[Help] Stylophora Milka struggling and getting worse everyday

[Deisler]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been reading here for a few months now and have learnt a lot from you guys. This is my first post here! 

 

About my tank:

 

The tank is 60L, 4 months old since completion of cycling.  It has 10kg of white porous rock (the one imported from the US I think?) and a sandbed of 2-3cm thick. It has 3 snails, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 peppermint and 2 small clownfish. Fish is growing and shrimps are doing fine. I also have 1 trumpet coral, 1 Duncan and 1 mushroom - all growing like crazy (2->8 heads for trumpet and 2->10 heads for Duncan).  The tank only has a pump (Jebao) and does not have any HoB filter or sump. I have a blackbox lighting which has been working fine for me. The tank has been fine, despite some hair algae which is in control thanks to my hardworking snails...

 

I use Redsea blue bucket salt and aim for .025-026. I do 20% water change every week, and refill the tank with RODI water every day to compensate the water loss.

No Ammonia, no nitrite. Nitrate is undetectable by testkit. PO4 is also undetectable. 

 

I do not have testkits for testing other elements, but they should be close to what Redsea blue salt indicates on the bucket (I know in theory I can never fully recover the consumed elements over time).... So my guess is: Alk: ~8.0 / Ca: 400 / Mg: 1220 ....

 

About the Stylophora coral in question:

 

I have bought a stylophora milka SPS coral last Friday and put it on my sandbed after acclimation and coralDx dip. The 2nd day every polyp opened. But since Monday it has been getting worse and worse everyday. You can see a pic comparing Sunday (left)/ Wednesday (middle) / Today (right). More and more polyps diappeared from their 'holes' and the coral body becomes more 'pale' day by day. 

 

I also got a Montis Cap frag last Friday and all polys of it are open so I assume it is happy. I do not plan to get any SPS that is difficult to keep with my system. The only reason I got the Stylophora is that I read it is an easy SPS and can be kept in system like mine.

 

The Stylophora receives mid-flow and mid-light (~200PAR). I am running out of options now and desperate to find anything I can do to make it better. 

 

A few things I have thought about:

 

1) Flow too low  - I tried to give it a little more flow but it did not help;

2) Light too low - Do you think I should put it to the top of the rock (~350 PAR)?

3) Mg too loow - I know my Mg may be a bit low for SPS, but I am using the mixing ratio on the blue bucket for 'SPS dominant tank'. Is the dosing my only option now?

4) Nitrate too low - I've also read Nitrate ~0 is bad for SPS. But I wonder if this is the issue here? 

........

 

I would be really grateful if you can let me know if any of the above 4 (or anything else you can think of) could be the issue and to hear any advice you can give so I can try to help the stylo.

 

PS: Some holes show no sign of polyps - does that mean those polyps already died?

 

Thank you all!

 

Cheers,

Deisler

 

[mitten_reef]

I would try 1 and/or 2 first. 
your tank, by description, doesn’t seem like it should require dosing yet. 
nitrate is important to all corals, if you can safely raise it, it may help. Are you using anything that removing nitrate specifically? Stepping back from that would be a good start. 

also if your nitrate is low, how much do you feed your tank, both corals and fish? 

[DreC80]

+1 on what @mitten_reef said

 

Well it's certainly not looking good, but I don't think it's dead.  I think it's becoming more pale by the day because it's starving.  You need to get your nitrates and phosphates up.  Ease up on the weekly water changes.  The tank is too clean. Maybe every two weeks.  Feed your fish more often.  

 

The hair algae is consuming your po4 before the corals more than likely.  Your monti cap looks good now, but in a couple of weeks it'll probably look like the stylo...takes some time to starve.

 

Don't give the coral more light while it's already stressed...you'll bleach or kill it.

 

The priority right now is elevating po4 and no3.

 

You can't assume your parameters based on the salt.  It doesn't always mix to what the manufacturer states.  Stuff settles in the bucket as well.

 

You'll really want to invest in calcium and alkalinity test kits.  Recommend salifert.  Cheap and accurate.  Alkalinity needs to be stable for SPS and without testing you don't know if it is.

[Deisler]

3 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

I would try 1 and/or 2 first. 
your tank, by description, doesn’t seem like it should require dosing yet. 
nitrate is important to all corals, if you can safely raise it, it may help. Are you using anything that removing nitrate specifically? Stepping back from that would be a good start. 

also if your nitrate is low, how much do you feed your tank, both corals and fish? 

Hi Thank you for your reply.

 

Do you think ~300-350 PAR is where Stylophora will be happy with?

 

I don't have anything that removes nitrate or PO4 - they are just too low to be detected by my testkit.

 

I will feed my fish more (atm once every two days) now. 

[Deisler]

3 hours ago, DreC80 said:

+1 on what @mitten_reef said

 

Well it's certainly not looking good, but I don't think it's dead.  I think it's becoming more pale by the day because it's starving.  You need to get your nitrates and phosphates up.  Ease up on the weekly water changes.  The tank is too clean. Maybe every two weeks.  Feed your fish more often.  

