Why are my fleshy things sad?

[TiaDav]

About to do a huge water change, because nitrates are at 5ppm, but my tank is tiny (12gal) so that isn't so bad. But my fleshy corals (favia, brain coral, maze) used to 'puff up' and be fleshy looking and now you can see their bones! One of the little favias I got already was showing his skeleton when I got him, but was looking good a week ago, now more bony than before. Duncan is shrinking too, puffing his mouth out and tentacles shrinking. Recently added a MINIATURE red scooter I found at work (less than an inch!) that I fell in love with and he was doing bad in the old tank there and is now eating pellet and brine shrimp (wasn't on the first day) so I know it's nothing that would hurt that little guy... so I'm thinking it's lighting...

The only thing that has changed is I switched over my lighting schedule to start at 8pm and stop at 2am to fit my night class schedule. (They had 6 1/2 hours before as well)

My Ponape Bird's nest is happy, sticking out its polyps. Palys are prolific as ever, monti even puffing what little polys he has... Kenya and clove star shrinking too though. I use Reef Crystals salt, and dose with Fuel. I try to give the favia's DTs phyto, but it didn't work out so much, but the candy canes loved it. Used to everyone would put out their tentacles after dark, now its only the candy canes and the feather duster eating more than usual. I fed out some cyclopeeze and the red scooter blenny loved it (oddly enough) but not the favia, brain coral, and maze. I'm stumped.

So doing bad:
Favia
Brain Coral
Maze
Duncan
Kenya Tree
Clove star

Doing good:
SPS (monti, bird's nest)
Clowns
Diamondback Goby
New Scooter Blenny
Palys
GSP
Mushrooms

(SIDENOTE: I know my poor tank is overstocked, but I have only two years left confined to a biocube... then on to student loan debt and BIGGER AND BETTER TANKS)

 

[briancarterkc]

What are your other parameters? Specifically, pH, Alk, calc, phosphate, temperature? Do you use carbon?

Also, 6.5 hours is a pretty short light cycle. Most folks are closer to 10. That said, I wouldn't think the light cycle would be causing this if your SPS are happy...

 

[Sabellafella]

About to do a huge water change, because nitrates are at 5ppm, but my tank is tiny (12gal) so that isn't so bad. But my fleshy corals (favia, brain coral, maze) used to 'puff up' and be fleshy looking and now you can see their bones! One of the little favias I got already was showing his skeleton when I got him, but was looking good a week ago, now more bony than before. Duncan is shrinking too, puffing his mouth out and tentacles shrinking. Recently added a MINIATURE red scooter I found at work (less than an inch!) that I fell in love with and he was doing bad in the old tank there and is now eating pellet and brine shrimp (wasn't on the first day) so I know it's nothing that would hurt that little guy... so I'm thinking it's lighting...

The only thing that has changed is I switched over my lighting schedule to start at 8pm and stop at 2am to fit my night class schedule. (They had 6 1/2 hours before as well)

My Ponape Bird's nest is happy, sticking out its polyps. Palys are prolific as ever, monti even puffing what little polys he has... Kenya and clove star shrinking too though. I use Reef Crystals salt, and dose with Fuel. I try to give the favia's DTs phyto, but it didn't work out so much, but the candy canes loved it. Used to everyone would put out their tentacles after dark, now its only the candy canes and the feather duster eating more than usual. I fed out some cyclopeeze and the red scooter blenny loved it (oddly enough) but not the favia, brain coral, and maze. I'm stumped.

So doing bad:
Favia
Brain Coral
Maze
Duncan
Kenya Tree
Clove star

Doing good:
SPS (monti, bird's nest)
Clowns
Diamondback Goby
New Scooter Blenny
Palys
GSP
Mushrooms

(SIDENOTE: I know my poor tank is overstocked, but I have only two years left confined to a biocube... then on to student loan debt and BIGGER AND BETTER TANKS)

Have you got a new bag/bucket of salt recently?

 

[Triggreef]

That said, I wouldn't think the light cycle would be causing this if your SPS are happy...

Agreed probly not light. Do you use gfo or aluminum based media? Water source?

 

[TiaDav]

Use daily made salt I make at the LFS I work at :/ but I haven't had my water tested in a while, I do 5gal water changes bi or tri weekly so I haven't been concerned with anything really bad. I do use a salinometer though, water was at 1.026 before top off with RO/DI, now at 1.025 again (where I keep it) unsure about other specs. I do use reef crystals and fuel though, dosing as directed. http://aquavitro.com/products/fuel.html

I can get my water tested tomorrow for everything else though! I figured since my feather dusters were happy and eating it wasn't anything trace elements, but I'm still stumped.

 

[TiaDav]

No GFO or aluminum, no experience with either so I haven't even thought of doing it.

EDIT: I did redo my live rock aquascape, about a week and a half ago. Didn't even think about maybe that affecting the water quality. Replaced two 2 1/2 pound rocks that have been there for a year with a dry 5pd one. I put the corals in the same spots in my tank, only thing upset was the clowns trying to host that corner that now has candy canes in it, but the canes are fine.

