What is happening in my tank? Growth and decay?

[Misfit36]

Hello everyone, I am having a hard time figuring out whats wrong in my tank. A couple weeks ago I noticed my GSP suddenly not opening, its stayed closed for a 4-5 days. Then started to open a little and since then everyday is different but it is never fully opened. Also at about the same time my rock of green bay packer/eagle eye zoas started to die off in the center of the rock. I noticed yesterday some aiptasia around the edges of the rock and blasted them with aiptasia x. Could they have been the reason for the zoa die off? Also my green monti has grown tremendously since I bought it but now displays a more brown/green color, not the vibrant green it once was. I have had some various small frags of zoas in random spots of the tank die off, while some zoa frags right next to them do well. I dont understand. Last month my 6line died and about 2 weeks ago my small goby went. My clown, skunk shrimp and CUC are doing well. I also have a couple frags of SPS that are doing fantastic and growing. Anyone have any ideas? My stats are below:


Ph- 8.0 steady since I started tank
Nitrate- 0
Phosphate- 0
Calcium- 420
78* constant

I feed a variety of freeze dried/frozen every other day with spot feeding of oysterfeast.

 

[Misfit36]

 

[rbtwo4]

hmmm have u done a water change and what kind of lights are u using? also how old is the tank?

 

[Arati]

im gonna say.. by looking at 2 pictures.. I have 2 things come to mind.

The first is nitrate either you always have them or they just spike up if you miss a water change or two. sharp spikes cause that kind of recession and recovery happens quickly ones the water change cleans it. this is what I really think it is. get a new test kit. is this a 10g tank?

or two. You alk is like 4dkh all week or two then you do a water change it spikes the alk and then it returns to 4 over the next couple days. stuff appears to recover and then goes south again. but if your sps are not haviong STN issues (by sps I mean acros') then your alk is prolly not swinging like that but if you mean digi and caps.. they can still grow.


Bad lighting. did u change the lights recently or are these corals only like 1 month in your tank?

 

[Arati]

guessing from my house is futile.

mix up 10 gallons of new 0tds ro/di SW. do a 90% water change once a week for a month run some carbon. if that doesn't fix it .. its lighting..

whats your husbandry like. how often WC. what salt, what you dose, what you test with -- how often ect..

I blame the LEDS

 

[Misfit36]

Thanks for the replies. My tank has been up since Jan 1, 2012. I do a 10% WC every week, occaisionally I miss a couple days. I dose A/B usually every other day. I have API test kit but dont have Alk test. I get my water from my LFS who uses RO/DI and Instantocean. I make sure my salinity and temp are equal when doing a water changes.

 

[Misfit36]

I went to a trusted LFS to get another opinion. I also brought some water for testing. The knowledgable employee said my Alk is a little low (measured a 7). He also said because I have no detectable phosphates or nitrates that my corals might not be recieving enough nutrients because of the chaeto growing in my fuge. He said I should up my feeding regiment a little and to trim back some chaeto. Hopefully it works. I also took out the GSP and used a soft brush to clean off some brown algae buildup, it still hasnt opened though.

 

[MatthewScars]

7 isnt that low it would cause this, especially not fish death.

I would tend to agree with the LFS to some extent. Just turn your GFO off and follow their steps.

Maybe check for rusting pumps. 10% is nothing, i do 15g of water in my 40g weekly (you do the math). Try larger water changes. and please trash the API kits, they are crap. Go Red Sea or Salifert.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

Agreed with water quality as the most likely possiblitily, easily tested with a water change. Once a tiny something dies, it pollutes the water a little, causing something else to die, leading to a chain reaction of negative feedback till the tank crashes.

Other factors to consider, most of my polyps don't open unless there is nice water flow.

Finally, maybe something is picking on them and they are not dying, but being eaten, and are closed defensively.