Looking for advice on corals dying

[Blindrage]

I am at my wits end at this point, and I am looking for advice.

Chem numbers looked great last weekend.
CA ~520
Alk 8.3dkh
Mg ~1500
Amm, Nitrite, Nitrate 0
PH ~7.9

This has been a pretty steady set of numbers since each has been tested.

Over the last two months I have lost all kinds of SPS corals, and a few of other things. I have made small adjustments in placement of pieces when they started looking less than great, but so far that does not seem to have helped those items. Most of them died within a few days even after the move. Came home today and the Cali Tort has finally given up, an open brain will be gone before the weekend is done, the second birds nest colony is almost gone, multiple montis, and a few other SPS that I can not remember the names of are looking like they are headed downhill fast.

Things that are doing well:

I have had one set of Zoas melt, but in general my Zoas are doing awesome. Everything has put on extra heads and seem to be growing just fine. Pulsing Xenia and GSP are both doing just fine of course. Two different Gonis, duncan, various acans, candy canes, and a blasto are doing great. I have one chalice that seems to be doing well, and some new SPS items that went in last Monday that I am worried about.

All the fish in the tank are healthy and doing great. The clam that has been in the tank a couple of months seems to be doing great as well.

I have looked closely for predators/parasites but I have not seen any flat worms or nudis. I do have an Aiptasia outbreak and some big amphipods. I got a wrasse for the pods, and put in some pep shrimp last weekend for the Aips.

I will do fresh chem test on Saturday, but can anyone give me any other ideas on what might be causing me so many issues?

 

[MTMJR1992]

im looking at your parameters and your ph seems low to me. i like to have mine at 8.1-8.3.

 

[Blindrage]

I agree on the PH, but I have been dosing Alk and CA and it is still not coming up. I did not want to chase it by pushing anything else high.

 

[CRW Reef]

What exactly is happening with the sps? Fast or slow tissue loss and dying or?

 

[Smiley]

whats your phosphate levels at? what salt are you using? ro/di? light cycle? have you checked nitrates with someone else? another test kit?

 

[Blindrage]

Most of them are fast tissue loss. Almost looks the same as slime algae on sand. The tissue just seems to start lifting up in areas, and then the whole coral dissolves within a few days at most.

 

[Blindrage]

whats your phosphate levels at? what salt are you using? ro/di? light cycle? have you checked nitrates with someone else? another test kit?

Phosphate is between .03 and .08 on a Hanna checker. Salt is Kent reef. RO/DI water only since the original fill 6 months ago. T5s run about 10 hours a day. MHs run 6. I have used two different API test kits for the basic Amm, Nitrite, and Nitrate. I have not tried another brand for these tests. PH is measured by the Apex, but I have done backup checks using the API kits every now and again.

Rics and Shrooms do great in the tank as well. I forgot to mention those earlier.

 

[DyM]

If you bring me some water, I'll run a full line of tests for you. To me, calc seems high, let me know

 

[jda123]

None of those params look to me like they would cause a massive coral die off. What kind of lights do you have? If they are LEDs, what is the white diode count by type (cool, warm, neutral, etc.), what intensity do you run them at and what is the surface area that you are trying to cover with them?

Check your remaining SPS for red bug, but those don't typically make them die, just look really, really bad.

 

[Bajamike]

None of those params look to me like they would cause a massive coral die off. What kind of lights do you have? If they are LEDs, what is the white diode count by type (cool, warm, neutral, etc.), what intensity do you run them at and what is the surface area that you are trying to cover with them?

Check your remaining SPS for red bug, but those don't typically make them die, just look really, really bad.

T5s run about 10 hours a day. MHs run 6.

what watt MH?

 

[jda123]

Unless you are running some unknown bulbs, then I would not think lights. Do you have an cuprisorb or other hard metal absorber? If so, run it in a reactor and see if the stuff turns blue.

 

[Blindrage]

I decided to run my chem test tonight. I may take Dave up on his offer, but thought I would go ahead and run them.

Looked at my records, and it has been two weeks since I ran the full battery. I also heavily overfeed my tank, at least I think I do. PH levels sure make it look that way tonight, and show me it is time to change the GFO and Carbon in the reactor.

Basic Tests done with API Master test kit. I used my spare kit so these are new tests.
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

Advanced test run with Salifert Kits:
CA: 530ish. This tops the normal 500 the kit measures, so I just added more of CA3 chem and extended the chart by the extra. CA has run high since I started checking it. Always seems to be 520 to 530 with the Kent Reef salt.
KH: 8.5 dkh
MG: 1490

PH checked with Hanna Checker
PH: .15

I also would not characterize the die off as massive. It has just been a steady. Started with a thin birds nest about two months ago, then seemed to move to a new coral a few days later. That coral died, and then moved to a new coral. The birds nests have seemed to take the longest from seeing them look bad to dying off. The acros went the fastest once they started to go downhill. The montis seemed to lose a bit of color, and them suddenly would melt in hours.

