Corals Peeling! please help!

[lola302]

I have 150g tank with over 20 diffrent sps species some lps and some softies(mushrooms). I got over 1200 watts of lights. 2- 400 watts metal halides (20k ushios ) and 4- 110w vho's. everthing has been doing great. But latelty i have noticed that some of my sps's have been peeling. I have tested the water and i think everything seems fine.

cal. = 440 (api)
alk. = 8.0 (api)
mag.=1430 (salifert)
strontium=6-10 (salifert)
temp.=78.5 f
salinty= 1.025
phosphate = 0 (api)
nitrates=0 (api) i use az-no3 to keep the nitrate down
ph= need to test not sure if i should test with lights on or off??

I usually do a 15% water change every week, using Reef Crystals and I top off with RO water.
Another question i got is do emerald crabs or blennies eat sps? i found some sps with mouth like marks.
Everyother day I feed flake food. I have 3 tangs and 9 other fish

Any and all advice is welcome i really need some advice!

[Dejavu]

Have you made any changes lately. Lighting, new GFO or any others.

[lola302]

No havent made any changes other then dosing to keep my alk up and strontium. Can you please tell me what GFO stands for??
I change my metal halide about two months ago from 14k's to 20k's but i noticed more growth and color change once the change was made. I need to change my VHO's there more then 7 months old. I was thinking maybe i need to feed my corals. Ive read before that fish poop is enough but im not sure. what do you think???

[hdesai123]

GFO stands for Granular Ferric Oxide which is used to remove phosphates from your system. After changing the light if you had not acclimated your corals by beginning with a shorter light cycle and slowly bringing it to how many hours of light period you want than the stronger new light can affect the corals. It will mostly bleach the corals from the base up.

[lola302]

We use the recommended amount of phosban. We change it out every 3 months. We have always used the same brand (used 3 little fish). My light cycle starts at 12-9 with my vho's. My first mh turns on at 2-7 and my other mh turns on at 3-8. Could it be that we should use another brand of phosban? The corals are peeling from the base up :eek: What can i do to fix the light system?

[Logzor]

Double check your alk - the only time I have ever experience sps peel was when alk has dropped.

[hdesai123]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14509214#post14509214 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Logzor
Double check your alk - the only time I have ever experience sps peel was when alk has dropped.

Thats what I was going to mention as I had that problem some time back too and found out it was alk that caused it. But it could be something else too...hard to tell without pictures and all the water parameters.

[lola302]

I will retest it when I get home. How high should I keep it? I'm dosing with bionic part 1. What do you recomend I dose with? I will post some pictures of the peeling corals when I get home. We also have a geo calcium reactor.

[Dejavu]

Alk of 8 dKh is fine. B ionic is fine too. Are you using both Bionic and your Ca reactor?

[lola302]

I only use the alk b-ionic cause my reactor does a good job of keeping my calcium high. I cant seem to control the alk with my reactor. The calcium usually to go high and my alk always falls back. So I add the b-ionic to keep it up. Here are some pics sorry about the terrible qualityhttp://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa32/lola302/IMG_1966.jpg http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa32/lola302/IMG_1965.jpg http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa32/lola302/IMG_1964.jpg http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa32/lola302/IMG_1962.jpg http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa32/lola302/IMG_1960.jpg

[kev apsley]

how much strontium are you dosing?

[lola302]

I added what was recomended on the bottle (salifert) 75ml for 150 g. I only dosed once because the level was alittle low. But the corals were peeling before I dosed strontium. Thats why I checked the level and dosed thinking it might. Is strontium that important??

[kev apsley]

actually some people dose it others believe it's not necessary and doesn't really help in any way, they have found strontium deposits in coral skeleton and coralline but it is also believed to totally useless, where corals will only use in in the absence of calcium

here is a good article
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/chem.htm

[stunreefer]

You need to stabilize your alkalinity as much as possible. IME it's much more important for ALK to be stable over CA. Per the pics I'd suspect ALK issues right off the bat.

A CA Reactor is actually more of an ALK reactor, so dial that thing in and you should be A-OK.

IME Strontium is replenished with weekly/bi-weekly water changes just fine, and does not have to be supplemented.

[lola302]

I just tested my alk and its 9-10 dkh. So what can I do to keep it stable? I seem to be having trouble tuning my reactor. My ph in my reactor is set to 6.7 and my drip rate is so little sometimes I think its not dripping. The reason I have the drip rate so slow is because I noticed that when I raise it, it does nothing for my alk but just raises my cal. One day it when so high it reached 500 and my water was cloudy. I was also wondering if 9 hours of light is enough or should I leave them on longer??? And thanks to everyone who has been very helpful. =)

[bigmatt]

Vibro species bacterial infection, you can treat with melafix and lower your water temp to 72 degrees, had the same problem and almost lost everything

[Dejavu]

With a reactor your alk should be stable. How long have you had it setup?

9 hrs of light is more then enough. I have mine run for 6 hrs.

While API are pretty good test kits. IMO any PO4 test kit is a waste. If you can get your hands on a Hanna I would check your PO4 with it. In most cases nutrient is the cause of the problem. I would bet that your PO4 are high seeing how you only change your GFO every 3 months. How many fish and how many gals? what are you feeding and how often?

[lola302]

We have a 150 gallon tank it has been running since Sept of 2007.

Our livestock consists of:

1 chevron tang
1 powder blue
1 yellow belly hippo
2 black clowns
1 bi color blenny
2 lyertail anthias
1 sunburst anthias
1 mandarin goby
3 wrasse

We run a ASM G-3 protein skimmer and feed nori every other day as well as flake food every other day as well. I dont feed alot of food just enough for everyone to eat 3-5 flakes. Were did you buy your Hanna test kit?

Ive never heard of a Vibro species bacterial infection. But am looking into it as I type!