got ethical husbandry?

Coral issues, browning, stning, etc.

So I've had a frag tank setup (40B) after I shut down my tank, and had a few corals go wonky, but now I'm seeing a big wonk happening and have no idea what's going on. So a some acros are STNing, it's not fast but over a period of a few days poof all white. Now one of my larger colories a green slimer is really browning out on me, and I can't figure out a reason why. The thing is the slimer is actually growing with new little growth nubs popping out, a blue milli is also having a massive growth spurt (and no change in color or signs of distress... yet) . I just tossed in a polyfilter pad in case something went "bad" with copper, or some other heavy metal as it supposedly changes color accordingly if that is present. Occasionally a chalice does get "gaping mouthes" but the next day it looks fine.

So phosphates are 0.02, nitrates are undetectable, sg 1.026, at first thought no fish might mean not enough nutrients but I do put in AcroPower (aminos) and I'm not sure that would cause STNing though, I also drip kalkwasser in and alkalinity will be 8.5 to 9. PAR numbers in the 250-350 range "ish" at the bottom of the tank, Tiny snails are roaming around so it's not like all inverts are getting killed. I'm just baffled by what's going on.

Probably going to do a big water change soon, but if I don't know what's going on that'll just be a stop gap and it'll continue to happen. Tempted to do an ICP test but that'll probably have a 2 week turnaround from getting the kit, to sending it off, to results. and I have a feeling things might not be alive by then.

So anyone have any ideas? Too bright maybe? chemical/elemental issues?
 
If you have ultra low nutrients you wanna run alk in the 7s
Hmm, I'm not trying to do ultra low nutrients, but I'll see about letting the alk get back down to 7. See how quick it drops with no more kalk dosing for now. I'm weary to do a water change because I think the salt mixes to more than 7dkh, so it really won't help.

pic would help. what's the flow like? and which colonies have been affected so far?
Other than the return pump and a small nano pump near the bottom, the flow is primarily a Gyre 4k pump I mean water is moving ... I think.. Acros have been the hardest hit as far as issues though, although some of the montis look lack luster (lost a blue digitata too). So whatever it is I don't suspect a general pest, i.e. AEFW.

Here's some picture, do note some of the colors a bit wonky since I had to use a filter to not have super blue view (even though it looks relatively white to the eye).

Here's a couple acros with growth, blue stag, and the blue milli (looks purple with camera) literally every small branch is new growth that occurred over the past few weeks, the milli is exploding with growth though
Dx9UGku.jpg


frag that went to white over 3+ days, larger chunk is showing signs of unhappy browning, zoas though look fine.
bGEzv8U.jpg


Here's the slimer, it's not a brown slimer, this happened over a week or so gradually (ignore the frag rack I had to move it to take another picture). But all those little branches are all new growth that's been going like crazy too, new growth came before browning.
uVklm2I.jpg


Here's the other side of the slimer, and a coral that has white forming, but it is somewhat shaded (more on this in the next shot).
9hbbl1o.jpg


So I originally took the picture to show the algae growing on a wall, the tank went through some algae issues some weeks back, and it was a matter of scrape/siphon/scrape/siphon, but just wanted to say there's probably SOME nutrients. However I noticed the favia. The top is definitely browned out, but the underside is quite colorful. So at least this one is not liking the light, but if it's a light issue why would the not lit part of that one acro start to have tissue issues.
Y6R4v7a.jpg


So maybe a combination of bright lights plus high alk is doing something. I'll see about lowering the light levels later, there's two lights over it, maybe see if I can make one less bright than the other... easily.
 
Either bring your nitrates up or drop your alk as Mike mentioned. With those low nitrate levels you can even go below 7s into the 6s.
 
Same thing going on here Mike. It happened to me two years ago as well. some things are growing and some are dying. I am throwing the kitchen sink at it, and think maybe I took too long to change the carbon block on the DI. But who the hell knows.
 
Mike, try to bump the nutrients or lower the Alk like Eric said. Also just curious what salt you are using.

Rich, you have been having that problem for a couple years now?
 
