Coral Dying

[Thebetterhalf]

My husband has told me I dont have enough info to post here but Im going to try it before there is any more carnage in my tank. We have a 24 g Aquapod with the standard lighting that comes with it. We do change the bulbs... We are in the process of upgrading to a 150g cube. Anyway we have our current tank in the kitchen and it winter and pretty cold where we live. The tank sometimes fluctuates 1-3 degrees a day but is always in the 79 -80degree range. Lately we have had coral dying like crazy!!! Testing appears ok...no major other problems or issues with our fish snails etc.... We've had coral die before but this strange .... it starts to get more and more sparce and then eventually looks sick and dies? I know this is very lacking in technical info but any general idea what might be up??? We dont have a super great schedule for the lights but it has generally been the same as before and the coral usually did well..... Sorry for the ignorance and thanks for any help... I want some coral left for our new tank!!!!

[swjim]

What kinds of corals are you having problems with right now?

[IslandCrow]

If the temperature is staying in the 75-85 degree range, I wouldn't worry about fluctuations. A 1-3 degree variation is far less than what a natural reef will see in the course of a day. We do need some more information, though:

1. Exact water parameters will be helpful. "OK" can mean different things to different people. With corals, calcium, alkalinity and nitrates are generally the problem areas.

2. Same question as swjim. . .what types of corals are we talking about?

3. What is your water source (tap, RO/DI, bottled)?

4. Have you added any fish or inverts recently?

5. How are the corals dying? Are they losing their color, shriveling up, flesh falling off, etc.?

6. It's probably not the issue if you haven't changed it recently, but what is your lighting cycle?

7. What do you use for filtration (just live rock, skimmer, bioballs, carbon, etc)?

[Zebodog]

Originally Posted by Thebetterhalf

Anyway we have our current tank in the kitchen

Have you tested your PH levels at various times of the day?

There tends to be more CO2 in homes over the winter as they are closed up tight. The kitchen can also be a source of additional airborne contaminants that kind find their way into your tank as a result of gas exchange.

Using a reliable test kit, check the PH just before the lights go off at night, and then again just before they turn on in the morning. Large PH swings will cause all kinds of problems.

[Thebetterhalf]

Ok well
1. The corals are soft corals we had a few different button types a daisy polyps and star polyps and a Xenia we also have these really cool looking green palm tree looking things pic below that dont pulse ( no idea what they are) The Xenia shriveled up the buttons are are also shrinking and losing a little color... and getting way sparcer. The daisy (my FAV sniff sniff) literally began to disappear it was big and bushy and then literally BARELY THERE. Like 1/100th of the original only little tiny pieces left. The only thing that is thriving (my husband calls it trailer trash) are the ugly coral below (not the green)

2.water source is RO we have a RO system here

3. Phosphate .0, , alk 107.4 , ca 420 salin 1.025 nitrate 0

4. we use live rock carbon pellets/GFO

5. We havent really added any new fish etc We added some snails and two emerald crabs a while back but all was fine until just recently. I actually made my husband take one of the emeralds out because I thought he was eating the daisy --kept finding him on it.... but the coral did worse when he left......

6. Our lights we are bad with we plan on a timer with our bigger tank. Like I said we have a stock aqua pod and run both (dual actinic and 10k/6.7 k ) for about 7 hours... Again the coral was doing pretty well before on this same lighting schedule

[Thebetterhalf]

these are the corals i mentioned forgot the pics... The green is my husbands favorite and is looking a little "limp" The other is the ugly ( hopefully I wont offend anyone) that is the only one that is THRIVING!
photo.jpg

ugly coral.jpg

[robrich342]

Do you have snails ? Do you see any white spots on anything ?

[Thebetterhalf]

Yes we have snails. I don't notice any significant white spots except the usual stuff on the live rock that's always been there. stupid question but where would the spots be? On the coral?

[Percula9]

The only parameter I see that is low is your alkalinity. You can bring it up with baking soda or an alk product from the fish store. I use Reef Buffer by seachem. Your alk needs to come up to at least 150ppm or 8.3dkh. Low alk can cause low pH. What is the pH of the tank?

[Playa-1]

How are you testing for Sg?

[IslandCrow]

I don't see anything that really stands out. As long as your PH is OK, alkalinity shouldn't be a big issue, and calcium isn't either for soft corals. None of those corals require a lot of light, so the stock lighting should be just fine. I'm still running stock PCs (well, new bulbs of course) after 3 years. I can't think of any predators that would go after all of those corals either. How long has it been since you changed the filters on your RO, or how long have you owned it if you haven't changed out the filters yet? I had a bit of an STN (slow tissue necrosis) problem with some of my corals a couple years ago, and I think it was because of a bad DI cartridge. I don't know that was the cause for certain, but the corals started coming back when I changed the filters out (they weren't even very old). One last question. I may have missed it in a previous post, but how long have you had the tank set up?

[five O]

The only thing I've seen kill xenia besides a blender or a blow torch is low salinity. Id check it again using a different method than previous. If your using a cheap hydrometer it might be bad or have residue from not being rinsed after each use. At least give it a vinegar soak before reusing it.

[tspors]

Just curious.. How old is Tank?? I would increase lighting. Normal daylight in ocean is closer to 10-12 hours.

[DaveAngie79]

some of your soft corals thrive better lower in the tank, try moving them i have melted stuff putting it to high in the tank

[Thebetterhalf]

WOW thanks so much everyone
we test our salinity with a refractometer ...our tank has been set up a year or so... BUT we moved it from the bedroom to the kitchen... we are going to get TDS and RO filter better checked at the LFS this week and we moved it to the living room I REALLY want to get some more coral growing for the new tank

[travis32]

Just a thought here (I'm still new to corals), but if the tank is in the kitchen, many kitchens have outside windows.. Is there any direct sunlight messing with the tank? Drafts from windows in the kitchen?

Just some thoughts. Hope you find the solution!

[bertoni]

I might try running a PolyFilter to check for possible copper problems, but I agree that there's no obvious problem.

[river3847]

air fresheners or cleaning products/sprays ?

[robs.mark]

Originally Posted by river3847

air fresheners or cleaning products/sprays ?

+1, this or lighting.

Sometimes xenia just dies for no reason, funny coral..
How long have you had corals in the tank for?

[Frick-n-Frags]

yes, interesting. aside from xenia which either love it or hate it, those softies are fairly hardy.

newer tanks are a crapshoot, but after a year, that should be settled down well enough.

when in doubt, more waterchanges to buy time while figuring out the problem.

also, if you can smell ammonia from cleaners, so can your tank and it absorbs it, or w/e else chemicals you are using.
--------------------------------
for a buffer, dont use pre-made ones imo. they typically use sodium borate as one of the 3 components(with baking soda+washing soda) and then you risk boron toxicity issues.

look in reef chemistry at randy's alk supplement articles. you can do this with baking soda/washing soda much more safely over the long haul