Some corals not healthy, what am I doing wrong?

[itsamanda]

Hello everyone,

Have had my tank for 2 years. Lately I've started to grow an interest in getting more corals. But I'm having trouble with specific ones. Some thrive beautifully (Altho I've seen them in better shape than lately) and some are withering. I need some help as to what you think the issue is. Refer to pictures and description.

Here's who's struggling:
-Purple leather (bright green polyps won't open since I put him in my tank 3 weeks ago)
-Candy cane (body turning brownish/grey and Fallin apart)
-Star polyp colony (has almost completely diminished)
-Zoanthids (most have melted some are opening again for some reason)
-Blue favia (my fav, almost gone )
-Leather mushroom: (hasn't opened since I rinsed bio balls 2 weeks ago-shed skin once opened for a few hours then closed again)

As u can see many other corals are doing well (rock anemones, feather duster, torches, frogspawn, other type of star polyps, gorgonian, sponges, mushrooms)

Here is tank info/params:
55 gal tank
4 t5 HO lights (bulbs half a yr old-on 8 hrs a day)
2powerheads

Salinity: consistent 1.025-1.026
Temp: 76
Nitrate: 10-15 (wish I could get it to 0)
Nitrite: 0
Calcium: 460
Phosphate: 0.25 (usually 0)
kH: 8-9
30 gal wet/dry
65 gal coralife skimmer

Inhabitants:
4 clowns (yes I kno, somehow they have been ok for 2 years)
1 anthia
1 Pygmy angel (doesn't pick at corals)
1 midas blenny
1 yellow tail blenny
1 Sand sifter star, 1 red linka
Hermits (don't pick), snails, 2 cleaner shrimp

My plan of attack: water changes and check my salinity at a store (I'm using a cheap plastic instant ocean hydrometer and hear they could be really wrong)

Maybe my filtration is bad thus causing ph swings? I got a sump from a buddy come to find out it was built as a refugium so for the first few months my bio balls were submerged in water. 2 weeks ago I rinsed them in saltwater and found a way to have them above the water. Params have remained the same throughout besides small spike in nitrate.

Sry so wordy, I greatly appreciate any advice.ImageUploadedByTapatalk1426980514.951548.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1426980528.151397.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1426980536.666242.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1426980543.716362.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1426980579.566209.jpg

[itsamanda]

If quality is not good enough let me kno I can upload better

[stingeragent]

I'd definitely ditch the hygrometer. You can pick up a cheap refracto on amazon for like 20 bucks. I've had the same thing happen. All corals in tank look better than ever and a few look like they just got ran over by a truck. I have candy cane's also and they are very sensitive. Change 1 thing and they will retract to almost just the bone. It could be your flow, height placement in the tank if you have just recently added them. They may not like where they are. I was running quad t5's on my 20 long, and candy canes did best on sand bed. I'd also ditch the bio balls. They are just gonna harbor junk. Get a protein skimmer if you don't have one already. I've also found alot of my more sensitive corals like a bit lower salinity. On the 20 long, unless you keep up with daily top off's, the salinity can go pretty quick from .23 to .26 in a week, and they always looked worse towards the high end.

[CuzzA]

I'll preface this by saying some corals just don't do well in some tanks. For example, I can grow anything but chalices. I can't explain it, but they just survive in my tank and that's about it. No matter where I place them.

That being said, the angel is definitely a suspect. I would closely monitor its behavior. I would definitely get a refractometer. Your phosphate is very high. I would run gfo to bring it down. I would also run carbon with all the soft corals you have. You may want to consider losing the bio balls as they are not necessary with live rock and sand. Instead consider adding a remote deep sand bed to export nitrates. Also, you may want to perform a few consecutive water changes on consecutive days as you could have a build up of DOCs.

Hope this helps.

[itsamanda]

Got it I'll definitely b ditching that thing and upgrading. I have also never really been ever to keep many snails which also led me to think salinity is off. But my stars and shrimp are ok which may say the contrary right?

Regarding the bio balls, just get rid of them completely? I have a coralife skimmer (not a fantastic skimmer but works).
Also thought about just takin away bio balls and putting some sand live rock with chaeto instead. What do u think

[itsamanda]

Thanks guys just saw cuzza's reply. Bio balls will b gone. Looks like a refugium is better way to go.

[itsamanda]

Also, where do I put the bag of carbon? Anywhere in the sump?

[stingeragent]

You don't even have to do a refugium. Those bio balls just don't do you any good. They may host a tiny bit of beneficial bacteria, but they are mainly just collecting gunk, and letting water flow through it, and it stays in your water.You want the carbon in a high flow area.

[itsamanda]

Greatly appreciate it!

[Sk8r]

Remove those bioballs about 3 at a time, so you can ease the transition.
Run carbon, to remove the spit of soft coral, which irritates stony coral.
Drip kalk or take some other measure to supply the calcium stony needs.
Look at your lights. Stony generally takes bright lights; mine are, eg, 10000k Metal Halides 250 watts at 9" above the water and stony is highest.
If you have readable phosphate, getting that down will help.
Keep spittier softies last in the water flow, so their spit will not flow onto stonies.

Most stony likes strong water flow.

[kenpau]

You might have some luck dosing zeostart3. Your phosphates and nitrates are most likely either contributing or causing the problem. By using zeostart3 you can break Ammonia down faster and lower nitrates while lowering phosphates too.

[itsamanda]

Perfect, slowly remove bio balls, getting refractometer, run carbon. My softies are pretty much away from my stony so the spitting shouldn't land on him. I actually started the candycane high up in light (1 12000k daylight, 2 actinic, 1 420/460 blue), but when I noticed he started to fall apart I moved him down thinking maybe too much light :/
Thinking of switching to ati's (I have coralife now)

I'll do some water changes to get phosphates and nitrates down too. (Normally aren't this high but I guess may have done this because I pulled out the submerged bio balls pretty quickly

[CuzzA]

Caulastrea are very delicate corals. High light is ok, but strong flow will tear the tissue right off the skeleton. Try to tuck them into a cove, so to speak. Feed them and they will grow much faster.

[itsamanda]

will do, thank u! It's ashame I got that big pretty piece for a great price too

[itsamanda]

Looks like my readings were wrong. Weird cuz most of my testing is API. Anyway, no nitrates or phosphates, the salinity was WAY off reading 1.028 at the store and 25-26 at home. I bought a refractometer and ditched the plastic. Other than that my pH & kH were pretty low. So I'm doing a water change and got some buffer.

Thanks guys!

[BigCountry74]

Originally Posted by sk8r

remove those bioballs about 3 at a time, so you can ease the transition.
Run carbon, to remove the spit of soft coral, which irritates stony coral.
Drip kalk or take some other measure to supply the calcium stony needs.
Look at your lights. Stony generally takes bright lights; mine are, eg, 10000k metal halides 250 watts at 9" above the water and stony is highest.
If you have readable phosphate, getting that down will help.
Keep spittier softies last in the water flow, so their spit will not flow onto stonies.

Most stony likes strong water flow.

x2