Hey fellow reefers, I have had my tank setup for just about 2 years as fowlr, i have had many issues im dealing with already such as cyano or dynos, aiptasia, slow coraline growth, loosing 90% of fish from ich, dyno toxins, or overall bad water quality. I have since done several large water changes at around 20-30% over the last month and added new fish which all seem to be doing well except when i added the yellow tang i did see some white spots on him and have since been feeding garlic soaked nori and havent seen anymore signs on any of the fish since. i will also be adding a cheap uv sterilizer (only one i could afford) to hopefully help to combat the ich and dynos somewhat also. The main reason for my post though is i have tried adding about 10 cheap pieces of mostly lps coral about 1-2 weeks ago and already over half do not look healthy and or bleaching and not extending their polyps. I have only one led fixture over the 55 gallon tank right now as the other one is having issues. i just have it set on the preset "4 season mode" i previously had it on "coral acclimation" for a few days and then switched it to the mode im using now, however things seem to be looking worse everyday. I only have two 510 gallon powerheads running all times although i do have some timers i could use if varried flow is needed for lps dominant mixed tanks. My most recent parameters as of 5 days ago are 1.024 salinity, temp runs around 76-78 night to day, CA-400, ALK-10DKH, PHOS- 0-0.1ppm, Nitrate- 20-60ppm (hard to read as if i hold it right ontop of something white it looks like 60 yet if i hold it a inch infront of something white it looks more like 20) i have done a 20% water change since then and am about to do another 10-20% today or tomorrow. I have also removed gfo and just am running carbon alone as i thought i was too off balance between nitrate and phosphate. If anyone could help me solve the issue with my new corals so they all or atleast some do not die i would be very appreciative. i will post some pictures of the corals and more recent parameters later on aswell.
help with dying corals
- Thread starter blazin'reefer
- Start date
great info, thanks. i will be reading them thoroughly before i attempt a dip. I will likely first do a peroxide saltwater dip as ich is what i first thought it was and see how he looks and if no change i will try the freshwater dip a few days later for flukes if this sounds like a good plan to everyone. I also will continue with the garlic feeding for a while and a 9w uv should also be online in a couple days.
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also i will be trying to rent or borrow a par meter from someone local in the future if ever possible, if not i will have to resort to a lux meter and hope for the best to some degree.
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a unfortunate update.. I thought i had beat the dinos or cyano or whatever it was aswell and then it was back in full force and caused a few corals to bleach even further, i did a 4 day blackout and just turned the light back on and noticed that the 8 peices of a chalice coral i had were all bleached snow white and also basically all my lps and sps are now bleaching to some degree, and all are under about a 2 out of 10 for health. The shroom and zenia and duncan look 'ok' but thats about it. Im really frustrated as all the corals were my early christmas present and i seem to have killed most of them and the ones that are surviving are only just barely surviving. I tested the water right after i saw that and the numbers were ca-380 alk-9dkh point of sale-0 (test only reads between 0 and the next color is 0.25 so it might not be actually zero as i took gfo off like a week or 2 ago) and nitrates- between 40-80ppm. I then did a 15-20% water change again and tested again and the numbers like 30 minutes after the water change were: Ca-360 (no clue how it lowered so i tested it twice and both times said 360) alk-9.5DKH point of sale-0 and nitrate 20-60ppm. Before anyone asks i make my own rodi water and tested the tds before making this water and it was 000. I also use aquaforrest eco salt. I have added more flow yesterday as others suggested and right now have a pump in the bottom and top of opposing corners if efforts to try and mimic the gyre effect. I have around 625gph in the front left corner between the 2 pumps and 725gph on the opposing back right corner now between the one powerhead and one uv pump. I Have been doing weekly 15-20% waterchanges and still cant seem to get the nitrates down lower than 20-60ppm and with the extra activated carbon and frequent large waterchanges im starting to think maybe it isnt actually a contaminent other than maybe high nitrate? hard to speculate without a icp though. I also checked equiptment over quickly and didnt see any major damage other than a couple really small rust or corrosion marks on one impeller. If lighting was too weak wouldnt my corals be turning brown before bleaching? Its about 100 watts with just the one pannel and i have noticed the lights 4 channels do reach pretty close to 100% on 4 season mode, could this possibly be my issue? i remember reading that high light and high nitrate cause corals to bleach although even corals in the visually dimmer areas are bleaching too though so im at a loss. im still working on a par meter and a icp test eventually but Im starting to wonder if maybe i should give up on the idea of a reef tank, or atleast a tank with hard corals if i cant figure out the root cause of my problems, its pretty deppressing watching all your christmas presents die before your eyes before christmas has even happened.
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Sorry to hear about the losses, that is unfortunate for sure. I wouldn't give up just yet, plenty of folks that have gone through similar issues on this forum and elsewhere. I would certainly try to get all of this under control and stable before giving it another shot but you seem to be willing to put the time and effort in so keep your head up and let the community here help you out.
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appreciate that, i do want to keep trying with corals but its starting to feel like im just a coral killer no matter what i do, looking at the duncan though it does have a new head growing so atleast 1 lps is doing ok i guess. I definitely wont be adding more corals until it is more stable, i just thought that it forsure would have been stable after running 2 years, guess i was mistaking lol.
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