Corals feeling bad

MuscleFish · 02/08/2018, 08:30 PM

No idea what happend.

13.5G Nano reef

Reef Crystals salt mix

1.25 salinity

Arround 7-7.3 alk

0 nitrates

0 phosphates

3 tbs of Carbon every 2 weeks

Purigen (I need to regen it, it's brown)

Filter floss

Two Candy Cane died

Xenia died

Kenya Tree Coral feels very bad and will die soon (at the beginnings it feels very well and spread)

Ganiopora feels bad

One Zoa died

Green Mushrooms feels fine

Two Zoas also very fine

Mushroom Leather is fine

All crabs, fishs, snails, shrimp and one Urchins fells fine, no dead at all.

I dose 1ml of vodka, nitrates and phosphates = 0.

I feed the corals by Reef Roids twice a week and dose Coral Accel 1ml daily.

The only changes in my tank is full elimination of Grape Algae by manual and hungry Urchins. And digging from Pistol, all dirt (white dirt) from sand going to rocks and filter.

Stock:

2 Small clowns

1 Yellow Goby with Tiger Pistol Shrimp

1 Emerals crab

3 Blue legs hermits

1 Turbo

3 Trochus

2 Nerites

1 Nassarius Snail

1 Cerith Snail

Coralline exist in the tank.

Stock light. One 240 GPH pump and 265 GPH Eheim pumb. Lot of flow. Fluval SEA PS2 Mini Protein Skimmer.

Temp is 29. Even with heater off. Maybe from light and eheim pump. No way to reduce it right now.

Any idea what happens? What it can be?

Thanks

nereefpat · 02/09/2018, 05:12 AM

How long did you have these corals? Goniopora can be difficult.

Did you mean specific gravity of 1.025? How are you measuring that?

29 degrees (over 84 F) is too warm. Could have been a temp or O2 issue.

What is the specific lighting, brand, type, watts?

jlmawp · 02/09/2018, 09:30 AM

One thing that stands out to me is that if it's true you have zero phosphates and nitrates, and are running purigen and dosing vodka, you may not have enough nutrients in the water column to support all those softies. They like a little bit of dirtiness to the water.

The couple times I've tried purigen, it had fairly negative effects on the softies in my tank. When I switched back to just carbon, they bounced back. Not sure if that was coincidence or not, but just throwing it out there.

crawlerman · 02/09/2018, 09:37 AM

Softy/LPS tanks seem to do better with some detectable nitrates and phosphates. I'm guessing they are starving.

rvareef · 02/09/2018, 10:15 AM

post a pic of your tank setup

Uncle99 · 02/09/2018, 10:25 AM

Mixed reefs run better with nitrates 2-5ppm.

jlmawp · 02/09/2018, 05:20 PM

Drop the carbon dosing, drop the purigen and run activated carbon with regular water changes. I'll bet they come bouncing back to good health.

monkeysee1 · 02/10/2018, 08:31 AM

Quote:

One thing that stands out to me is that if it's true you have zero phosphates and nitrates, and are running purigen and dosing vodka, you may not have enough nutrients in the water column to support all those softies. They like a little bit of dirtiness to the water.

^^
This. +10!
I was thinking the exact same thing. Soft corals DON'T do well in VERY clean water. Also, Muscle Fish may NOT have strong enough lighting. He didn't say HOW MUCH he has. Flow seems okay.

MuscleFish · 02/14/2018, 08:01 PM

Thanks friends,

So, I need to remove purigen, stop vodka?

I start to dosing vodka to remove the brown algae.

No idea how to reduce temp from 29c.

My tank:

Uncle99 · 02/15/2018, 09:58 AM

I don't know if I would stop the dosing, your nitrates may then skyrocket.
Maybe safer to reduce dosage a little each week and watch your nitrates till they get to 5ppm-10ppm

jlmawp · 02/15/2018, 11:22 AM

I think the real question might be: Why are you dosing in the first place?

