SPS Corals Dying, Please Help ???

[trishy711]

Corals Dying, Please Help ???

Hi, I have a 110 gallon reef tank. Recently i was seeing a few spots of hair algae in my reef and i told a few of my fellow reefers about it and they told me to run double the amount of GFO recommended and change it every week. So i doubled the dose and changed it every week and now after 4 weeks of doing so, Most of my SPS corals are bleaching and 1 big colony is completely dead, even my torch and Pagoda Cup is on it's way out.

I removed my TLF reactor with the GFO + Carbon 3 day's ago and i am still noticing branches on colonies starting to bleach and die off. I have had all of these colonies for a long time and i have been testing my water parameters everyday and all of my levels are literally perfect in every aspect. Why is stuff still bleaching even after i removed my GFO reactor ? Plus every speck of my hair algae is completely gone.

Is there anything i can do to get these corals to not die or am i going to lose them ? Why are they doing this from GFO ? (It's the www.BulkReefSupply.com Pellet Size Brand)

Please Help me and Thank You

 

[Avi]

If...right now...the water looks good from testing, and I'd assume you do test for phosphates and nitrates in your list of what's tested...two possibilities come to mind, (though there may be something else that will have to be determined)...and those are that your system does have something in it that's generating phosphates but your tests for it are showing a "false" acceptable measurement because the phosphates are being consumed by the adventitious algae in the tank that your seeing some sign of...or...some issue regarding your lighting. Trishy...what kind of bulbs have you got on the tank...how far above the tank are they and have you changed your bulbs recently...or...neglected to change your bulbs after they've been running for a year or so?

 

[Josh]

Ack.

Remove both media from your tank.

Do a nice 20% water change and report back.

BTW, you cannot run carbon and PFO in the same reactor. Did someone tell you to do this or did you try to do it on your own?

 

[morphiii]

Hi, I have a 110 gallon reef tank. Recently i was seeing a few spots of hair algae in my reef and i told a few of my fellow reefers about it and they told me to run double the amount of GFO recommended and change it every week. So i doubled the dose and changed it every week and now after 4 weeks of doing so, Most of my SPS corals are bleaching and 1 big colony is completely dead, even my torch and Pagoda Cup is on it's way out.

I removed my TLF reactor with the GFO + Carbon 3 day's ago and i am still noticing branches on colonies starting to bleach and die off. I have had all of these colonies for a long time and i have been testing my water parameters everyday and all of my levels are literally perfect in every aspect. Why is stuff still bleaching even after i removed my GFO reactor ? Plus every speck of my hair algae is completely gone.

Is there anything i can do to get these corals to not die or am i going to lose them ? Why are they doing this from GFO ? (It's the www.BulkReefSupply.com Pellet Size Brand)

Please Help me and Thank You

What are you parameters?

 

[Dace]

Ack.

Remove both media from your tank.

Do a nice 20% water change and report back.

this will be your best bet and hope for th best. Most corals when they start to rtn or stn continue until it's all gone. When I see some coral die fast I usually frag it as quick as possible to try and save a piece of it. Some peoe don't seem to understand how bad media can be if not applied correctly. I'm sorry for your loss

 

[kimoyo]

Trishy711,

You should take a look at this after you do your water change and remove the media. I've never believed that the GFO was taking phosphate too low, I always thought it was more what the GFO was releasing something into the water.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-11/rhf/index.php

Avi,

You should take a look at this article as well.

 

[da5speed]

Can we get a full tank shot. If using a refractometer make sure it is dialed in correctly. Any temp spikes from the hot weather? Anything at all change in the last month?

 

[trishy711]

HI, I know a few people that run GFO and Carbon in the reactor and have no problems with it and neither did i until i doubled the dose and changed it too often. I put the GFO one the bottom the about 2" up i put a pad then the fill the rest of the reactore with Carbon. As for the temperature i never has gone higher than 82 degrees. I usually have the tank go from 78-81.6 throughout the day.

I am running a Coralife 2 x 250watt MH + 2 x 96watt Actinic fixture. Do i need to replace the Actinics as well as often as the MH's ? I have the fixture on the tank with the mounting legs it came with. I just changed the bulbs last week to Phoenix 14k (Double Ended) bulbs for a bluer look. The fixture came with Coralife 10k's and i only ran them for about 8 months or less.

My refractometer is dialed correctly because i brought my water to my LFS and we both got the same reading. 1.026

My tanks Current Parameters are :
Calcium - 430
Alk - 8.6
Magnesium - 1410
PH - (8.0 - 8.1 with API test kit) + (7.81 on RKE probe reading)
Salinity - 1.026
Temperature - 76.7
Nitrates - 0
Nitrites - o
Ammonia - 0
Phosphates - 0 (Using Salifert Test Kit)

I am pretty sure my water is good so i am going to do a 20%-30% water change tomorrow because i am making water right now and i like it to mix atleast 24 hours before i put it into my tank.

