Coral declining need HELP

[longjohn]

Seeing that phosphate has risen while nitrates have fallen, the corals are likely starving from the lack of nutrients, and the high phosphates will cause the corals to brown out. You’ll want to dose nitrate to gradually get the levels back up (I had made a sodium nitrate solution that I dosed at 5 mL a day until the levels rose). Once nitrate goes up, use water changes and phosguard to bring both back down slowly. If you try to lower phosphate before dosing nitrate, the problem will likely persist and your corals will continue to bleach/starve.
Do you have fish in the tank? Because the phosphate/nitrate problem happened for me when I didn’t have fish, and I had to dose nitrate to compensate for the lack of fish. Once I had a good fish population I was able to stop dosing nitrate. I still do regular water changes because phosphate will occasionally leech into the tank from my rocks.

I'm gunna have to start dosing for nitrates I guess.

I don't have any fish in the system well sorry I have one measly file fish. Unfortunately I had ich wipe out a bunch of fish I had almost 4 months ago and I haven't bought anymore and would much rather not buy any I really don't like the fish aspect of saltwater and want to stray far away from it. Oddly enough my file fish is still alive and doing fine some how.

 

[TX_REEF]

I'm gunna have to start dosing for nitrates I guess.

I don't have any fish in the system well sorry I have one measly file fish. Unfortunately I had ich wipe out a bunch of fish I had almost 4 months ago and I haven't bought anymore and would much rather not buy any I really don't like the fish aspect of saltwater and want to stray far away from it. Oddly enough my file fish is still alive and doing fine some how.

no fish can definitely be a problem for maintaining healthy nitrates... Besies dosing, maybe consider some super easy fish that won't bother corals? Springeri damsel and six line wrasse come to front of mind.

 

[longjohn]

Sounds like something has a lot of phosphate bound up in it and is now leeching into the tank. Have you added any rock or anything similar that could be the source? Are those coral foods high in phos? I'm not familiar with reef pearls or B ionic.

Have you considered using lanthanum chloride to try and bring down the phos?

Wellll fuuuuu$%

‍‍
Yes rock was added about 3 months ago that was removed from an old tank tear down and left in the sun/rain for months. I did soak it in ro/di water for 25 hrs then rinsed it all out with more ro/di water. That could be an issue but that rocks been in the tank for awhile now but could be leaching **** out.

But who truly knows to be honest this just feels like I'm a mechanic with some lady making car noises to me trying to explain what's wrong with her car. It could be 10000 different things and trying to narrow it down without seeing the tank or having an understanding of where the tank has come from over the last 8 months just seems like a losing battle.


Anyway I appreciate the help, I'll try and attempt to raise nitrates and lower phosphates. I've tried phosguard for 7 days and it did absolutely nothing so I'll try another product and see if I can't lower it likenthat after I raise the nitrates.

 

[longjohn]

no fish can definitely be a problem for maintaining healthy nitrates... Besies dosing, maybe consider some super easy fish that won't bother corals? Springeri damsel and six line wrasse come to front of mind.

I hear ya on that duder unfortunately fish are out of the question for me. I Had ick awhile ago and don't wanna Risk it. Just gunna have to find other means of raising and lowering.

 

[KrisReef]

Reef pearls and dosing with B-ionic
I have no fish
Stocking list:
Cleaner shrimp
Blood shrimp
Emerald crabs x2
File fish
Multiple snails
3 anemones

"I have no fish,"

Except a Filefish?

Can you post a picture of it?

 

[longjohn]

"I have no fish,"

Except a Filefish?

Can you post a picture of

No, I'm currently at work unfortunately. I can't see one file fish making any difference in the world to the tank parameters. And he ain't eating any corals as some people have suggested before. These corals are bleeching out not losing tissue.

 

[KrisReef]

No, I'm currently at work unfortunately. I can't see one file fish making any difference in the world to the tank parameters. And he ain't eating any corals as some people have suggested before. These corals are bleeching out not losing tissue.

I was wondering if you were an AI Bot, why I posted my reply. Your answer seems alive and human. Sorry for my own confusion.

Lots of people don't read all the posts before they try helping. I think you are getting good answers so I'm going to drop off.

FYI. My filefish doesn't eat Aiptasia, either.

 

[Spare time]

I'm gunna have to start dosing for nitrates I guess.

I don't have any fish in the system well sorry I have one measly file fish. Unfortunately I had ich wipe out a bunch of fish I had almost 4 months ago and I haven't bought anymore and would much rather not buy any I really don't like the fish aspect of saltwater and want to stray far away from it. Oddly enough my file fish is still alive and doing fine some how.

You can use amino acids instead of nitrates as an alternative if you want.

 

[longjohn]

I was wondering if you were an AI Bot, why I posted my reply. Your answer seems alive and human. Sorry for my own confusion.

Lots of people don't read all the posts before they try helping. I think you are getting good answers so I'm going to drop off.

FYI. My filefish doesn't eat Aiptasia, either.

Haha no worries, no bot just a lost human hahaha and I agree atleast I have a direction to take now and currently coming up with a plan.

Also my file fish won't eat aiptasia either lol bought him for a purpose and he isn't bothered with it I had to go back to the lemon juice and needle trick.

 

[longjohn]

You can use amino acids instead of nitrates as an alternative if you want.

