SPS doing bad after dosing nutrients

[Gwcreefer]

I started dosing Neophos and Neonitro about 2 weeks ago. My no3 was 0, sometimes 1 and phos was about the same with Hanna testers. I've got LPS and SPS in my tank about a year now. The over all growth has been slow and colors not great. I only have 3 small fish in an 80 gallon tank right now, planning on getting more in the near future so I dont have to dose nutrients. After dosing a few days a monti cap bleach out and the other sps started looking bad, polyps receding color getting worse, the lps on the other hand have been getting puffy and color getting better.

I stopped dosing a few days ago, did a 20% water change hoping to reverse the sps from dying off but they dont look good and a chalice looks like its on its way out too.

Here are my numbers: PH 7.9-8.1, temp 79-80, salinity 1.025, alk 8.1 on a hanna, N03 1.1 hanna, pho .02 hanna ulr, cal 430, mag 1425, 80 gal tank, Ive been dosing BSR 2 part for cal and alk.

Any recommendations or insight would be a big help because I'm at a lost.
Thanks

 

[Spare time]

I'd feed more. Feed the fish at least 3 times a day till both numbers are up. It could be a lot of things but that would be what I'd rule out first. Or you can soak the fish food in excess vitachem or something. I think dosing nitrate or phosphate is best when one value is good but the other is poor. In this case, both are poor (, particularly in a tank with practically no fish).

 

[billyocean]

I'm thinking it must be something else as that shouldn't have been anything detrimental to the sps. As stated above you could try to rule that out with feeding more but with 3 fish I'm thinking extra heavy feeding will lead to different problems.

 

[Dburr1014]

Po4 should have been dosed first. Get that reading up to minimum 0.05, then work on the no3.
IMO, coral need that po4. Ammonium it seems you have(no3 0 to 1).

 

[gbroadbridge]

I started dosing Neophos and Neonitro about 2 weeks ago. My no3 was 0, sometimes 1 and phos was about the same with Hanna testers. I've got LPS and SPS in my tank about a year now. The over all growth has been slow and colors not great. I only have 3 small fish in an 80 gallon tank right now, planning on getting more in the near future so I dont have to dose nutrients. After dosing a few days a monti cap bleach out and the other sps started looking bad, polyps receding color getting worse, the lps on the other hand have been getting puffy and color getting better.

I stopped dosing a few days ago, did a 20% water change hoping to reverse the sps from dying off but they dont look good and a chalice looks like its on its way out too.

Here are my numbers: PH 7.9-8.1, temp 79-80, salinity 1.025, alk 8.1 on a hanna, N03 1.1 hanna, pho .02 hanna ulr, cal 430, mag 1425, 80 gal tank, Ive been dosing BSR 2 part for cal and alk.

Any recommendations or insight would be a big help because I'm at a lost.
Thanks

I don't believe it is related to dosing Nitrates/Phosphates.

Coincidence.

 

[Gwcreefer]

Po4 should have been dosed first. Get that reading up to minimum 0.05, then work on the no3.
IMO, coral need that po4. Ammonium it seems you have(no3 0 to 1).

I was following Brightwells directions on dosing their products. I was adding microbacter7 daily, then raising phos .02 daily until I got to .05 then maintaining that and adding 2 daily of the nitro until I got to 5 . When the sps starting looking bad I stopped dosing, the monti cap went first, bleached out in a day, the others just look really bad.

I didnt check for Ammonia, but I do have a seachem badge and it has stayed yellow.

Only thing I'm sure at this point is it went from bad to worse when I tried to fix the low nutrients.

 

[Troylee]

I was following Brightwells directions on dosing their products. I was adding microbacter7 daily, then raising phos .02 daily until I got to .05 then maintaining that and adding 2 daily of the nitro until I got to 5 . When the sps starting looking bad I stopped dosing, the monti cap went first, bleached out in a day, the others just look really bad.

I didnt check for Ammonia, but I do have a seachem badge and it has stayed yellow.

Only thing I'm sure at this point is it went from bad to worse when I tried to fix the low nutrients.

Ammonia won’t hurt corals they actually prefer it… fish is another story…!you got something else going on.. had you dozed mb7 before that? Could have had a bacterial bloom and clearer water that contributed to the bleaching or something along them lines… hard to say really..

 

[Gwcreefer]

Ammonia won’t hurt corals they actually prefer it… fish is another story…!you got something else going on.. had you dozed mb7 before that? Could have had a bacterial bloom and clearer water that contributed to the bleaching or something along them lines… hard to say really

This is the first time I've added the mb7. I used the mb start xlm when I first cycled the tank about a year and a half ago and was adding their mb clean for awhile.

 

[ScottB]

As @Dburr1014 said, get a steady PO4 reading first. It can take a LOT of dosing. I literally dosed a liter of DIY trisodium phosphate solution before I could keep a reading.

Second, I doubt the coral demise is directly related to dosing. Something else -- or a delayed reaction from lack of nutrient.

Third, as others have said MORE FISH. They secrete a constant source of ammonia which corals require. You will never see a thriving natural reef with tons of fish.

Good luck. We're all counting on you.

 

[A. grandis]

I started dosing Neophos and Neonitro about 2 weeks ago. My no3 was 0, sometimes 1 and phos was about the same with Hanna testers. I've got LPS and SPS in my tank about a year now. The over all growth has been slow and colors not great. I only have 3 small fish in an 80 gallon tank right now, planning on getting more in the near future so I dont have to dose nutrients. After dosing a few days a monti cap bleach out and the other sps started looking bad, polyps receding color getting worse, the lps on the other hand have been getting puffy and color getting better.

I stopped dosing a few days ago, did a 20% water change hoping to reverse the sps from dying off but they dont look good and a chalice looks like its on its way out too.

Here are my numbers: PH 7.9-8.1, temp 79-80, salinity 1.025, alk 8.1 on a hanna, N03 1.1 hanna, pho .02 hanna ulr, cal 430, mag 1425, 80 gal tank, Ive been dosing BSR 2 part for cal and alk.

Any recommendations or insight would be a big help because I'm at a lost.
Thanks

Bleachd out, or had RTN/STN? Did the corals loose their zooxanhellae and still had transparent tissue and polyps?

 

[jda]

As Dr RFH has said many times, you have no idea about the purity of those products. While adding some no3 and po4 is probably fine, food/lab grade reagents are a far more safe way to do it. If you think that any manufacturer has any idea of the purity of the things that they use, or test for purity, then you are kidding yourself.

I doubt that there was any toxins in the Neo stuff, but it is possible... and also avoidable.

 

[Pod_01]

Something to also keep in mind, usually it takes time to go from good to bad. But when attempting to address issues you might want to go slow when going from bad to good.
But this doesn’t apply always if for example fish is lacking oxygen, you better add it asap.
From description I suspect starvation is the issue. PO4/NO3 and lights are not going to feed your corals. Unfortunately they do need food. From my experience monti are one of first corals to show things are not going well.