What is killing my hard coral(s)?

BonelessEvil · May 27, 2018

I've had this little guy for about 5 months. Everything has been going fine (I think), though admittedly, I'm new to reef tanking and killed plenty of hard corals in this 1st 6 months. Not buying anymore, until I think my tank isn't going to kill them. Have any idea what's going on? And no. I don't know what type of coral this is. 2nd, I do have hydroids in the tank and have been scrubbing them off rocks. I bought 6 peppermint shrimp in hopes they would take care of it. They haven't taken to eating it yet, as far as I know. Not sure what else could be causing this, unless my lighting changes have been too intense (I'm using Saxby's Hydra 26 schedule, but dimmed the whites, greens and reds a bit; image #3).

Tank: Reefer 425 Deluxe XL (88g. visible, 112 /w sump)
Refugium: Yes
Chemistry: see image #2.

BonelessEvil · May 27, 2018

– the picture doesn't represent his color well. He's actually pretty bright orange.

BonelessEvil · May 27, 2018

– I actually think he's an orange Montipora Setosa, so I was way off by thinking he was SPS if that's true

Wrasse-cal · May 27, 2018

I'm NO expert at all, but your salinity is higher than ideal and you have a positive test for nitrites. Those jump out to me.

BoomCorals · May 27, 2018

How old is the tank? Nitrite should be zero.

BonelessEvil · May 27, 2018

Wrasse-cal said:
I'm NO expert at all, but your salinity is higher than ideal and you have a positive test for nitrites. Those jump out to me.

yeah, the salinity was up that day, but it got fixed immediately.

nitrites are within reason, I think. Aquawatertesting.com thinks they are "good", so there's that.

Crashjack · May 27, 2018

Wrasse-cal said:
I'm NO expert at all, but your salinity is higher than ideal and you have a positive test for nitrites. Those jump out to me.

NSW on the world’s reefs varies from around 1.024 -1.032 s.g. It is unlikely salinity is the issue.

Sarah24! · May 27, 2018

Hello,

What jumps out at me is you have some nitrites, and phosphates those should be under 2, but worse your alk is 2.9, should be between 7-9. Not sure if I’m reading your chart right but also changing lights is very stressful on coral.

The best medicine for a salt water tank is to leave it alone and do weekly testing. I’m not sure who does the testing but for peace of mind I would have another source test to be sure.

mtfish · May 27, 2018

Alk is reported in meg/l. So 2.6 is around 7.4 DKH, so that should not be a problem.

najer · May 28, 2018

Looks like a setosa, what is that growing on it?

samnaz · May 28, 2018

Looks like either forams or some kinda wire algae is growing on it, in the shaded parts. I also see some hair-like algae growing on/near the tips.

what kind of hydroids do you have and how long have you had them? I don't see any in the photo. I also have never heard of using peppermint shrimp to take care of hydroids.

you say you've killed plenty of hard corals... how quickly do they perish after adding them to the tank?

BonelessEvil · May 28, 2018

samnaz said:
what kind of hydroids do you have and how long have you had them? I don't see any in the photo. I also have never heard of using peppermint shrimp to take care of hydroids.

you say you've killed plenty of hard corals... how quickly do they perish after adding them to the tank?

this particular coral has lasted about six months. It's literally the longest lasting one. Others have bleached out within days, telling me something very wrong with my situation for them. Soft corals have done well; clove polyps, hammer and torch. I've gone to smaller water changes, 5 gallons per week (100 gallon tank) as well. Before, I was doing 15 gallons per week, a little less than 20%. It was suggested that I lower that down and that a little bit of nutrients is okay. The aquarist thought I was probably changing the chemistry too often and too much with these water changes. So far, my chemistry seems to be balancing better now.

RE: peppermint shrimp. You know how the Internet is. Somebody suggest something that works for them and so you try it. That's literally what I did. Some guy says his peppermint shrimp took out hydroids. So I tried it. it's been a fail so far. And they grow pretty fast. Even scrubbing the rock, there difficult to get rid of.

RE: killing corals. Yes, I've killed a few. I've been trying stuff out, but I'm very new to reef aquaria and have made plenty of mistakes LOLI think I solved the problem, then bought some corals to see if they'd work out. They didn't. Some would last for a few weeks and others, would start bleaching fairly soon. The water test above shows my calcium at 410. Normal. Both my tests at home, Salifert and Red Sea, put my calcium at 550 and 525, respectively.

BonelessEvil · May 28, 2018

mtfish said:
Alk is reported in meg/l. So 2.6 is around 7.4 DKH, so that should not be a problem.

I'm actually working to bring that number up. I'd like to keep my alkalinity a little above 8.2 and have been dosing 8ml (soda ash) to buffer the water a bit. 4 mL didn't seem to keep it up high enough.

I don't think this is a problem, but I'm watching it

BonelessEvil · May 28, 2018

BoomCorals said:
How old is the tank? Nitrite should be zero.

I'm wondering: at 0.014, isn't that pretty much zero? I mean, that's a very low nitrite level.

BonelessEvil · May 28, 2018

and seriously, thanks for the responses!

;Bookworm

jda · May 28, 2018

Do not sweat a trace of nitrate... you will always have a trace just like there will always be a trace of ammonia that has not been consumed yet.

This looks mostly like recent-young-tank syndrome. Did you start with dry or dead rock? If so, that can provided a very unstable environment for some corals for up to two years. Check out this article, if so... it outlines the issues that a lot of people have... but some also have none. If not, then my apologies.
https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/

Gareth elliott · May 28, 2018

Agree with above nitrite at level is nothing to worry about. 8ml of soda ash? What variety are you using? 8ml of say brs is only going to add like .1 dkh a day in your water volume. Dont quote me on the exact number not looking at a calculator. which seems low even for a lightly stocked tank.

Stigigemla · May 29, 2018

I would lower the salinity and make a Triton test. It is so many metals missing in the test that could poison the corals.
I wouldnt say 0,22 phosphate or 0,9 silicate or 0,03 cupper is good if the values are in mg/l.
Normally i change the resin in the silicate filter after the osmosis when Hydroides are beginnig to show up.
Are You using osmosis water?

Hans-Werner · May 29, 2018

Maybe it is just the light. Some red Montipora seem to dislike blue light of normal or high intensity. It looks like the parts exposed to light are dying.