Help!, feeling very much like a beginner.

[SteveZz]

Yes esp. if using a Red Sea kit which tend to show higher

Good article with param.for reference

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

Thanks, this is awesome. Sadly (or I guess not so sad) my params all seem to be within the expected range (now). Maybe? Just maybe, the coral was effected because my alk and cal were on the low side and now that they're back within range maybe it'll take time to slow the corals dying and begin recovering?

 

[MDreef]

Thanks, this is awesome. Sadly (or I guess not so sad) my params all seem to be within the expected range (now). Maybe? Just maybe, the coral was effected because my alk and cal were on the low side and now that they're back within range maybe it'll take time to slow the corals dying and begin recovering?

Corals are finicky creatures...95% of the time we have no idea what's bothering them. Ensure stability and hope they begin recovering over the next few weeks. Just to be safe can try a few larger water changes (30%) in case something dropped in your tank. LPS are also much more forgiving with params.

Should try feeding more. A mix of phyto and a good coral food (e.g. reef chilli or reef roids). Can try adding amino acids too since you run a low nutrient system.

I managed to save a brain coral that shrunk to about a third of its size by taking it out twice a week in a bucket and feeding leave for 30-45min then put back (although who knows if that did it :scratch:

Good luck!

 

[SteveZz]

Corals are finicky creatures...95% of the time we have no idea what's bothering them. Ensure stability and hope they begin recovering over the next few weeks. Just to be safe can try a few larger water changes (30%) in case something dropped in your tank. LPS are also much more forgiving with params.

Should try feeding more. A mix of phyto and a good coral food (e.g. reef chilli or reef roids). Can try adding amino acids too since you run a low nutrient system.

I managed to save a brain coral that shrunk to about a third of its size by taking it out twice a week in a bucket and feeding leave for 30-45min then put back (although who knows if that did it :scratch:

Good luck!

Heh, yea it's a hell of a balancing act. Strange thing is that SPS and softies are okay, and some LPS (small frags of the same coral thats doing poorly as a colony) are doing fine. I am planning to bump the size of my water changes and will just keep an eye on params.

 

[SteveZz]

I've updated my params again based on my latest testing. I'm not seeing any improvement but I did read up on something I failed to mention previously (as I was unaware it could cause a problem.) I had put in extra GFO in hopes to help clean my tank a bit more and I read that it may be removing trace elements corals need. Since then I've dropped back down to a normal amount of GFO. Hoping that change will bring me back where I need to be but if anyone has additional thoughts based on the new params listed in the original post please let me know. I'm open to hearing any and all thoughts.

 

[MDreef]

I wouldn?t worry about gfo, worst it can release some impurities which is why I?ve switched to rowaphos...and guess you could see some cyano if there?s an imbalance btwn N and P...

Can?t help with trace elements, I haven?t seen enough scientific evidence to convince me to chase TEs. I ignore that section

I think you?ll have to keep your params stable for a few weeks and wait and see if things get better.

 

[SteveZz]

Thanks, yea I'm guessing that's all I can do at this point is keep it all stable for a period of time and see if things turn around. Just so hard to watch some corals struggling in this tank.

 

[MDreef]

Good luck! If it?s at least not getting worse, you?re headed in the right direction

 

[SteveZz]

At the moment it's still getting worse but I'm keeping a close eye hoping to see a turn around.

 

[MDreef]

How long has it been since you?d say your parameters stabilized? No changes in light, flow, or anything else? Have you tried feeding some coral food?

If it?s been more than a week and things are getting worse I think maybe time to look for other causes. You said your SPS are doing good? Are all of the LPS affected? Perhaps an iodine drip a couple of times a week may make sense too.

 

[SteveZz]

How long has it been since you?d say your parameters stabilized? No changes in light, flow, or anything else? Have you tried feeding some coral food?

If it?s been more than a week and things are getting worse I think maybe time to look for other causes. You said your SPS are doing good? Are all of the LPS affected? Perhaps an iodine drip a couple of times a week may make sense too.

I had started dosing about two weeks ago to get alk and cal back in check so that?s been right for about a week. I did my larger water change just this past weekend so that hasn?t been very long. SPS are doing very well I don?t see anything wrong with any of them. Soft coral are looking good as well. As for LPS I have receding on two small colonies of candy canes (single frags of the same candy cane look good). Receding on my frogspawn which has been extremely happy in this tank for years. All four acans are showing varying degrees of receding. And receding on my sun coral (which was never really showing growth). I do have a Duncan which isn?t showing any signs of issues.


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[SteveZz]

Looks like my iodine level is at 0.03 do you think raising that level would help anything? I'm also a bit confused, would an overstocked tank be depleting iodine?

 

[SteveZz]

Still no improvement in effected corals, frogspawn, sun coral, candy canes and acans.

 

[will424]

You should do an ICP test use ATI or triton

 

[SteveZz]

You should do an ICP test use ATI or triton

Thanks. I?ll consider that as my next step.


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[SteveZz]

I was just curious if anyone thought that it was possible that suddenly my palys started fighting back and are only effecting lps? They?re reasonably close to the frogspawn which on occasion touched them. Pic below.

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[SteveZz]

Has anyone used Seachem Reef Dip to try and help corals recover? I just ordered some and was wondering if anyone had used it.

 

[SteveZz]

Just used reef dip on the Acan's, Sun coral and Frogspawn. No parasites came out that I could see, just a few upset pods. A lot of flesh came off when I blew water at the frogspawn and now it's incredibly upset. I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings after the first dip in Seachem Reef Dip.

 

[SteveZz]

I got a better video of the worm I was trying to ID a while ago. It seems to act a little like a peanut worm but seems to have bristles.

See video:
http://stevenzweier.com/reef/worm.mov

Funny? thing about it is, this coral was just in the Reef Dip for 30 minutes and now this worm is crawling out (and back into) it.

In any case does anyone have an idea what worm we're looking at in this video and if it could be the cause of my problems?

 

[SteveZz]

Frogspawn just dropped a head after it shrank down to almost nothing.

 

[SteveZz]

After months of dosing to keep alk and cal up I'm still losing heads on my frogspawn. My acan's are long gone. candy cane's are still in pain (more so after an iodine dip). Sun coral is struggling as well.