Surprisingly the Watermelon frag I got from Seth at the Frag Swap held at the school back before Christmas has been doing well since then. Not a lot of growth, but still has great color and no signs of distress.

 

[FinsUp]

What kind of lights do you have? If they are LEDs, what is the white diode count by type (cool, warm, neutral, etc.), what intensity do you run them at and what is the surface area that you are trying to cover with them?

Unless you are running some unknown bulbs, then I would not think lights.

You lost me.

 

[Blindrage]

Forgot to post more on the bulbs.

Tank is a 150 gallon with 30 gallon sump.
T5s are 4 54 watt bulbs.
MH are 2 250W double ended bulbs.

We are planning on replacing all the bulbs soon since Cris thought they had about 6-8 months run time on them when we bought the setup used from him. I plan to get the Phoenix 14k bulbs to replace them, and something like a true atinic for the T5s.

 

[Bajamike]

PH checked with Hanna Checker
PH: .15

IMO this is where I would start .08 freaks me out. I don't like mine over .04

Also your tank is less than a year right? I have seen problems with SPS with tanks less than 6 months and don't start showing signs of maturity until around a year. just my .02 anything under a year takes a lot of attention and consistency

 

[jahmic]

I'm still leaning toward a pH issue. If you have a test kit available, check it throughout the day...especially at some point when the doors may have been closed for several hours; first thing in the morning is usually a good time to check. We're in the middle of winter, and running the heat with with the house buttoned up to keep out the cold causes CO2 levels inside to increase...which can then lower the pH in your tank.

Are you running a skimmer at all? One trick is to get some vinyl tubing larger in diameter than what's currently on the skimmer intake, slip it over the end attached to the skimmer, then find a way to run that outside the house. I contemplated doing that before heading out of town about a couple years ago...and probably should have. With the heat running and the doors closed up for 2 days, I came home to lower than normal pH (7.9 vs 8.2) and unhappy SPS. I can't say for sure that caused my issues, but the extra effort may have been helpful.

I have another tank next to a window, and had issues with zoas melting in that tank last year...until I started leaving the window next to it cracked in the winter...no skimmer and a heavy amount of macro in there caused pH drops at night when algae actually consumes O2 and adds additional CO2 to the tank. I don't have a controller to monitor pH on that tank, but salifert read 7.8 in the mornings with the window closed and just over 8.0 when I left it open.

food for thought...I'd try oxygenating the tank to see if your pH increases before changing anything else

 

[djkms]

Also your tank is less than a year right? I have seen problems with SPS with tanks less than 6 months and don't start showing signs of maturity until around a year. just my .02 anything under a year takes a lot of attention and consistency

Couldn't have said it better myself. IME there is no way around it, SPS need a mature system to thrive. Any slight deviation in anything in the first year of a system for SPS can spell disaster quickly.

My current 225 (which is just a couple months over 1 year old) was an upgrade of a 2+ year old 125. The only thing that changed with my system was more rock and more water volume. Still in the process of maturing my system. I have honestly struggled with it for about a year and just recently I seem to be getting the upper hand and trust me, I am a**l when it comes to maintenance (I work for an aquarium maintenance company).

Forgive me if it was asked, I just skimmed the thread, but how do you maintain your alkalinity? This is probably the single most important factor in thriving SPS systems.

I also have to disagree with a PH of 7.9 being even remotely an issue. A majority of systems I have seen are around 7.8-8.1, especially during the winter.

 

[Munch]

Where's your rock from btw? From old tank, something new?

 

[Shaunv]

One parameter I haven't seen posted yet is your salinity. What is that reading? Also, I agree with needing to wait a year before adding SPS. I waited 8 months on my tank and it wasn't until about 4 months later that my SPS started to really show growth.

 

[Blindrage]

I guess I will not add any extra SPS into this system for awhile. I figured that since everything in the system seemed to be so stable that it would not be an issue.

To answer the other questions asked. Salinity is 1.026. Dead on with a calibrated refractometer. It stays there with a top of the line ATO.

Rocks are a big mix of a couple of types of base rock and live rock for a couple of sources.

Skimmer on the system is an ASM G2, and it seems to pull good skimmate.

CA and Alk are maintained use BRS dosing pumps and BRS two part solution. I will be switching to the generic stuff to make the solutions once the BRS chems are used up.

I think I covered everything asked with this.