What happened to my Milli??

[Sobo's Reef]

Hey guys, almost a month ago I bought this really nice Milli colony from my LFS.

Over the past week, the flesh starting coming off from the bottom up. So I decided to frag what I could save and it winded up being 5 decent chunky frags. The following morning, every single frag was dying the same way.

Everything else in my tank is okay. I do weekly water changes between 3-5gallons.

A lil info about the tank..

Fluval Evo 13.5 (cycled for almost 2 months)
0ppm ammo
0ppm nitrite
10ppm or less nitrate
0.003 po4 (checked with Hanna Phosphourus ULR)
Salinity 1.025
Weekly water changes of 3-5g
Running carbon and filter floss in media tray
No skimmer
Light is an AI Prime
Tunze 3155 ATO
Water temp 78 degrees

Haven't checked to see what my Alk and Calc are but I didn't think I really needed to with how much is in the tank and how big of water changes I do. I'm gonna be getting alk regeants today tho from my LFS and see where that stands. Any ideas on why this happened?

Thanks in advance guys

 

[jsker]

Its kind low in the tank, it will be interesting to see what your alk and Ca are. everything else looks correct

 

[Mattrg02]

If you haven't been measuring your alkalinity and calcium, then I assume you haven't been measuring your water change water parameters either.

Your water change size range is a decent percent of your tank volume. If your basics are off by a lot, you'll be having parameter swings, which could cause your sps coral to rtn.

Matt

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

I agree with Matt, nano tanks are dang hard to keep sps in. Trust me I would know. I run the gambit on my tests every other day, if you're new to keeping corals, I suggest starting with a monti or something if you're really into sps. If your tank has only been running for 2 months I'd say it's still a little early for sps. But I promise you bro, you're going to play hell trying to keep sps in less than 10 gallons of water. Especially if you aren't testing Alk or Cal.

What's your flow like?
How high off the water is your light? And what percentage you running? Do you know what PAR you're running on it or LUX maybe?

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Not new to corals.. just got back in the hobby after a 2yr break. That does make sense with the water change volume and parameter swings. I'm gonna start logging stuff daily once I get these Alk regeants and try and keep my water changes to about 2g a week

I should also add that in the picture it was on the sand bed, after about 3 weeks or so I put it up a little higher.

 

[SDReefer]

2 months cycled and 10 ppm nitrate? May have been a little early to add sps, especially one from the Acropora family. I have a 16 gallon nano reef that's been up for 7 months and most Acropora still don't do very well in it.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

I've been running a fully dominated SPS tank in a biocube 14 with a 10 gallon sump( 17 gal TWV) for about a year now. But I stay on top of testing and my parameters, and even then I've had crashes bc of the small water volume.
I keep my parameters at
78
1.026
Cal-440
Alk-9-10dkH
Mag-1365ppm
No3-5ppm
My Rimless 14G Biocube SPS Reef

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/My-Rimless-14G-Biocube-SPS-Reef.264110/

 

[hybridazn]

What salt are you using? You would be surprised on how fast alk will drop with sps, esp with colonies

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

Probably nothing to do with your tank directly which is good news, but what you experienced is exactly the nature of maricultures, especially millis. They look amazing they first few weeks to a month, and typically dull up a lot soon after. From there they can go one way or the other. Sometimes they turn around and look great, often they wither and die. Sad but true.

If the majority of your coral looks good, and is growing, then it's very safe to assume the tank is just fine. Maricultures die often within the first few months after introduction unfortunately.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

What salt are you using? You would be surprised on how fast alk will drop with sps, esp with colonies

I'm using Reef Crystals. Always have since day 1.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Probably nothing to do with your tank directly which is good news, but what you experienced is exactly the nature of maricultures, especially millis. They look amazing they first few weeks to a month, and typically dull up a lot soon after. From there they can go one way or the other. Sometimes they turn around and look great, often they wither and die. Sad but true.

If the majority of your coral looks good, and is growing, then it's very safe to assume the tank is just fine. Maricultures die often within the first few months after introduction unfortunately.

