Corals Dying?

[readingbabelfish]

Hello,

I have recently noticed that my zoo polyps are not opening and they are laying down like they are dying. Also my small anemones or whatever they are called on the live rock are shriveled up and not looking too good. I have not changed anything in my daily regiment. My ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are at zero. No phosphates. Ph is still around 8.2. My alkalinity is around 9. It was up around 11, but has slowly dropped to 9 over the last few weeks. I tested my saltwater that I do water changes with and it is barely a 6 in alkalinity. Calicium is almost 400, I do not test for iodine or magnesium, should I? Also I have a stainless steel hoseclamp on one of my pumps, is that bad? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Fish, cleaner shrimp, serpent star, and snails are all fine. I have noticed a stringy brown algae that has appeared over some of my coraline algae that is covering the sides and back of the tank. I have pleanty of lighing... These corals look like they have seen way better days, I am considering pitching them. Thank you all!

[gregr]

There are so many things it could be, but a lot of them would show up in the tests and your levels look good. How old are your bulbs? Old bulbs can cause algae problems and make your corals unhappy.

[readingbabelfish]

All of my bulbs were bought new in Feb. I have reduced lighting and feeding, maybe I was feeding too much... I mean, everything else that lives in my tank with the exception of the corals and anemone things are doing great... Shrimp molting and mating, fish doing great, snails happy... Just no clue why they would be dying.

[gregr]

Could you post a picture of the tank and maybe a closer up shot of a coral or two? Sometimes it's easier to "see" a problem.

[readingbabelfish]

I cannot post a pic because my main comp is down. I think it may be an issue with lighting. The left side of my tank is where the stuff is dying, the right side seems ok. But I have an acan on the left that seems ok, the only thing dying is one small polyp colony and my two anemone things.... Weird

[Parrothead]

Exactly what kind of lighting are you using???????

[gregr]

Along with the lighting info it'll make it quicker to figure out the problem if you list as much info as you can about the tank. How old, how is it set up: liverock/livesand/sump/skimmer/water movement/temp stability/water change schedule/saltmix/water change water- is it ro/di (auto top off?), etc. Pretty much everything you can think of. There are so many variables in this hobby it makes it hard to pinpoint the problem without a lot of background.
You asked about testing for magnesium and iodine. Others may feel differently but for iodine I don't test and don't think you need to test unless you're adding iodine to your tank, and it's probably not necessary to supplement unless you have a ton of xenia and zoos... and even then it's probably not needed if you do regular water changes with good salt. As for magnesium- if you're going to be keeping lots of corals you want to make sure the mag is around 1300-1350 roughly.

[readingbabelfish]

Ok, the tank is a 75g, with canopy. It has been up and had fish in it for about 6 months. I have about 70 lbs of live rock, and just aragonite sand. Plenty of copepods, the temp is steady around 76-78 degrees. it has a coralife superskimmer rated for 220 gallons or something. it has a trickle filter with over flow box moving around 750 gallons per hour. it has a korolia 5 and a 1 on the opposite side of the filter return. the lighting is 4 54w t5 bulbs powered by a icecap 660 ballast and two 175w metal halides powered by 2 icecap 175w electronic ballasts. the t5s are two reefsun whites and two actinic blues. the mh are both 14k. however the one side of the canapy is being run on a much older icecap mh ballast. that is the side where i get a lot of salt creep on the t5 and mh bulbs, where the anemone things are all shriveled and the polyps are dying. I have noticed this brown threadlike algae growing predominately on that side of the tank also. i used to feed the fish everyday, and the corals at night with oyster eggs about 1 or 2 times per week. i use instant ocean reef crystals, and ro water. i was doing 5 gallon water changes every sat trying to bring the calcium level up. any ideas?

[Parrothead]

Pictures are gonna be needed, based on what you stated above, we are gonna need pictures of said ill corals to help.....