Corals look sick

I need some help with this one. I just started a battle with ICH yesterday. I noticed it Saturday night and all fish were in bad shape by Sunday morning. In the process of capturing all of the fish to place in my quarantine tank I had to do a lot of rearranging. The water got pretty cloudy and the corals got jostled about. Needless to say they were all pretty retracted most of yesterday. The water cleared up by the evening, but still today a lot of my corals still look pretty sick.
Blue Mushrooms - Look so-so some out, alot retracted
Pulsing Tree Xenia - all retracted, no pulsing
Red Open Brain - all retracted
Colt coral - retracted
Green Star polyps - look OK
Pavona - looks OK
Green Button polyps - look OK
I removed some water from the main tank to put in the quarantine tank and have only replaced about a 1/3 of that back in the main tank, but that shouldn't really matter. I used DI water in the mix. The other thing is in panic mode I added some Amquel to the main tank when I saw the sad shape of the fish in case it was caused by a raised ammonia level. Upon testing ammonia level 0ppm. Nitrite level 0ppm also. Haven't tested anything else yet. I also noticed that the brain coral had some clearish slim on it when I was moving it around the tank. Is it possible this slim is affecting the other corals? Is it possible the corals didn't like the Amquel? Am I just not patient enough and things will return to normal? Every single coral was flourishing until yesterday's rash movement. I even had a bunch of xenia and mushroom frags started.
Anyone have any advice. I'll retest the water parameters tonight.
 

predator

Active Member
Usually if you start moving corals around theyt take awhile to adjust and open back up.Give it a little more time. I mean if your testing you water and everything is checking out. Then your tank is not crashing.
On the other hand I have no idea what Amquel is. Though most the time you add anything in your tank that is not a supplement. Your tank will react to it. And it is usually in a negative way.<a href="http://hometown.aol.com/flmeangl44/index.html" target="_blank">CLICK HERE TO SEE MY REEF.</a>
 
Amquel is an instant water detoxifier that is made by Kordon. The LFS recommended it to me before I started reading this board and switched to DI water. It supposedly removes ammonia, chlorine and chloramines. It says it's safe for saltwater use, but this is the first time I've put it in the tank with my corals. It also says it won't interfere with the nitrogen cycle. I wouldn't think it would mess anything up.
Got home from work an hour ago and things still not any better. Xenia looks real bad and brain is not much better. I also have a bubble coral I forgot to mention and looks like it's doing OK.
 
I tested the water tonight and the only thing I see out of alignment is the pH.
Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 0ppm
Nitrate = 0ppm
pH = 7.9 - 8.0
Alkalinity = 3.5meq
sg = 1.024
It's typically a little low usually around 8.1. Is this low enough to cause issues with my corals? Is there any home remedy to raise the pH tonight. All the stores are closed so I won't be able to get any proper pH additive tonight. I just added my B-Ionic 2 part, but I don't think that will help with the pH will it? Any help would be appreciated.
 

bobber

Member
Your pH level is not bad. Your pH will change at differrent times of the day. I would think give it a little more time and things will be fine. HTH-Bob
 
i agree with everyone. just be patient and give it a little longer. your ph isn't really bad. the ideal ph for a saltwater tank is 8.2 so your ok.
 
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