Coral help

[tiwoo]

So this weekend i went to the BAR frag swap, i picked up 16 frags (got some from swap and @Kremis brought me some). I had to drive 2ish hours to get there and 2 ish hours back so the coral ect. was in containers for 2-3 hours as i also went to a LFS and got something to eat. they looked fine when i was acclimating and dipping them. However when i woke up 5 of them were dead (mostly stony ones, 1 mushroom) and a few are dying right now.

I also got a clown fish and coral beauty from the LFS.

When i woke up i did a 30% water change, i have a 40 breeder but it only holds about 30g because of rock and sand ect.

This is the parameters of the night i got the coral and fish.
Salinity: 1.025
ALK: 10
CA: ~500
didn't test others

Mornings parameters (after water change):
Salinity: 1.026
Nitrate: ~1
Phosphate: ~0
ALK: 12

These are my first corals, i had 1 clown fish and no coral in the tank before adding the things above.

The only thing that is really kinda "wrong" with the parameters is the alkalinity. Does anyone know what is happening ?

 

[ashburn2k]

Do you have Auto topoff setup for your tank?


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[DEATH BY SNU SNU]

Dude you got 16 frags....how the heck did I only get 5 frags??? of which most were green mushrooms.....ugh, I'm such a retard

Your alkalinity is too high

 

[Kremis]

Dude you got 16 frags....how the heck did I only get 5 frags??? of which most were green mushrooms.....ugh, I'm such a retard

Your alkalinity is too high

i gave him like 10

 

[DEATH BY SNU SNU]

i gave him like 10

Be my friend, Kremis?

 

[yellojello]

Alk needs to be stable for stony corals. Like ash said, how is your freshwater topoff for evaporation?

 

[DEATH BY SNU SNU]

slowly get your alk down to 7 or 8 and keep it there

 

[tiwoo]

how would i go about doing that @DEATH BY SNU SNU ? and @yellojello i manually top of every few days

 

[yellojello]

Top off every day would be better. Getting an Auto top off system would be best. How much you top off after those few days? If you don't keep stony corals, then you have much more room for parameter swings.

 

[Gablami]

I'm more concerned with how your alk went from 10 to 12 overnight. How are you replacing alkalinity and how are you testing for it?


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[Gablami]

Lowering alkalinity either requires reducing the amount you are supplementing, giving your tank time to use up the alk, or doing water changes with a sw mix with alkalinity less than what you have.


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[DEATH BY SNU SNU]

What salt are you using? Red sea?

 

[DEATH BY SNU SNU]

sounds like Red SEa

 

[tiwoo]

i top off about 1-2 gallons every 1-3 days, im using CoralLife marine salt mix and im using a API reef test kit

 

[DEATH BY SNU SNU]

API? dude get Salifert or better yet Hanna Alk checker if you are serious about SPS

 

[DEATH BY SNU SNU]

why is coralife alk so high? did you get it at petco?

 

[tiwoo]

Im not that serious about sps, just doing beginers stuff right now. @Kremis brought me some sps so thats why i had those

 

[tiwoo]

no i got it from my LFS

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

An alk of 10 or 12 isn't going to immediately effect corals -- even SPS. I know some successful SPS tanks that keep their Alk that high in order to promote growth. His Alk changed because he had just done a water change and very possibly because he tested at a different time of day than the time before. Alk swings throughout the day/night cycle.

What was your acclimation procedure and how did you dip?

 

[Gablami]

I would say, a few hours of transport, a few hours of swap, a few hours of transport, who knows what temp, acclimation and dropping into all of 10, and then a water change, bringing alk to 12. I'm not surprised he experienced some RTN. Not saying those all levels are too high. I've had acros RTN after far less.


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