 

The hair algae is consuming your po4 before the corals more than likely.  Your monti cap looks good now, but in a couple of weeks it'll probably look like the stylo...takes some time to starve.

 

Don't give the coral more light while it's already stressed...you'll bleach or kill it.

 

The priority right now is elevating po4 and no3.

 

You can't assume your parameters based on the salt.  It doesn't always mix to what the manufacturer states.  Stuff settles in the bucket as well.

 

You'll really want to invest in calcium and alkalinity test kits.  Recommend salifert.  Cheap and accurate.  Alkalinity needs to be stable for SPS and without testing you don't know if it is.

Hi Thank you.

 

I will keep it on sandbed (~200 PAR) for now and raising PO4 and NO3.

 

Do you think they will be raised by feeding a bit more? I will also clean as much algae as I can to help raise them maybe?

 

Yes, I will buy some test kits for CA and ALK to start with. I wanted to get away with using it as long as I can but now it seems I have to use them...

[Clown79]

Alkalinity stability is very important and with the stony corals in the tank it should be monitored to determine target levels and consumption to determine if you need to start dosing, if waterchanges are enough, and exactly what level the alkalinity even is.

 

As another mentioned, salts don't mix to the advertised levels and will mix differently for everyone.

 

Another issue is definitely p04 and nitrate. What kits are you using for testing?

[Deisler]

1 hour ago, Clown79 said:

Alkalinity stability is very important and with the stony corals in the tank it should be monitored to determine target levels and consumption to determine if you need to start dosing, if waterchanges are enough, and exactly what level the alkalinity even is.

 

As another mentioned, salts don't mix to the advertised levels and will mix differently for everyone.

 

Another issue is definitely p04 and nitrate. What kits are you using for testing?

Hi Thank you.

 

For PO4 I use Salifert (which I bought primarily to make sure my dry rock does not release too much PO4)

For Nitrate I use standard saltwater API kits

[DreC80]

3 hours ago, Deisler said:

Hi Thank you.

 

I will keep it on sandbed (~200 PAR) for now and raising PO4 and NO3.

 

Do you think they will be raised by feeding a bit more? I will also clean as much algae as I can to help raise them maybe?

 

Yes, I will buy some test kits for CA and ALK to start with. I wanted to get away with using it as long as I can but now it seems I have to use them...

Yes you can raise it by feeding more...but you can also raise it by slowing down water changes.  I recommend both. 

Normally you would want to balance your import export methods.  Right now you actually want them unbalanced..you need more import than export to get no3 po4 up.  I actually wouldn't worry too much about the algae at thos point.  

[Deisler]

Hi All,

 

Here are some updates.  @mitten_reef @Clown79 @DreC80

 

I now just bought the test kits and below are my water parameters (9 days since last water change ~20%)

 

Ca: 430 (Salifert)

Mg: 1250 (Salifert)

Alk: 6.9 (Hanna dKH checker)

PO4: 0 (Salifert)

Nitrate: 0 (API)

PH: 7.9 (API)

 

Any advice now you can give? Do you think my Alk is too low? Or PO4 and Nitrate are still the concern now?

 

I guess I should monitor my Alk over a week to see if it is stable at 6.9 or dropping from 8.0 (indicated on the salt bucket)?

 

Cheers

Deisler

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, Deisler said:

Hi All,

 

Here are some updates.  @mitten_reef @Clown79 @DreC80

 

I now just bought the test kits and below are my water parameters (9 days since last water change ~20%)

 

Ca: 430 (Salifert)

Mg: 1250 (Salifert)

Alk: 6.9 (Hanna dKH checker)

PO4: 0 (Salifert)

Nitrate: 0 (API)

PH: 7.9 (API)

 

Any advice now you can give? Do you think my Alk is too low? Or PO4 and Nitrate are still the concern now?

 

I guess I should monitor my Alk over a week to see if it is stable at 6.9 or dropping from 8.0 (indicated on the salt bucket)?

 

Cheers

Deisler

Alk is low but you gotta test that after a waterchange and test newly mixed saltwater to see what the target level is.

 

Gotta figure out if the alk level is low due to the salt or consumption.

 

0 nitrates and phos isn't optimal. You will want to get that up, the best way is through dosing, you can try feeding more but that doesn't always work for everyone.

reducing how much water you change out during waterchanges or instead of weekly waterchanges go to every 2 weeks, that can help.

[DreC80]

All of the stuff Clown said.  6.9 is low...but that's not what's causing your issues.  I still firmly believe it's no nutrients.  If you are stable at 6.9 you could still be successful.  

[mcarroll]

Just to add on the already-great comments...

 

If there's any filtration going on beyond just the live rock and (maybe) a protein skimmer, stop or remove it.