Decline and Death of Coral over a Month

[teleostei]

Hey everyone first post here, hopefully yall can help me out.

 

A little background: I had two established nano tanks one running for around a year and the other for a few years. I moved and consolidated both tanks into a larger IM 25g lagoon. I maintained the existing live rock but added new sand(same type that was in the two older tanks). I decided to go with a SSB its on average about 1/2 to 1 inch deep. This tank has been running for around 6 months. The last month has been pretty rough tank wise. A hammer coral and two pulsing Xenia have died, multiple zoa colonies have been completely closed and my bubble tip has been balled up 90% of the time opening maybe 10% (time/size). My finger leather coral is open 75% of the time. Fish and inverts are fine, show no signs of stress.

 

Tank: IM 25g lagoon
Light: AI prime, can provide screenshot of settings if needed
Protein skimmer running
upgraded return pump to Rio 1100, with two spin streams
Hydor koralia nano 240 (helps with dead spots)
filter socks - clean couple times a week
add activated carbon
nothing is dosed
25% water change bi-weekly, going to increase to weekly
RO/DI water -from LFS
Reef crystal salt

 

parameters taken day before water change, test kits are not expired

last week:

Temp: 80.4
salinity: 1.024 - 1.025
NH4+ - 0ppm
NO2- - 0ppm
NO3- - 0ppm
pH 8
Cu+ - 0ppm
Si - 0.03
PO4 - 0ppm
Ca 420ppm
DKH 9

 

Tested this week essentially the same results, pH was maybe 8.1.

 

Nothing new has been added, biotically or abiotically.

 

 

 

 

[metrokat]

You didn't say when you moved everything over to a new tank? When I moved tanks all my SPS started necrosing and I lost nearly all of my zoa colonies. My new tank was too clean. Your parameters say the same thing.

You can try feeding your corals and fish more (gradually) to build up the nutrients in the tank.

Or you could run the skimmer intermittently.

Don't increase your water changes, but you could try 10% weekly instead of 25% bi weekly.

[Nano sapiens]

Welcome You should receive plenty of ideas here that may help. There are so many things to look at for somethig like this...

 

The '0' for NO3 and PO4 is something to look at, especially if you don't have much, or any, noticeable algae. What type of test kits so we can know the quality and lowest detectable reading. You may be running the tank too clean with a skimmer, GAC and larger water changes.

 

The RO/DI from the LFS is suspect. Sometimes the stores let the membranes and resin go too long and they loose effectiveness. Do you have a TDS reader to check?

 

Did you start using a new batch of salt lately, perhaps?

 

A full tank photo is always helpful as well as pics of the problem corals.

[teleostei]

Too clean, is something that I have considered, I like to keep it spotless. Everything was moved over to the new tank maybe 6 months ago. After the first few weeks of everything re-adjusting the corals looked good, than all of a sudden the hammer and zoa closed up. Coral do that from time to time so I wasnt to worried. However it persisted and for a few weeks the hammer looked dull, and retracted. Than it dropped of quick and died, same with the Xenia. I do feed pretty lightly.

 

The test kits are API and Salifert, API for NO3- and Salifert for PO4. I have little algae, some grows on the side of the tank nearest a window were it receives the most natural light and a few other small spots throughout, nothing you could notice unless you were right up against the glass looking for it. I had previously gotten my RO/DI from the large machine in the front of some grocery stores. Suspecting cleaning may have been an issue I started getting water from the LFS. I am two water changes into a new bag of salt, however the issues persisted before this. I do not have a TDS meter to check, I have contemplated getting one in the past maybe this will force me to finally get one.

 

I do not have pics of the hammer or xenia. The hammer maintained its self at about 25% of its size for a couple weeks, than became dull almost cloudy, a week or so later only the skeleton remained. Xenia melted away. My bubble tip is firmly attached to the rock were it always has been, and has not moved. When it opens slightly its a little "pale" but nothing too extreme.

[Nano sapiens]

Being animals, corals have an energy reserve that can last a few weeks, but eventually they will run out if they can't replenish.

 

My 12g runs without a skimmer, GAC, GFO or anything else and just 10%/wk WCs, but with too little feeding and too much cleaning I can get the NO3 and PO4 to 'undetectable' (Salifert/ELOS) and little to no algae. Corals lighten up at this point and growth, along with Ca/Alk demand, slows down. At that point more food and AAs are helpful, but too much swings the pendulum the other way again towards eutrophic conditions and pest algae growth.

 

My suggestion would be to slowly increase the feeding a little bit extra each week and compare the color and overall appearance of the animals. I'd also suggest a more accurate NO3 test kit such as Salifert so that you can accurately see 0.5 - 1 ppm (which is usually sufficient, little more won't hurt, either). A faint PO4 reading with Salifert is usually good enough, too, although I have rarely seen this with my tank (many folks like to have a bit more in the 0.02/0.03ppm range).

 

Hope that helps.

[teleostei]

My prior tanks were all 10g and under I never skimmed, just a weekly water change and they did good. I wanted to try something a little different with this tank, so I went with a SSB and was running it on the oligotrophic side. The goal was keep excess nutrients down, eliminating any nuscence algae growth.

 

I turned my skimmer off last night and fed more than I normally would have. I have a bottle of Reef plus that I may begin dosing as well. However things have taken a turn as my clownfish was found dead this morning. I feel as though something else may be at play here that I am not aware of. I think I am going to run it a little dirtier for two weeks and see if there is any improvement. If not im seriously considering tearing the whole thing down and starting fresh.

[Nano sapiens]

My prior tanks were all 10g and under I never skimmed, just a weekly water change and they did good. I wanted to try something a little different with this tank, so I went with a SSB and was running it on the oligotrophic side. The goal was keep excess nutrients down, eliminating any nuscence algae growth.

 

I turned my skimmer off last night and fed more than I normally would have. I have a bottle of Reef plus that I may begin dosing as well. However things have taken a turn as my clownfish was found dead this morning. I feel as though something else may be at play here that I am not aware of. I think I am going to run it a little dirtier for two weeks and see if there is any improvement. If not im seriously considering tearing the whole thing down and starting fresh.

 

Ummm, the Clownfish passing is certainly suspicious. Just a thought, I have heard (and experienced) foreign objects in sand that have caused issues. I once found a small fish hook while sifting my 55g sand bed through a typical green fish net. I have also heard of strange objects embedded in live rock, although I think this would be much less common.