Ryan_E Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 My tank is only a few months old. I am experiencing a small diatom bloom. Currently I have three small frags in my tank. Two zoa frags, and a candy cane. My current parameters are: ammonia and nitrate:0 Nitrate: 5ppm PH: 8 Calcium: 480 Alk: 8.5 dkh One of my zoa frags has lost a TON of color and is browning, but growing like a weed. My candycane has slowly been dying. More skeleton starts to show every few days... I am running a nano box duo on my tank at 60% blue 40% white at peak hours, and I have a gyre xf130 running at 20% pulse mode. Tank is a 45 gallon cube. I am trying to figure out what the problem is.... I would really like to save the candycane. Could it be high phosphates? Lighting issue? Flow issue? I am new to this and am feeling lost! Link to comment
charnelhouse Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 Could be any or all of those, but the lighting and flow as stated don't seem abnormal. Do you have a phosphate test? If not that should be your next purchase methinks. Link to comment
ndrobey Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 What are you using for water? Link to comment
Ryan_E Posted August 25, 2015 Author Share Posted August 25, 2015 Could be any or all of those, but the lighting and flow as stated don't seem abnormal. Do you have a phosphate test? If not that should be your next purchase methinks. What are you using for water? I'm using LFS water. That is going to change in the next month or so. I've had to adjust their water a couple of times now. I think they use instant ocean. As for the lighting, I know it sounds weird but it might be too strong? My one frag of Zoas has gone a lighter brown color, and now I'm noticing my play frag is staring to get pretty white/ not as vibrant as it was two weeks ago??? No phosphate test yet. Link to comment
charnelhouse Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 The light is a possibility. I've seen people running the same and similar lights at more like 40/20 for an acclimation period. But If you are using LFS pre-mixed saltwater (and how are you "adjusting" it?) I'd be a lot more suspicious of that than the light. Link to comment
Ryan_E Posted August 25, 2015 Author Share Posted August 25, 2015 The light is a possibility. I've seen people running the same and similar lights at more like 40/20 for an acclimation period. But If you are using LFS pre-mixed saltwater (and how are you "adjusting" it?) I'd be a lot more suspicious of that than the light. I was a complete noob and placed the corals at the bottom, but did not lower my light settings and slowly work my way up... I'm going lights out for a couple days and then am going to slowly ramp up. I am hoping that's what it is. As for adjusting the water, it had too high of a salinity (1.030). New person working at the store didn't know what they were doing. I just added RODI in the bucket with a powerhead running until the salinity dropped down to 1.025. Definitely going to be purchasing a spectrapure unit in the next month or two! Link to comment
charnelhouse Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Don't forget to check those phosphates. I've read stuff about high phosphates browning corals. Link to comment
Ryan_E Posted August 25, 2015 Author Share Posted August 25, 2015 Don't forget to check those phosphates. I've read stuff about high phosphates browning corals. That is why I initially started the thread. I read they will brown zoas. I just don't know what is going on with the candycane! It looks terrible. Two heads and one is basically down to the mouth. The other has skeleton popping out all over. I really want to save it. Link to comment
metrokat Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Why would you do lights out? If light is causing one coral to bleach, you move that coral to a lower light. If it's causing all of them to bleach, you lower the light. Browning sounds like a phosphate issue but high phosphate doesn't cause candy canes to recede IMO. That could be a flow issue also, if it's getting blasted, it can tear flesh. Link to comment
xmas_one Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 My bet is on swinging parameters. You are getting your water from an unreliable source, unless you are properly testing the water and matching it to your tank water for WCs, you're going to have a tough time keeping your corals happy. What are you using for testing specific gravity? Also, I'm going to disagree with everyone who said it's a phosphate issue, get all of your parameters stable first. Link to comment
Ryan_E Posted August 25, 2015 Author Share Posted August 25, 2015 Why would you do lights out? If light is causing one coral to bleach, you move that coral to a lower light. If it's causing all of them to bleach, you lower the light. Browning sounds like a phosphate issue but high phosphate doesn't cause candy canes to recede IMO. That could be a flow issue also, if it's getting blasted, it can tear flesh. I moved the candycane behind a rock so that it is being shielded slightly from flow a few days ago. No noticeable improvement yet. I went lights out this morning so that I could begin to work my way up over the next couple weeks. I will probably turn them back on after work at a much lower setting. I know all of you are successful with coral, so any more advice would be awesome. My bet is on swinging parameters. You are getting your water from an unreliable source, unless you are properly testing the water and matching it to your tank water for WCs, you're going to have a tough time keeping your corals happy. What are you using for testing specific gravity? Also, I'm going to disagree with everyone who said it's a phosphate issue, get all of your parameters stable first. I am using a refractometer and calibration fluid. I wouldn't doubt if you are right. Especially since all three of my measly frags are starting to not look so great. Link to comment
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