Any good products you'd recommend for a Canadian

 

[TX_REEF]

Any good products you'd recommend for a Canadian

I use this stuff, I know other have said good things about it as well.. unsure if it's available in your neck of the woods

Brightwell Coral Aminos: https://amzn.to/3Vnf8sO

 

[longjohn]

Just bought it on Amazon it'll be here tomorrow.

 

[ReefStable]

So, I can't say for sure about Nitrate/Phosphates. But I literally just published an article to help go through my checklists of what could be a problem.

Here's the link: https://reefstable.com/blog/why-is-my-coral-dying-rtn-stn-bleaching-bjd

Hope this helps!

 

[longjohn]

So, I can't say for sure about Nitrate/Phosphates. But I literally just published an article to help go through my checklists of what could be a problem.

Here's the link: https://reefstable.com/blog/why-is-my-coral-dying-rtn-stn-bleaching-bjd

Hope this helps!

Thank you I'll definitely take a read threw thst now, much appreciated.

 

[Rjukan]

Wellll fuuuuu$%

‍‍
Yes rock was added about 3 months ago that was removed from an old tank tear down and left in the sun/rain for months. I did soak it in ro/di water for 25 hrs then rinsed it all out with more ro/di water. That could be an issue but that rocks been in the tank for awhile now but could be leaching **** out.

But who truly knows to be honest this just feels like I'm a mechanic with some lady making car noises to me trying to explain what's wrong with her car. It could be 10000 different things and trying to narrow it down without seeing the tank or having an understanding of where the tank has come from over the last 8 months just seems like a losing battle.


Anyway I appreciate the help, I'll try and attempt to raise nitrates and lower phosphates. I've tried phosguard for 7 days and it did absolutely nothing so I'll try another product and see if I can't lower it likenthat after I raise the nitrates.

Seems like that's probably the source of your problems then. At least if it's not that much rock, it won't take too long to unbind the phos and get it out of your system. I feel as though LC will work very well in your case.

 

[longjohn]

Would it be beneficial to drop my light hrs a bit and draw back on the intensity of the light.

I didn't mention I have a kessil AP 700 it's about 18" from the top of the water. I don't have a PAR meter unfortunately but I did move my one birds nest acro higher in the tank and that was around the time it started bleeching
My light hrs are from 10 30 AM TO 10PM the intensity is around 30% at peak then drops off after about 4hrs
This is one change the tank went threw around the time I noticed coral decline.

I moved from the the fluval 3.0 light that came with the tank to this new kessil light. After reading reefstables article it's hit me that this might be a factor along with the high phosphates and low nitrates.

Does this sound like a possibility or am I just reaching and hoping for a solution?

 

[longjohn]

Seems like that's probably the source of your problems then. At least if it's not that much rock, it won't take too long to unbind the phos and get it out of your system. I feel as though LC will work very well in your case.

Agreeded it could have a major factor in what's going on I know that rock I added wasn't alot and it's been in the tank now for 1.5 to 2 months. But could definitely be a factor in all this.

Sorry whats LC ?
Still getting use to all the terminology and acronyms.

 

[TX_REEF]

Would it be beneficial to drop my light hrs a bit and draw back on the intensity of the light.

I didn't mention I have a kessil AP 700 it's about 18" from the top of the water. I don't have a PAR meter unfortunately but I did move my one birds nest acro higher in the tank and that was around the time it started bleeching
My light hrs are from 10 30 AM TO 10PM the intensity is around 30% at peak then drops off after about 4hrs
This is one change the tank went threw around the time I noticed coral decline.

I moved from the the fluval 3.0 light that came with the tank to this new kessil light. After reading reefstables article it's hit me that this might be a factor along with the high phosphates and low nitrates.

Does this sound like a possibility or am I just reaching and hoping for a solution?

yes this is a big factor. I would never advocate for changing the position of healthy corals, or suddenly adjusting lighting settings when everything is healthy. Corals can take a couple weeks to adjust to new light settings.

 

[longjohn]

yes this is a big factor. I would never advocate for changing the position of healthy corals, or suddenly adjusting lighting settings when everything is healthy. Corals can take a couple weeks to adjust to new light settings.

Hmm ill try lowering the light intensity a bit but I know that light has been on there for awhile now. And was put on there just before I started noticing decline in corals. I just never put two and two together untill I just read his article. And this could be in my theory as to why only certain corals are being affected. But I do have alot of zoas higher in the reef that are doing just fine and I've read alot that zoas are temperamental to high light. Either way I'll drop the intensity of the light and maybe just lose the white light during peak hrs completely and only run blues. I'll also drop the hrs from 11.5 hrs to about 9 hrs of total light to see if this changes anything. Upgrading to a higher wattage light I didn't clue in to the detrimental effects it would have on corals.

But I still don't think this is the only cause for my issues as my po4 and po3 are outta wack at the same time.

 

[Rjukan]

Agreeded it could have a major factor in what's going on I know that rock I added wasn't alot and it's been in the tank now for 1.5 to 2 months. But could definitely be a factor in all this.

Sorry whats LC ?
Still getting use to all the terminology and acronyms.

Lanthanum Chloride... products like Brightwell Phosphate E

*Edit: If you do use it, be sparing with it and make sure you don't drop too fast. There are several threads here about it's use if you search.