Whats wrong with these corals? PLEASE HELP!!

[Jerm_54]

I have a 40g breeder thats been running for about 8 months now and evythings been going pretty decent up untill a few weeks ago. As for corals there is a hammer, gsp, zoas, trumpet, mushrooms, duncans, and a kenya tree. The hammer, duncans, and star polyps are all doing just fine. The hammer is the only one that i havent noticed any growth with.

Now as for my problem corals... I had one small kenya tree frag that did fine for a while and then shriveled up. Hasnt changed a bit other than just being all closed up. All my zoas started to melt away. I had 5 frags, all pretty small and now there all gone. I had a birdsnest frag and a plate coral that each lasted about a month and a half but are now dead.

I was doing water changes every 3 or 4 weeks. Params are all in check but i will be bringing a sample to the lfs to double check tomorrow. Salinity is at 1.031. Im using an Arctic S026 LED light from ocean revive. There at 75% power for the blues and 50% for the white lights. Temps are staying around 78-81 (still having problems getting my heaters to work properly)

Any help is greatly appreciated because i just took 2 big colonies of GSP and Kenya trees from a friend who was tearing down his tank and i would hate to see the corals not make it.

[MellowReefer]

Your salinity should be 1.025 or 1.026. Why 1.031? Are you using a refractometer? Are you testing alkalinity or calcium or anything else?

[heathlindner25]

Can you get a picture for us?

[Jerm_54]

Your salinity should be 1.025 or 1.026. Why 1.031? Are you using a refractometer? Are you testing alkalinity or calcium or anything else?

Just tested them. Calcium is right around 470ppm and alk is at 143.2. I am not using a refractometer an I'm testing with the ATI test kit.

Also thought worth mentioning is that there is only 2 clown fish, a cleaner shrimp, a pistol shrimp, and an antenna goby if he's even still alive. Haven't seen him in months. And just added a bicolor Blondie yesterday.

[Jerm_54]

Can you get a picture for us?

Sorry for the poor quality. Dont know how to get better pics on here

[kga943]

salinity is to high what are you using to check it ?what are you using for evaporation salt water or ro/di ?

[ericarenee]

I See you do water changes every 4 weeks.. HOW MUCH? and do you use RO/DI WATER...
TAP WATER WITH Conditioner?

I would do a 20 % water change then a 10% in two days and another 10% in two days after... Then do 10% a week or bi weekly . WITH 0 tds RO/DI Saltwater.
Do this with each one lowering salinity a bit to bring it back in line .
This will also clear water Quality issues if there are any..

If you are within a week from your last water change and you did 20% or more only do 10%
That kenya is withering over When there is a spike of some kind or too much water chemistry change they will Reduce to a ball like not fall over like that....

I say its something in your water.....

[Jerm_54]

I See you do water changes every 4 weeks.. HOW MUCH? and do you use RO/DI WATER...
TAP WATER WITH Conditioner?

I would do a 20 % water change then a 10% in two days and another 10% in two days after... Then do 10% a week or bi weekly . WITH 0 tds RO/DI Saltwater.
Do this with each one lowering salinity a bit to bring it back in line .
This will also clear water Quality issues if there are any..

If you are within a week from your last water change and you did 20% or more only do 10%
That kenya is withering over When there is a spike of some kind or too much water chemistry change they will Reduce to a ball like not fall over like that....

I say its something in your water.....

Ive been doing 20% water changes once a month with pre mixed saltwater from the LFS. They use R/O water which is also what i use to top off. Ill be doing another water change tomorrow.

The Kenya tree has also only been in for two days along with the big colony of GSP. Ive had one KT frag (fraged from the big one in the pic) since ive started my tank and it did fine for a while but started balling up about a month ago.

[ericarenee]

I would ask them the TDS in there saltwater ..
Are you topping off with Saltwater or just ro water???
Do not top off with Saltwater RO WATER only. this causes salinity and other elements to creep up..

LFS Tend to make the saltwater lower in salinity and not always stable...
I Would get a RO/DI Unit if you can and smaller but more frequent water changes...

[Jerm_54]

Topping off with just r/o water. I'll see about getting an r/o unit this next paycheck. What could it be in the water that's causing the problems?

[Auston]

Your salinity is to high, it happened to me once by mistake. Just get it down to 1.024 and everything will come alive. I had acans that just melted and I was at your level. Fix it right away

[Crush Coral]

Salinity is 1 0roblem for sure. May be another but fix this first. I would remove 1/2 gallon of tank water and replace with Rodi water w/o salt. Wait a half hour and do again. Repeat till down to 1.025. Then have all paras including salinity checked at lfs. If you are using a swing arm hydrometer to check salinity get it checked. They are often way off. A real refractometer is the way to go.

