Need Coral Help- New to the hobby

michelle9843

michelle9843

New Member
We started a tank about a 10 months ago, and everything was going great until about 3 days ago, we started to notice that our Birds Nest Coral is losing it's polyps, our Scroll Coral is pealing and our acropora or monitpora can't remember which is turning white at the tips....any thoughts???
 
slice

slice

Active Member
Welcome to the forum! You will find many knowledgeable folks here who can help you with most if not all situations.
To diagnose your situation, you will need to post your water and tank parameters: tank size, lighting, filtration, salinity, nitrate, alk, ca, mag, p04, temp, flow, how long the coral has been in the tank, and anything else you can add.
Once these parameters are known, one of the experts will drop by and give a go at a diagnosis or ask more pertinent questions.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Hello and WELCOME!
First...we need to know all about your tank
Tank size?
Lighting?
Type of filtration?
How many power heads?
Do you run a skimmer?
Do you use carbon or any other stuff like Chemipure and such?
Have you been dosing suppliments and how much?
Next we need your water info
What type of water are you using to top off? RO or tap....What type of water did you fill the tank with originally?
What test kits are you using?
What are the numbers?
PH...Alk...Calcium...ammonia...Nitrates...nitrites...phosphates
Once we have this info we can figure out what is upsetting the corals. Sorry Slice i didn't see your post, but we are thinking on the same wave...LOL
 
michelle9843

michelle9843

New Member
Thanks for the quick response!! I was just told the Acropora (showed a picture to a friend) is growing not dying...few one down, just not sure about the other two. Here's my tank info I'm new to this so please bare with me.
75 gallon
Current Light fixture with 2 150 watt Halides, 4 T5's and 18 LED (moon lights)
1 600 Maxi Jet (circulating) and 1 1200 Maxi Jet straight powerhead
30 gallon dip sump tank with a built in skimmer
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Akl. 1.024
Cal. added 3 times a week
Every 2 weeks water change with RO water for LFS
Feeding every other day to help with water quality (don't want to over feed, already had that problem)
Lights run on a cycle, T5's for 1hr, then Halides for 6hrs straight and then T5's for another hour, then moon lights stay on at night.
Few...hope that about covers it???
 
michelle9843

michelle9843

New Member
Hey I figured that out..lol.
Just stressed out over this, I have tried so hard to make sure everything is good, and put allot of time and effort in to keeping our tank good, it's in our bedroom and I look at it every night so I would like to keep looking at it's beauty. These corals happen to be my husband's picks and he's frustrated of whats happening to them, where mine are looking great...lol.
So any help would be appreciated.
 
slice

slice

Active Member
We need some of the experts to chime in on this. Pics would be very helpful. It is true that SPS will show white skeleton at the tips or edges as it grows, then the flesh will cover the new skeleton.
I do note that you list your salinity (1.024) as your alkalinity (usually measured in dKH or meg/L). You say you add calcium 3x/week. Do you test for it? It is never a good idea to dose for anything you don't test for. Do you dose an alkalinity supplement?
 
michelle9843

michelle9843

New Member
Sorry, told you I was new to this, you are correct 1.024 is the salinity. The LFS said for me to add calcium 3 times a week to help since we don't do water changes every week we only top off weekly. Can you add to much calcium? The LFS guy said the types of corals we have will suck it up fast which is why we needed to add it. We will have to get a tester for Alk then as I'm not familiar with what that is so I doubt it's in our test kit now. No we don't add anything else except what I wrote. As for the scroll coral it's losing skin or what i call pealing in the middle not on the edges, but the branching acropora is showing only white tips and not any white any where else (guess that's growing then). As for the birds nest it started losing it's polyps from the bottom. We have it attached to a small rock in the sand bed which is covering part of the base of the coral....could that possibly be the cause? It's losing the polyps from the bottom up...hasn't reach all the way to the top but quickly working on it.
 
slice

slice

Active Member
Don't be sorry about being new, we were all new at some point; my addiction is only 1 1/2 years old, so I am still fairly "new".
There are sticky threads at the top of the "New Hobbyist" forum here, a read through them might be helpful. I would be wary of anything an LFS says unless it is verified by your own research.
Suggested reef aquarium water parameters can be found here:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php
Most folks dose to keep these parameters in line, either manually with a 2-part or with automatic dosing pumps. It is imperative that one tests for anything one doses. I test on a weekly basis (or more frequently if I think something is going on) for pH, nitrate, alkalinity, calcium and magnesium. I have a phosphate test, but I don't use it much as I don't have a p04 problem.
Tissue loss of your scroll coral (is it a Turbinaria?) and your birdsnest does not sound good. I am too inexperienced to say what I think, hoping more experienced folks come by soon.
When you say the birdsnest is loosing polyps, do you mean you are seeing tissue recession? The tissue is receding and the skeleton is showing?
I'm unsure if we can be of help without knowing your water parameters. It may be an alkalinity issue, or a phosphate issue.
 
michelle9843

michelle9843

New Member
Yes, it's white skeliton is showing and no coloring (polyps?) showing like they are falling off. The scroll coral started with a few white spots and now you can actually see the coloration (skin) waving in the current and coming off....all other corals are doing great and show no signs of issues...in fact they are all growing well and coloration is better now then when we purchased them, so I'm not sure if it's just isolated to these two or what it might be. If my branching acropora is growing great then I would think my cal. levels are ok as I would believe (might not be right) my other SPS's should be showing signs of issues as well correct??? Here's a list of what i have in the tank for corals/fish so far....
4 montipora plates
1 encrusting montipora
2 chalises
2 feather dusters
1 anemone
1 candy coral
2 mushrooms
1 brain coral
1 torch
2 zoanthids
1 branching acropora
1 birds nest
1 galaxia
1 toadstool
3 kenya trees
1 watchman goby
1 fire goby
1 yellow/blue damsel
1 pair mated clowns
1 coral beauty
1 sea urchant
1 harlequin shrimp
1 pepperment shrimp
2 turbo snail
2 bumblebee snails
6-8 hermit crabs
 
michelle9843

michelle9843

New Member
We had a six line wrasse but it mysteriously died last week, just crawled in a whole in the rocks and then we found the crabs/snails eating it the next day. Not sure why...no signs of sickness other then it was swimming funny...everyone else is healthy looking.
Oh missed a few nowthing about it
3 nassurisis snail (can't spell that)
1 sally lightfoot crab
 
ibew41

ibew41

Active Member
the coral growing white at the tips can be growth,pics would help.the flow in your tank for sps is low with only the 2 ph.with out cal and alk numbers it is hard to tell you need to get test kits for these if you have any type of coral
 
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