Almost all of the coral in my tank look awful

[dmitriy loos]

levels -

 

Alk: 14 dKh (yes I know this is high but i went to my local fish store and they told me to let it drop by itself and check back with them in a week which will be in 4 days).

Calcium: 400-440 ppm (when I tested at the fish store they told me it was at 580 but when I just tested it was around 400-440 so I'm not 100% sure because I don't think it could drop that much in such a short amount of time. 

Phosphates: .25 ppm

Nitrates: between 0-5 ppm 

Salinity: 1.025 but I do need to recalibrate so It could be around .24 or .26 

Temp:  75 degrees Fahrenheit 

 

Corals that look good/normal: candy cane, mushroom, blastomusa, clove polyps, and of course Aiptasia. 

 

Corals that look bad -

Leather toadstool: sometimes doesn't extend fully and shrinks up a lot but other times looks perfectly healthy. For the past couple months has slowly been transitioning from white to brown. 

Torch coral - looks absolutely terrible, hasn't opened up in 2 days and I can barely even see the tentacles.

Hammer coral - not terrible, but not extending fully and I know it looked much better in the past. Used to be about 3-4x bigger than it currently is.

Zoas - Didn't open for about a week-week and a half. just began reopening and seem to be very discolored and much smaller.

Goniopora - Has not fully extended since I first got it, some days it looks better and will extend further but I know the polyps should be getting farther out.

 

I use Loop Current USA LED lights for about 8 hours a day. For the first 6 hours they are 90% blue, 10% white, 10% green, 15% red. for 2 hours at night i cut the white and green out and have about 15% red and 20% blue so the corals can slowly transition to sleep. 

 

Really hoping anyone can tell me what the problems COULD be, other than high alkalinity, low nitrates, and potentially high salinity. It might be the fluctuation of these levels because I have been constantly doing water changes panicking lately do to decreased coral health. However, I have slowed down and am now reluctantly observing and seeking out assistance so here I am. Any ideas? here are some pictures for reference. If necessary, I can go through old pictures and show how some of them used to look such as the hammer and I may have pictures of the leather when it was white. 

[Clown79]

Well panicking and constantly doing waterchanges won't help. If anything it could be causing fluctuations.

 

First thing is to determine correct salinity because constant changes will cause problems.

 

Do you know why your alk is so high? Do you make your own SW? Are you using  a salt with high alk? If yes, change the salt to one with more normal alk.

 

Is the water rodi or ro or tap. Tap and RO have minerals in it therefore leading to high alk since salt also has alk in it.

 

Have you tested the alk and salinity of the water you are doing all these waterchanges with? If it has high alk, your alk will not change.

[paulsz]

You sound like you have a good idea of what you are aiming for. So that's good. Bring alk down sooner than later. Like get it to 10 dkh or 9 dkh. Nitrates you can jump to 5-10 ppm. Salinity can stay at 1.025 for now. Eventually you can raise it to 1.026 slowly but I can tell you that's not the issue at the moment. So don't worry about that for now. Temperature you can raise to 78F or so. But slowly over the course of a couple of days

 

 

Can I ask how the alk got so high? What salt do you use? Also, how's the flow? 

[dmitriy loos]

I do test the salinity of the water after I make it and before I put it in, and Im not sure what type of water im using but I know its not tap, which im planning on switching to. I did realie though that the constant water changes have been causing fluctuations which is why I'm not not doing them as much anymore.

3 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Well panicking and constantly doing waterchanges won't help. If anything it could be causing fluctuations.

 

First thing is to determine correct salinity because constant changes will cause problems.

 

Do you know why your alk is so high? Do you make your own SW? Are you using  a salt with high alk? If yes, change the salt to one with more normal alk.

 

Is the water rodi or ro or tap. Tap and RO have minerals in it therefore leading to high alk since salt also has alk in it.

 

Have you tested the alk and salinity of the water you are doing all these waterchanges with? If it has high alk, your alk will not change.

I do test the salinity of the water after I make it and before I put it in, and Im not sure what type of water im using but I know its not tap, which im planning on switching to. I did realie though that the constant water changes have been causing fluctuations which is why I'm not not doing them as much anymore.

 

[dmitriy loos]

2 minutes ago, paulsz said:

You sound like you have a good idea of what you are aiming for. So that's good. Bring alk down sooner than later. Like get it to 10 dkh or 9 dkh. Nitrates you can jump to 5-10 ppm. Salinity can stay at 1.025 for now. Eventually you can raise it to 1.026 slowly but I can tell you that's not the issue at the moment. So don't worry about that for now. Temperature you can raise to 78F or so. But slowly over the course of a couple of days

 

 

Can I ask how the alk got so high? What salt do you use? Also, how's the flow? 

I'm not sure how the alk got so high...previously when testing it was always at 11-12 dkh and now it's at 14 so I'm not sure, it might have been the last water change I did because that was a larger one. I use instant ocean reef crystals for my salt and the flow is not high on the highest setting but not the lowest either so I'd say average flow. 

