Polyp bail out

[juarec0201]

Good Morning Reefers,

I was wondering if I could get some help. My tank was seemingly thriving and for about 3 weeks it has taken a downward turn. My tank has suffered from low nutrients so I’ve had to dose nitrates and phosphates for quite some time now. Tank is about 3 yrs old.
Recently I have had corals bail out or just waste away. Did not see brown jelly they just recede and die. This has been affecting my hammers, torches and sps. Sps are stning.
Initially thought it was a nutrient issue or alk spike. Those have been steady in my testing. Sent off triton ICP and don’t see anything out of the ordinary that would cause this.
Still have corals looking like they are gonna bail/recede. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Alk was in initially low 6.3 and “slowly” raise to 7-7.5 range.
Nitrate - 5 and dosed too much raised to 20
Phosphate - .04-.08 range

 

[Reeflix]

what is your calcium at?

 

[Luky]

Is your lighting sufficient? Are the corals getting enough PAR? The ICP report showed no iodine? Maybe you need to dose some iodine?

 

[juarec0201]

what is your calcium at?

Via trident

Good Morning Reefers,

I was wondering if I could get some help. My tank was seemingly thriving and for about 3 weeks it has taken a downward turn. My tank has suffered from low nutrients so I’ve had to dose nitrates and phosphates for quite some time now. Tank is about 3 yrs old.
Recently I have had corals bail out or just waste away. Did not see brown jelly they just recede and die. This has been affecting my hammers, torches and sps. Sps are stning.
Initially thought it was a nutrient issue or alk spike. Those have been steady in my testing. Sent off triton ICP and don’t see anything out of the ordinary that would cause this.
Still have corals looking like they are gonna bail/recede. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Alk was in initially low 6.3 and “slowly” raise to 7-7.5 range.
Nitrate - 5 and dosed too much raised to 20
Phosphate - .04-.08 range

Via trident 480-500

 

[juarec0201]

Is your lighting sufficient? Are the corals getting enough PAR? The ICP report showed no iodine? Maybe you need to dose some iodine?

I just got a par meter but haven’t checked. Lights I have on are 3 Kessil a360 that was supplemented at 50% by two reefbrite combos.

 

[juarec0201]

Since this post I have turned off the reefbrites, ran carbon and have made sure my nutrients don’t bottom or spike. I have reduced flow and it seems the dying has stopped. Some corals are opening up and look generally better.

Still is very bothersome as I can’t pinpoint what went wrong. I lost many of my hammers and torches I had for a while.

 

[Reeflix]

Via trident

Via trident 480-500

Calcium is kind of high…

 

[bushdoc]

Had similar situation, where some hammers would bail out despite seemingly good and stable params. Then I have witnessed hammer bailing out in LFS. Since then I acquired more hammer frags and they are thriving.
My theory is that different corals have different requirements and it is difficult to provide ideal conditions for all of them in one reef tank. They may also be stressed by some parasites or bacteria.
BTW, your Ca is fine and unlikely cause of any issues.

 

[juarec0201]

Had similar situation, where some hammers would bail out despite seemingly good and stable params. Then I have witnessed hammer bailing out in LFS. Since then I acquired more hammer frags and they are thriving.
My theory is that different corals have different requirements and it is difficult to provide ideal conditions for all of them in one reef tank. They may also be stressed by some parasites or bacteria.
BTW, your Ca is fine and unlikely cause of any issues.

It seems only select corals had been affected. Other torches and frogspawn seem to have grown more fleshy. Definitely frustrating when it’s not cut and dry as to what happened. But your theory may have played a part in it.