So... For the past few months all of my LPS corals have been dying in two of my tanks. I cannot for the life of me figure out what is happening. I've lost thousands of dollars worth of rare hammers, torches, elegance corals, gonipora, chalices and acans. The acans have been dropping heads, the torches, hammers and elegances have gone limp and fallen off their skeleton, in some cases developing brown jelly disease after looking damaged. They will look really healthy for a good period of time then die quickly, sometimes after a week with others thriving for over a year...
It's not all at once either, it's really one at a time, almost a chain reaction style. I dip everything before it goes in the tank. It's nothing obvious like getting stung by nems. I have a six stage RO/DI filter and change my cartridges and resin on a regular basis. Have a grounding probe, so no stray voltage. Flow and turnover are good.
In my big tank I have about 15 BTAs, 1 Sebae, 2 LTAs, 1 big Ritteri a number of big soft corals, decent number of mushrooms, zoas and palys. Fish wise I have: 11 Spotcinctus Clowns, 5 PJ Cardinals, 5 Fairy Wrasses, a Powder Blue Tang, a Red Sea Sailfin Tang, a Bluejaw Trigger and a Flame Angel. 2 Cleaner Shrimp, maybe 3-4 Peppermint Shrimp, 2-3 Emerald Crabs, 2-3 small hermits... Tons of snails, but they are fine.
As far as my primary parameters go:
Salinity: 1.025 with minimal fluctuation
KH: 8.5 - 8.8 with no major fluctuations
CA: 420-425 also very stable
MG: 1335
NO: 20-30 (this has gone up over the past 3-4 months, used to be way too low like <1)
PO: 0.03-0.06
Temp: 78-80
PH: 8.2-8.4
Ammonia: Haven't tested for it in over a year, but run a seachem badge in the sump, always yellow, really doubt I've had any spikes, as the fish would let me know.
Did ICP testing with the new place in Colorado. Main things it identified:
- Elevated Aluminum 0.12
- Low Boron 2.32
- Low Chlorine 18884
- Elevated Chromium 0.02
- Low Iron 0.00
- Low Iodine 0.00
- Low Potassium 327
- Low Strontium 3.69
Basically nothing really alarming from what I can tell, just looks like I need to dose trace elements.
Media & Maintenance: 10% WC every other week, oversized skimmer, change filter socks twice a week, dosing NoPoX (half the recommended amount), 3" sand bed, tons of live rock and marinepure, Skimz macroalgae reactor, GFO and Carbon reactors changed every two weeks, CO2 scrubber, UV sterilizer
The tank is about 1.5 years old. 5-6 months ago it was running really well, my LPS was thriving, easy SPS was doing well too. I did have pretty major algae issues with bryopsis and bubble algae. After trying the Kent Tech M method with no success, I used Fluconazole to get rid of the bryopsis. I tried emerald crabs and the sailfin tang for the bubble algae (neither seem to care for it). Pulled all the male emerald crabs out after seeing them pick at corals. Had about 10 female emeralds in there, but none of them did anything about the bubble algae, so I have started removing them as I can catch them. Got some peppermint shrimp to deal with aptasia, which they haven't been that effective with.
Changes or possible culprits that could have caused the issues??
- Nitrates went from <1 to 20-30, but this was over the course of 2-3 months and I was always under the impression LPS liked high nutrients
- Flame Angel or Sailfin Tang... never seen either of them picking at corals, but have heard anecdotes of them doing so
- Hermits and Emeralds... I have witnessed these guys picking at corals and have been actively removing them from the tank... Maybe it's them, but I have my doubts, barely any left and I still have issues
- Peppermint Shrimp... These guys are my prime suspect, since I never see them, but see how my cleaners are stealing food from my nems and could envision them picking at aggressive corals like an elegance. Doing my best to catch and remove them, but they are pretty elusive.
- Changing salt... I couple months ago, I switched from Red Sea Coral Pro to Aquaforest Reef Salt. I've switched back to Red Sea in case it was the salt.
- Some sort of protozoan (i.e. brown jelly disease) attacking them one by one? Seems like it would spread faster, dipping my corals and UV would help avoid it, but who knows...
Pretty sure it's not my lighting, I run gen 4 radions at about 60% peak. PAR is measuring about 375 in the upper 3rd of the tank and around 150 in the bottom. Never placing any LPS high and think they would die a lot faster, or never even open up if I was cooking them. These will look totally fine for weeks or even months then overnight be doomed.
