Corals not happy, seeking Help!

[ronaldo_720]

Hello Everyone, Ronaldo here, Hope everyone is doing well. Anyways let me not waste any time, been in the hobby for about 8 months which is how long my tank has been set up. And in that time its been a lot of ups and downs which I've managed to overcome somehow. The issue I'm facing today and for the last 3 weeks is almost all SPS corals in my tank have lost colour and don't show any polyps not even during the night like they used to, though they continue to grow at a slow rate. Most if not all of my LPS now look like garbage with little to no Pylup Extension. Also, have two anemones in the tank that count be any happier. Seeking help to see if anyone can help me resolve the issues I'm facing as any advice will be taken.

Feel free to ask for any information needed and there will be a video of the tank listed in the reply section.

Parameters:

Temperature - 78F (Drops to 77.5 at night)

Salinity - 1.025 - 1.026

PH - 8.1

Alkalinity - 8.1 DKH (Normally hovers around 7.6 Aiming for 8.5 but I can't get it to go over 7.6 no matter what I try)

Calcium - 410 ppm

Magnesium - 1360 ppm

Nitrates - 8.2 ppm

Phosphates - 0.16

* Normally my Nitrates are less than 1 ppm and phosphates less than .08 but I've elevated the nutrients to help fight Dinoflagetes.

I've been dosing Vibrant to get some bacteria in the tank and also Dino X to fight Dinos as I've used it in the past with positive results.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Reefer Matt]

Dino X is very harsh on coral in my experience.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Bump the nitrates a bit and the Mg. I don’t dose vibrant but I think others had issues w it. any pics ??

 

[ronaldo_720]

Hello Everyone, Ronaldo here, Hope everyone is doing well. Anyways let me not waste any time, been in the hobby for about 8 months which is how long my tank has been set up. And in that time its been a lot of ups and downs which I've managed to overcome somehow. The issue I'm facing today and for the last 3 weeks is almost all SPS corals in my tank have lost colour and don't show any polyps not even during the night like they used to, though they continue to grow at a slow rate. Most if not all of my LPS now look like garbage with little to no Pylup Extension. Also, have two anemones in the tank that count be any happier. Seeking help to see if anyone can help me resolve the issues I'm facing as any advice will be taken.

Feel free to ask for any information needed and there will be a video of the tank listed in the reply section.

Parameters:

Temperature - 78F (Drops to 77.5 at night)

Salinity - 1.025 - 1.026

PH - 8.1

Alkalinity - 8.1 DKH (Normally hovers around 7.6 Aiming for 8.5 but I can't get it to go over 7.6 no matter what I try)

Calcium - 410 ppm

Magnesium - 1360 ppm

Nitrates - 8.2 ppm

Phosphates - 0.16

* Normally my Nitrates are less than 1 ppm and phosphates less than .08 but I've elevated the nutrients to help fight Dinoflagetes.

I've been dosing Vibrant to get some bacteria in the tank and also Dino X to fight Dinos as I've used it in the past with positive results.

Thank you in advance!

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Welcome to R2R

 

[Uncle99]

Dino-x in the end is an algecide and kill Dino’s, but, it’s takes out the good algae as well. It’s safer to bump nutrients if zeroed out to control Dino’s and add some bacteria daily till gone.

Vibrant is very powerful stuff, very easy to overdose. This may increase nutrient availability in the water, browning out corals as they try and adjust.

Bring water chemistry stable and on-point all the time, with as little flux as possible. Stop the Dino-x and Vibrant (unless your battling bubble algae, then Vibrant works well here.

 

[Dcloser12]

Dinox isn't that bad but vibrant has wiped out more systems Than it's helped. Do you have any pictures of the rocks and tank? Sounds like a light or flow problem if you have stabilized your parameters. Could very well be the vibrant. Consider what you have could be black cyano and it's releasing toxins. I'd stop all treatments, dip the coral and preform a 20% water change to remove some of the chemicals. I'd do a 20% waterchange every week for 5weeks. I had many issues with vibrant and this is what helped me

 

[ronaldo_720]

A big shoutout for all the responses as I was so confused about what to do next. So from what I'm getting is to stop the dosing of both vibrant and dino x as they can possibly cause more harm than good. And Perform weekly 20% water changes for about a month and see if things stabilize?

And will that not help to boost the dinos in the tank? Keep in mind that I'm still running a Protein skimmer (Reef Octopus 1000 hob) and a Uv Sterilizer, should I be doing anything different with them?

Tank is a 40 gallon and it's running 2 Ai Prime 16hd's lighting should be ok in my case

will be posting pictures as soon as I get home

 

[ronaldo_720]

Bump the nitrates a bit and the Mg. I don’t dose vibrant but I think others had issues w it. any pics ??

Thanks for the response! Anyways, it's hard for me to keep nitrates up as I'm constantly having to dose it daily to get a detectable reading using the Hanna ULR phosphate test. and as for mag what levels should I bump that to?

 

[ronaldo_720]

Pics!!

Hopefully they turn out ok as I don’t have a filter

 

[Dcloser12]

Thanks for the response! Anyways, it's hard for me to keep nitrates up as I'm constantly having to dose it daily to get a detectable reading using the Hanna ULR phosphate test. and as for mag what levels should I bump that to?

Acros and Millis I never had much luck with. the Duncan's shouldn't be in the sand and neither should the hammer. The acan is fine there.

 

[ronaldo_720]

Acros and Millis I never had much luck with. the Duncan's shouldn't be in the sand and neither should the hammer. The acan is fine there.

I can say the same sadly. and normally I have the Duncan and hammer higher up but I gave them a dip and didn't glue them back yet.

 

[Bpb]

Where did you source your rock from?

 

[ronaldo_720]

Where did you source your rock from?

it was all dry rock from the LFS I go to

 

[Bpb]

it was all dry rock from the LFS I go to

I’d consider buying a small pack of actual ocean harvested live rock from Tampa bay saltwater or kp aquatics. On multiple instances in the last 10 years, that has been the solution to get me over the hump on tanks started with dry rock. I throw it in the sump, and within about a month everything tends to turn around.