Unhappy acros and at a loss

ageno125 · Mar 7, 2018

I need some advice. My acros keeping slowly dying and I can’t figure out why.

Tank has been up since beginning of August, still new. I was growing out a nice a Fox Flame, from a frag to 4” area with awesome coloring. Added a few more, acros were happy and growing. Then boom, they started to go one by one. Seemed to start on one side and moved through the tank. Slow tissue loss, then algae, and then crabs pick at the algae. No signs of Red bugs or other visible pests. I’ve always dipped my corals with Bayer.

Stable parameters. My PH is high but, has been from the start.

Alk-8-8.3
Cal-410
Ph-8.6-8.8
Mag-1260
Temp78-80

(3) 250w MH @ 4hrs
(2) T5 6hrs
(1) 72” reefbrite blue 10hrs

180G : 260G total

LPS are good: zoos, Duncan, favia, and Brain.

Also have some kind of sps toxic green something and rainbow chalice both doing well. An Alien eye chalice in rough shape.

Changed the rodi filters the other day. Tested for chlorine, 0. I was thinking of sending a water sample to ICP, just to see if any weird popped up on the report.

Hoping for a point in the right direction. Not in my happy place at the moment. Thanks in advance.

HairyGary · Mar 7, 2018

What are your PO4 and NO3?

ageno125 · Mar 7, 2018

HairyGary said:
What are your PO4 and NO3?[/

0- PO4 using a Hanna checker
5 - NO3 using Red Sea

HairyGary · Mar 7, 2018

Have they lost color as well?

ageno125 · Mar 7, 2018

Color and tissue seemed to fade at the same time. Rather than one day the color is gone then the next day the tissue is gone.

HairyGary · Mar 7, 2018

ageno125 said:
Color and tissue seemed to fade at the same time. Rather than one day the color is gone then the next day the tissue is gone.

I was also thinking your lights are not on that long and they may be starved but that sounds like RTN so has to be something else. Maybe the high PH but i dont think it is high enough to do that.

NeverlosT · Mar 7, 2018

Id feed a bit heavier for a while, do a few normal water changes (just make sure your WC water has the parameters you want), send some water out for an ICP test, and really just keep everything steady.

What hurt things is probably a while in the past now, and may not be an issue anymore, but SPS take a while to react to good conditions, so stability will help things perk up overtime.

Good luck!

bubbaque · Mar 7, 2018

Try and get phosphate off 0 and see if that helps.

Bouncingsoul39 · Mar 7, 2018

Up your Mag to 1350+, feed the fish and corals more. Do you have coraline algae growth?

ageno125 · Mar 8, 2018

Bouncingsoul39 said:
Up your Mag to 1350+, feed the fish and corals more. Do you have coraline algae growth?

Working on trying to bring up the mag. I have epsom salt I’ve been using. Hasn’t seemed to do much though. Tons of coralline, all red/pink/purple. None is white.

Dosing with tropic Marin A B C.

ageno125 · Mar 8, 2018

NeverlosT said:
Id feed a bit heavier for a while, do a few normal water changes (just make sure your WC water has the parameters you want), send some water out for an ICP test, and really just keep everything steady.

What hurt things is probably a while in the past now, and may not be an issue anymore, but SPS take a while to react to good conditions, so stability will help things perk up overtime.

Good luck!

I do feed a lot, Turned the skimmer off and got rid of a sock to bump up the p04.

NeverlosT · Mar 8, 2018

ageno125 said:
I do feed a lot, Turned the skimmer off and got rid of a sock to bump up the p04.

Sounds good but be careful, the skimmer is also keeping your pH higher with gas injection, so securing it may lower your pH.

jwells77 · Mar 8, 2018

Time to look for pests. Any temp swings?

ageno125 · Mar 8, 2018

whitepickle said:
Time to look for pests. Any temp swings?

Always on a look out. I have going over the dead corals with a magnifying glass, haven’t seen anything. Stable temp 78-80

ageno125 · Mar 8, 2018

NeverlosT said:
Sounds good but be careful, the skimmer is also keeping your pH higher with gas injection, so securing it may lower your pH.

What do you mean by “securing it”? After an complete 24hrs w/o a skimmer PH still 8.8.

NeverlosT · Mar 11, 2018

by "securing" I meant shutting it off. I am surprised your pH is 8.8, that is quite high, perhaps you are using lots of kalkwasser? I wonder if having your pH that high may actually cause issues, I've never seen a tank with a pH close to 9.

My intent to warn that most folks (not all) see a drop in pH when they turn their skimmer off, but it does not appear to be something that you have to consider. (so if your pH was 7.7 and you shut your skimmer off and it dipped even lower, that would be a concern).

Anyhow, I hope your corals keep improving!