why is this happening

[katpurdy]

I posted a couple of weeks ago...I ended up fragging the emerald green milli...now the pink milli has tissue necrosis...the water seems fine...i have 48 x the turnover, nitrate is 0, no phosphates, don't know the mag, salinity is 1.024 temp is 79-80, i have a remora pro skimmer, and 7 fish and the tank is a 55 g tall with a 30 g sump. I feed flake once a day, and in the evening, 2-3 x weekly I do a home make mixture of pureed seafood for the sun polyps and other corals...

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/116645106.jpg

I forgot to add...i have 250W 12K reeflux and 2 T5 helios that are changing to VHO tonight.

[rleechb]

What are you using for test kits? Are you running a refugium? It's a bit surprising that your nitrates/phosphates are both at 0. Seems like you have a high bioload (lots of fish/feeding) but an underpowered skimmer.

You mentioned 48x turnover, but what kind of flow is that colony receiving? What kind of pumps are you using?

[SptfireXIV]

How long has the tank been up and running?

[katpurdy]

pumps: 2xseio 620, 3 aquaclear 70(400gph each) 200 gph from return...fuge in sump with dsb, cheato, red macro, and caluerpa,

test kits are aquarium pharmacuticals,. Flow for that colony is random, as you can see the polyps swaying in different directions. other colonies in the tank are fine. the two millis came from the same company on the same order. I have others that came at the same time that are fine (so far)

[Mariner]

I may have missed it, but what are your calcium and alk levels and are they stable? What are you dosing to maintain them?
Aquarium Pharm phosphate test won't tell you much, IMO.
Mariner

[katpurdy]

my calcium is 420 and my alk is 9-10...i dose randy's two part.

[Crazysps]

Seems like you may have something munching on that. Check for a crab late at night.

[katpurdy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9466644#post9466644 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Crazysps
Seems like you may have something munching on that. Check for a crab late at night.

really? I removed a crab the other day, i think it was munching on fish...not coral!! I wonder if it is the order that it came in on? plus it is only the milli's that are greatly effected...is this something that happens to millis as opposed to other acros?

[meschaefer]

the Aquarium pharm. test kits are fine for Amonnia and Nitrite, but I would get better test kits for Alk and Calcium. I like Salifert, their are others. Get yourself a magnesium kit while you are at it.

IME neither of these companies Phosphate test kits are anywhere near accurate. I hear that the Hatch test kit is good, I havn't used it as it is very expensive, at that price I went with a photometer.

Or you can just assume that you have Phosphates and work with that.

Many on this board as well as others, maintain their salinity closer to 1.026, but I don't thing that is the problem.

I notice that my milli is very sensative to nutrient swings.

[dhnguyen]

Honestly with a Remora Pro on a 55g, there is no way you're walking away with 0 nitrate and 0 phosphate unless you were doing weekly water changes. I am betting nutrients are too high.

[Serioussnaps]

Not enough flow around the base. Despite what you may think, your flow is sub par for that colonly.

Recession around the base........think flow first.

[katpurdy]

I do water changes every 1 1/2-2 weeks with natural salt water. The remoral is powered with a mag 3 and pulls a lot of gunk..I just did a dip and found some baby flat worms...didn't think these were on millis. I will order some FWE right away but I don't think it is the main issue.

[rleechb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9475648#post9475648 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by katpurdy
I do water changes every 1 1/2-2 weeks with natural salt water. The remoral is powered with a mag 3 and pulls a lot of gunk..I just did a dip and found some baby flat worms...didn't think these were on millis. I will order some FWE right away but I don't think it is the main issue.


"Pulling lots of gunk" doesn't mean that the skimmer is keeping your nitrates/phosphates anywhere close to 0. Think of it this way, if you take that same remora pro, and put it on a 5000 gallon tank, and pour pure sewage into that tank, the remora pro will probably "pull lots of gunk", but the water will be far, far from clean. If anything, it could mean that your water is very, very dirty, and you're maxing out that skimmer.

I wouldn't consider flow the issue, seems like there's enough to keep the acro alive, at a minimum.

Baby flatworms? What'd you dip, and what'd you dip it in? The colony in iodine? What did the flatworms look like? Reddish brown?

If I had to take a guess, the reason that colony isn't doing well, is you have a high nutrients, and a wild colony: tough combo to overcome.

[JB NY]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9475321#post9475321 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Serioussnaps
Not enough flow around the base. Despite what you may think, your flow is sub par for that colonly.

Recession around the base........think flow first.

I agree. Turnover means nothing. It's how much good flow EACH coral gets. Almost always, barring a predator, STN at the base is flow problems.

[GTR]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9474628#post9474628 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by meschaefer
the Aquarium pharm. test kits are fine for Amonnia and Nitrite, but I would get better test kits for Alk and Calcium. I like Salifert, their are others. Get yourself a magnesium kit while you are at it.



I have both Salifert and API kits for Alk and Ca. Other than the API has less resolution, alk 1.0 dKH and Ca 20ppm they give me accurate results to those resolutions. IMO the 20ppm Ca is just fine and for common once a week monitoring of alk the 1.0 dKH is ok as well.
The only reason I bought the API kits is I received a Salifert kit that was reading high by over 2.5 dKH and didn't wish to wait for a replacement to be sent out.

Back OT... The crab sounds possible butIME crabs normally live in the center of the colony and don't work around the base. If it's STN it may just be dealing with mutiple transplant issues. My guess is there's not much you can do but hope it can overcome.

SteveU