You have a very small tank (as do I), and water changes are easy and can accomplish a lot in terms of nutrient control. A 2-gallon water change for you is 15% (with rock and top-space, it's probably more like 20%). If you did that every 2 weeks, I'm not sure you'd need to do anything special beyond siphoning occasionally and watching your feeding frequency.

How long have you had the tank? It looks like it might be fairly new. Typically, dosing and Purigen and other things of that nature are introduced after a lot of other, simpler options have been attempted. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like it might be a case of trying too many solutions to a problem that might not actually be a problem, too early on.

If your goal is to have a smaller nano with softies and a few LPS, I would scale back the nutrient-reduction and focus more on a regular schedule of water changes and basic cleaning habits. I think the dosing and the Purigen are increasing your problems in the opposite direction of the ones you've been trying to solve.

billdogg · 02/15/2018, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlmawp

I think the real question might be: Why are you dosing in the first place?

You have a very small tank (as do I), and water changes are easy and can accomplish a lot in terms of nutrient control. A 2-gallon water change for you is 15% (with rock and top-space, it's probably more like 20%). If you did that every 2 weeks, I'm not sure you'd need to do anything special beyond siphoning occasionally and watching your feeding frequency.

How long have you had the tank? It looks like it might be fairly new. Typically, dosing and Purigen and other things of that nature are introduced after a lot of other, simpler options have been attempted. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like it might be a case of trying too many solutions to a problem that might not actually be a problem, too early on.

If your goal is to have a smaller nano with softies and a few LPS, I would scale back the nutrient-reduction and focus more on a regular schedule of water changes and basic cleaning habits. I think the dosing and the Purigen are increasing your problems in the opposite direction of the ones you've been trying to solve.

^^^This^^^

I might add that, especially in a small tank, mixing soft and stony corals can be challenging. About 99/100 times, the soft corals will win. Their natural defense against stony corals is to release turpines that inhibit and even kill stony corals. You can combat that with frequent water changes. I would suggest 10-20% weekly. You can also help to remove them with good skimming and the use of carbon in a reactor.

If it were mine, I would stick with either the soft corals or LPS/SPS, and in a tank that size, I'd lean towards the softies. They are just easier to keep, require less demanding lighting, generally lower flow, and like more nutrient rich water than any of the LPS/SPS corals.

jm.02

MuscleFish · 02/22/2018, 12:31 PM

So, I removed Purigen.
Slowly reduce vodka dosing.
Manage to reduce temp from 29-31 to 26-27.5.

Also now I have less flow in the tank 240+110GPH (before I had 240+265GPH).

I replaced Eheim 1000 Compact Pump for stock pump, bc Eheim 1000 heat my tank to 1-2 degrees.

Maybe I need to add another 240 pump or one 420GPH?

Uncle99 · 02/22/2018, 12:56 PM

IMO I would concentrate just on providing perfect on point RODI water matching NSW and go for consistent and stable conditions.....I have never had a problem with any coral provided my water was perfect, there is some flow, and great light in the correct spectrum.

02/08/2018, 08:30 PM	#1
MuscleFish Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 84	Corals feeling bad No idea what happend. 13.5G Nano reef Reef Crystals salt mix 1.25 salinity Arround 7-7.3 alk 0 nitrates 0 phosphates 3 tbs of Carbon every 2 weeks Purigen (I need to regen it, it's brown) Filter floss Two Candy Cane died Xenia died Kenya Tree Coral feels very bad and will die soon (at the beginnings it feels very well and spread) Ganiopora feels bad One Zoa died Green Mushrooms feels fine Two Zoas also very fine Mushroom Leather is fine All crabs, fishs, snails, shrimp and one Urchins fells fine, no dead at all. I dose 1ml of vodka, nitrates and phosphates = 0. I feed the corals by Reef Roids twice a week and dose Coral Accel 1ml daily. The only changes in my tank is full elimination of Grape Algae by manual and hungry Urchins. And digging from Pistol, all dirt (white dirt) from sand going to rocks and filter. Stock: 2 Small clowns 1 Yellow Goby with Tiger Pistol Shrimp 1 Emerals crab 3 Blue legs hermits 1 Turbo 3 Trochus 2 Nerites 1 Nassarius Snail 1 Cerith Snail Coralline exist in the tank. Stock light. One 240 GPH pump and 265 GPH Eheim pumb. Lot of flow. Fluval SEA PS2 Mini Protein Skimmer. Temp is 29. Even with heater off. Maybe from light and eheim pump. No way to reduce it right now. Any idea what happens? What it can be? Thanks

