Corals dying....

pthoma79

pthoma79

Member
I have a 30 gal tank with 3 fish (clown, gramma and bicolor blenny), several types of inverts and corals. My corals recently (except for 2 colt corals and a few polyps) have been dying off.
I'm fairly new to the hobby, but the best way I can describe it is they "melt". Not sure if this is the normal way they die or not.
I switched from PC to T5 lights hoping that might help, but it doesn't look like it is. I have done several 10% water changes, with no help.
Anybody have any ideas??
 
pthoma79

pthoma79

Member
What kind of info? I guess I probably should have posted reading, etc. Didn't even think about that. Give me a few minutes, I'll get that.
 
pthoma79

pthoma79

Member
Only results card I can find right now is nitrates, which are at 50! SG is 1.021.
The corals are ricordea, mushrooms, yellow polyps and some zoos.
I dose with iodine and "aragamilk" (liquid aragonite).
The lights I have are from SWF.com. Here is the description:
24 inch long 4 bulb T5 fixture with built in LED Moonlights, from Coral Vue.
Fixture includes individual parabolic reflectors for maximum light output. Also, included are two 24 watt HO T5 actinic blue bulbs and two 24 watt HO T5 10,000K daylight bulbs. Each fixture includes both hanging hardware, legs and stands for fixture placement. Features an acrylic splash lens to protect bulbs from moisture. Unit has one power cord and three power switches, one for the actinic blue lamps, one for the daylight lamps, and one for the moonlights. Dimensions are 23.5 inch long by 10 inch wide by 1.5 inches tall.
 
coralreefer

coralreefer

Active Member
welllllllllll......................... the nitrates are through the roof, thats probably the main problem. your SG is also a bit low. 1.025-1.027 is ideal for corals
 
coralreefer

coralreefer

Active Member
ya id say that would be a good idea, also, make sure if you do a water change, get your sg up to at least 1.024
 
pthoma79

pthoma79

Member
How long should I wait to add more corals/fish if i do a change today?
I was going to pick up some premixed water when I was at the lfs today, and was hoping to get at least another fish while I was down there, since its about a 30 min drive.
 
hlcroghan

hlcroghan

Active Member
oh wow...definitely DO NOT add another fish or anything until you get your nitrates down and sg up. You can't just bring your sg up all of a sudden.....be prepared to lose your fish and other corals if you do that. Do it gradually over the course of three days or so. Also your nitrates will only drop to 25 if you do half the water. They should not be exceeding 10 in a reef tank, although if it creeps up a bit between water changes then it is okay as long as you are keeping up with maintenance.
Key here is to figure out why your nitrates are so high. How often are you changing water? What is the lighting schedule like? How much do you feed and how often? All these things can contribute...as well as theose corals dying and creating ammonia.......let us know before making any purchases please for the sake of your animals and wallet.
 
oceansidefish

oceansidefish

Active Member
DO NOT do a 50% water change! In small tank I would do 1g per day for the next 10 days to slowly raise it.... Also stop dosing with Iodine. In that small a tank water changes are all you need to keep healthy corals.
 
pthoma79

pthoma79

Member
Ok, I think I might have it figured out now...
First off, I have been slacking off on my water changes, which I'm sure is the reason for the spike in nitrates. I did a 50% water change, and will check the nitrates again in a bit.
Also, NEVER trust people you haven't seen before at your lfs. I had a new employee recommend iodine to me, and told me to dose with it daily. Being a newbie myself, I said ok, and have been doing it ever since. Coincidentally, that's when my corals started dying off and my fish started getting lethargic. Just looked at the bottle (which I didn't do before
) , and it said to dose once weekly.
Needless to say, the iodine bottle is in the trash now.
Let me know if you guys have any more thoughts. Hopefully I caught it in time...
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
W/c's are best...you should have kept the iodine....you could always use it as a dip at a later time...next time READ instructions..and ASK HERE...LOL
 
pthoma79

pthoma79

Member
Um, yeah. Definately learned my lesson. I don't have a test for iodine, but I should probably invest in one...
 
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