Coral s dying..I need advice.

nycbob

nycbob

Active Member
ur tank imo is ill suited for lps or sps. the reason being u hv many inverts and corals that need feeding or dirty water. its going to be hard for u to keep water quality in check. in the wild, sps live in a different habitat that the corals and inverts u r keeping. its like trying to keep an african lion and an artic seal in the same environment. what is the reason to run a canister filter?
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
Well, how often do you feed your coral? I can tell you that I feed two times a week in addition to feeding my fish twice a day. Yes I have "dirty water" full of nutrients that I believe my corals accel. with. I bought a 2 head frag of hammer coral in sept. and it now has 6 heads. My zoas are growing like crazy, and so is my birdsnest. My rics have split in to 2-3 heads. I also run my skimmer nonstop and my nitrates are zero.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by nycbob
http:///forum/post/3251890
ur tank imo is ill suited for lps or sps. the reason being u hv many inverts and corals that need feeding or dirty water. its going to be hard for u to keep water quality in check. in the wild, sps live in a different habitat that the corals and inverts u r keeping. its like trying to keep an african lion and an artic seal in the same environment. what is the reason to run a canister filter?

I run a canister because I can't drill my tank, nor do I want the hassle of a sump making noise in my livingroom. What you say about the coral types make sense. usning the list of my corals, what can I add that will be happy and not die? I want something different...could I add a sea squirt?...they love dirty water.
luvmyreef: I feed the coral twce a week as well
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
sps would be harder but lps should be fine in your tank. there should be no reason you cant keep a torch, frogspawn or hammer. BTW If your tank is consuming a lot of calcium, then you might want to test for it weekly until you can keep your levels consistant. Doesnt sound like your overfeeding. Zoas love "dirty water", from my experience. :) And I am sumpless as well.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by luvmyreef
http:///forum/post/3251902
sps would be harder but lps should be fine in your tank. there should be no reason you cant keep a torch, frogspawn or hammer. BTW If your tank is consuming a lot of calcium, then you might want to test for it weekly until you can keep your levels consistant. Doesnt sound like your overfeeding. Zoas love "dirty water", from my experience. :) And I am sumpless as well.

The torch didn't make it. I don't want to try a fogspawn or hammer. SWF has a sea squirt...What do you think?
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
I am not sure. I see that it is a filter feeder that requires strong currents and excellent water quality. You can always try it. :) BTW, I would run my skimmer continuous for awhile to help remove some organics, etc. that could be contributing to your problem.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by luvmyreef
http:///forum/post/3251907
I am not sure. I see that it is a filter feeder that requires strong currents and excellent water quality. You can always try it. :)

It’s the excellent part that worries me. Strong water current I have.
 
wfd1008

wfd1008

Member
Did you get the three corals that died from the same LFS? Maybe you were getting corals that were in poor health to begin with. I know around here there are stores that are like that. Good for corals, bad for fish. Or good for fish, but dare not to buy any corals from them.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
I agree about water quality and the corals you're attempting to keep as NYCbob pointed out. I also think your temp is a little on the high side and that your lemon peel could be nipping, they are known to do so.
Anyways, you say the temp is kept higher because your hippo gets sick? Hippos are a huge bio load on the tank, they're not going to help with your water quality issues AND IMO, a hippo tang DOES NOT belong in a 90G tank, especially a 90G without a sump. I would ditch the hippo tang honestly.
I know that you're busy this week, but a water change is really needed, you have ammonia, nitrate and nitrite readings in your tank, that's not good. Even if you do a smaller water change than you normally would, something is better than nothing.
Also, how old are your test kits?
BTW, canister filters are no less noisy than a properly set up sump.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by BTLDreef
http:///forum/post/3251911
I agree about water quality and the corals you're attempting to keep as NYCbob pointed out. I also think your temp is a little on the high side and that your lemon peel could be nipping, they are known to do so.
Anyways, you say the temp is kept higher because your hippo gets sick? Hippos are a huge bio load on the tank, they're not going to help with your water quality issues AND IMO, a hippo tang DOES NOT belong in a 90G tank, especially a 90G without a sump. I would ditch the hippo tang honestly.
I know that you're busy this week, but a water change is really needed, you have ammonia, nitrate and nitrite readings in your tank, that's not good. Even if you do a smaller water change than you normally would, something is better than nothing.
Also, how old are your test kits?
BTW, canister filters are no less noisy than a properly set up sump.

