brain in trouble

[jtmzrose]

I have had my tank up for about a year now and have never been able to keep any new stoney coral in my tank. I have had a brain coral that came with my live rock and has always done well. It is now sarting to receed. My calcium is 420 and my pH is 8.3. I do not know what else to check. does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[treehugger]

Do you have any pictures of it? Has it had any kind of trauma lately? Where is it placed in the tank? What kind of lighting do you have on it? What is your alkalinity? Are you adding any kind of supplements? Let me know

 

[jtmzrose]

Do you have any pictures of it?
I will send pics in the morning when my lights come back on.

Has it had any kind of trauma lately?
It has not moved in over six months. There is nothing above it so I do not believe it has been hit.

Where is it placed in the tank?
The brain is in the middle of the tank, about 2ft below my lights.

What kind of lighting do you have on it?
I have three 250 MH (4 months old). One 20K and two 15K. My 20K comes on at 7AM and the two 15K come on at 11AM. The two 15K turn off at 6PM and the 20K turns off at 8PM. I used to leave all the lights on all day but recently changed to this configuration because I was told I was using too much light.

What is your alkalinity?
Not sure. I have been testing it with the dip sticks but recently ran out. I have never had any of these parameters out of the safe range on the stick.

Are you adding any kind of supplements?
I am using SeaChem calcium and buffer to keep my calcium and pH up.

FYI - The only fitration I have in my tank is a ETSS 800 protien skimer I only run at night. There is also a thin film on the water in my tank. Not sure what this is but again has not been an issue to date. I will also send a couple pics of another coral I have which is doing worse than the brain but I do not know what it is called as it came with the rock as well. I added several power heads a couple months ago with a wave maker. This seemed to help everything in the tank so I am assuming it is not the issue.

 

[Mrktplayer]

6 powerheads... what kind and what size is your tank? Are these powerheads pointed towards the corals? If the jet stream points directly towards the coral it may tear the tissue... hence, the receeding.

I would check alkalinity too. Low alk is not good ;-)

 

[jtmzrose]

Four powerheads. Two Hydor 4 (1200 gph)on the bottom of the tank pointed behind all my rock and two Odysea EX-250 (250gph) on the top of the tank pointed at the glass in the front of the tank. All of the pumps are connected to a Red Sea wave master pro. The tanks volume is circulated through a 1200 ghp pump and fed back into the tank through 8 lok-line nozzles again not pointing at the corals. My system is 135 gal (72x24x18)glass tank with a 40 gal sump.

I will go get an alkalinity test kit tomorrow.

 

[LakeEd]

I will go get an alkalinity test kit tomorrow.

Just a suggestion here... DO NOT GET THE DIP-STICK type testset!!!

Spend the extra money, and buy Salifert!!!! More accurate, and with things going on in your system, that accuracy may help you actually find out what is happening.

The Dip-Stick type testsets only tell you if you are in a "safe" range. What is that range???? Who knows? If the low end of "safe" happens to be 7.6, and the top end of "safe" is 8.4... that is a HUGE difference, and if your system is swinging between both extreams (which still show you "safe"), that alone could be your problem... and you wouldn't have a clue its happening.

So... spend the few dollars more, and purchase a good test set (with all of your tests eventually, not just Alk), and you will thank yourself in the long run!

 

[loohunter]

There is also a thin film on the water in my tank. Not sure what this is but again has not been an issue to date.

are you doing any construction to your place: hardwood floors or anything
what kind of fish are in the tank

 

[jtmzrose]

I have attached the pictures I promised. The first pic is the brain showing the first signs of receeding. The second is a coral I have which has lost 50%. The third is to show the space between my lights and the coral.

I do not have any construction in my house but I have a CPR overflow that seems not to have enough pull to disrupt the top layer of the water on my tank. I have some of my lok-lines pointed at the water surface to try to disrupt this layer.

 

[jtmzrose]

I rechecked my water below are the results
alkalinity: 185 ppm
calcium: 400 ppm
pH: 8.2

 

[Mrktplayer]

what kind of test kit did you use for alk?

 

[jtmzrose]

It was one I found in the test kit I bought for calcium from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. It is labeles a KH (carbonate Hardness) test solution. It turns from blue to yellow when you hit the end point

 

[Jan]

The API test kit is not bad if that's what you have. 185 ppm equals 10.36 dhk. This is okay as long as your level hasn't been fluctuating. It's important to keep it stable so you should test frequently.