Temp at 82, phosphates at 0 (praise, finally got rid of hair algae 6 months ago), unsure about ph alk cal. I do use a bag of carbon, tucked away under my bioballs in the cube. No carbon dosing though, too inexperienced.

 

[Bearded Fish Man]

No GFO or aluminum, no experience with either so I haven't even thought of doing it.

EDIT: I did redo my live rock aquascape, about a week and a half ago. Didn't even think about maybe that affecting the water quality. Replaced two 2 1/2 pound rocks that have been there for a year with a dry 5pd one. I put the corals in the same spots in my tank, only thing upset was the clowns trying to host that corner that now has candy canes in it, but the canes are fine.

Temp at 82, phosphates at 0 (praise, finally got rid of hair algae 6 months ago), unsure about ph alk cal. I do use a bag of carbon, tucked away under my bioballs in the cube. No carbon dosing though, too inexperienced.

Rock change most likely did it and possibly the sand that was moved around may have released some toxic stuff deep in sand bed. Your canes will be fine they are pretty hardy corals.

 

[TiaDav]

Rock change most likely did it and possibly the sand that was moved around may have released some toxic stuff deep in sand bed. Your canes will be fine they are pretty hardy corals.

Darn... I tried not to move it around too much by setting it in the old spot, but I guess I'll grab 10 gals of reef crystals tomorrow to change out instead. I do have a sand eating diamond goby, and only about a 1 1/2 inch sand bed so I thought the little guy's constant landscaping wouldn't make that be a problem. Rookie mistake :/

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

Whoa, you said this is a 12 gallon tank and there's 2 clowns and a red scooter blenny in it? :/
Otherwise, the 3 you speak of, favia, maze, and brain... They like more nutritious water. So zero phosphates is bad (for any tank imo) and 5 nitrates is around perfect. I would feed nutricell or such and back off the fuel. Overdosing amino's is pretty easy and that will cause stress..

 

[salttanklife]

I think your water is to clean and that's why the sps is thriving but lps/softies aren't. It's hard to find that perfect balance with a mixed reef.

 

[Naiad]

This is going to be hard in a nano but feed those lps! Lol.

 

[TiaDav]

Huh... well I'm bringing in a water sample today, I'll update with results, but I didn't know overdosing with aminos could happen! Thanks! I'll lay off fuel for a week. But yes, I know my tank is overstocked, but the diamond head is 1 1/2 inches, red scooter is less than an inch, and the clowns are moving up to a bigger tank ASAP, (about a year or two) I know they are struggling in that little setup, but the female is 3 inches and the male about 2 inches so they can wait for a bit before they are miserable. They still play in the powerhead's flow and aren't staying in a corner not exploring yet, so they seem ok for now.

I'll see what my phosphates are and look into nutricell. I'm also going to grab the DT phyto again, see how that works out. How would you suggest making sure my lps are better fed? Should I try spot feeding brine? I used to do that but it made my ammonia spike up REALLY high and scared me a little, but I wasn't doing as frequent water changes then. (n00b) I've always spot fed my duncan and nem though. Forgot to mention that! My condy anemone is doing fine, picked a spot on the back of my liverock arch and really hasn't moved so sometimes I forget about him lol

 

[Triggreef]

I doubt tank is to clean with no3 at 5. If lay off the fuel and other additives like that. Maybe once a week but in a small tank like that I wouldn't even worth about those. And the lps should do just fine without feeding. I almost never feed mine. The only real purpose would be to grow them at max speed but I doubt your worried about that in that size tank. The water change regime seems pretty good.

One thing to consider is the reef crystals mix pretty high alk. I've had it mix as high as 13dkh. Alk will be consumed quickly in that tank so you could have a yo yo effect going on. But with sps doing OK I doubt that's a real issue. Just something to think about. I'd lay off the amino for a few weeks, see what happens and go from there.

Only one change at a time. Otherwise it's hard to narrow down results.

 

[Naiad]

The thing is it is a ratio game. Nitrates could be 20 but if phosphate is truly 0 than corals will still be starved. Sps are best adapted at pulling out nutrients at low levels. Lps like medium levels. Soft corals are masters of adapting but thrive in high nutrients. If you stop giving amino acids the demand for phosphate may decrease and the corals may recover.

 

[briancarterkc]

The thing is it is a ratio game. Nitrates could be 20 but if phosphate is truly 0 than corals will still be starved. Sps are best adapted at pulling out nutrients at low levels. Lps like medium levels. Soft corals are masters of adapting but thrive in high nutrients. If you stop giving amino acids the demand for phosphate may decrease and the corals may recover.

Yeah, this is my thought too. When my nutrients went to almost zero, my SPS suddenly got REALLY happy, but my LPS started to recede. I dialed back just a little bit on my vodka dosing and pulled my GFO and now everyone seems to agree. It's like battling over the thermostat with your coworkers.

 

[TiaDav]

Everyone thank you so much! Adding the nutricell fixed it after about an hour. Everyone is happy again! The corals without color I swear were dying before, I rescued some frags to get them back up to health. Also I included a picture of that micro red scooter, that shell for a size comparison is about an inch!