Sick Corals, Fish and Coral ID help

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pjcarner

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Mar 5, 2006
Messages
8
Recently running into a bad streak. Tank is 6 months old with Fish and Corals. Lost a Chocolate Tang two days ago - no markings to assume sickness. He just stopped eating and within 2 days was gone. Very sad.. We had him about a month. Now, I may be getting paranoid but the Chromis are acting strangely (could just be a party now that the big boy's gone :lol: )..they're twitching and swimming erratically, seem to be bumping in to corners and rocks. Again, no signs of disease. Two Clowns and Hawk are doing just fine. Everyone is eating.

Lost a Pink Tip Elegance two months ago. Purchased this leather coral (need help with ID'ing names) and it was so beautiful up until two days ago (see deceased fish above).

The other coral has been sick for about a week.

75 Gal
Salinity 1.025 (a little high?)
Amon 0
PH 8.0
NitrItes 0
NitrAtes 10
ALK 1 (down from 3.0 two weeks ago)
CAL 400
PWC Every Sunday!

Lighting - can't remember what it's call but it has the blue and white lights and is only 6 months old.

We condsider ourselves to be newbees still - water seems to be OK. All other corals are flourishing! What else can we eliminate? Is the tank just too new for these types of corals and fish?
 

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Your toadstool (Sarcophyton) coral may be sloughing ... they do that and look like they are dying. You could try moving him up in the tank for more light as they have photosynthetic bacteria within. Also, you could make sure that it has good water flow over it to help it shed. Make sure that there are no other corals near enough to be stinging it.

The other photos look like xenia? Again closer to the light and check out the neighbors. Also, if they are xenia, they ar very sensitive to low pH. Your pH of 8.0 should be more like 8.2. It doesn't sound like much of a difference, but the pH scale is not linear and a .2 difference is significant. Mine didn't like bring near the button polyps. Corals will often wage chemical warfare to ensure a place to grow and some have long sweeper tentacles that will sting their neighbors.

Good luck.

JG
 
demodiki said:
Is your alkalinity really 1? If it is...you have some trouble. Retest.
Retested - Alkalinity is now at 3.0 We were told between 3.0 and 3.5 is good. Is this correct?

Also, the toadstool (thank you for proper names) looks a bit better. We moved it up and into a better cross-flow. Still not like it was, but at least it's not shriveled up anymore! The Xenia also looks a bit better. Not like it was either, but at least it doesn't look like it's rotting!

Thank you JG and Demodiki. Do you think we need to replace bulbs? Should we be leaving lights on at night?
 
Your alkalinity is fine at 3. You don't want it to fluctuate very much. How much water are you changing at one time? How long are you aging the new saltwater? I assume that you have PC lights. Most would recommend that you change them out every 6-9 months.

Your SG is fine at 1.025 btw. Your ph is ok for the time being...but I would look to getting it up to 8.2-8.4.
 
We change weekly about 5-10 gallons (75 gal tank). New saltwater ages anywhere from 1-4 weeks. We RO monthly enough to last us a month or so.

What's the best way to increase PH?

Thanks again! We've been considering new lights...seems to make sense at this time.
 
Have a read.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marphalk.htm

I say read because you have to be careful about what advice you listen to with regards to chemistry. Just like everything else in this hobby, there are a million ways to do things and not all of them will work for you and your tank.

So read and research...draw some conclusions on your own and then come back here with specific questions. (ie, can I use baking soda? Will B-Ionic work to increase my ph? etc)
 
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