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, dmitriy loos said:

I'm not sure how the alk got so high...previously when testing it was always at 11-12 dkh and now it's at 14 so I'm not sure, it might have been the last water change I did because that was a larger one. I use instant ocean reef crystals for my salt and the flow is not high on the highest setting but not the lowest either so I'd say average flow. 

You don't know your water source? That could be an issue.

 

Why would you change to tap water? 

[Tamberav]

Use distilled water and change salts to something with lower Alk. You could just grab regular instant ocean, just bring it down slowly with regular small water changes. With low nutrients, you do NOT want to be running a salt with high alk! High alk will always complicate things, keeping it around 8-9 just makes reef tanks easier. 

 

Salinity may be high hence high alk. Get calibration fluid and calibrate it and test salinity ASAP. 

 

Do you dose anything?

[mcarroll]

4 hours ago, dmitriy loos said:

I use Loop Current USA LED lights for about 8 hours a day. For the first 6 hours they are 90% blue, 10% white, 10% green, 15% red. for 2 hours at night i cut the white and green out and have about 15% red and 20% blue so the corals can slowly transition to sleep. 

I would leave the green and red emitters off to be sure they aren't the problem.  

 

Dial in a nice "20,000K'ish" color with the blue and white channels.  Then just run a standard 12 hour sunrise-sunset cycle.  

 

It gets DARKETY-DARK on a wild reef at night...moonlight (when it's out) doesn't penetrate the water for squat – it's very, very little light even at the water's surface.  

 

So running a nightlight cycle of any kind in a reef tank is completely optional...it would not be for the corals, it would be for you.  (Unless you're really doing a real moonlight simulation for coral breeding...that's a whole other thing though.  For more detail, check out Dana Riddle's article Aquarium Lighting: Moonlight – A Concise Review of Its Spectrum, Intensity, Photoperiod, and Relationship to Coral and Fish Spawning)

 

If you do a lot of night viewing, I'd shift the tank's whole 12-hour daylight schedule to better match your viewing time rather than relying on a nightlight.  👍

[dmitriy loos]

9 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I would leave the green and red emitters off to be sure they aren't the problem.  

 

Dial in a nice "20,000K'ish" color with the blue and white channels.  Then just run a standard 12 hour sunrise-sunset cycle.  

 

It gets DARKETY-DARK on a wild reef at night...moonlight (when it's out) doesn't penetrate the water for squat – it's very, very little light even at the water's surface.  

 

So running a nightlight cycle of any kind in a reef tank is completely optional...it would not be for the corals, it would be for you.  (Unless you're really doing a real moonlight simulation for coral breeding...that's a whole other thing though.  For more detail, check out Dana Riddle's article Aquarium Lighting: Moonlight – A Concise Review of Its Spectrum, Intensity, Photoperiod, and Relationship to Coral and Fish Spawning)

 

If you do a lot of night viewing, I'd shift the tank's whole 12-hour daylight schedule to better match your viewing time rather than relying on a nightlight.  👍

thank you!

 

 

11 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Use distilled water and change salts to something with lower Alk. You could just grab regular instant ocean, just bring it down slowly with regular small water changes. With low nutrients, you do NOT want to be running a salt with high alk! High alk will always complicate things, keeping it around 8-9 just makes reef tanks easier. 

 

Salinity may be high hence high alk. Get calibration fluid and calibrate it and test salinity ASAP. 

 

Do you dose anything?

I only ever dose calcium when it gets to around 400 or lower but I have not for at least 2-3 weeks.

[dmitriy loos]

My local fish store recommended it, and I just take cold water from my bathtub and mix it with the salt. I'm not too sure what type of water that is I would have to ask my parents.

[Tired]

That's tap water. Corals generally don't like tap water. You should look into where you can get distilled water. 

 

Also, nitrates might be a bit low and not really helping. Nitrates should generally be 5ppm or above, not below. 

[Clown79]

3 hours ago, dmitriy loos said:

My local fish store recommended it, and I just take cold water from my bathtub and mix it with the salt. I'm not too sure what type of water that is I would have to ask my parents.

Thats tap water. 

 

Do you heat the water before adding it to tank?

[jcrisman2009]

Do you use dechlorinator for the tapwater? Chlorine and Chloramines are NOT good for aquatic life! You're killing your beneficial bacteria too.

[dmitriy loos]

19 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Thats tap water. 

 

Do you heat the water before adding it to tank?

No but usually I'll let it get up to room temp before adding it.

 

[dmitriy loos]

14 hours ago, jcrisman2009 said:

Do you use dechlorinator for the tapwater? Chlorine and Chloramines are NOT good for aquatic life! You're killing your beneficial bacteria too.

We use well water and there is no chlorine in it.

[mcarroll]

Your well water could be the culprit behind the weird chemistry.  @Clown79 touched on this in the post above.

 

Test your well water before mixing anything into it and see what it's alk, calcium and magnesium levels are.

 

Then test a batch of freshly mixed seawater right before you use it and check the levels there vs what the salt brand claims it should be mixing to.

 

Somewhere in there should be a clue where the chemistry is going off.