 

[juiceguy]

testing with the salifert kit is not accurate for phosphates, Hanna photometer, D&D merck or Elos kits are the most accurate for phosphates. i think you have a couple of things that might have caused the rtn. first you changed your halides a week ago.....did you raise your fixture to acclimate the tank to the new bulbs? even though you went to phoenix bulbs, that is a big bump up from the coral life bulbs, your corals could be in shock. secondly you doubled your dose of gfo, normally i wouldn't see a problem with that because gfo can only strip so much phosphate from the water and adding double the amount usually just extends the time between changes but new carbon with new lights? maybe that is a little to much to do in a short period of time.

 

[da5speed]

you said the tank is at 76.7 right now but usually runs between 78-81.6. Thats almost a 5 degree range from 76.7 to 81.6. My thought were anything over 2 degrees in a day way not good. I keep my tank at 79.8 at night so it not so much of a swing and after the lights have been on it hits 81ish.

 

[Josh]

You should not run the PFO in the same reactor with the carbon, and certainly not on the bottom where it sits compressed.

I have heard some anecdotal stories of corals bleaching after changing PFO and carbon at the same time. I've never had a problem but some people seem to think this might be an issue.

 

[Wes]

BTW, you cannot run carbon and PFO in the same reactor. Did someone tell you to do this or did you try to do it on your own?

I have been running both in one reactor for quite a while with no issues to report.

I think your problem is the result of Gfo overdose. Double the recommended amount was bad advice. You have to go easy with this stuff. Changing weekly = good advice. Doubling recommended amount = bad advice

 

[kimoyo]

I put the GFO one the bottom the about 2" up i put a pad then the fill the rest of the reactore with Carbon.

If you do anything the GFO would NEED to go on the top but to me I would just get another canister. They should be changed at different intervals. The GFO needs to be fluidized, meaning the pieces should look like they are tumbling. If you compact it you reduce its effectiveness of pulling out phosphate.

Which is another reason why I think the GFO leached too much of something into the tank versus taking your phosphates too low.

 

[Wes]

Paul your leaching theory is exactly why some people mix in carbon and try to keep a carbon layer on top to pick up potential impurities from the Gfo. I can't remember who it was exactly but one of the well known SPS "gurus" from RC does it.

I just get the larger "pellet" GFO and mix with carbon and "fluidize" the entire reactor. It has worked well for me. I also go very light with the Gfo. In my opinion smaller amounts changed frequently seems safer than using a large amount and risk "shocking" my corals when it's time to change media.

I believe the problems most people have are using too much at once, creating a dramatic change of environment for the corals too quickly. But it's just a theory

 

[trishy711]

I know i try so hard to keep my tanks temperature stable but i am having so much trouble. My lfs told me to not run a heater so i took it out. I used to have it hooked up to my RKE to go on at 78.5 and off at 79. He told me to keep my tank between 76-78 degrees. I have been running all sorst of fans and my Air Conditioner is pretty much on all the time now. I used to keep my tank between 79.5-82 degrees and he said that 82 is borderline too hot for a reef tank.

I also talked to a fried of mine who has had a reef tank for over 15 years and he said he has a 300 gallon reef and runs half of the amount of GFO i was changing weekly and he also changes it monthly. He said for me to get rid of hair algae at the most put 4 table spoons full of GFO at a time if i want to change the media weekly. I would have hime help me with my tank but he live in California.

I switched the bulbs after the corals were bleaching because my LFS told me that it's probably because of my bulbs and not the GFO. He said that Phoenix 14k bulb's should snap the corals right back to life but they're getting worse as the day's go on. I did not raise my lights at all, he told me that 10k's are a lot stronger than 14k's so i wouldn't have any problems at all with just a staright swap out.

I have my water mixing and i am going to do a 30 gallon water change tomorrow night and see if that helps. Is there anything else i can do as of right now ?

Thanks for your Help

 

[Josh]

You may want to turn down the photoperiod by an hour or so for a few weeks. The bulbs may have a higher kelvin than the 10ks but since they are new they may be a little too intense right now. Either that or the bulb change is contributing to the overall stress in the tank.

Do you have a full tank shot? I'm curious how much algae you have that you are using so much PFO.

You may also want to pick up a used chiller if you can.

 

[trishy711]

I want to get a chiller really bad to control a very steady temperature but my my Electric bill is already sky high and a chiller is going to add even more to it. I can't have that right now. There is literally no algae growing in my tank at all right now, It's been completely wiped out after the past 4 weeks of changing the double dosed GFO. When i say i had Hair Algae, I mean there was maybe 10-15 patches the size of a quarter sprouting up all around in the tank. I had a huge Hair Alage problem in my Fish Only tank that got out of control to the point where i had to break the tank down and scrub the rocks clean to get rid of it. Thats why i wanted to get it under control before that happend to me again.

This is the most recent picture of my tank but with just the Actinics on


Thanks

 

[Josh]

OK, the tank is pretty clean, so I wouldn't run PFO for a little while and let things calm down in there.

 

[trishy711]

How come things are still Dying/Bleaching and looking sick if i haven't been running the PFO and Carbon ?

 

[reefman]

are the sps bleaching and/or stn/rtn. bleaching r mostly due to lighting. stn/rtn is mostly cause by alk/ca imbalance and/or unstable par.
a closeup shot of the dying coral may help in determining the cause.