Soft coral help

[Jorge091293]

My reef tank has been going for 3 years now all parameters are fine..

cal420 

alk 8 

nitrates 5-7 

 phosphates 0.03 

amonia 0 

 two mp40 

 I am having lots of growth on sps and lps 

but my soft corals seem to to not been doing well ... they close most of the time or they open maybe like for two days and Close back up they aren’t dying doe ...

Can I maybe dose something to help them open back up  to their normal state ?? 

[banasophia]

It would be great if you could post some pics so we can see what’s going on and try to help.

[Jorge091293]

Ok yes one moment also ligthing is hydras 26 had 

and for flow is te mp40 opposite sides 

[banasophia]

😱😱😱 your tank is awesome!

[Jorge091293]

Thanks it’s matured from a. 29 gallon biocube to this slowly 🙂 proud of this achieve ment thank my wife for taking care of it for me while I was deployed 

[banasophia]

Any changes to the tank/maintenance that you associate with the changes in your soft corals? 

[banasophia]

First thing coming to mind for me is iodine... I dose Kent Tech I long acting iodide once/week... are you adding anything like that? 

[Jorge091293]

Hmm not really regular 20 gallon water Change every month feed once a day  every day with ...Sunday’s i give them frozen food .. that’s about it 

[Jorge091293]

All I add is calcium magnesium and alk 

[mcarroll]

2 hours ago, Jorge091293 said:

nitrates 5-7 

 phosphates 0.03

How accurate is that number for phosphates?  Depending on the kit's accuracy/precision that 0.03 may be close enough to zero (or even actually zero) to be a problem.

 

2 hours ago, Jorge091293 said:

two mp40

Not sure what the tank size is, but it looks big. 

 

Because it's big and also full of corals, I'm gonna say maybe not enough flow in some spaces.

 

Reduced flow is normal in a tank full of well-grown corals - it will definitely be less than when the tank was empty and corals were tiny frags. 

 

Flow from these pumps is very soft to begin with, so if there's room to turn them up, I would do it.  You might find that you have to upgrade.

 

Reduced flow will also make low nutrient situations more likely to be problematic due to boundary layer issues.

 

2 hours ago, Jorge091293 said:

I am having lots of growth on sps and lps 

but my soft corals seem to to not been doing well

You have a fair amount of stony corals ("sps" and "lps") but from the picture it looks like you have as many leathers as anything, along with the soft corals.  Do you run activated carbon?

 

I can't see anything from the pic that looks particularly unhappy. 

 

If none of the advice so far seems right, then maybe some closeups of the problem corals would help?

 

IMO, since everything looks pretty decent, feed the fish more and see if that helps the nutrient situation, and/or anything else. 

 

You kinda have to use your judgement on the flow situation.  You do have some corals (plating monti. and toadstool, for example) that should appreciate pretty heavy flow, so if you DO think flow has gotten marginal anywhere in the tank, address it somehow.  (A third pump, for example.)

[Jorge091293]

My lfs checks my phosphates  for me that’s all they check as my Hannah checker sometimes is off for some reason all do own almost all Hannah test kits they help a lot ...

4 hours ago, mcarroll said:

How accurate is that number for phosphates?  Depending on the kit's accuracy/precision that 0.03 may be close enough to zero (or even actually zero) to be a problem.

 

Not sure what the tank size is, but it looks big. 

 

Because it's big and also full of corals, I'm gonna say maybe not enough flow in some spaces.

 

Reduced flow is normal in a tank full of well-grown corals - it will definitely be less than when the tank was empty and corals were tiny frags. 

 

Flow from these pumps is very soft to begin with, so if there's room to turn them up, I would do it.  You might find that you have to upgrade.

 

Reduced flow will also make low nutrient situations more likely to be problematic due to boundary layer issues.

 

You have a fair amount of stony corals ("sps" and "lps") but from the picture it looks like you have as many leathers as anything, along with the soft corals.  Do you run activated carbon?

 

I can't see anything from the pic that looks particularly unhappy. 

 

If none of the advice so far seems right, then maybe some closeups of the problem corals would help?

 

IMO, since everything looks pretty decent, feed the fish more and see if that helps the nutrient situation, and/or anything else. 

 

You kinda have to use your judgement on the flow situation.  You do have some corals (plating monti. and toadstool, for example) that should appreciate pretty heavy flow, so if you DO think flow has gotten marginal anywhere in the tank, address it somehow.  (A third pump, for example.)

as for flow that’s the first thing I checked there’s  plenty of it in the tank and I nigth to make sure ni get to does dead spaces I run nutrient transport pretty heavily ....  I just think my nitrates are to low maybe idk 😞 

tha why I was asking maybe for some additives I can add that could help them 

[Jorge091293]

And my phosphates aren’t always there they do go up just a bit 

[mcarroll]

Maybe ease up on nutrient transport first. 

 

What all do you have running?

[Jorge091293]

Nothing but carbon and cheato 

[mcarroll]

5 hours ago, Jorge091293 said:

Nothing but carbon and cheato 

I would disable the chaeto for at least a few weeks or months and see how things develop.  Don't engage it until there really seems to be a need for it.  Corals and the rest of the tank should have no problem utilizing and living with those residual nutrients.

 

You should be able to run carbon only as-needed if you wanted to disable it as well.  Doubt there'a much if any connection with your corals to the carbon though.  It's just extra.  😉

[Tired]

I'd suggest pulling most of the chaeto out. If you keep just a little bit, you can regrow it as needed, but can reduce the nutrient export. Probably your softies would like more. 

[Jorge091293]

I see I will need to feed more to then my tank is to clean my sps love it doe 

[Tired]

Unfortunately, softies and SPS are difficult to balance. Feeding of the corals themselves can help get them happy without too many excess nutrients.

[Jorge091293]

No to mention my lps are happier th an ever  ..I really been thinking about dosing trace elements and iodine.. 

i been doing the coral amino from bright well and is brining a lot of my coral to open up as well my devils hand that hasn’t open in months finally open up ... I will clean all the cheato from the sump and just leave a handful of it as well ... so what do u guys think of the iodine and trace elements ? 

[Tired]

As a general rule, don't dose anything you can't test for. If you think you should dose, test it. If it's low, dose. If not, don't. Or, alternately, step up water changes a bit, as the salt should have your assorted minerals in it. That would help keep your SPS happy if you were to increase feeding of the other corals, anyway. Which you should do at least once a week, especially with the LPS, for best growth. Give them actual, solid food, Good-quality frozen foods, a coral feed like Reef Roids, or a mix of both.

[Jorge091293]

I feed twice a week sps are very happy to is just softies my nitrates rigth now are at 3 can’t seem to pick them up farthest I seen it is probably 8