quiksilver5768 Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 Hey everyone! I am recently having a problem with my tank. For some reason, it feels like my tank is going into some sort of crash. The only coral which opens up now is my toadstool leather. My frog spawn and hammer are alive but they barely open up compared to before and my green sea mat polyps stay fully shut while my pagoda coral just stays closed up spittin some stuff out once and a while. I tested my water and everything is fine. Nitrates are low (less than 5 ppm) , Ammonia is at 0, Salinity is at .025, Nitrite is 0. The only thing that i have noticed lately was a bit of more algae growth. But this algae growth started to occur after I noticed my corals weren't doing so well. Im not sure what else I could describe about the tank except that its a 20 gal high with 2x55 watt PC's (1-actinic, 1-10,000K). 24 lbs of LR and I run an HOB for circulation and once and a while carbon and also have a prizm skimmer running 24/7 on the tank. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Im in the process of trying to deal with this little algae problem as you might have noticed by my previous post dealing with the product Algone. Im not sure if this will help my problem with the corals but I dont know what is wrong... Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 Have you already added the Algone to the tank (was coral OK before if yes)? Amonia, trites and trates are basically useless to test for once a tank has cycled (maybe trates but you know). You want to check other things (PH, alk, phosphates). You run a skimmer 24/7 and are basically sucking out bad and GOOD stuff. You may need to dose trace element. Have you been testing for these elements? Have you been dosing? Some things you can't even test for may be a problem (something else got in the tank foul'n up the water) If all the other tests above are OK, and things are noticeably getting drastically worse, do a larger multiple water changes. BTW what kind of water & salt? Need more info to tell anything. Do more tests and post the results. As well as type of water, salt, etc. No one can fix your problem from only knowing the lighting equipment and that the tank has finished its cycle. Link to comment
quiksilver5768 Posted December 31, 2002 Author Share Posted December 31, 2002 No i have not added the algone. I add trace elements weekly (Reef success trace) along with iron, iodine, and reef complete. I do not dose, I do twice a week dosages. As far as testing goes, PH - 8.2, 8.3 ; calcium is around 480 ; salt is IO ; I use RO/DI water for top off and water changes. And i have been doing water changed...I have done 4 this week already. The tank is matured as it is coming on its 2nd year anniversary in a few weeks. Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 Baffeling huh? As process of elimination would go, I would say your running out of options. OK, lets look at this, all chems are proper (dosed and tested) so there is no lack of, or excess, of elements. PH, temp & salinity is good. If all normal things are at where they should be (level wise) then something unkown in the water is causing the problem (foreign material that is untracable with the kits you have). Considering you have done the heavy water changes and should have basically gotten rid of what was in the water with no change in coral health, I would tend to think it must then be the water itself. Either the salt or the water. Did the problem occur just after opening a new container of IO? Or maybe, if it is your ro/di unit, do your filters need changing? If not yours, can you trust the water source. I really don't know what to say, and I do not want to seem in any way like a know it all, I just feel for ya, I could imagine if everything in one of my tanks took a dive and didn't know what it was. I mentioned earlier in another post that the biggest polutent to my tank (if I didn't wash everytime) would be my hands. I have my hands in the tanks almost everyday and you know where hands go. You may have just went to the store with your bucket of change to pour into the machine for cash, it was mostly pennies and you had to keep pushing them around to get them down the machine, your hands stunk of copper but you paid no mind, got home and said "oh look a coral fell over, let me reach right in and fix it real quick", slowly all inverts start to slowly diminish and you can't figure it out but it doesn't matter because the poison is allready stuck in them and there is nothing you can, do. Ahhhhhhh, well you see where I am going. Somethings may happen and you may never know why. I hope all goes well and please let me know how things go. Good Luck Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 quiksilver5768 answered his own question.. I add... along with iron, Bingo. IRON= fuel its a heavy metal too. Id STOP using it. Link to comment
quiksilver5768 Posted December 31, 2002 Author Share Posted December 31, 2002 Ive been adding iron since i started the tank. It helps the growth of macro-algae in the tank to help out-compete the nuissance algaes. I'll stop for a while anyway, but I dont think that is it. I'll keep in mind what you were saying Liquid because I am guilty of doing that all the time. I will go in to fix this, or that and not even worry about my hands. But what is weird is that...all my corals EXCEPT my toadstool leather are not opening. My leather always opens up very big and with its polyps fully extended while my other corals just stay closed. Hmmm... Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 sounds like chemical warfare. I have the EXACT opposite going on in my 37. Leathers release chemicals that are toxic in high concentrations and terpenoids can be an inhibitor against encroachment from other corals. When in doubt, Do a Waterchange. Link to comment
quiksilver5768 Posted December 31, 2002 Author Share Posted December 31, 2002 Ive heard of leathers releasing chemicals but eveyrone has always said that they never see any effects on the other corals in the tank... Link to comment
"333" Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 How old are your bulb's if there over a year you might want to change them. I had the same problem I started to get the green stuff and my coarls stopped opening all the way and I teasted everything spent alot of money to find out that I needed new bulb's. Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted December 31, 2002 Share Posted December 31, 2002 I wouldn't think the lights unless it has been occuring slowly over a few weeks period of time and they would probably start to bleach out way before they would just close up. Dave has a good point about the chemical warfare, only I wouldn't think the leather is the problem. I think the leather is still open because it is a Sarco. toadstool, which doesn't mind living in very bad water conditions. I re-read your post and noticed you said "pagoda coral just stays closed up spittin some stuff out once and a while". Would the some stuff be normal waste removal or something you have not seen yet? It may be spewing out some bad chemicals. Is it near the frogspawn? There could be a battle going on at night if the Frogspawn tenticles are stinging it. I also had some corals close for a short time once and after them reopening, realized that a frogspawn had gone through an emergency reproductive phase (a crab or something may have been messing with it), a few weeks later, there were baby frogspawns all over the tank. When they get stressed, they have a natural reproductive response that sends off babies throughout the tank. This for some reason did cause my other corals to close for a while and well as far as toadstools go, I think you could crap in your tank it wouldn't really pay much mind because both species of mine were open the whole time. These are just a few more things to think about. Link to comment
quiksilver5768 Posted January 1, 2003 Author Share Posted January 1, 2003 Thanks for all the help guys. I think "333" may be right with the lights because my two montipora frags bleached out like 2 weeks ago and thats when everything began to stop opening. Im about to move to a MH pendant anyway so maybe that will help. And about the pagoda. The pagoda coral always spits out this stuff every once and a while. It happened even when everything was fine. And it is on the opposite side of the tank from the frogspawn. Link to comment
BCOrchidGuy Posted January 1, 2003 Share Posted January 1, 2003 You may be dosing to much Trace elements, most salts contain enough trace elements to keep your coral going. I would stop with the trace elements and let your corals have a break. Like Dave says Iron can build up and alot of people tend to rely on water conditioners to bind heavy metals and assume they are out of the system, my understanding is that they may bind the metals but then they rely on very very heavy filtration and water flow to remove them from the water. I would take a sample of your water to the LFS and have them verify the water tests, although the # of water changes you are doing should take care of any water issues. Have you tested the water coming out of your RO/DI filter? How long since the last media change in them? Link to comment
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