Birdnest and stylo dieing (1 Viewer)

[turtlesoup2]

Over the past week I've notice my stylo and birdnest have been progressively going down hill with polyp loss. I'm worried about loosing the rest of my Sps who are doing great.I suctioned a part of the dead birdnest and found this little thing..I'm afraid of red bugs.

Ca-460
Alk-7.7 DKH
Mg-1260


View attachment 2680

 

[turtlesoup2]

Also should add that I haven't added anything besides 3 fighting conch and 2 sand sifting starfish

 

[turtlesoup2]

I ruled out acro eating flatworms, but I will have to inspect the birdnest for redworms.

 

[turtlesoup2]

No red bugs either and now two more Sps corals are also loosing polyps, I have no clue what's happening to them

 

[rlpardue]

I noticed a similar event once when my nitrates spiked. Had to do a lot of water changes, and I started carbon-dosing.

 

[MontroseReef]

They are hardy acros. I can say calcium and mag is a bit low. They can tolerate phosphate and nitrate.
Also if you are running carbon media or chemiclean, take them out.

 

[turtlesoup2]

I am running GFO and carbon, also I dipped all infected coral in coral ex just a few minutes ago. So your saying I should remove my carbon?

 

[MontroseReef]

No carbon. Take it out now

 

[rlpardue]

How long have you been dosing carbon for?

 

[turtlesoup2]

Whats wrong with carbon? I have been running it since the beginning of the tank

 

[MontroseReef]

I am talking about carbon media not dosing. It takes away trace elements and stress the SPS to dead. I only run carbon 1/2 of the recommended and not continually. Let it run for 2 days once every other week and take it off. It only took me 5 months to learn and my SPS are growing like crazy.

 

[rlpardue]

Did you check all your nutrient levels yet? (NO3, PO4, even ammonia)

 

[turtlesoup2]

I don't have a po4 test, but using a cheap API test, my no3 is 0. Also I just got done removing the carbon

 

[RR-MAN]

Turtle,

I see that your DKH is @ 7.7. Do you keep it under 8 @ all times or it just dropped due to lack of dosing??? My tank does not do well when DKH drops below 8. I keep mine @ 9 where I have some room for error.

 

[rlpardue]

Lol I try to keep my dkh just a hair under 8. At least, I've been keeping it there since Hans Werner Balling (the uber-geeky German aquatic chemist) said he keeps his at 7.5. (This surprised me a great deal, since most tanks I see have much higher alk) I think if you're carbon-dosing, there may be a consensus that keeping dkh low is better. It warrants some research on RC. Either way, change alkalinity very slowly.

 

[MontroseReef]

Turtle,

I see that your DKH is @ 7.7. Do you keep it under 8 @ all times or it just dropped due to lack of dosing??? My tank does not do well when DKH drops below 8. I keep mine @ 9 where I have some room for error.

I know my SPS start to bleach when DKH is below 7. The lowest I would go and still has colorful SPS is 9.

 

[turtlesoup2]

Originally yes it was low because my lack of dosing, but since the dosing pump I've been slowly monitoring and trying to raise it.

 

[turtlesoup2]

So far a green stylo colony, pink stylo frag, blue bottle bush frag, large unknown acro colony, millipora colony, green birdnest colony are affected and only the pink stylo, millipora colony, and the green birdnest colony are 50% dead. I'm extremely worried of loosing my red planet, plum crazy, and enchinata colonies!!