At this point I have basically stopped buying LPS and have resigned myself to nems and soft coral until I can figure out what is killing all my corals. On top of that, I am having very similar issues in another system with similar specs and test results.
Any ideas?
It's not all at once either, it's really one at a time, almost a chain reaction style. I dip everything before it goes in the tank. It's nothing obvious like getting stung by nems. I have a six stage RO/DI filter and change my cartridges and resin on a regular basis. Have a grounding probe, so no stray voltage. Flow and turnover are good.
In my big tank I have about 15 BTAs, 1 Sebae, 2 LTAs, 1 big Ritteri a number of big soft corals, decent number of mushrooms, zoas and palys. Fish wise I have: 11 Spotcinctus Clowns, 5 PJ Cardinals, 5 Fairy Wrasses, a Powder Blue Tang, a Red Sea Sailfin Tang, a Bluejaw Trigger and a Flame Angel. 2 Cleaner Shrimp, maybe 3-4 Peppermint Shrimp, 2-3 Emerald Crabs, 2-3 small hermits... Tons of snails, but they are fine.
As far as my primary parameters go:
Salinity: 1.025 with minimal fluctuation
KH: 8.5 - 8.8 with no major fluctuations
CA: 420-425 also very stable
MG: 1335
NO: 20-30 (this has gone up over the past 3-4 months, used to be way too low like <1)
PO: 0.03-0.06
Temp: 78-80
PH: 8.2-8.4
Ammonia: Haven't tested for it in over a year, but run a seachem badge in the sump, always yellow, really doubt I've had any spikes, as the fish would let me know.
Did ICP testing with the new place in Colorado. Main things it identified:
- Elevated Aluminum 0.12
- Low Boron 2.32
- Low Chlorine 18884
- Elevated Chromium 0.02
- Low Iron 0.00
- Low Iodine 0.00
- Low Potassium 327
- Low Strontium 3.69
Basically nothing really alarming from what I can tell, just looks like I need to dose trace elements.
Media & Maintenance: 10% WC every other week, oversized skimmer, change filter socks twice a week, dosing NoPoX (half the recommended amount), 3" sand bed, tons of live rock and marinepure, Skimz macroalgae reactor, GFO and Carbon reactors changed every two weeks, CO2 scrubber, UV sterilizer
The tank is about 1.5 years old. 5-6 months ago it was running really well, my LPS was thriving, easy SPS was doing well too. I did have pretty major algae issues with bryopsis and bubble algae. After trying the Kent Tech M method with no success, I used Fluconazole to get rid of the bryopsis. I tried emerald crabs and the sailfin tang for the bubble algae (neither seem to care for it). Pulled all the male emerald crabs out after seeing them pick at corals. Had about 10 female emeralds in there, but none of them did anything about the bubble algae, so I have started removing them as I can catch them. Got some peppermint shrimp to deal with aptasia, which they haven't been that effective with.
Changes or possible culprits that could have caused the issues??
- Nitrates went from <1 to 20-30, but this was over the course of 2-3 months and I was always under the impression LPS liked high nutrients
- Flame Angel or Sailfin Tang... never seen either of them picking at corals, but have heard anecdotes of them doing so
- Hermits and Emeralds... I have witnessed these guys picking at corals and have been actively removing them from the tank... Maybe it's them, but I have my doubts, barely any left and I still have issues
- Peppermint Shrimp... These guys are my prime suspect, since I never see them, but see how my cleaners are stealing food from my nems and could envision them picking at aggressive corals like an elegance. Doing my best to catch and remove them, but they are pretty elusive.
- Changing salt... I couple months ago, I switched from Red Sea Coral Pro to Aquaforest Reef Salt. I've switched back to Red Sea in case it was the salt.
- Some sort of protozoan (i.e. brown jelly disease) attacking them one by one? Seems like it would spread faster, dipping my corals and UV would help avoid it, but who knows...
Pretty sure it's not my lighting, I run gen 4 radions at about 60% peak. PAR is measuring about 375 in the upper 3rd of the tank and around 150 in the bottom. Never placing any LPS high and think they would die a lot faster, or never even open up if I was cooking them. These will look totally fine for weeks or even months then overnight be doomed.
At this point I have basically stopped buying LPS and have resigned myself to nems and soft coral until I can figure out what is killing all my corals. On top of that, I am having very similar issues in another system with similar specs and test results.
Any ideas?
