Corals dead, missing or going to be dead

[entice59]

I don't know what could be the problem, the amonia nitrite is 0 and the nitrate is 15, calcium is 400. Salt is 1.023, ph 8.2 My cyno is gone, temp is 79
Mushrooms even died and my candy cane coral is dieing and so is the hammer and frogspawn. I even upgraded my lights from 96 watts pc to t5's.
its been like this for awhile, everything slowly started closing up and just going dead. But i thought it was my Powercompacts just lost spectrum
The only thing thats opening properly is my green star polyps.
No fish died, no ich or signs of stress, even the shrimps are molting, so does that rule out any chemicals in the tank?
What do you guys suggest i do?

 

[donjasper]

When in doubt - do a water change. When was the last one?

 

[azonic]

Hmm any chemicals in the tank would likely show up on your testing. Most likely in ammonia.
What do the corals look like when they are dieing? Are they sorta melting and going all gross looking? Or are they just receeding on their skeletons?
I'm really at a loss if all your readings are ok.....

 

[entice59]

closing up and melting away.
ive been doing water changes every 2 weeks if not once a week. Still no luck

 

[doodle1800]

Where is your tank located? Any cleaning going on around it, with ammonia or bleach? Did anything fall in the tank behind your LR? Like a piece of metal, a coin? Sounds rediculous but you never know.

 

[entice59]

nope nothign around my tank but theres a washing machine and some detergent and other cleaning solutions near my mixing tub. But if there was any detergents in the water, wouldnt it kill my fish and inverts? I did use a rio to mix the water.

 

[newreefers]

when you upgraded the lights, did you aclimate the tank to the new lights? For example, if you ran your lights for 12 hrs a day on the pc's, turn them down to about 4-5 hrs for a week or so and then up to 5-6, etc...?

 

[bdhough]

Yeah i second that one. Sounds like you didn't acclimate the corals to your new lights. T5's are halides? Going from 96 compacts to halides is MUCH stronger light which softies can take but not all at once..... Sounds like they might be getting fried by the light. Keep in mind that shrooms and softies tend to be shady spot corals. They will be ok under the lights but not DIRECTLY under them. More that they grow on the side of a rock.
I don't know the direct conversions but i would think a halide bulb may be equivalent light output wise to 3 pc bulbs, so you roughly tripled the light maybe more.

 

[sammystingray]

T5s are Flos. From the original post, it sounds like the trouble started before the light changed anyway. I thought I would mention that a skimmer does remove detergents...they are surface active agents, and that's why they cause bubbles.......salt seems a little low for a reef though....I would go with atleast 1.025. That's much more natural for them. Did you use something to get rid of the cyano? If you are adding any chemicals?

 

[entice59]

it started before the t5's and i didnt you use anything but water changes to get rid of the cyno. The skimmer, seaclone isnt that good but it does produce foam or i should say, bubbles in the collection cup. Ive been getting a lot of micro bubbles in the tank lately from the skimmer
i put in a acro(as a test) on monday and now its starting to turn white, i dont know what to do, im going to try to give them some of my water to see if they can find anything. Nothing more than calcium and trace elements from kent but i add less than whats recommended every two weeks.
its really strange that everything is doing fine except the corals

 

[bdhough]

Just putting an acro in one tank from another can cause it to bleach sometimes. So i wouldn't not count that one. But i do wonder. Where did you buy the tank from? Possible residual copper? But then that would kill your inverts.... Did you change salts? I've seen posts about doing that and it ends up killing things..... You haven't said how much your wattage changed over your tank. Which tank is this happening on? You said you went from a single? 96pc to how much wattage in t5's? Like i said increasing your light and not acclimating can do it.
But like you said it started before the t5's.... So maybe you didn't have enough light in the first place and then you light shocked them with the t5's and killed them?

 

[entice59]

4 54 watt bulbs but that should be a lot better than 1 96 watt pc bulb.
Used to be a discus tank(fresh water) and no meds were introduced into the tank. Didnt change salts, i use redsea salt.
its happening on the 55

 

[bdhough]

Interesting. I'm at a loss. You did double the light but not so much more that it would kill things like it has....
Powder or liquid calcium? If you pour the mixed cup of water from the powder calcium it can shock a coral if you directly pour the contents on it..... Matching salinity in water changes? Possibly not matching and doing the same like i said for the powder calcium? Thats about the last things i can think of.

 

[entice59]

liquid Calcium, hm... my father has been doing the water changes for his tank but i dont think he matched salinity for water changes. That might be it but wouldnt it affect the fish and the inverts?

 

[sheracr123]

I may have missed something but I didn't see this asked. Are you using RO/DI water or tap? If Ro/Di, is it in your house or do you purchase it at a water filling station?

 

[entice59]

i use RO/DI from my lfs

 

[bdhough]

Salinity yeah.... Dangit. It would affect the shrimp especially. I don't know man..... Sorry. I can't think of anything else other than a coral "plague" in your tank. Maybe RTN or STN rapid or slow tissue necrosis but i could have sworn that was only sps.... I just don't know. Maybe a shark does....

 

[sheracr123]

Maybe the filters need changed at the LFS on their Ro system. Maybe there is some trace elements in the water that are harming the corals (ie. copper...)
Just a thought.
Maybe try and get your Ro/Di water from another source and see if that helps. It would atleast eliminate that possibility.
Mendee

 

[bdhough]

Problem is Mendee that his inverts are surving fine and they too are not tolerant of poor water. At the very least his shrimp and snails should be dead from any copper, while i've heard hermits can tolerate trace amounts.....
Thus why im stumped

 

[bdhough]

Oh thought of something. Any chance you have stong consistant water flow on any of these corals. I accidentally killed some yellow button polyps by sticking them right below the power head stream and every time they expanded couldn't because of the flow. They ended up shriveling and dying in a couple days before i could figure out what the heck.....