Same thing going on here Mike. It happened to me two years ago as well. some things are growing and some are dying. I am throwing the kitchen sink at it, and think maybe I took too long to change the carbon block on the DI. But who the hell knows.
Yeah I thought about the RO/DI system too, the resin still looks good to go color wise, but the fact I don't remember when I last changed the blocks kind of worries me but all the filters still look spangly white no browning on the sediment filters at all. Maybe I'll do that as well.

Mike, try to bump the nutrients or lower the Alk like Eric said. Also just curious what salt you are using.
This frag tank I whipped up a batch with Red Sea blue bucket, I did a bit of a micro-water change a few weeks back with some old instant ocean when I sucked out some detritus out and needed to replace some water, but that wouldn't have been even a 1% water change.
 
And of course another problem... check the alk with a Hanna auto checker, 8.9. Used the Red Sea test kit 6.3, granted the Red Sea one is a bit on the old side, but COME ON! Reefing gods are just screwing with me now.
 
I had a recent tank issue thatvwas similar...but tips were getting burned on some, some browned, and some did fine.

I managed to solve it running cuprisorb and doing a water change. The cuprisorb alone helped immensely. Suggest trying that.

Either way, what will help out stave off the whitebanding is a dip for 8 mins of 125mg cipro + 250mg amoxicillin. Whatever is stressing your pieces is probably giving way to bacteria having a party atvyour expense. This will help buy you time...
 
And of course another problem... check the alk with a Hanna auto checker, 8.9. Used the Red Sea test kit 6.3, granted the Red Sea one is a bit on the old side, but COME ON! Reefing gods are just screwing with me now.
Do you know what your make up water should test at? Mix up a batch and test it.
 
Agree with others that lower alk is better at your nutrient levels.

Also, I know your P04 is only 0.02, but I’ve read that without nitrates, any phosphate present could cause some distress. Maybe dose some sodium nitrate?
 
Well after that mismatch of readings with the red sea test kit I might be questioning some of those values, although this was literally clean salt water, and the only nutrients other than amino acids I've put in come from the dead flesh of corals that died, or possibly some algae that dies. Who knows maybe I should try feeding some of the lobos some mysis at night to get a little nutrients going :D
 
Is your tank temperature stable? After being weakened by high alk, high PAR, and no nutrients, a sudden shock like a temp/alk spike could make them this unhappy.
 
Wild guess: Too little food plus too much white light to me.

Your corals look decided brownish. Hard to know for sure without knowing white balance/etc, but seems that way.
I have seen that when light is too strong or white.

Your rocks seem to have zero life on them, and only algae is on sides and in dark areas of the tank.
That indicates both very low nutrients, and too much light.

So what I would do:
Add nitrates.
Reduce white level of LEDs a lot.
 
yeah this browning is definitely a thing, and relatively new too. The lights are on the AB+ schedule, which I think is something like blues/violets 100% and then whites 24% all relative to max intensity which was at 35 now I dropped it to 28%

The rocks were super sun bleached and dry as dry can be, and the corals that went in there were quite literally frags only with no base rock from the prior tank, so it's not surprising that algae didn't spontaneously pop up, like coraline.

I'm still deciding how accurate the high alk rating is. Mike measured it at 5.4, but I don't know if that's because it was sitting outside in a cup outside his house for too long (pH?) but seems more in line to what I got with the Red Sea test kit. Really irritating if that Hanna check is off by that much though, I mean I recently changed the battery out, and the reagent wasn't super old or anything. Unfortunately I'm in a bit of a grey area as far as fish stores, at least a 30 minute drive to any places to get even an API KH test kit to at least figure out where it should be. Would too low alk do this by chance?

That said, adding nitrates... easiest way to do it is why buy a damsel at the store and feed it? I really would like to not have to feed fish if possible.
 
Is your tank temperature stable? After being weakened by high alk, high PAR, and no nutrients, a sudden shock like a temp/alk spike could make them this unhappy.
I would like to say it is, but honestly, I don't know for certain as I don't have a controller that monitors/records the temp, just a standard temp controller (not one built into the heater).
 
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