Problem with corals
 

Im not sure what the problem could is, but the last few times I have tried adding hardy softies (ie xenia, colt) they started melting away after a day,
my salinity is a bit low(1.025)
everything else checks out except for phosphates.
so I have no idea what else the problem could be.
I did have an algae out break, but added some macro did some scrubbing and water changes, the nuisance algae is almost non visible in the tank.
I do have a reddish pink algae growing on the sand bed/glass
I am open to suggestions/diagnosis and advice.
One day I would like to have corals in my tank.
It is a 75 gallon tank.
33 gallon sump.
becket skimmer powered by a mag 12.
main return is a mag 7
strong current in the tank, roughly 120lbs of live rock in the system.
live stock.
flame hawk, scooter blenny, regal tang, green chromis.
atleast 1 hermit crab, baby starfish which must have spawned off one I bought some time ago. 1 reddish green mushroom.

phosphates are a big problem but i would test for alkalinity and calcium. carbon has been known to kill off xenia.

how old is this tank??

what about lights??

Here are some pics of what the algae in my tank looks like.

Tank has been running for about 4 yrs. using pc lighting ( bulbs less than 2mnths old) which has been quite successful in my previous system. Last time I had the alk and calcium checked at ocean aquatics they said it was bang on.
I was originally running a 450 watt halide and thought that was the issue so I switched to 2 75 watt pc bulbs.

looks to be the start of a mild cyano bloom or at least a diatom bloom, excess nutrients is the cause.

are you testing?? what are your exact water parameters for:

nitrate
phosphate
amonia
alk
cal
what test kits are you using??


more than likely there is some nitrates and phosphates , corals dont do well with phosphates and although some small amount of nitrates is good large amounts are harmfull and bad for your livestock.both are huge contributing factors in algae growth.os are high i would reccommend getting some gfo and a reactor it will quickly rid you of phosphate.

what are you using for light??

if your ph

Looks like cyano, so my guess is phosphates may be a problem if your nitrates are fine.

I've never been able to keep xenia and colt doesn't do so well in my system (finally sold my big colt), but I've had good success with LPS and (especially) SPS. O wouldn't give up on other corals just because of your luck with softies. Try a birdsnest and go from there if you want to try out SPS.. in the meantime, I would suggest finding out about your phosphates.

whats a gfo? and what type of reactor?

what other corals are you having trouble with?? are they all melting away??

gfo is granular ferris oxide it is used ina reactor like this

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...IW8SsDyUxO19_g






i agree with above as i dont do well with softies either i find them hit or miss with my tanks this time its miss lol

GFO is Granular Ferric Oxide. I use PO4x4. It reduces your phosphates pretty fast and is rechageable (which is great because it isnt cheap). There are other types of GFO, but I find them messy...need a lot of rinsing. Biased because I used PO4x4 from the start.

Google GFO.

For a quick fix you can use a liquid phosphate reducer if you have a skimmer.

LOL.. Reefwars.. too fast for me. 1Big,, I'll leave you to the pros... I'm still a newbie.
Half of the fun of this hobby is the learning curve. You're in the right place coming here.

if the tank is around 4yrs old i imagine the cyano is from you scrubbing the rocks of algae, stuff tends to build up after time in the rocks and that all would have been released and the algae itself then too.


if the flow is too strong in your tank then that too isnt good for softies and they will shrink up and die.

if light is to strong then they will shrivel up and melt.

pretty much everything has melted away within a week, toad stool, xenia, brain, colt. only thing that has survived is a mushroom.

check your temp reguraly?? sounds almost like they cooked.....not surprised the mushroom survived lol :twised::twised:

I keep my tank at 80, I'm leaning forwards phosphates as well. As the saying goes the solution to pollution is dilution. The system wih the skimmer and sump is probably between 90-100 gallons, I was think of doing water changes of 25-30 every couple days for a week.
Any objections, or better ideas?

Ps thanks to all of you for the info.

