Issues with Corals Slowly Dying (1 Viewer)

[TooMuchDog]

For the last few months all of my coral has been slowly dying 1 by 1. It is mostly LPS, some casualties to now are an elegance, two torches, zoas, and a frogspawn. It has now started happening to my goni and acans. I've attached a photo of the goni. You can see it has started having some brown coating on it. Also attaching my latest icp test results from the lab. These values have been pretty stable the whole time the issue has been going on. Alk is high because of red sea pro salt, but I switched to HW-Marinemix since this test. I have two clowns, an orangespot rabbitfish, purple reef lobster, and a watchman goby / pistol shrimp aside from the coral. Any suggestions what could be killing off all my coral slowly?

 

[BigRick]

Bacterial infection. Look at doing ciprflsxin in tank treatment.

 

[Cody]

If your chemistry checks out, which according to the results of that test, they do, then the next thing to look at is flow. I would also double check the nutrients with an at-home kit and see if they give similar results. Are you testing these at home? What results do you get? People put more emphasis on the alk/cal/mag results than they should. That fertilizer (NO3 and PO4) is more important in my experience, considering that 95%+ of the carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins, etc that your corals need to survive are provided via photosynthesis. Too low then there's no fuel. Too high then photosynthesis slows down, thus starving the corals.

 

[TooMuchDog]

I guess bacteria is one possibility. I'll try one of those aquabiome tests then look into cipro.

Flow has been pretty much the same forever. I have an mp10 and mp40 on the tank. Everything is gently flowing in the current. I have turned down the lighting some as the coral condition has deteriorated to try to reduce stress.

Yes, I test every week or two. The icp matches my expectations. Sometimes nitrate 0's out but I add stump remover on occasion to try to keep that up. I also add 2 tsp of reefroids weekly. Silicon is always high on icp even after using silicabuster cartridges but I've read that if you don't have a diatom issue then it isn't a concern.

 

[webster1234]

Could be a lighting issue. What kind of lights are you running?

 

[TooMuchDog]

Could be a lighting issue. What kind of lights are you running?

I've got two radion xr15s running at about 75% for 8 hours with an hour ramp up and down. Then I have 2 blue plus and 2 purple plus 48" running about 6 hours a day.

Used to do more lighting but have turned it down since having issues. But it didn't change anything

 

[webster1234]

I've got two radion xr15s running at about 75% for 8 hours with an hour ramp up and down. Then I have 2 blue plus and 2 purple plus 48" running about 6 hours a day.

Used to do more lighting but have turned it down since having issues. But it didn't change anything

How old are your T5's? I run T5s exclusively and have had similar issues before, only to realize my bulbs were 2 years old. I replaced the bulbs and growth returned.

Not saying this is your case, but one could argue that if you had good growth before and don't now, it could be because your bulbs have aged out. Others will disagree but I ran LED when I first started my tank and had "ok" growth. After switching to T5 however, it was a game changer. I won't run anything but now.

 

[TooMuchDog]

How old are your T5's? I run T5s exclusively and have had similar issues before, only to realize my bulbs were 2 years old. I replaced the bulbs and growth returned.

Not saying this is your case, but one could argue that if you had good growth before and don't now, it could be because your bulbs have aged out. Others will disagree but I ran LED when I first started my tank and had "ok" growth. After switching to T5 however, it was a game changer. I won't run anything but now.

Ya that was one place I checked when the issue first happened. Got new t5 lights about 4 months ago but no improvement really.

The cipro seems to be helping or at the least giving a placebo effect

 

[BigRick]

Ya that was one place I checked when the issue first happened. Got new t5 lights about 4 months ago but no improvement really.

The cipro seems to be helping or at the least giving a placebo effect

Imo as the hobby has taken off a lot of people are carrying acrobacter bacteria which causes brown jelly. I've been doing ciprofloxacin whole tank treatments now with great success.

 

[webster1234]

agree with BigRick. It's about eliminating variables. If lights are new, rule that out. ICP test says water quality is good, nix that. Bacterial seems to be the next logical culprit to address (which you are it sounds like)

 

[TooMuchDog]

So I finally got my bacteria test results. A bit low diversity, but doesn't seem like anything harmful to coral is really present.
1002233_Microbiome_Report

I guess the mystery continues