Kessil

SF-based testing or debugging LPS + Euphyllia decline?

borker

borker

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I gave away most of my testing equipment a while back since I had primarily a nem / euphyllia tank that I wanted to be lower maintenance.

Recently, I noticed declines / death in some of the harder corals + Acans. Nothing had changed with flow, feeding (broadcast, primarily) - just a bit behind on water changes. Goal of this post is to understand how much work may be required to 'right' the ship. Tank has been stable for ~1 year with the maintenance that I've had. There have been some livestock loss, but that's primarily out of my control (nem in powerhead, fish picking on each other, etc.)

Coral has generally been fine until 2-3 months ago. LPS started dying off (Favia, Acans). I didn't have time to debug (3 kids under 4 and no test kits). The nems + Torches seemed to be fine, but now then previously hardy members of the tank (like a really nice scoly and frogspawn) started quickly receding.

I did 2 'large' water changes, and realized in the process that DT salinity had crept high to 1.28. I've brought that back down, and it seems to be slowing but not stopping the declines.

My questions:
1) Does anyone have an idea of what I should be testing for here and have kits in SF I can borrwo? One clear potential is Alk, but I'm not sure why that would impact frogspawn a ton???
2) Any other reasons that might be causing the decline? Tank has been stable for a while, and I haven't changed the feeding regimen. I've got way more LR than I need to absorb nutrients, and there isn't a ton of algae.

Happy to share pics / have folks come over and take a look.

Appreciate as always any ideas.
 
What I'd do, in order:

  1. Check alk, cal, magnesium.
  2. Check NO3 and PO4 (bottomed out levels of both is bad, since the coral need some nutrients).
  3. Check for flatworms or other parasites. We had a vermetid snail bloom that stung a bunch of our coral and resulted in tissue recession from the bottom up.
  4. Run carbon, if you're not running it already.
  5. Worst case scenario, try running an ICP test to see if there's something in the water.
 
Check the tank to see if anything has fallen in (3 kids under 4) and if pumps or magnets have exposed metals.
 
borker said:
I gave away most of my testing equipment a while back since I had primarily a nem / euphyllia tank that I wanted to be lower maintenance.

Recently, I noticed declines / death in some of the harder corals + Acans. Nothing had changed with flow, feeding (broadcast, primarily) - just a bit behind on water changes. Goal of this post is to understand how much work may be required to 'right' the ship. Tank has been stable for ~1 year with the maintenance that I've had. There have been some livestock loss, but that's primarily out of my control (nem in powerhead, fish picking on each other, etc.)

Coral has generally been fine until 2-3 months ago. LPS started dying off (Favia, Acans). I didn't have time to debug (3 kids under 4 and no test kits). The nems + Torches seemed to be fine, but now then previously hardy members of the tank (like a really nice scoly and frogspawn) started quickly receding.

I did 2 'large' water changes, and realized in the process that DT salinity had crept high to 1.28. I've brought that back down, and it seems to be slowing but not stopping the declines.

My questions:
1) Does anyone have an idea of what I should be testing for here and have kits in SF I can borrwo? One clear potential is Alk, but I'm not sure why that would impact frogspawn a ton???
2) Any other reasons that might be causing the decline? Tank has been stable for a while, and I haven't changed the feeding regimen. I've got way more LR than I need to absorb nutrients, and there isn't a ton of algae.

Happy to share pics / have folks come over and take a look.

Appreciate as always any ideas.
Click to expand...
I had similar issues recently. I'd been having issues with SPS in my display, but generally ignored it. Then my nem's previously very health splits started shrinking and occasionally popping its insides out like they do when unhappy.

Then the frogspawn that I'd grown from a couple heads to a decent size colony started dropping heads. Did ICP testing and such, everything looks great. Nitrate slightly high. I pulled the frogspawn and put it in my frag tank where everything's super healthy and it didn't get better and dropped another head or two.

Then my torches started looking like they were receding.

I happen to have some cipro from a previous traveling situation, so I've done a couple cipro dips and have them all hanging out in my display's sump / mini-frag tank. Seems like they're doing decent in there.

I'd do an ICP test. The Triton one you can get back fast. At least rules out a bunch of stuff and only costs $50. I'd also do a decent size water change + add carbon. For me, with a big water change things would seem better for a bit. I also hadn't done much water changes for awhile. Hard to avoid conspiracy theorizing a couple anecdotal, similar time frame, issues, but I can't help but think there's something in the salt or coming from one of the local LFS or in the air or ...

In my case everything else in that tank seem stable now. Only other thing I started changing recently was dosing AB+ which I'm definitely seeing great results from on the SPS.
 
Thanks everyone! I had been checking Salinity / Temp, but got lazy because I thought my water changes were sufficient. I think it crept up over time, and is now back to 1.023 (on the lower end to allow for evaporation).

Given my lack of time and test kits - @CaseyP came over and has tested my water. So far, high nitrates / phosphates and ICP test will be going out.

I am running carbon and will put more in. I've also removed the dying skeletons of the LPS. Frogspawn is still receding as is the Scoly but seems to be happening more slowly. Nems have stopped receding and torches (including a new frag from Casey) seem to be doing well. So the situation doesn't appear to be getting worse at least! Look forward to the frag swap perhaps for some restocks.

@richiev our situations seem similar... it's a bit strange, but I'll keep everyone posted on what, if anything, I find.
 
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