02/09/2018, 05:12 AM	#2
nereefpat Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Central Nebraska Posts: 3,190	How long did you have these corals? Goniopora can be difficult. Did you mean specific gravity of 1.025? How are you measuring that? 29 degrees (over 84 F) is too warm. Could have been a temp or O2 issue. What is the specific lighting, brand, type, watts? __________________ Pat Current Tank Info: 125 in-wall , 40b sump. 6 bulb T5. ASM G2 skimmer. LPS and leathers

02/15/2018, 11:22 AM	#11
jlmawp Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2016 Posts: 595	I think the real question might be: Why are you dosing in the first place? You have a very small tank (as do I), and water changes are easy and can accomplish a lot in terms of nutrient control. A 2-gallon water change for you is 15% (with rock and top-space, it's probably more like 20%). If you did that every 2 weeks, I'm not sure you'd need to do anything special beyond siphoning occasionally and watching your feeding frequency. How long have you had the tank? It looks like it might be fairly new. Typically, dosing and Purigen and other things of that nature are introduced after a lot of other, simpler options have been attempted. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like it might be a case of trying too many solutions to a problem that might not actually be a problem, too early on. If your goal is to have a smaller nano with softies and a few LPS, I would scale back the nutrient-reduction and focus more on a regular schedule of water changes and basic cleaning habits. I think the dosing and the Purigen are increasing your problems in the opposite direction of the ones you've been trying to solve. Last edited by jlmawp; 02/15/2018 at 03:10 PM.

02/09/2018, 09:30 AM	#3
jlmawp Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2016 Posts: 595	One thing that stands out to me is that if it's true you have zero phosphates and nitrates, and are running purigen and dosing vodka, you may not have enough nutrients in the water column to support all those softies. They like a little bit of dirtiness to the water. The couple times I've tried purigen, it had fairly negative effects on the softies in my tank. When I switched back to just carbon, they bounced back. Not sure if that was coincidence or not, but just throwing it out there.

02/09/2018, 09:37 AM	#4
crawlerman Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 503	Softy/LPS tanks seem to do better with some detectable nitrates and phosphates. I'm guessing they are starving.

02/09/2018, 10:15 AM	#5
rvareef In Memoriam Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 664	post a pic of your tank setup

02/09/2018, 10:25 AM	#6
Uncle99 Crab Free Zone Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,906	Mixed reefs run better with nitrates 2-5ppm.

02/09/2018, 05:20 PM	#7
jlmawp Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2016 Posts: 595	Drop the carbon dosing, drop the purigen and run activated carbon with regular water changes. I'll bet they come bouncing back to good health.

02/15/2018, 09:58 AM	#10
Uncle99 Crab Free Zone Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,906	I don't know if I would stop the dosing, your nitrates may then skyrocket. Maybe safer to reduce dosage a little each week and watch your nitrates till they get to 5ppm-10ppm

02/22/2018, 12:31 PM	#13
MuscleFish Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 84	So, I removed Purigen. Slowly reduce vodka dosing. Manage to reduce temp from 29-31 to 26-27.5. Also now I have less flow in the tank 240+110GPH (before I had 240+265GPH). I replaced Eheim 1000 Compact Pump for stock pump, bc Eheim 1000 heat my tank to 1-2 degrees. Maybe I need to add another 240 pump or one 420GPH?

02/22/2018, 12:56 PM	#14
Uncle99 Crab Free Zone Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,906	IMO I would concentrate just on providing perfect on point RODI water matching NSW and go for consistent and stable conditions.....I have never had a problem with any coral provided my water was perfect, there is some flow, and great light in the correct spectrum.