Coral problem! HELP!!!

shelley

shelley

Member
I am still trying to learn this board. I cannot find my previous posts! Anyway, I bought some yellow polyps on 9/11/06. They are looking horrible! I did a water change, added DT's and Reef Plus and they're still looking horrible. My params after the water change today are:
Ammonia - 0
PH - 8.4 (? I can't really tell on my test kit!)
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20
Phosphates - 0.25
Salinity - 1.021
All I can figure is the salinity?? I remember someone posting a reply to another question I had about this, but cannot find it and cannot remember what they said! Can someone help me fast so I don't completely lose my coral? This is the first and I heard they were supposed to be pretty hardy!
Thanks!
 
shelley

shelley

Member
Just PC for now, wattage of 192. I have 2 blue artinic (sp) blue lights and 2 regular. I was told this would be sufficient?? Even my mushroom wilted and detached. I had mushrooms before but had a salinity spike (due to my own fault!) and lost them :0(
 
team2jndd

team2jndd

Active Member
Lighting isnt your problem and neither is salinity. Although, I would deffinately get that up. (slowly) Were the corals ever healthy? Was this a gradual die off or sudden? If the corals were healthy, did they all get "sick" at once or was it one by one?
 
shelley

shelley

Member
That's what is so strange. They were fine the day I got them home. I did a water change 2 days later, and it looked like over the next 4 days they disappeared quickly. I just called the LFS and they said something has to be eating them. I did see the emerald crab (only once) on the rock picking at them (or maybe around them). They're completely closed up :0( I just put some DT's in an eyedropper and tried to feed to the polyps, but they're still closed. Also, I had put one mushroom in on the same day. It attached and was doing beautifully. Yesterday it was drooping and it has now detached from the rock it was on and I have no clue where it is. The only crabs I have in the tank are scarlets, emerald and a sally lightfoot.
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Shelley,
You've got a few threads going here, one of which I've been trying to help you with. I've read through everything else and what I'm seeing is that your tank is just not stable. In one thread, your PH was 8.4-8.8, and on another, it was 8.2 and you were asking about using buffer to bring it up. Your salinity is also insufficient to maintain invertabrates of any kind of a long period of time. I'm wondering if you may just be chemical happy... it's a common mistake with people new to the hobby. A properly running reef system, with regular water changes should need very little chemicals to keep it stable.
How often are you adding chemicals to the tank, and what all do you add?
Please list EVERY product you put into the tank, and how often you do it.
 
sign guy

sign guy

Active Member
Originally Posted by SCSInet
Shelley,
You've got a few threads going here, one of which I've been trying to help you with. I've read through everything else and what I'm seeing is that your tank is just not stable. In one thread, your PH was 8.4-8.8, and on another, it was 8.2 and you were asking about using buffer to bring it up. Your salinity is also insufficient to maintain invertabrates of any kind of a long period of time. I'm wondering if you may just be chemical happy... it's a common mistake with people new to the hobby. A properly running reef system, with regular water changes should need very little chemicals to keep it stable.
How often are you adding chemicals to the tank, and what all do you add?
Please list EVERY product you put into the tank, and how often you do it.
good advise
sorry scsi my email went down before I could email you back
 
shelley

shelley

Member
Ok, thanks for the info!
As far as adding chemicals to the tank, the only think I've ever used that I can recall is the powder to bring the ph to 8.3. I've never really had any problems other than hair algae which I've overcome. My tank has been up for a year. I will admit, I missed a water change and maybe that's why I'm having problems. I have never been able to get my nitrates below 20. I have only lost 2 fish in a year and an anemone, but I believe the anemone died because someone at the LFS told me to do top offs with salt water, so I ended up having a salinity spike. I guess it should have occurred to me that if I added salted water, this would happen, but I really didn't think about it. I'm so disappointed right now. I waited like 5 months before I added another fish and my second coral, as I lost my mushrooms in the salinity spike and the LFS said my params were fine to add. I feel like I'm starting all over again. I really was looking to bring some color to my tank as all I have is Xenias which were added on 9/11/06, the same day as the yellow polyps, and they are doing great. Just another wrench in the spoke I guess! :mad:
 
shelley

shelley

Member
One more thing...what should my ph be? I haven't lost any inverts since I set up my tank (besides the anemone when I had the salt spike). I looked back at my records and when that happened my ph was 8.4. Thanks!
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Natural seawater is 8.3, but anything between about 8.2 and 8.5 should not cause any problems with what you have.
Remember to measure PH just before the lights turn off at night. This is when PH is it's highest.
Describe how you add the buffer to the tank.
 