Good to know! I'll steer clear of maricultured pieces from now on! Thanks

 

[Mattrg02]

Probably nothing to do with your tank directly which is good news, but what you experienced is exactly the nature of maricultures, especially millis. They look amazing they first few weeks to a month, and typically dull up a lot soon after. From there they can go one way or the other. Sometimes they turn around and look great, often they wither and die. Sad but true.

If the majority of your coral looks good, and is growing, then it's very safe to assume the tank is just fine. Maricultures die often within the first few months after introduction unfortunately.

Never considered that. I only buy frags, but never thought to ask if it was mariculture or not.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

The heavy hitters just walked in the door! lol I'll let y'all take over!

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

Good to know! I'll steer clear of maricultured pieces from now on! Thanks

Well, its not even that you need to steer clear, just to not get too attached right away lol. A lot of my own collection was built on maricultures that I managed to keep alive and ended up looking amazing, so the risk can be well worth it. It just a gamble for sure and the odds aren't entirely in your favor unfortunately.

 

[Hogan]

2 months is too soon for SPS especially a mille. I advise no SPS for at least 6 months and then I would start with a hardy sps (like an orange digi or a poccilopora) to see how it does. I currently run 3 nano tanks, a 6g, a 10g, and a 20g. Nanos are so fun! For years, the 6g was an sps dominate tank. But I had to stay on top of it. I had to have an ATO (even topping off by hand once a day was too much fluctuation in the tank). I did 80% water changes weekly religiously. If I missed a week, the tank crashed. I also found if I added a larger piece, because of the small water volume, it messed with the water parameters to much and would crash the tank. So I had to add a little frag when I added something and that gave everything a change to adjust to the changing parameters.

 

[Sobo's Reef]

It's just weird bc I have other SPS in my tank and it's doing fine.. good polyp extension from everything.. grant it they are mostly easier SPS... birdnest, valida, Setosa, purple digi, and green hydnophora. Then I have some zoas and a few lps

 

[SDReefer]

It's just weird bc I have other SPS in my tank and it's doing fine.. good polyp extension from everything.. grant it they are mostly easier SPS... birdnest, valida, Setosa, purple digi, and green hydnophora. Then I have some zoas and a few lps

Birdsnest, digi, pollicipira, & stylos are good for nano tanks since they're more forgiving in terms of parameter swings

 

[xilez]

Well, its not even that you need to steer clear, just to not get too attached right away lol. A lot of my own collection was built on maricultures that I managed to keep alive and ended up looking amazing, so the risk can be well worth it. It just a gamble for sure and the odds aren't entirely in your favor unfortunately.

How long will you nurture a browned coral before moving on from it? Do you ever toss corals?

 

[Sobo's Reef]

Just did a full test of my tank and here's what I got:
Salinity - 1.024(lil low)
pH - 8.0
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 10ppm
Phosphate - 0.02ppm
Alk - I tested it a couple times and always got around 6.5dKh
Calc - 410ppm (expired by a month so not sure if it's accurate)
Mag - 1460ppm(also not sure if accurate bc I lost the small plunger tip somewhere.

pH, nitrite and ammo are API kit
Nitrate and Calc are Salifert kit
Phosphate and Alk are Hanna Checkers
Magnesium is Red Sea Pro

 

[Mattrg02]

Just did a full test of my tank and here's what I got:
Salinity - 1.024(lil low)
pH - 8.0
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 10ppm
Phosphate - 0.02ppm
Alk - I tested it a couple times and always got around 6.5dKh
Calc - 410ppm (expired by a month so not sure if it's accurate)
Mag - 1460ppm(also not sure if accurate bc I lost the small plunger tip somewhere.

pH, nitrite and ammo are API kit
Nitrate and Calc are Salifert kit
Phosphate and Alk are Hanna Checkers
Magnesium is Red Sea Pro

I'd test your alkalinity again. That's low, probably too low. If you confirm that level, work on slowly bringing it up to around 8dkh.

Test your water change water for alkalinity as well. Don't what a swing.