Help/Advice on Euphyllias please!

[to many tangs]

posted previously about a problem I'm having with my euphyllias and I beginning to get really concerned as the problem is continuing and destroying some colonies.

I had a problem about 4 weeks ago with my PH, basically my probe was giving me a false reading, as a result I took my eye of the ball as far as the parameters are concerned only to find out my mag had dropped to 1260, calc 380 and kh 6 - after recalibrating the PH probe it turned out my PH was 7.88 and I think this could have been the start of the problem.

I started to raise the levels back up and I'm now thinking I may have done it to quick and shocked the system.

Since then I've lost a quarter of a hammer colony (approx 6 heads lost), half a frogspawn colony (approx 4 heads lost) and half of another frogspawn colony (approx 10 heads lost). The first two started to go within a couple of days of the water quality issue but then stopped and nothing else lost for about 3 weeks. The last colony was fine during the whole process but in the last 10 days or so started to drop heads and has continued. I've fragged the last colony in the hope it was stop the problem but I'm still loosing heads at the rate of about 1 or 2 a day.

So far most people have directed me to brown jelly disease but I'm not sure it is as there is no sign of brown jelly at all. The symptoms are the heads shrink in over a day or two and then sulk for another day or so, they then slowly open up from the mouth and literally fall of the skeleton.

I've been testing almost daily for a couple of weeks now so I'm confident the parameters are good but below is a list -

Nitrate 5
PH 8.01 to 8.22
KH 8.0
Calcium 415
Magnesium 1350
Phosphate less than 0.03 (via D&D high sensitivity kit)
Salinity 1.026
Temp 26.5 (measured by two seperate thermometers)

I've also sent a sample of water off to Tanktests.co.uk for a second opinion so should have results back tomorrow hopefully

I've noticed no fish having a go at the corals, flow has remainder unchanged for weeks, lighting has remainder unchanged for weeks and the bulbs are all no more than about 3-4 months told, the corals haven't been moved other than frag the ones as described.

If anyone can offer any suggestions I would be very grateful

Nick

[RokleM]

Nick, sounds like you're on the right track, it's just an unknown issue at this point. Your current parameters look great, so I'd just make sure they stay that way.

As a blanket statement, MOST LPS are much more tolerant of parameter changes than SPS for example. Yes, your calc/alk was low, however that may or may not be the cause.

So start looking at other causes. Any peppermint shrimp in the tank that may have taken a liking to the corals? Any tangs/angles that may be nipping when you're not looking? Anything that might be stinging or irritation the corals in the general proximity? Anything else stressing that you can see?

[Hephalump]

I actually am in the same boat. Due to a faulty alk test kit (thanks api) My alk swung from 9 to 13 then down to 6.5 and back up to 10 over about 20 days. It has been stable now for about two weeks but I have lost my frogspawn, hammer, duncan, and chalices. They basically all let go of the skeleton and the ones that didn't got brown jelly. I think all you can do is hold your parameters stable, do damage control, and hope for the best.

[Jacwil]

See any euphyllia bugs on the base or skeleton?