I am Slowly Murdering my Coral

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Just tested the SW mix - 480 ppm Ca - so same as the tank.

I am making a new batch of SW now... will do another water change this evening I guess.

I agree that with the dying coral, I shouldn't be seeing a huge drop in KH, so maybe the last batch of salt mix was just low on KH? This new batch I am making will be the first complete batch with the new salt mix. I will test the KH again when it is done mixing. If it is even higher than 11, maybe that has been my issue?
 
hate chiming in late have you checked your heater ,
I had a issue like this drove me nuts till I found my cracked heater solved all my problems
just a thought(y)
 
Both heaters are fine. Tank stays at 79F, confirmed by 3 independent constant measurements. Also checked stray voltage yesterday and found none.
 
Maybe your water is "too clean" for the corals other than the SPS. I've heard of people having problems with corals from the Euphyllia family before due to this. I'm stumped. Hope the new salt mix is the key!
 
SM and I were discussing that possibility. I turned my skimmer down a bit earlier in the week. Still no PO4 or nitrates in the water but I have also done a bunch of water changes. I think I remember reading somewhere that 0 PO4 is actually not good.
 
I've always kept just a little bit floating around in there for my LPS, Zoas and Leathers. Who knows, it could be that, but I agree with what you said earlier, you can't change everything at once, a slow and deliberate approach is the best way to finding a solution. Good luck and keep us posted!
 
I read through a lot of this, but maybe I missed the part where you described how the corals were dying. Are they bleaching? All slimy? Or are they retracted until death?
IME, I just purchased a new t5 tek fixture to upgrade from my CF and 1 t5 ho that I had, and light was causing a huge problem. I went from very low, with super old bulbs, to 4 (out of 6) brand new bulbs. Even with reduced photo period I still managed to bleach my birdsnest and chalices, gorgornians, ect...
Frog Spawn was fine though...
This is a good read: Feature Article: Effects Of Narrow Bandwidth Light Sources On Coral Host And Zooxanthellae Pigments — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog
About the effects of narrow-band wavelength light (specifically related to LEDs) on corals, and photosynthesis.

My best guess to the root of your problem is still the light, I've read people with new Raidons sometimes start at 20% efficiency in their ramp up cycle.
 
The coral seems to fade away over time. It is very slight. I haven't seen much of any bleaching... the coral continues to open, but it just gets smaller and smaller, and eventually it is gone, except for skeleton.

I ran the lights for months at 20%, and still had this issue. That is why I have started creeping them up a few percent a week over the past several weeks. I contacted aqua illuminations and they said 20% sounded very low over my size tank based on their tests and testimonials from other users. I have also seen several folks online who run these things at 70-90% over their tanks. But, I have also seen people say they murdered all their coral when they switched to them and ran them too high too quickly. I am still not convinced that lighting is not the culprit here as it seems to be the most basic and fundamental thing. But I have no idea if it is too much or not enough.
 
fort384 said:
The coral seems to fade away over time. It is very slight. I haven't seen much of any bleaching... the coral continues to open, but it just gets smaller and smaller, and eventually it is gone, except for skeleton.

I ran the lights for months at 20%, and still had this issue. That is why I have started creeping them up a few percent a week over the past several weeks. I contacted aqua illuminations and they said 20% sounded very low over my size tank based on their tests and testimonials from other users. I have also seen several folks online who run these things at 70-90% over their tanks. But, I have also seen people say they murdered all their coral when they switched to them and ran them too high too quickly. I am still not convinced that lighting is not the culprit here as it seems to be the most basic and fundamental thing. But I have no idea if it is too much or not enough.
Click to expand...

Iko if it was lights coral wouldn decline slow they would die rather quickly have you tested for any metals?
 
Copper. I don't have any other heavy metal tests. But there is no metal in the tank and no reason to expect contamination. My RO water has 0TDS.
 
fort384 said:
Copper. I don't have any other heavy metal tests. But there is no metal in the tank and no reason to expect contamination. My RO water has 0TDS.
Click to expand...

My uncle wiped out a 90g tank once with a brass valve imo id run carbon aggressively
 
There are probably 20 posts here about lighting and lighting adjustments. I have made several adjustments over 6 months. None have seemed
To work well.
 
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Ok so after 2 water changes today I have the KH up to 10.2d.

I tested the new SW with the new salt mix and it was 12.2d.

Maybe I got a bad bucket of salt? If the KH was off maybe something else like Mg was off too. I don't know. I will see how it goes.

Should I do yet another water change with the new salt tomorrow?
 
When you got the bucket of salt did you make sure to roll the bag on the floor for like 10 minutes before you opened the bag? You must mix it before use. Sounds like you are using red sea pro mix?
 
Yes red sea coral pro. I didn't do 10 minutes but I did roll it around some.
 
Just to make sure, did you happen to run any Kent Marine carbon on the tank? There was a recall on some batches that caused lots of tank crashes. Just want to rule it out.
 
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