corals dying needs help !

[ice]

i have a 80 gal setup ,running for about 4 weeks now and recently added a mushroom coral,since then my other corals have been dying.
some advice what can i do ?

 

[Jan]

what other corals have you added, and when did you add them? How much live rock do you have? What skimmer are you using, and what is your lighting set-up? How often do you do a water change? What salt mix are you using?

Also please post this information about your tank's water parameters:

salinity
alkalinity
calcium
ammonia
nitrite

At first glance, I would guess that your tank may still be cycling and it may have been too early to add corals.

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF!! If your tank is newly setup and not a transfer from an existing setup that has already cycled etc, then chances are your tank isn't ready for corals yet You'll need to test your water and see what your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are at and let us know. If you are reading ammonia and/or nitrites, then your tank is cycling and no livestock including fish should really be in there. If all are zero, but you have high nitrate levels, then that may be the reason why the corals aren't doing so well. In any event, let us know what your levels are at so we can better know how to direct you

 

[ice]

salinity = 1024
amonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 10
calcium = 460

have about 50 kg`s of canadian live rock.
salt use is tropic marine.
lighting consists of 2 reef sun 50/50 at 6500k 4feet tubes
2 marine blue moon 4 feet tubes
cycling was done by a marine dealer for me.
at first i had two soft corals " devils hand " and one green muchroom witch was in perfect condition .
!!!!!! then i added another mushroom and the spacing between all corals exeeds 6" but all of a sudden the older corals colour changed to blue and it seems that they are covered in some slimy substance , now they look like death it self

 

[dnjan]

Was the mushroom you added the same type, or different?

I wouldn't worry too much. Soft corals can go through phases when the slightest irritation/change can cause them to go defensive snd slough-off a layer of slime.

As long as you haven't had a change in water parameters, everything should recover.

Also, did the last mushroom you added look OK while you had it in quarentine?

 

[ice]

The mushroom added was a different type.
all my corals are laying flat and it looks like the slime is quit exessive.They changed colour from brownish to blue.
The newly added mushroom also now seems to be dying.
Can this be a toxic war between the corals or maybe a disease ?

 

[ice]

Can the lighting in my setup have any invluence on this ?

 

[Scooterman]

nitrate = 10
cycling was done by a marine dealer for me.

Just because they say it is cured LR it still can & most probably will cycle in your tank, also you can test frequently during this period & miss the spikes that could cause problems, IMO it is a shame that they would rush a beginner like that, so many problems can occur, it could be very difficult to tell what is happing. I'd give it some time & slow things down, If your corals are dead you may need to do some wc's & have to remove them but like mentioned softies can close up at times even in a stable tank, so observation, questions, learning, providing detailed information will help greatly, most people here at RF will go out of their way to help as best as they can with information you provide. I feel it is a shame that the LFS did this & would give them some blame, assuming a few things on my part, I may be wrong.

 

[ice]

Thanks for all the advice .

 

[Jan]

I agree that water changes will help, as would putting some granulated activated carbon (GAC) in a filter bag and running that in your filter.

 

[reefsavy]

Scooterman is right on!! good advice

 

[ReefferMan]

Everyone is onboard with the WC's that and just.......Time..... . . . . . .

Chemical warfare is a prob, i would use carbon. I had to get rid of my leather corals because of this problem.

How does your rock look? any bubble algae, hair, what color is it now? Reason for the Q's is that i have really cured rock that i moved from a well established tank into my new display, it's still doing a wierd cycle thing. You could see changes in your filtration for quite some time.

Also.....Wheres your alk? Ca seems high.

Reefferman.

 

[thumperss]

how many watts of light's you you have???????????????

 

[ice]

lighting consists of 2 reef sun 50/50 at 6500k 4feet tubes
2 marine blue moon 4 feet tubes
CA SPECS OK.
AT FIRST A LOT OFF BUBBLE algae, hair, The couler did ghange now to a very light red but no more algea or hair on the live rocks . Did talk to the marine shop that did all the cycling and setup for me and he agree to start
my setup on his account from his marine tanks. acording to him the mushroom were from a poisen type.
THANKS FOR ALL THE VALUEABLE INFO....ICE

 

[dnjan]

...acording to him the mushroom were from a poisen type.
....ICE

Actually, I would consider all corals (including mushrooms) to be "poison", though I prefer to use the word "aggressive". Any animal that can't move around (and many who can move) are going to try to protect their territory. Mushrooms are especially aggressive - some more than others. I had some nasty ricordia yumas in my tank for a while. The last mushroom you added was probably more aggressive than the others, and the "defensive" chemicals secreted by that mushroom irritated the softie.

You mentioned that your corals were 6" apart. That generally works for hard corals, because they do their attacking with tentacles that only reach a certain distance. But softies and mushrooms attack both by touch and by releasing chemicals ino the water. Being upstream rather than downstream of an especially aggressive softie or mushroom can make a big difference. If you put the most aggressive mushroom downstream (so the water flow doesn't go from that mushroom to any other corals), the chemicals will at least be diluted before they circulate around to the other corals.

 

[thumperss]

how many watts are each of your lights are thay 18w 4' lights or what couse if im seeing it right you dont' have a lot of lights on your tank wich will couse a big problume i am useing 8 22' pc's of 65 watts each wich is 520 w in all.