Cap Plate corals are dying

[uhupong]

Please help, i do not understand why ALL my plate cap corals are dying at the same time. All happen within a week period, dying tissue starting from the center and spread outward.

These corals are in the tank for a long time, and has grown very rapidly until now. All other SPS and LPS corals show no illness.

My water parameters are as follow
alk = 9 dkh
cal = 490 ppm
temp 78-79.9
salinity = 1.026

Thank you very much

 

[uhupong]

Addition infos:

These caps are placed in the area where they recieve light from LED par measured ranging at 300-500, with water flow at 80% from mp40 and 100%mp10.

They have grown under this condition from year to date. No rapid change has been made recently.

I dose alk and cal via BRS doserswith water changes disciplinary every 2 weeks.

 

[dannyp02908]

Any new montis? Maybe monti nudis?

 

[uhupong]

Any new montis? Maybe monti nudis?

no, and all happen from center core . It must be stress from something. I suspect my LED at the moment.

 

[frank180reef]

did you recently change your water or dose heavily?

 

[uhupong]

Another suspect, i actually used this to reduce PO4 2 weeks before all this happen.

Reduced phosphate from 0.04 to 0.00

 

[uhupong]

this

 

[SteveDola]

bingo! striping the water of PO4 in a week will bleach out SPS. Damage is done now...

People have done the same thing with GFO. It shocks the coral...needs to be done VERY gradually to corals that have been exposed and acclimated to higher nutrient concentrations.

 

[uhupong]

bingo! striping the water of PO4 in a week will bleach out SPS. Damage is done now...

People have done the same thing with GFO. It shocks the coral...needs to be done VERY gradually to corals that have been exposed and acclimated to higher nutrient concentrations.

Thx !!" I freaked out when I had high PO4 then almost double dose GFO, and dose the red sea po4 reducer (though i use the recommended amount).

 

[uhupong]

bingo! striping the water of PO4 in a week will bleach out SPS. Damage is done now...

People have done the same thing with GFO. It shocks the coral...needs to be done VERY gradually to corals that have been exposed and acclimated to higher nutrient concentrations.

so that bring me to additional questions

1. What to do if I buy coral from a seller who has high po4 tank, but my tank now read 0.00. Will normal acclimation do the trick?

2. Since now that I have 0 po4, can i keep dosing the redsea po4 reducer to keep my level at 0?

3. Assuming I cant keep the PO4 level low, and it increased back to a high level again which in my understanding block approriate amount of light to coral. Wondering, if I can simply ramp up the light intensity to offset that ?

sorry for many queations and THX !

 

[stingythingy45]

Can I ask how/why you thought the PO4 was too high?
And why not reduce feeding or crank up water changes to keep it in check?
I don't think I would try any additives to reduce it.

 

[uhupong]

Can I ask how/why you thought the PO4 was too high?
And why not reduce feeding or crank up water changes to keep it in check?
I don't think I would try any additives to reduce it.

long story short, I have live rocks that leaching phosphates. Only regular water change wont help much.

 

[stingythingy45]

Did you have hair algae?

 

[SteveDola]

I dont use or never will use any type of PO4 reducer in my tank. If I had a massive algae problem then maybe pellets or GFO after exhausting other avenues. When you start chasing numbers with buffers and additives youre asking for problems. I cant tell you for sure what will happen when you add new corals to your system but after a while Id suspect that the chemicals effectiveness will diminish and youll be back to that .04 PO4 unless you keep dosing and your coral stress is just from the initial shock the corals took from the process. New corals maybe fine with proper acclimation or could brown out...I dont know what that redsea product does...

BTW There is nothing wrong with a .04 PO4 reading and many successfully run SPS dominant systems with roughly that reading. What made you add the chemicals? did you have problems or were you just looking for results in a test kit? or were colors faded? poor growth ?

 

[dz6t]

When you start chasing numbers with buffers and additives youre asking for problems.

This is the quote of the year. It is so true.

 

[warrior5]

great thread ,, !!!!! my capdoing the same . just realized must be the 4 week new gfo i started dam!!

 

[dannyp02908]

I thought it was common knowledge that we need a slight PO4 reading for corals.

In answer to one of your questions, you can up the intensity of the lighting in a higher nutrient tank.

I dont know if its the case, but that could maybe be the reason for the bleaching. Low nutrient tanks dont really need a ton of intensity.

 

[dz6t]

Just curious, did you add any acro colony lately?

 

[uhupong]

Just curious, did you add any acro colony lately?

who, me? if so, last time was 3 months ago.

 

[P-Nut]

If everything is growing after a year, then why change things? Keep doing what you were doing before.