[CuzzA]

Topping off with just r/o water. I'll see about getting an r/o unit this next paycheck. What could it be in the water that's causing the problems?

I'd be buying a refractometer before an RO/DI unit. The NUMBER 1 parameter in a "saltwater" tank is the salinity of the "saltwater". Nothing else matters if you can't accurately measure what the salinity is. Hobby hydrometers are about as useful as trying to gauge salinity by how salty the water tastes. Get a refractometer and calibration fluid.

[Jerm_54]

Alright thanks guys. I'll try and get that salinity lowered down with today's water change. I doing a 20gal water change in a 60gal system to much? I figure if I do 5 gallons at a time with 1.024 salinity over a few hours it should get the salinity in check. Or will that be too much to fast?

[Auston]

If you do 20 gallons at 1.024 it will only drop it down to 1.029. You need to take out 5 gallons at a time and add fresh rodi water until you are at 1.024. Do it like this....remove 5 gallons then and 5 gallons of fresh over the span on an hour, test the water then repeat if necessary. I don't think you are completely understanding how important it is to get you salinity down. The longer you take I.E using salt water at 1.024 to lower, the more likely everything is going to die. Think of it like this, you have a glass of water with ten drops of blue food coloring in it. You want the water to look like it has five drops of blue food coloring in it. So is it better to remove 20% of the water from that glass and then top it off with water that has five drops in it or no drops in it. What will make you reach your goal quicker. Sorry if that was confusing, it might sound better in my head but I hope you get my meaning.

[alton]

Make your changes slowly, take out one gallon of tank water and replace with buffered RO to match PH. See what that does? I am old school so I use one of these
http://www.qualitymarine.com/Measuring-Equipment/Tropic-Marin/High-Precision-Hydrometer

Kenya Trees like pollution

[Jerm_54]

If you do 20 gallons at 1.024 it will only drop it down to 1.029. You need to take out 5 gallons at a time and add fresh rodi water until you are at 1.024. Do it like this....remove 5 gallons then and 5 gallons of fresh over the span on an hour, test the water then repeat if necessary. I don't think you are completely understanding how important it is to get you salinity down. The longer you take I.E using salt water at 1.024 to lower, the more likely everything is going to die. Think of it like this, you have a glass of water with ten drops of blue food coloring in it. You want the water to look like it has five drops of blue food coloring in it. So is it better to remove 20% of the water from that glass and then top it off with water that has five drops in it or no drops in it. What will make you reach your goal quicker. Sorry if that was confusing, it might sound better in my head but I hope you get my meaning.

I get what your saying. The only thing I was concerned about was changing the salinity to fast. I did a 15 gallon water change today and replaced about 3 gallons with straight r/o water. I'll test again tomorrow and see where I'm sitting

[Jerm_54]

Make your changes slowly, take out one gallon of tank water and replace with buffered RO to match PH. See what that does? I am old school so I use one of these
http://www.qualitymarine.com/Measuring-Equipment/Tropic-Marin/High-Precision-Hydrometer

Kenya Trees like pollution

I did figure out that I was screwing up my pH. I haven't been buffing my top off water. So I guess I've been reading my pH wrong all along. It was at about 7.8. So I'll be trying to get that raised up over the next week.

Also what do you mean by they like pollution?

[Auston]

I think he means to say high nutrients

[Auston]

Also hydrometer are garbadge. I once had one that read my water as 1.024 and then I took a sample to my lfs and it was 1.032. Build up will screw them up, if you have the floating arrow type then salt in the hinge screws up your reading. Trust me life gets 1000 times better with a refractometer.

[Jerm_54]

Also hydrometer are garbadge. I once had one that read my water as 1.024 and then I took a sample to my lfs and it was 1.032. Build up will screw them up, if you have the floating arrow type then salt in the hinge screws up your reading. Trust me life gets 1000 times better with a refractometer.

Yeah I just ordered a refractometer so no more hydrometer. I've been feeding the corals with coral frenzy every few days or so. Not sure if that counts as nutrients or not. I also just got some macro algea for my sump. Kinda sounds like a conflict of interest to me.

[outssider]

you don't want to buffer your make up water unless you want to raise your alkalinity. ph isn't controlled with buffer it's controlled by disolved co2 in the water. ph 7.8 is acceptable