Thank you for trying to help.
Temp is down now to 80, I spent all day getting it down. My Hippo is a little guy for now he is fine in a 90g. I got him as tiny, the size of my pinky nail. The whole reason I got into saltwater was to have a Hippo Tang and coral, I am not ready to let him go yet, when I do I will get another tiny one I think. I don’t have many fish.
I haven’t caught the angel nipping at anything, I have been watching. Noise is the second reason for not having a sump, drilling the tank is the first solid reason.
Nitrate 20 and below is hardly a cause for worry
Nitrite at 0.05 is truly almost nothing
My ammonia at .25 bugs me but again, even when I do a 37g water change the reading does not change…maybe I do misread the color chart. It is a yellow green..Yellow is 0 and green is .25. My tests are a month old.
A water change is out of the question. I did add some fresh carbon for now. It takes my RO unit 2 days to get enough water. Then I have to add the salt and wait another 24 hours…all in a tub in my livingroom and I am expecting guests for Pesach dinner. No way can I have such an eye sore during Passover.
I also think NYCbob is right about my corals and LPS. I would at this point like to know what I can keep with the corals that like my tank conditions. Sea squirts sound good, but some say they starve..so I am still looking into them, learning by doing my homework. Do you have any suggestions?
 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
Oh, I doubt your misreading your ammonia kit since you have a nitrite reading. But i still think you could do some lps. anyway, keep us posted. :)
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by wfd1008
http:///forum/post/3251910
Did you get the three corals that died from the same LFS? Maybe you were getting corals that were in poor health to begin with. I know around here there are stores that are like that. Good for corals, bad for fish. Or good for fish, but dare not to buy any corals from them.

The trumpet and torch corals were purchased from SWF.com 1/28/10
The Pagoda cup was purchased from SWF.com on 11/27/09
All the coral arrived healthy. The torch died completely just a day ago. Whatever went wrong is my fault.
 
ibanez

ibanez

Member
I will re-post this since it doesn't appear to have been noticed. It can be that the ammonia is a result of the dieing corals and not the cause of demise. It looks like you are having swings in your alk which could be a problem, as well as the low calcium.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by IbanEz
http:///forum/post/3252042
I will re-post this since it doesn't appear to have been noticed. It can be that the ammonia is a result of the dieing corals and not the cause of demise. It looks like you are having swings in your alk which could be a problem, as well as the low calcium.

I do remember seeing your post and I’m sorry I didn’t comment. The coral disappeared so slow, I don’t think it made an issue of the ammonia. Even after I do a 37g water change, the ammonia still reads .25. It is possible that I misread the color chart but no matter what, I am seeing .25. I do have a pigmy angelfish and I was told they need really good water to survive. He is doing great, so my water can’t be all that bad.
I would like to add a few more pieces of coral, but I don’t want it to die. Right now I have zoa, Kenya trees, Xenia, GSP, cabbage and lettuce coral, chili coral and lots of mushrooms. What is an acan and can that stay in a tank like mine, where LPS or SPS can’t seem to survive.? I turned down the heater, it goes to 80 at night and 82 when the MH lights go on. This morning all the coral and fish seem happy and well adjusted.
Thanks for your help.
 
ibew41

ibew41

Active Member
for your readings you should have high7's to very low 8 on ph and you could have a low co you should try to aim a ph to the surface to aerate the water a little more
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

Originally Posted by IBEW41
http:///forum/post/3252097
for your readings you should have high7's to very low 8 on ph and you could have a low co you should try to aim a ph to the surface to aerate the water a little more

Alright I did my tests…
PH is still 8.2/8.4 the color chart is so close that I can’t really see a difference in the two. So that number is right on perfect.
I am getting some tiny trace of nitrite 0.05 there is a .5 it is NOT that number, it is the tiny trace number beside the 0. On the test color chart, 0 is a green and 0.05 is just a tiniest hint of deeper green on my test.
Example colors on the chart is
Green = 0
A little darker green = 0.05 (this is my reading)
Grey = 0.1
Mud purple = 0.02
A darker mud purple = 0.2
Redish purple= 0.5
And very redish purple= 1 & above
Mag test reads out at 1250 PPM…this number looks low as well, it should read 1400s right? I don’t understand much on magnesium readings.
Calcium is very low at 260 I have to get some more cal to dose the tank today.
The temp is reading 82 right now.
SG is 1.025
OH and I have 3 Koralia power heads (2 #3s and 1 #4) pointed at the surface, I used to have them pointed at the rock but noticed a “film” on the surface so I moved them almost 3 months ago. There is plenty of movement still over the rock and coral, they wave in the current and I have a spray bar vertical for water flow.
Thank you for the help.
 
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