I'm at a loss...Please Help.

[RocketEngineer]

While I may not be totally new to this place, this problem has me stumped. I am loosing corals and I can't figure out why.

The coraline algae is going nuts. The anemone is doing fine as far as I can tell. Yet every coral is showing signs of stress. The birdsnest corals are peeling off their skeletons, the LPS are all pulled back in except for the torch. I have already lost several corals and fear I may loose most of them if something doesn't improve.

Salinity :1.025 sg
Mg: 1320 (Working on this)ppm
Ca: 360 ppm
Alk: 9.0 dKH
Temp: ~78F
LEDs: Blue ~25% (~150ma) White ~50% (~300ma) (This is a DIY fixture)

The tank is a 125g with 40g sump, Avast CS1 skimmer, I run my ATO through a kalk reactor that just got refilled with fresh kalk last week, water is RODI.

I had been fighting algae issues but most of that is under control between cutting back on feeding and adding a few hermits and snails to the clean up crew. The four fish are fat and happy. I feed one cube twice a week of various types.

I run a Polyfilter in my bubble trap and phospate remover in a reactor, both are relatively fresh.

What am I missing?

Thanks for the ideas.

[scubaprashant]

What are your PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, & Nitrate readings?
Can you get any pictures up of your corals?
What kind of fish do you have in there?
Age of the tank?
How long under current lighting?
Describe your lighting setup as detailed as possible & show pictures.
What was your previous lighting?

[Lateralus]

Calcium is a little low. I like mine around 420 but I'm not sure that's the cause of your corals behavior and recession of the nest. Maybe start getting the ca up to par and see if anything changes.

[DerekFF]

Why are you running your lights so low? Algae? I can't imagine that putting out enough light. I use DIY LEDs and (varies by setup I know) but I run whites at 700ma and blues at 3-500ma depending on how I want to view my tank that day.

[RocketEngineer]

Originally Posted by scubaprashant

What are your PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, & Nitrate readings?

FYI, pH is a poor indicator of anything. I only have dip strips for Nitrate/Nitrite :P. Nitrites 0, Nitrates 20ppm but who knows how accurate that is.

Originally Posted by scubaprashant

Can you get any pictures up of your corals?

Nothing recent. I will tomorrow when the lights are on.

Originally Posted by scubaprashant

What kind of fish do you have in there?

Two clowns, a tomini tang and a yellow tang.

Originally Posted by scubaprashant

Age of the tank?

This iteration has been setup since February. However, most of the rock and sand came out of the 75g that had been in the same spot for two years. About half of the corals came from that setup.

Originally Posted by scubaprashant

How long under current lighting?

Since late march.

Originally Posted by scubaprashant

Describe your lighting setup as detailed as possible & show pictures.

Here is the layout I settled on for the LEDs:



There are 90 LEDs total: (26) Neutral Whites, (8) Blues, (40) Royal Blues, (8) "UV", (4) Red and (4) Green. This gives me a total of eight strings (4 blue, 2 white, 2 "color") that I run in parallel on four drivers. The LEDs mount to two 7.28"X30" heatsinks. At this time I only run the 48 blues and 26 whites for ~11 hours.

[RocketEngineer]

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Calcium is a little low. I like mine around 420 but I'm not sure that's the cause of your corals behavior and recession of the nest. Maybe start getting the ca up to par and see if anything changes.

I have been dosing Mg. Until that gets up nothing else is going to change.

Originally Posted by DerekFF

Why are you running your lights so low? Algae? I can't imagine that putting out enough light. I use DIY LEDs and (varies by setup I know) but I run whites at 700ma and blues at 3-500ma depending on how I want to view my tank that day.

The reason mine are so low is I came back from a weekend away to find the upper edges of most of my corals being nothing but bare skeletons. Since it was all on the tops, the lighting seemed to be the most likely cause. Since then, even the SPS that are supposed to love light have shown damage. If the LPS needed light, I would expect them to be inflated, not pulled back in.

[cro117]

i'm probably going to sound stupid here as i have little experience with DIY LED fixtures, but with a DIY setup without a quart glass plate, is it possible that there might be too much UV "burning" the coral?

[mikem101]

my ca got down to 350 and did the exact same thing, I got it up to 460 and everything came back completely and looks amazing! I would start with that hope it helps!

[ramseynb]

What do your phosphates look like? Also, has your alk been stable? I would think it's one of those two things.

[ramseynb]

It could also be contaminants for either an external source or a coral or other critter. For example, sea apples and sea cucumbers will release toxins when they die. If you suspect one of these, run carbon and do water changes.

[RocketEngineer]

Originally Posted by cro117

i'm probably going to sound stupid here as i have little experience with DIY LED fixtures, but with a DIY setup without a quart glass plate, is it possible that there might be too much UV "burning" the coral?

This applies to MH which do produce UV. LEDs produce a well defined spectrum and nothing I have creates true UV.

Originally Posted by mikem101

my ca got down to 350 and did the exact same thing, I got it up to 460 and everything came back completely and looks amazing! I would start with that hope it helps!

Never had this issue before even when my Ca was in the same range.

Originally Posted by ramseynb

What do your phosphates look like? Also, has your alk been stable? I would think it's one of those two things.

As far as I can tell, alk has remained stable. No wild swings when this all started or since. Phosphates appear to have been dropping because the hair algae has retreated.

Originally Posted by ramseynb

It could also be contaminants for either an external source or a coral or other critter. For example, sea apples and sea cucumbers will release toxins when they die. If you suspect one of these, run carbon and do water changes.

I don't have either sea apples or cucumbers (for that exact reason actually). I will think about running carbon but water changes first.

[MrClam]

I am currently having the same problem. Almost identical symptoms and setup, except I have ATI 6bulb T5. I had an ORA birdsnest that had polyps simply fall off and float away. Several hardy LPS showing death/recession. My Ca is 420 so not the problem. I bought a hanna checker low range for PO4 and that wasn't my problem (.03) so I am getting a salifert low range nitrate test that should be coming in this week that is my next guess. If I figure out the problem I will let you know.

[cro117]

ya, none of those water perimeters would cause such a problem, so as suggested before, could be a biotoxin in the tank, some caulerpas can cause poisoning if cut back/damaged too much, or it could be an additive defect. it's rare, but salt can be contaminated.

you guys should compare notes on brands you use for salt and any other additives, then compare notes on tank species such as macro algae and anemones, cucumbers, boxfish, etc.

[MrClam]

Whats odd is that I have been running carbon continuously, changed every few weeks, for about 3 months now so I doubt it would be a toxin. But I suppose its something to look into.