shelley

shelley

Member
Oh...I didn't know that about checking before turning off the lights! Nah, I'm not going to give up. I do this everytime something goes wrong. It seems I'll run across a pic or something of someone who has about the same experience I do and they have a beautiful tank FULL of beautiful coral and fish, and I sit here scratching my head! LOL! Poor me! LOL! Ok, off my pity pot! As far as the buffer, I did as the instructions said, mixed 1 teaspoon in tap water and dissolved and added to tank. I think the stuff is called Marine Buffer. I was so mad, I called the LFS....they said they cannot figure out the problem, that something has to be eating my polyps! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I'm reading on the net, which I probably shouldn't be doing because that's confusing me more. One says yellow polyps are easy, one says difficult and tricky! I'm about to pull my hair out! LOL!
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Well...
Which answer do you want to hear... that they are easy or that they are hard? I mean... when you think about it... it'd probably be more gratifying to hear that they are hard as you wouldn't feel so bad, but at the same time, you want to keep them.
All kidding aside... yellow polyps are pretty damn easy... and the way you are introducing buffer is correct. The only thing I will caution you about is with 30 gallons, a little goes a long way. When I use buffer on my FOWLR system, I mix the dosage just as you do, but add the glass of solution in at least 6 small pours over a few hours.
It's important to check PH at the same time every day. PH varies as different biological processes take place in the system during hte day versus night hours. It's at it's highest when I mentioned, at it's lowest just before the lights come on.
If they polyps are just disappearing, something might be eating them. If I were you, I'd do a little detective work. If the LFS is right, you have a sneak-thief. You'll need a flashlight and an understanding spouse.
Get up at about 3am and peer into the tank with a flashlight. If your system's been up a year, you'll be amazed at everything you see... little critters scurrying about, crabs you didn't know you had... etc. It might take several nights to catch whatever's doing it... if anything.
Oh yeah... one more thing.. Yellow polyps like a good strong current... enough to whip their tentacles around in the flow. Be sure to provide that.
 
shelley

shelley

Member
OOOHhhhhhhhh! This hobby! LOL! Well, I didn't add the buffer like you said as I had already done it! Hopefully all will be okay, but I will definately note your directions in case I have to do this again! Well, I do have a flashlight AND an understanding spouse, so I looked tonight. Didn't see much, but I had a light on in the computer room which does cast some light into the foyer where the tank is, sooooooo. Maybe I'll try the 3 a.m. thing! I think my husband already thinks I'm nuts....he has no interest at all in this tank, but does enjoy looking at it! He says it's my, "fifteen hundred dollar science experiment"! Yes, I've spent WELL OVER that so far and don't even have really good equipment. Ok, I'll admit...I have an inexpensive hang on the back filter. Mine broke and I sent my husband out in a rush to Walmart one night and never replaced it. My funds are rather limited as I've taken a leave from work, so I just can't invest in expensive equipment right now. Please don't tell me I have to tear down my tank, or that I can't keep corals unless I have top notch equipment! I hope that's not the case!
 
sign guy

sign guy

Active Member
I will say this I put aLOT more mony in my 46 around 4k
things kept dieing and I would go buy ney coral and fish
once I stoped buying fish and coral and put all that mony into equip. my tank took off
 
shelley

shelley

Member
Someone told me that you don't even have to use a filter in a saltwater tank, that the live rock does that. Is this true?? If so, I guess the only thing I would need is some upgraded lighting. What kind of lighting do you recommend?
 
sign guy

sign guy

Active Member
wait ......... you not using a filter? how much lr do you have
do you have enough flow through the lr and is there any thing pulling the toxins out of the water at all?
 
bsd230

bsd230

Member
You might try moving them up or down in the tank and adjusting your power heads to change the current. Most mushrooms are low to moderate light so they do better towards the bottom with slower water movement. I have some hairy mushrooms that love light and do well towards the top of my tank but my green mushrooms seem to thrive towards the bottom and look pretty bad if I get them too high, but neither like strong water movement. I use 2 emperor 400 bio wheels and a red sea protein skimmer on a 105 gallon and have no problem keeping corals.
 
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