Urgent Favia coral hurting....

Forum: Since my last water change (5g every week ) i have noticed a a turn for the worst in what used to be my favia coral. Could someone tell me what may be the problem and what steps do i need to take to try to revive this bad boy.

In addition we started a new lighting schedule about two months ago which seems to coincide with the start of several problems such as Cyanobacteria / Green alge on my sand bed and L/R. After requesting advise our plan of attack was the lights out for 48 hours and funky things began to happen with the corals which have led up to this current issue.

Last night i changed the position to the sub-straight just in case it was lighting related.



Here is what i got going after testing this morning:


No2 - 0
Nh3/Nh4 - 0
Ca2+ - 320
Ph - 8.6 seems high

Once again thanks to all for the advise....

E

 

Can you include a FTS or something gives reference to where it is postioned with relation to the lighting.

I have done 4 day blackouts on my tank with no ill effects on corals at all. But I did acclimate them back to the lighting aftwards.

Lighting type as well.

I have melted favias before with regard to too intense of lighting.

 

Corailline:

Thanks again for your help your the best...

It is now located at the bottom left hand corner of the substraight.

Until last night it was at the top left hand corner.

Here is my FTS and lighting

Power Compact Fluorescent 24in ODYSSEA Lighting

TY

E

 

Oh your tank looks very nice.

CF's should really not be the problem, but I would leave it lower in the tank for a couple weeks and see if it gets better.

It is not bleached judging by the pictures, just showing some tissue recession. It takes awhile to recover from tissue recession, months infact.

 

What is your alk? Your ca is low and your pH is high, this would suggest that you may have somehow overdosed on alkalinity, or your pH test kit a bit off. If your alkalinity is high, wait and let it come down on it's own, then maintain at a reasonable level. Also, try to raise ca a bit regardless. It would be tough to raise ca though if your alk is super high, so, you may need to wait a bit for your alk to drop first.

Or another possibility is you mg is too low to maintain ca and alk. So you have a mg test kit?

As far as lights out, I suppose lights out could have had a negative effect. For one, corals need light, and if the coral wasn't getting enough light to begin with and then you removed the light entirely, it could have started to starve to death. Possible leaving it open to an opportunistic infection. Also, killing off algae could have released toxins into the system. If they weren't filters out, this could be an issue.

Anyways, I would check the ca, alk, and mg first as these are easy to check and then go from there.

 

Ty Corailline we will monitor

 

m2434: I cant tell i bought a crappy Red Sea Pro test kit for alk which i cant get to work of figure out... they sent me replacement syringes for the dropper go figure...

I have tried to determine why my alk is to no avail I'm actually headed to the LFS so they can explain how to use the darn thing which cost me 20 bucks... I have used up numerous test and cannot get it to turn pink or purple..

Here is what i have tried with the test....

1.Clean the test vial by rinsing it with tap water and drying it with tissue paper.

2.Clean the large (5 ml) syringe by rinsing it with the water to be tested.

3.Using the large (5 ml) syringe provided, place exactly 10 ml of aquarium water into the test vial. Avoid drawing air bubbles inside the syringe.

4.Insert the plastic 1 ml syringe into the reagent bottle and draw up the reagent until the level of the liquid reaches the 1.0 ml mark. Avoid drawing in air bubbles inside the
syringe as this will affect the accuracy of the test.

Note: Alkalinity Pro titrant is packed with a dropper inserted in the neck to prevent leakage during shipment. You must remove this dropper before inserting the syringe into the bottle.

5.Hold the syringe with Alkalinity Pro titrant in one hand while holding the test vial in the other.

6.Add Alkalinity Pro titrant to the test vial while mixing gently. Add Alkalinity Pro titrant gradually, paying attention to the color in the vial. As the color in the vial
approaches the end color on the color card, add one drop at a time until the end color is achieved.

7.Note the amount of titrant used. You may return any unused titrant to the bottle. Rinse both syringes and the test vial with tap water before storing.

Any help would be appreciated brother

E

 

Havn't used that one. Sounds complicated though but sounds like your going step by step with the instructions. Suppose the alk could be really high, or the kit isn't working. Did you add alk, or are you using tap water? Does the lfs have something simple, like a good old cheap API alk test kit? With the API, you just fill up the vial with water, to the line. Add the reagent, drop by drop. Shaking in between drops and count the number of drops. If not, can your LFS test it for you?

 

Well, it's supposed to be blue > purple > orange/yellow, with orange/yellow being the "added too much titrant" reading. Titrant, BTW, is the stuff you drip in slowly with the syringe.

Thing is, mine never turned purple, only straight to orange/yellow. To get a reading, at the point you see orange/yellow, stop adding the titrant, look at the syringe and read it. The amount used corresponds to both a chart and a formula in the booklet that comes with the test, and that'll give you your alk in meq/l units.

Usually, people talk about alk in dKh (different unit of measure), though, so you might want to convert it. There's a converter here:

SaltyZoo's Alkalinity Reading Conversion (meq/l / dKH / ppm CaCO3) Utility

 

Sounds very similar to the Salifert Test. The kit could be expired, or your Alk is off the charts. Do you dose anything (Purple Up maybe)?

+1 on the API kit. Cheap enough route to see instead of buying another Red Sea/Salifert/Elos...