having trouble coral seems to be dying

[yc139]

i have a 90 gallon reef tank i have had it running for 7 months everything was going fine until i bought a fluval fx5 changed filter originally had a wet dry filter sump n now some of my coral seems to be dying any help??

[Original Fin]

Hi YC139,

First off, I'm a newbie, so please take whatever I have to say with a grain of salt. I think I can point you in the right direction though. I'm sure one of the more experienced members will be chiming in shortly, and with a little more info, they can get you on the right path. Can you provide the following?:

-As much water testing info as you can; Temp, PH, Salinity/Specific Gravity, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, and Phospates.
-Do you run a protein Skimmer? If so, provide make and model.
-What kind of lighting, and schedule?
-What fish, inverts and corals do you have?
-Tank turnover rate, or pump/powerhead flow in gallons per hour.
-Type of make up water; i.e, Tap, RO, RODI, etc...
-Sounds like you may not be using live rock/live sand if you're using wet/dry and canister filters...can you confirm?

Trying to read between the lines, I'm wondering if you didn't start a mini cycle when you changed the bio media...if that's the case, then bio filtration and water chemistry will be all out of whack, and your corals and other inverts are likely stressed because of that. We just have to figure out how bad the water is...is it bad enough to kill them, or is it just a short term mini-cycle that they are unhappy about but will recover from?

For keeping corals and other inverts, you really want to dump the bio media, canister filters, and wet drys and just go with all live rock/live sand with a good protein skimmer. Canisters and wet drys are notorious for becoming nitrate factories, and nitrates stress and kill corals and inverts. Fish can tolerate much higher nitrate levels than corals and inverts, so these types of filters may work in a fish only system, but they don't work well for reefkeeping. To keep nitrates in check with these filter systems, You would need to constantly rinse the detritus and other scum off of your filter media, and this of course damages the beneficial bacteria that they are there to provide a home for, so that's not really an answer.
Using a canister to run carbon once in a while is ok...the only real benefit to running carbon in a reef, is to clear the water, or treat for something that's gone wrong...running it too often will tend to strip out trace elements, so for that reason, it doesn't make sense to run it 24/7.
The use of any man made bio media other than Live rock and sand is gonna cause you problems in reefkeeping...I'd dump that stuff if I were you, but I'll defer to the more experienced folks to give advice on how best to transition away from it with a system that's already running. Be sure to check out all the sticky threads in the pertinent forums.

Good luck!

[Ninong]

i have a 90 gallon reef tank i have had it running for 7 months everything was going fine until i bought a fluval fx5 changed filter originally had a wet dry filter sump n now some of my coral seems to be dying any help??

Hi yc139,



There is no way to answer your question based on the information provided. When you say "some of my corals," exactly which corals are you talking about? SPS, LPS, softies? Can you identify the corals that seem to be dying? Can you describe what they are doing that makes them look like they are dying? Are they losing tissue? Do you see any unusual coloration (brown, black, white, etc.)?

Which corals in your tank don't appear to be dying? Are they different from the ones that are dying or are they the same species?

Can you describe your lighting and filtration? Can you provide more information on your water parameters: pH, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, nitrate, water temperature, etc.?

It's virtually impossible to guess at what might be wrong without knowing more about your particular situation, including what, if anything, you have been adding to your tank.

What method do you use to maintain, calcium, alkalinity and magnesium?

[yc139]

I have current usa 8x54 t5 n run the lights from noon to eight I also got a bermuda rogue protein skimmer a hundred pounds of live rock n crushed coral on the floor and running a fluval fx5 my long tentacle has been hiding n a couple hard corals r turning to skelton but I have a brain coral n it seems to b doing fing n lots of zoos doing good n two leathers that r doing fine... I do about a 5 gallon water change about once a week my temp
Is

[twisted]

my guess would be the crush coral collecting crap and causing the nitrates to go up.crushed coral should be removed. you should also do bigger water changes.

[Ninong]

Hi yc139,

Can you provide more information on your water parameters: pH, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, nitrate, water temperature, etc.?

It's virtually impossible to guess at what might be wrong without knowing more about your particular situation, including what, if anything, you have been adding to your tank.

What method do you use to maintain, calcium, alkalinity and magnesium?

Since we're not there looking at your tank, we really do need the above information before we can hazard a guess as to what's causing your problem.

For example, I'm not a fan of crushed coral in a reef aquarium either but I can't say that's part of your problem without knowing your nitrate level.

Can you tell us any more about the couple of hard corals that are turning to skeleton? Are they LPS or SPS? SPS (e.g., Acropora or Montipora) would be more sensitive to water parameters than most LPS or softies.

It's critical to know what, if anything, you have been adding. And how you are maintaining calcium, alkalinity and magnesium.

The information you have provided so far is helpful but without knowing all of the above, it's impossible to guess what's wrong, especially without being there to actually see the tank.

[yc139]

The coral looks like a brain but a lil one I also have a bubble brain but that is doing great... I switched back to my sump and I wanna know when I remove my crush coral which sand should I put? Also I have two koralia 1050 wave makers running and a bermuda roque protein skimmer

[Ninong]

I would remove all of the crushed coral and replace it with sugar-sized aragonite sand, about 3" deep.

Good luck!