I am Slowly Murdering my Coral

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That's certainly odd. My issue seems to be mostly lighting and flow. Wrong and the coral degrades then I move it and it comes back healthier than ever.

I would pick one coral and move it to a different lighting and flow and watch it's reaction.

Corals seem to be picky for no reason at all when everything is right.
 
I'm not banking on flow in this case. I'd say it's the lighting. This light can be a killer. I've seen it first hand. And it doesn't happen fast. It will slowly kill a coral. I've literally burned corals with this light.

I had to turn the whites way down.

I'm going with a light issue. I could of course be totally wrong. But knowing this light, it's scary how strong it is. You have to respect the power of this little AI.

EDIT: the 2 main places I get my big corals use the same lights. So I guess that might help.
 
Yeah I have those taotronics 120w reef leds and they are so powerful. They are a foot above my tank and have a layer of window screen over them and they still grow SPS in the middle of my tank.

Maybe you should start dialing them back?
 
Hi Dino. Lighting is 2 AI sol whites.

1000-1200: ramp up from 0W0B to 30W35B.
1200-1900: 30W35B
1900-2100: ramp down from 30W35B to 0W3B
2100-0100: 3B Moonlight
0100-1000: dark

They are mounted at 14" above the water.
 
fort384 said:
Hi Dino. Lighting is 2 AI sol whites.

1000-1200: ramp up from 0W0B to 30W35B.
1200-1900: 30W35B
1900-2100: ramp down from 30W35B to 0W3B
2100-0100: 3B Moonlight
0100-1000: dark

They are mounted at 14" above the water.

Hello,

Ok you have 2 AI whites, very strong. I'm sure you've tried this but I'll ask anyway and sorry again if your answering the same questions over and over again.

Have you tried whites at 10% and your blues 20%?

Maybe give that a try for a week or two? See how the corals are reacting, I'm sure you know all this already, keep a close on them if you see signs of them needing more light then just turn them up by 2% increments.

14" is plenty of height. My AI SOL BLUE sits about 5" from the water surface but I believe the bio cube stock splash guard keeps some light out, especially when it get condensation. My lights are at peak, W30/B50/RB/70

What about feeding? Also what are the corals doing exactly? Bleaching, closing up? Do they look like the light may be too much? Some of my corals when I first got the light closed up tight for awhile so I switched to the acclimation setting.

I hope we can figure this out so we can have your tank back on track and thrive.

Dino
 
I ran the lights for a few weeks at settings that low. Coral looked worse.

I don't feed the coral anything but none of the coral I have needs to be fed. Zoas shouldnt shrivel and die for lack of feeding.

The coral is just slowly over time shrinking, shriveling, and disappearing.
 
fort384 said:
I ran the lights for a few weeks at settings that low. Coral looked worse.

I don't feed the coral anything but none of the coral I have needs to be fed. Zoas shouldnt shrivel and die for lack of feeding.

The coral is just slowly over time shrinking, shriveling, and disappearing.

Hmmm... The zoas aren't stretching for more light are they?

Maybe up the blues and keep the whites where they are?
 
I can try that. I wouldn't say anything is stretching. All I see is very gradual decline of all the coral in the tank except for the few specimens I mentioned.
 
fort384 said:
I can try that. I wouldn't say anything is stretching. All I see is very gradual decline of all the coral in the tank except for the few specimens I mentioned.

Ok, I'd try and see what happens. It very possible there. It getting enough light. Keep us posted.
 
My coral is still declining this week after bumping the blue up another 5%.

Anyone else have any ideas? It's going to end up being a FOWLR tank with a $1000 lighting system on it soon.
 
fort384 said:
My coral is still declining this week after bumping the blue up another 5%.

Anyone else have any ideas? It's going to end up being a FOWLR tank with a $1000 lighting system on it soon.

You dont have any copper or brass fittings do you? all pvc? Are any coral stayin healthy or is every coral in the tank doing this?
 
Nu-Nu the eel said:
I feel bad about this :/ and he said his frogspawn is still doing well

I know it can be depressing especially after puttin in time and money
 
Before I say this, I don't have corals yet however I'm starting a reef tank and I've been trying to do research as much as possible. I came across something that sounds familiar to what you have and I seriously doubt that this is the issue but thought I would throw it out there.

Have you checked your Iodine levels? When I was reading up on supplements etc. someone had posted that they had been dosing with a product ( can't remember which one but I can search for it!) and their corals were dying. Their water and lighting were fine. The cause was too much iodine for them (y'all can tell me what the heck the iodine is for later! LOL!). Anyway, maybe you have too much of something or not enough? I'm just starting to read up on testing for things so this is a little out of my league.
 
Hmmm this is interesting. I had dosed lugols solution several weeks in a row, but I haven't for months, and have done probably 8 water changes of 10-15% since the last time I dosed it. I wonder though if this could be part of the problem...
 
fort384 said:
Hmmm this is interesting. I had dosed lugols solution several weeks in a row, but I haven't for months, and have done probably 8 water changes of 10-15% since the last time I dosed it. I wonder though if this could be part of the problem...

I don't know. I've just been reading up on issues so I know what to look for if something goes wrong at the time of your post. I read that supplements are good but to make sure and test. As I said, I'm just now learning so I'm absolutely not someone to necessarily take any coral advice from. Other people had stated that different corals that were dying would release some slime stuff and it was thought to have killed additional corals as they didn't want to remove it hoping it would pull through. Someone else mentioned grounding their reef tank as they were losing coral due to small electrical currents. Lots of people do that for FOWLR as well.

It makes me a little nervous because I don't want to lose everything. I know you are frustrated. I'm sorry but I'm hoping you figure out what it is so I can possibly learn.
 
I don't think it is electrical as there is nothing electric in the DT. I have MP10s so they work via magnets and all electrical is in the sump.

The iodine connection seems like a real possibility though. I suppose I should do a few large water changes and see if anything happens. The bad news is a lot of it might be too far gone to make much of a difference at this point.
 
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