Corals slowly dying

[Qwarex]

Hello all, I have a problem with my tank, 1 and a half year old 300L (80 gal), everything was going great for a few months when all of a sudden, my alk dipped under 5 dkh and corals didnt look good, obv. No3 also dipped to 0 from 10... In an attempt to save it from this situation i did a 50% water change and started dosing some kh. I somehow managed to overdose it with my pump to the point it was 12 dkh (was not home that week, im an idiot i know). So i quickly managed to do a 30% water change that got it to 9.5 dkh. Since then, i have not messed with it and let it stabilize. All params are ok except no3 which is still in the range of 0-2 ppm. I will attach some photos below. Sps lost tissue in the lower light/flow parts mainly the middle, one of my acros became white on the tips and died, the other ones polyps are ok but the body is bleaching slowly, one of my montis just died in the span of a few days even tho it looked ok before, other montis are starting to die aswell, seriatopora are dying from the middle, lost volor and polyp extension, chalices slowly died, one of my duncans ejected its polyps, the other looks a little bothered. Favias and goniastreas lost some tissues on the edges. I really dont understand anymore. Params are all ok now but they are still dying.

 

[Waters]

Unfortunately you had a lot of large ALK swings in a short amount of time. It sometimes takes months for things to recover. Nothing you can do at this point other than to keep things stable.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello all, I have a problem with my tank, 1 and a half year old 300L (80 gal), everything was going great for a few months when all of a sudden, my alk dipped under 5 dkh and corals didnt look good, obv. No3 also dipped to 0 from 10... In an attempt to save it from this situation i did a 50% water change and started dosing some kh. I somehow managed to overdose it with my pump to the point it was 12 dkh (was not home that week, im an idiot i know). So i quickly managed to do a 30% water change that got it to 9.5 dkh. Since then, i have not messed with it and let it stabilize. All params are ok except no3 which is still in the range of 0-2 ppm. I will attach some photos below. Sps lost tissue in the lower light/flow parts mainly the middle, one of my acros became white on the tips and died, the other ones polyps are ok but the body is bleaching slowly, one of my montis just died in the span of a few days even tho it looked ok before, other montis are starting to die aswell, seriatopora are dying from the middle, lost volor and polyp extension, chalices slowly died, one of my duncans ejected its polyps, the other looks a little bothered. Favias and goniastreas lost some tissues on the edges. I really dont understand anymore. Params are all ok now but they are still dying.

Pics very fuzzy but often stability or lack of will cause this. other factors why this happens are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticides

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hello all, I have a problem with my tank, 1 and a half year old 300L (80 gal), everything was going great for a few months when all of a sudden, my alk dipped under 5 dkh and corals didnt look good, obv. No3 also dipped to 0 from 10... In an attempt to save it from this situation i did a 50% water change and started dosing some kh. I somehow managed to overdose it with my pump to the point it was 12 dkh (was not home that week, im an idiot i know). So i quickly managed to do a 30% water change that got it to 9.5 dkh. Since then, i have not messed with it and let it stabilize. All params are ok except no3 which is still in the range of 0-2 ppm. I will attach some photos below. Sps lost tissue in the lower light/flow parts mainly the middle, one of my acros became white on the tips and died, the other ones polyps are ok but the body is bleaching slowly, one of my montis just died in the span of a few days even tho it looked ok before, other montis are starting to die aswell, seriatopora are dying from the middle, lost volor and polyp extension, chalices slowly died, one of my duncans ejected its polyps, the other looks a little bothered. Favias and goniastreas lost some tissues on the edges. I really dont understand anymore. Params are all ok now but they are still dying.

Large Alkalinity swings will kill coral. Your tank went from 5 to 12 in a few days which is a huge swing.

Keep the tank stable and some coral may survive.

 

[Qwarex]

Unfortunately you had a lot of large ALK swings in a short amount of time. It sometimes takes months for things to recover. Nothing you can do at this point other than to keep things stable.

It has been 2 weeks since i have stabilized the params but things are still going downhill. Is there really nothing i can do?

 

[Qwarex]

Pics very fuzzy but often stability or lack of will cause this. other factors why this happens are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticide

I did change from red sea coral pro to red sea blue bucket, my skimmer broke so the oxygen levels may have plummeted. Other than that and the alk spikes its ok, i hope. I have a lot of corals in the tank that i do not want to lose, what should i do? Getting an icp test is hard in my area but ill try. Sould i just replace the skimmer and hope for the best? I was thinking of getting some fauna marin salt and doing a 20% wc every week for a month.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

It has been 2 weeks since i have stabilized the params but things are still going downhill. Is there really nothing i can do?

you can re-read waters answer again; "It sometimes takes months for things to recover. Nothing you can do at this point other than to keep things stable." It sucks, but really nothing you can do.

 

[Qwarex]

Large Alkalinity swings will kill coral. Your tank went from 5 to 12 in a few days which is a huge swing.

Keep the tank stable and some coral may survive.

Should I move some of my corals like my torches to a friend's tank? Or is that too much stress for them?

 

[Waters]

Should I move some of my corals like my torches to a friend's tank? Or is that too much stress for them?

Moving them at this point won't accomplish anything.....your tank already has parameters that are back in line. You would be moving them from one tank with good parameters to another tank with good parameters.....along with adding additional stress that goes along with flow and lighting changes.