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Need help, coral dying?

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Captain Ron

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I have had most of these frags for months in my 90 gallon tank. The lighting was someone dim so I had them very close to the top of the water. I think my par was near 100 where they were, but the lights were weak so I'm not entirely certain. My phosphates were also high, around 0.6 or 0.7ppm. After my latest water change 4 days ago my phosphate was at 0.56. The corals looked okay to me 4 days ago, (no white spots on the chalice, puffy flesh on the favia and the other coral. The favia now is really emaciated as can be seen in the photo.)

4 days ago I switched the lighting to 2 radion x30s with intensity at 25% and the corals in these photos I made sure were at about 100 PAR with these new lights. Also at the same time I added rowaphos in a media reactor to the tank as well. 2 days later the phosphate was at 0.28. yesterday the phosphate was at 0.26. The rest of the tank is chock full of hammer corals and those seem fine and unchanged.

Anyone know what is happening to the corals in these photos? Is it the phosphate change? Is it the new lights? Is there still time to save the corals?

Any thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks.

photo1.jpg




photo2.jpg



photo3.jpg
 
Yes to both questions. Do you think I should make any changes? For example reverting back to the old lights temporarily, or do you think perhaps I should just wait it out and the corals will probably adjust in time?
 
Captain Ron said:
Yes to both questions. Do you think I should make any changes? For example reverting back to the old lights temporarily, or do you think perhaps I should just wait it out and the corals will probably adjust in time?
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No I would say to just let them adjust. No sense in shocking them again especially if this new setup is to be their norm.
Seems you did the right thing in attempting to match PAR, and if all else is the same you just need to ride it out.

In the future I would try to lower Phosphates a bit more slowly, and keep in mind that Rowaphos has been known to strip some trace elements.
 
If these corals have issues with 100 PAR then they were not healthy to begin with.

From what I read, rowaphos is GFO which seems to strip out trace elements from your system heavily and I would not use GFO based products for phosphate reduction.

The reduction or elimination of major and minor elements makes them much more sensitive to lights, and potentially reduces their health overall.

If your nitrates are also high enough, I would use Elimi NP from Tropic Marin, or even lanthanum chloride instead.
 
When I checked on 10/21 my nitrates were 5.8 which I assume is reasonable.
Phosphate readings are
Oct. 20 0.56 and rowaphos introduced
Oct. 21 0.28
Oct. 23 0.23
Oct. 26 0.20

I think I'll ride things out for now. If phosphate hits 0.1 I'll turn off the reactor.
 
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