Dying SPS?

[STiTCH87]

So lastnight when I was shuttingmy lights off, I notived a very small lightened dot on my elkhorn. Aout the size of a BB. But I didn't think too too much of it since a had another smaller bit of it that looked fine and my birdsnest coral also looked fine.

Welp, I woke up this morning to this:

The elkhorn had died and a hermit pulled it out of it's spot in the rockwork (my hermits remove any dead coral and leave them on the sandbed for me, it's weird) and my birdsnest definitely seems to be on it's way out as well. Weird thing is, the small piece of both I have both look perfectly fine and are each still around an inch piece frags nice and healthy.
My salinity is 1.026
Temp a steady 77.7
Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are all Zero
No feeding, lighting, or cleaning habits have changed what-so-ever.

I also noticed a little white fuzz on part of my red sponge though I know that is normal and does happen with them once and awhile.

What could be the issue? They've both been fine for 2-3 months of the same husbandry methods now all of a sudden they turn for the worse.

Anything I can do to save my birdsnest or does it look too far gone? There are parts that are specifically white blotches on it. I don't think it's bleaching because they're both low low down in the tank, one of which is on the sandbed and I only have a 96W T5 on my 29g.

Should I be testing for any other specific parameters? All my LPS and softies look great as does my fish and inverts so i'm at a loss for ideas.

 

[Turbosnail]

Check your ph and alk.

 

[sciknen]

Mag and calcium as well.

MVHC

 

[STiTCH87]

pH is 8.2
Mag is around 1280
Cal is below 380 so that might be an issue

However I just looked now at the side of my tank and saw a city of flatworms -_- damn it.

IDK if they are AEFW or normal FWs, but if they are AEFW it would explain the issue with my purple tort.

Would AEFWs eat birdsnest and elkhorn coral too?

EDIT: Well I know AEFW would eat them since neither is acro, but is there a FW that would? Cuz I deff have FWs. -_- Time to slowly siphon them out and kill what I can't siphon then possibly try FWExit. Was hoping i'd never need to use that stuff, hopefully I still won't have to.

Also noticed my green palys are very pale. Could that be the T5s? They've been getting more pale over time it seems. Maybe i'll try and put some in some shaded areas and see if they color back up.

 

[jimrawr]

What about Alk? I dont think low calcium levels will cause RTN, unless its a rapid change say from 500 to 370 in a water change or something. It may slow growth and effect colors in combination with alk, but shouldnt kill things off.

 

[STiTCH87]

Well my last water change was roughly a week and a half ago so I don't think any rapids changes should be occuring either.

Yeah i'll have to check my Alk.
So can FWs be affecting this too? A combination of both? Or just one? Or maybe certains levels are affecting the coral as well as causing FWs to be abundant?

 

[Aquaman_68]

nudis will eat montis...(& elkhorns) AEFW only eat acro's & from what I can beleive they wouldn't touch ur bn. (they gravitate towards certain sps) I know that BN can be very unhappy with shifts in KH/Alk & can also perish in low KH/Alk if exposed for extended amounts of time.. Can I ask what us test kit your using is?

 

[STiTCH87]

API for pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates
ELOS for Cal.
and Red Sea for Mag. currently.

Trying to go all ELOS eventually.

I gotta get this Alk tested at a LFS because I don't have a test kit for that yet.

 

[jimrawr]

Well then you probably arent dosing since your ca is low and you dont test for alk, so I doubt that any alk problems would be the cause.. I am sure its low but wouldnt RTN your sps

 

[STiTCH87]

Nope, I don't dose with anything at all in my tank.

I really have zero ideas what it could be. I DO however know these FWs need to go because whether they are a partial culprit or not, they will eventually start affecting something somewhere in a negative manor.

 

[stevenp]

IMO, Alk is probably the most important parameter to monitor in a reef aquarium. Without an accurate test kit you're asking for disaster.

 

[wrassefan]

might want to post what other corals you have in your tank....mix reef is not always conducive to sps. High nutrients, lower light(96w from your sig) and so so flow are not ideal for sps. They need high flow, lots of light and pristine water. I've seen other reefers have issues keeping sps because of chemical wars such as lps or softees excreting chemicals. I remember reading about your red sponge as an example....if you are feeding the water, you have high nutrients. Either your sponge won't do well or your sps won't do well...just an observation. All this and the above low readings for calcium, mag and maybe alk.

 

[JayM]

poor light will weaken corals, poor calcium will inhibit growth, and poor alk will kill them in short order.

if you 'don't dose anything' your tank isn't going to be able to maintain proper Ca, Alk and Mg levels...stable levels of all 3 of which are critical for any hope of success with SPS

 

[STiTCH87]

Well I do have high flow from my vortech turned up pretty high.
Lighting is on the lower side I suppose, yeah.

I feed my sponge marine snow 2-3 times a week so maybe nutrients are indeed too high and killing off my SPS.

I'll deff have to get an Alk test kit.

Oh and as for a coral stocking list:
Zoas
Palys
Frogspawn
Candy Cane
Green Sinularia
Xenia (2 types)
Birdsnest
Elkhorn
Blue Cloves
Red Sponge
Purple Tort (Kind of, starting to die off since nobody will come take it off my hands.)

 

[Aquaman_68]

API for pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates
ELOS for Cal.
and Red Sea for Mag. currently.

Trying to go all ELOS eventually.

I gotta get this Alk tested at a LFS because I don't have a test kit for that yet.

One very important if not the most important parameter to keep in check & you don't have a test kit for it yet???

You really need to get one soon..... Unstable alk/KH or swings in just that param can be catostrophic to your living ecosystem. Buy an elos test kit...Stay away from salifert first & foremost... (& I wouldn't be too quick to go with anything else other than api or possible sera.....)You need to have a baseline from an elos kit in conjunction with any other that I've mentioned. if your going to use anything other than an elos out of the gate... CRA has elos...They can test it for you (I think)


HTH,
B

 

[STiTCH87]

lol yeah i know i know. its cuz ive almost broken down my tank 6 times lately so i keep holding off on buying stuff but im realizing that not buying things for the tank is making it not healthy which is partly what is making me want to break down the tank in the first place so it's a cycle and all I gotta do is give in and buy some good stuff for it to make it healthy again then i'll likely love it again and wanna keep it more.

 

[stevenp]

I'm a fan of Hach test kits. BRS uses Hach to measure Ca and Mg at the meetings. They're a bit pricey, and confusing at first as they're designed for chemists, but FME they're worth the extra coin. Only place you can order them from is Hach.com and they kill you on shipping with a ~$15 flat fee, but it's somewhat palatable if you order a couple different kits at the same time. I use Hach catalog # 24443-01 for Alkalinity.

After using Hach I will never go back to hobbyists test kits (elos, salifert etc...).

 

[frank180reef]

likely it is your alk and calc

 

[Jocko]

Once you've figured out the water quality thing, you should probably see if you can determine the type of flatworms you are seeing. Many are just normal inhabitants that settle into small, stable populations. It would be good to verify if you have a nuisance kind before you go to all of the trouble of trying to poison them.

 

[STiTCH87]

Its the brown ones with the yellowish heads that are kinda shaped like a stereotypical ghost.

Like that but more brown all over.