I'm all for water changes to some extent, but I think you'll have diminishing returns after a while.. and your system is fairly large.
If I were in your shoes, I would do the usual water changes (about 5-10% per week) and find a solution to the phosphates: GFO, biopellets...

even just 2 x 20g water changes in one week will be fine. that ol saying never turns ya wrong. the large water changes of 20g wont hurt its what i do weekly on my 90g with 75g sump so if you do 2 say with a few days apart will be plenty.



to me phosphate is the one thing that i absolutely have to keep in check, i wouldnt dare run a tank without gfo although i have many many times but after doing it on the last few tanks it works and if you start it early it works very well.

still though i dont think high phosphates would melt all your softies in one week...... all of a sudden........ it would take something stronger, maybe from the scrubbing of the algae?? stuff tends to build up in the rocks that can get nasty over time, powerheads miss it and flow cant reach it so untill that day the brush hits it its sitting there rotting and waiting to be disturbed. softies and leathers absorb alot of whats in the water, nitrates they can handle in small amounts but larger amounts and not so much.

Make sure that your salinity is accurate. Best to use a calibrated refractometer to test it. The plastic hydrometers are horribly inaccurate. I have seen them out by .003.

If your Alk is low(< 7.3dKH) it can cause problems.

Phosphates will cause problems for corals if they are too high(typically >0.5mg/l and you will get problems, especially trying to adapt new corals).

As for Phosphate removal I would recommend Foz Down. I make and use Foz Down so I know it works and is safe. It is cheaper and easier to use than GFO or pellets.

Here is a link http://www.oceanfreshaquarium.com/foz-down/

You might want to try adding some Iodine as well.

Water changes are one of the best ways to maintain a healthy environment for your animals.

Cheers,
Tim

also you might want to test for copper. I recently put Kent carbon in my tank and all my xenias (3 varieties) melted in few hours. It's not the carbon because I was using Seachem Matrix carbon before and I had my xenias thriving for the past 2 years until my tank was contaminated by copper.

Problem is, there might still be a lethal level of copper in your tank and that would be lower than what the commercial tests can detect. Anyway it is a good start to test for that anyway.

I know it was mentioned before but i lost a massive colony of xenia and colts just as you described 'melting away' in a very short period of time. Mine was caused by a massive increase of phosphates because of a new container's I started using for ro and salt mixing. I didn't clean them properly before using and poof they dissapeared in less than week.

Lots of great suggestions,
Last I checked my nitrates were fine,
Never tested for copper
if I do have copper in my tank how do I get rid of it?
all my fish, hermit crab,mushroom and baby star seem to be doing great.
I think I will take a water sample to the lfs and test for everything possible.
Also I will move forward with the water changes every few days.

What do you use to filter your water for water changes?

I had copper contaminate my tank recently and kill half of my corals. All xenia melted in few hours and all my snails were just fine. The level of copper needed to kill xenia seem to be much lower than what is required to kill snails.

If it is copper, then use Seachem Cuprasorb to remove it and do water changes.

Anyway it is something to test.

I use an aquarium pharmeceuticals r/o unit. I keep a garbage can full of r/o water. The stuff usually sits for a few days before being used to top up, or water changes.

Ok went to the lfs.
Tested for
Nitrate
Nitrite
Ammonia
Copper
Phosphate
Calcium
Ph.
Ph and calcium levels where bang on.
No ammonia, nitrates or copper in the tank.
Slight levels of nitrite and phosphate.
Salinity was 1.027 tested with a refractometer.
Any thoughts, could it be the salinity?

def wold be better to have the salinity lower i prefer 23-25 but i doubt it was that that killed the corals .get the phosphate downs and youll see better coulors and im not sure if theres and algae in your tank but if so it will kill that too.

do you run carbon??:)

I've ran carbon for about 4 weeks. I didnt think the salinity would have been an issue, there isnt really any nuisance algae in my tank.
really dont know what the problem could be.

thats probably it too just a sudden shift to clean water from the carbon if i were you i would replace one of the dead corals and see if it dies off again:)