So I’ve been having some issues with a few corals. Clove polyps that look wilted, a tree leather that has been struggling for months, even some mushrooms going down hill. Easier stuff that should be thriving. All my peramitors are good. Well tonight at 2:00 am i turned a flashlight on the tank and saw alot of critters scattering from around the tree leather, smaller than fleas, light greyish in color. If anyone has any ideas that could help me get things turned around before it gets worse I’d appreciate the input. Thanks, Tim
Sounds like a water parameter issue to me, or it could be lights. Can you post up what your parameters are?
pH
Temp
Nitrates
Alkalinity
Calcium
Phosphate (if you have it)
Salinity
What kind of lights are you using? The critters you saw sound like pods. They’re part of your cleanup crew, shouldn’t be giving you an issue.
I’m putting my money on too much light. If mushrooms are deteriorating then it’s usually a light issue.
Following along for parameters and type of light over the tank.
What size tank do you have them in? Has anything died in the tank recently?
What kind of lighting are you using?
A full tank pic would be helpful.
Well the three you have listed all have a few things in common they like less flow than SPS, then like dirtier water than SPS and LPS and less light then SPS and LPS IME they also like salinity to be a little on the high side too like 1.027
Totally agree with what Hudson said.
Ok, the tank is a 50 gal cube with maybe a 15 gal. sump. Hasent been any deaths in the tank since day one.
Parameters are,
Salinity 1.026
Temp 79 F
Nitrates 5.0 ppm
Phosphate 0 ppm
Calcium 460 ppm
Carbonate hardness 8 dkh
Thats all im able to test for at this point. My Rodi water is testing 0 tds and I do a 30 percent water change weekly. Now, on to the light. Its a chinese knock off Led that i actually learned about on this forum 3 or 4 years ago. Its 120 watt that i run at about 30 percent on the whites and maybe 50 on the blues, 8" above the water for 8 hrs. a day. Only other thing i remember about the lights is that the guy that was selling them was in Va. Beach i think, maybe so.eone remembers them
One thing i forgot to mention, i do run carbon and gfo in a brs reactor. Having trouble figuring out how to post pictures, I’ll keep trying.
what other corals do you have? carbon is a good thing with softys but unless you really have SPS that need a really low PO4 I would take the GFO offline and see if that helps.
I just got my first sps about 10 days ago, a montipora. Other than that, all lps. The reason I’m not thinking its light is that the mushrooms that look the worse are the ones that are in the shadiest areas of the tank, but none of them are doing what they were. So I’m wondering if its possibly lack of instead of to much. What i dont understand is that everything was doing well untill about 2 weeks ago and have just gone down hill since without any changes. Frustrating.
If everything was doing well until about 2 weeks ago, then something changed about 3 weeks ago.
It may not have been anything you’ve done or not done, it could be something like carbon leaching impurities back in to the water column, it could be that something stirred up the sand bed and exposed some anaerobic bacteria to air.
Mushrooms are really very hardy animals and can withstand a lot. I’ve seen them grow under MH lights and I’ve seen them grow in a fuge with nothing more than an incandescent bulb.
I don’t see a reading for PH - this time of year it’s very common to have PH issues because the house is buttoned up tight and there’s an increased level of CO2 in the house.
First things first.
IMO, and there will be others, 30% water changes weekly seems to me to be excessive. Cut down to 20% biweekly. I think your calcium reading is way too high, should be lower, @ 350 - 400.
Try keeping the light on for 10 hrs a day.
Turn off the reactor.
Check to see if your temp reading fluctuates from day to night time, and if so by how much.
What fish are in your tank? Have you added any fish lately?
Just my :TWOCENTS
download pics to photobucket and then copy and paste image link to our website
Running carbon and doing rodi may be stripping the nutrients in the water, making it “too clean” are you adding any suppliments to the water?
Just a quick update, things seem to be rebounding pretty good. Still not exactly sure as to what was going on but Craigs thought on stirring things up is possible, I got into the substrate pretty deep on a few water changes I’ve cut back to a 10 percent weekly change and stoped the carbon and gfo. Other than that I reduced the light intensity but increased it from 8 hrs daily to 10. I havent reduced the calcium level because honestly, Im not sure as the best way to do it. I’ve also noticed that i have about a 2 degree fluctuation in temp from night to day, im not sure if thats excessive or not. Lastly i want to thank everyone for thier thoughts and suggestions.
It is good to hear your corals are doing better. :BEER
What watt heater are you using?
A 2 degree change in water temp overnight to me is not ideal IMO. But if your corals are doing ok, it may be that they have gotten acclimated to the change at night.
It could also mean that your heater cannot keep up with the water temp change. keep monitoring the temp.