Here is the converter tool I used: http://www.saltyzoo.com/SaltyCalcs/AlkConv.php

 

[jtmzrose]

Thanks I will work to keep it here. I assume it is controled (increased) by adding buffer?

 

[mmkeeper]

Why are you only running the skimmer at night?
Have you tested your nitrates lately?

 

[Jan]

since you have a thin film on the surface of your water then I think you should definitely be running your skimmer 24 hours a day. Also keep the skimmate collection cup cleaned out so that it will function better. Another good suggestion is to test your nitrates and let us know that number.

last, I would buy some granulated activated carbon and a filter sock for it, rinse it very well and put it in your sump to help clean up some dissolved organic compounds in your water column. Don't use too much, so follow the recommendations on the package. I use 1.25 cups in my system for example, which is 145 gallons net. I change it out every 2 weeks. It helps keep my water clear, along with a good skimmer (running 24/7, of course.)


edited to add...

what is your water changing schedule, by the way? And what kind of salt do you use? doing a 10% water change every 7-10 days is very helpful for keeping the water quality up.

Forgot to answer your question about buffer...I think the best product for keeping alkalinity up is Reef Builder by Seachem. Lots of people swear by a 2-part solution such as Randy's for maintaining calcium and alkalinity but I haven't used them so I can't comment.

 

[jtmzrose]

I had been running the skimmer only at night to keep from skimming all the marine snow out but made the change to 24/7 this afternoon when I fixed the overflows. I tested the Nitrates using the API test and they are 80 ppm.

I have been changing the water 20% every 2 weeks as stated on the back of the Sea Chem salt package. I have tried to stick with one manufacturer for all my additives so I am using Reef advantage calcium from seachem and Marine Buffer from Seachem. A couple weeks ago I started adding Reef Plus viatamin and amino acid supplement from Seachem because a store owner said it would help make the coral grow and he used it in his own tanks. I noticed today it has 0.001 mg/g copper in it. I thought copper of any amount was bad for a reef system? I also heard iodine will cause problems as well. Is this true?

Thanks for the tip on the activated carbon. Will the filter sock strip out my marine snow?

The thing I don't understand is the only coral effected so far is Green Hydnophora and the brain. The Red Montipora is doing very well along with the other LPS, gorgonia, and toad stool.

 

[Mrktplayer]

Nitrate of 80 ppm is not good my friend....

It's good to leave the skimmer on 24/7. When I feed my corals I shut off my return pump so the water in the display tank isn't skimmed for half an hour. Then I turn it back on. What kind of skimmer do you have? I would do water changes to bring down the Nitrates.

 

[jtmzrose]

I have an ETSS 800. I have always had a thick cake build up requiring cleaning at least every other week. The water in the waste cup is usually a dark blue/green color.

I will hit it tomorrow with a water change to see what I can do about the nitrates.

By the way, I want to thank all of you for helping me out with this. These are my first corals and I have put them through a lot as I tried to figure out all the things not to do.

 

[pfish]

I have an etss skimmer and I clean it at least every three days. You need to get it dialed in better. Possibly need a bigger pump for it, but if you only run at night that may explain the lack of needing to clean it. Your nitrates should be zero. You are possibly feeding too much, but your skimmer is definitely not working properly or not enough. It took me months to get mine dialed in. Read up on that skimmer on reef central and you will get some help. I had to put a bigger pump on mine and restrict the airflow and remove some bioballs before I finally got it to perform. I would not buy another one.

 

[Jan]

i clean out my skimmer collection cup and wipe it down etc. every 3-4 days as well.

About the sock for the activated carbon, what I'm trying to describe is the fine mesh bag that people put carbon in..."filter sock" is probably not the right term. You can find them on most online vendors for aquarium supplies.

What is marine snow? I don't know about it, so I can't say whether the carbon will strip it out or not. Is it coral food?

About your nitrates....do you have a sump? If so, what's the bottom of it look like? Does it have a bunch of sediment/detritus on the bottom? If so, this may contributing to your elevated nitrates. You should in that case syphon or vaccum it out.

I also use 100 micron filter sock on my return pipe to the sump, and replace it with a clean one every 2-3 days. This keeps my sump a lot cleaner than it used to be.

As for your skimmer, the etss skimmer should work fine for you as long as you have the right kind of pressure pump for it and you replace your bioballs with new ones every 6 months. It's possible that the turning it on and off is keeping it from "dialing in" properly...I don't know. But you should be getting more skimmate than you are, so something isn't working right. The pump is a good place to start. Make sure it's a Mag drive, Iwaki, or other pressure rated pump.