help me figure out why my corals arent happy

lucyretz · Aug 22, 2022

Hi all,

Once again i find myself running out of knowledge. My euphyllia corals arent opening fully and I cant figure out why.

PARAMETERS:
ALK: 8.78 (trident)
CAL: 544
MAG: 1407
ORP:200
PH: 7.84
SALT: 35.10
TEMP:77.3
NITRATE: 10.01 (HANNA)
PHOS: 0.15 (HANNA)

System: 2 Ai primes running david saxby peaking at 100% at about 12" off the water. Redsea 250 with reverse schedule refugium loaded with cheato. BM curve 3 skimmer pulling thick skim. aquaforest carbon. AI nero 5 and maxspect jump 25 vertical both running at a low pulse.

dosing ab+, nyos alkalinity

Can anyone see a problem?

mermaid_life · Aug 22, 2022

Are they in an area with too high flow? Mine likes close to sandbed with moderate flow and lower flow.

LordofCinder · Aug 22, 2022

Would need more info than just today's parameters.

When were these corals added to the tank? When did they start to look unhappy? How do other corals look? Any changes to flow or feeding habits lately? Have any parameters increased or decreased recently? Any new additions to the tank that might have brought pests, or nibblers?

A tank pic tells a million words.

lucyretz · Aug 22, 2022

LordofCinder said:
Would need more info than just today's parameters.

When were these corals added to the tank? When did they start to look unhappy? How do other corals look? Any changes to flow or feeding habits lately? Have any parameters increased or decreased recently? Any new additions to the tank that might have brought pests, or nibblers?

A tank pic tells a million words.

Hi, everything was added over the 5+ months. we cycled this tank and then moved what we had in our 3 gallon over. It is all euphyllia with the exception of of a couple plates, scoly, a wellso and a couple zoa frags all of these are fine. Over 3 weeks we went from completely bottomed out nutrients to 10 n03 and 0.15 p04. they were raised slowly using bionic nitrate, and brightwell phos. I did adjust the flow in the last week as i was scared they were getting too much. currently at work so will post a photo the second i get home. we always dip new additions.

fish we have is a gem tang, black tang (tang police we are in the process of upgrading to a 200gal), a dotty back, a pair of cardinals and a pair of clowns.

inverts we have an arrow crab, a blood shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, an assortment of dwarf hermits and trochus snails.

Cuse89 · Aug 22, 2022

I have had similar issues and tbh it was trace elements near depleted I was running to much carbon and it stripped the trace elements from the tank. I realized once I got a icp test done now I’m going more towards reef moonshiner method

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 23, 2022

Cuse89 said:
I have had similar issues and tbh it was trace elements near depleted I was running to much carbon and it stripped the trace elements from the tank. I realized once I got a icp test done now I’m going more towards reef moonshiner method

Aside from an ICP that may or may not be useful for this purpose, did the dosing of trace elements solve the coral issues?

if so, what exactly did you dose?