Help! Massive Coral Die Off

1Matthew · Nov 5, 2023

Hi all! For the past 2 weeks it seems like my tank is going downhill and I don't really have an explanation for it. A bunch of my torches are receeding/dead. My Scoly seems to be super shrunken into its skeleton. We have had a bunch of montis die after they seemed like they were doing fine. It seems like anytime I add a coral it will look great and then die 2 weeks later. This was a problem a couple months ago as well and I thought it was my lights so I tested the par. The lowest in the tank was around 60 with the highest around 150, pretty low. Previously, I had on two AI 26s, then we switched over to two Radion G6 blues. I sent in an ICP test and Ill attach the pdf with the results. I will also add my last tests that I did with salifert kits. I don't get why things are dying and no coral shop seems to be able to figure it out either, their proposed solutions were icp and par tests, and it doesn't seem like these numbers should cause this big of a die off. Maybe Randy has some ideas?

Alk: 7.85
Mag: 1300
Calc: 465
Nitrate: 12
Phosphate: 0.02

FurrierTransform · Nov 5, 2023

How are your fish doing? your water looks fine.

Lavey29 · Nov 5, 2023

How old is the tank? Your par is quite low for mixed reef. Your phosphate is low as well.

1Matthew · Nov 5, 2023

Tanks 1.5 years old. Fish are great, no problem there. I have adjusted the par before and it does not seem to help at all. I had an acro in the tank before and it was fine until it bleached completely at the same par that it is at now. Tanks temp is at 76-77, everything is not doing well.

DPScoral · Nov 5, 2023

I'll need some additional information. Can you provide the specific values from your latest Salifert tests for parameters like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium? Additionally, details about your tank setup, filtration system, livestock, feeding routine, maintenance, and recent changes would be helpful. With this information, I can offer better guidance on how to address the issues you're experiencing.

Lavey29 · Nov 5, 2023

1Matthew said:
Tanks 1.5 years old. Fish are great, no problem there. I have adjusted the par before and it does not seem to help at all. I had an acro in the tank before and it was fine until it bleached completely at the same par that it is at now. Tanks temp is at 76-77, everything is not doing well.

Ok as stated previously your par is to low for mixed reef especially acros. You want 250 to 400 on top, 125 to 250 middle and 50 to 125 on the bottom. Your phosphate may actually be 0 given the error ratio. These 2 factors alone will cause coral decline.

iseethruyou2 · Nov 5, 2023

Phosphate is too low. You’re starving them. Quite a few traces are low as well.

1Matthew · Nov 5, 2023

just checked my levels again with Salifert kits:

Mag: 1320
Alk: 8.0
Calcium: 435
Nitrate: 11
Phosphate: 0.06

I feed at night about half a cube of mysis and half a cube of the green brine. They come in the little pre packaged cubes. The tank is 90 gallons with 2 clowns, 2 pajama cardinals, a baby blue tang, and a bristletooth. I also got a cuc. I change 10 gallons every other week, it’s a 90 gallon system. For filtration I have what looks to be a 15 gallon sump with a protein skimmer, 2 filter socks, I have gfo. I also have an mp40 and another wave maker for flow which I forget the brand.

1Matthew · Nov 18, 2023

Well, still on a major decline, half of our Goni just died and everything’s going downhill. Params probably still the same. Can anyone help me out, seems like there is no solution? Ramped down lighting as well and didn’t do anything.

Mr. Mojo Rising · Nov 18, 2023

Can we see a full tank pic? What kind of lighting do you have? What is the par level where corals are sitting? Can we see the flow? Sounds like only 2 powerheads in a 90 gallon tank?

Light and flow are the most important things to corals, to me it kind of sounds like its your light and flow that might be the weak link.

MrGisonni · Nov 18, 2023

The only dramatic change to the system was the lighting. That's probably the issue

1Matthew · Nov 21, 2023

Multiple things dying, hammer just ejected two of its heads, torches either dead or dying, montis dead.

1Matthew · Nov 21, 2023

These coral were doing great and then started going downhill. No reason for this

1Matthew · Nov 21, 2023

Par was stated previously in this thread, par levels were taken not at full power, so most likely higher

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Nov 21, 2023

1Matthew said:
Well, still on a major decline, half of our Goni just died and everything’s going downhill. Params probably still the same. Can anyone help me out, seems like there is no solution? Ramped down lighting as well and didn’t do anything.

Is there a local reef club you can contact? Maybe if someone could see your tank in person they could better talk you through some options...

monfilsi · Nov 21, 2023

An MP40 and one other wavemaker seem ok to me for a 90gal. Drastic lighting changes could cause a die off, but sounds like you were having issues before.

You might want to try running carbon to absorb any toxins that might have been introduced by accident. Has your skimmer started going crazy recently that would indicate a bacteria outbreak?

I would start doing small water changes every other day with the goal to change 50% over a couple weeks. You'll need to keep a close eye on all your parameters and may need to increase feeding to keep Nitrate and phosphate up while you change out water.

Do you target feed your coral? Reef Chilly or something similar?

1Matthew · Nov 21, 2023

I’m grabbing my trusted coral vendor to come by and take a look. Haven’t had a problem with the skimmer. The light switch was a long time ago, and now everything is dying, so I don’t think that’s the issue. I got a UV sterilizer on the tank as well. I haven’t target fed in a while but rarely I’ll do reef roids, last time I did that was maybe 4 months ago.

1Matthew · Nov 28, 2023

Well he came to my house and looked at everything and couldn’t find a serious issue. Nothing was wrong with the tank. His theory is that something is leeching from the rocks. It’s enough to cause a whole tank to suffer so the next plan of action is to transfer all the surviving coral into our old 55 gallon which is still running and restart the 90 gallon. Hope this works.