like its doing bad... My gold torch is completely gone. Please HELP.

 

[wmo168]

Check your pump. Broken magnets mount. Heater fail etc... make sure nothing rusted or broken

 

[Cdeg]

ICP test. Run a bag of carbon and cuprisorb in the meantime. Probably something like metals in the water that isn't showing unstable parameters

 

[Thales]

Salinity? Sorry if I missed it above

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I agree with the above. Run some copper and some cuprasorb. Also when is the last time your ro unit had new di resin or carbon block? Check for stray voltage also. I would stop doing water changes as frequently as you are.

 

[Tanggy]

Salinity? Sorry if I missed it above

Salinity stable at 1.026. I check with a calibrated Milkwaukee Digital Refractometer.

 

[Tanggy]

Check your pump. Broken magnets mount. Heater fail etc... make sure nothing rusted or broken

I just changed out the wet side for the MPs recently. Will check the heater...Temp have been stable at 76 F.

 

[Tanggy]

I agree with the above. Run some copper and some cuprasorb. Also when is the last time your ro unit had new di resin or carbon block? Check for stray voltage also. I would stop doing water changes as frequently as you are.

Carbon block and DI resin changed out about 4-5 months ago. TDS is 0.

 

[Tanggy]

ICP test. Run a bag of carbon and cuprisorb in the meantime. Probably something like metals in the water that isn't showing unstable parameters

Will run carbon and cuprisorb.

 

[DMG Reef]

I would stop the NoPox. Some tanks do fine with it while others have random coral deaths.

 

[philosophile]

Sounds to me like your sps dying kicked off a nutrient spike and its affecting the other corals either in degraded water quality or through chemicals being released by the dying corals themselves.

So.... big water change. Do another one the next day if possible. Run carbon and skim wet.

 

[dedragon]

+1 @Kattkrazie
I would stop the noPox asap, ive had some issues with bleaching during carbon dosing

 

[Tanggy]

I would stop the NoPox. Some tanks do fine with it while others have random coral deaths.

Was dosing 6 ml of NoPox for a few months. Have reduced it down to 3ml about a month ago. Will stop NoPox.

 

[Tanggy]

Do you all recommend running carbon in a reactor or passively through a mesh? Thanks.

 

[philosophile]

It doesnt really matter how you run it. Whatever works for your system. Make sure you rinse it well before using though.

 

[Cdeg]

Was dosing 6 ml of NoPox for a few months. Have reduced it down to 3ml about a month ago. Will stop NoPox.

Slowly reduce the dose overtime don't just stop at once

 

[Jeeperz]

Take the t5 offline too. Put the tank back to how it was before issues

 

[artieg1]

Oh I would stop Nopox. That gave me no end of grief, including some of what you are describing. I'd undo everything you did in the last month, and stop dosing nopox and anything else other than alk and calcium.

 

[Tanggy]

To summarize: so far i have added bag of BRS 0.8 Rox activated carbon and cuprisorb. I have stopped NoPox and have I taken the T5 offline. Please if you have anything else to add please do so. Also waiting for the ICP test. Once it is available I will post it here. Thanks.