Coral dieing

[Readingexcalibur]

Can't figure out why. My corals have looked horrible lately. Salinity is at 1.024, kh is pretty high. Calcium is at 380. Trates are at 20ppm. I am slowly lowering them by water changes, but could that realy kill the corals in a 2 day span?

[Samuel]

sorry to hear about your coral. I would keep doing water changes till the trates get to zero. What is your phosphate level?

what sort of coral is it. looks awesome

[Leighton79]

It's a galaxia, it only looks like its lost 1 or 2 heads to me? Is it worse now?

[Readingexcalibur]

No, this pic is from 30 minutes ago. I am afraid of losing more heads.

[Schism]

Whats your ph? When u say your alk is high, how high is it? 20ppm trates can have negative impact on corals. More so if the change happens rather suddenly. Im more interested in your alk and ph tho.

[Readingexcalibur]

Originally Posted by Schism

Whats your ph? When u say your alk is high, how high is it? 20ppm trates can have negative impact on corals. More so if the change happens rather suddenly. Im more interested in your alk and ph tho.

PH is 8.2, API alk test brought me to 20 drops. The chart didn't even go that high. Honestly, I don't how to bring the alk down.

[Schism]

Yeah dude thats is your problem alk is extremely high. Need to do waterchanges asap and stop dosing or adding buffer. Are you using tap?

[Leighton79]

To have alk of the charts you must have been adding it? I don't know of a salt that comes with that high alk.

Alk being depleted is normal, I don't think alk going up is.

[Readingexcalibur]

Alright, my lfs tested it and said it was super low so they sold me this buffer. My ph was 8.0 so thy said it would help with that. I'll stop dosing and start doing water changes. I can do a half change today no problem.

[Schism]

Yeah do water changes asap. Your alk should be 11-12 max. Normal range is about 7-12dkh, but usually better to be on the low side unless your having a ph problem

Open your house in your house depressed ph can be caused by carbon dioxide build up. Get some fresh o2 in the room and ph will increase. My ph can often rise from 8.0-8.2 simply from opening some windows for a few hours or so.

[Newfiereefer]

Originally Posted by Schism

Yeah do water changes asap. Your alk should be 11-12 max. Normal range is about 7-12dkh, but usually better to be on the low side unless your having a ph problem

Open your house in your house depressed ph can be caused by carbon dioxide build up. Get some fresh o2 in the room and ph will increase. My ph can often rise from 8.0-8.2 simply from opening some windows for a few hours or so.

Really ? I would never have guessed fresh air will help raise the ph like that :-/

[coralAnn]

Have you checked your Calcium and Strontium levels? Calcium level...I "think" is supposed to be 400-500. I'm still pretty new at this but I like to help if I can ) Sorry about your corals.

[Schism]

Calcium in natural seawater is approx 380ppm. Calcium is only need higher if you have many stony corals and or clams as they will suck calcium out of the water rapidly. Not an issue in this case.

Strontium is replaced sufficiently during water changes with your salt mix. It is a minor element and only needs supplementation in heavier stock reefs with many coral. It is not used as primarily as calcium is for growth.

[Schism]

And yes closes up houses are high in co2 which depresses ph. Good test to do is set a cup of tank water outside for a half an hour or so shaking it a few times to oxygenate and you will most likely see a significant increase after you test it.

This is the reason ph drops at night. Photosynthesis stops when light are off. oxygen stops being produced and carbon dioxide builds up causing ph to drop until the lights come back on and photosynthesis begins again producing oxygen and the ph rises. This is normal and happens on a daily basis with .2 ph swings between night and day being normal this is why its best to test your ph at the same time right before lights off so you get an accurate representation of your true ph value and its change.

[Readingexcalibur]

Wow, this is awesome information. I will update after my water change, I get home from work in 4 hours. Thank you for all of your help!

[Readingexcalibur]

Well, I found out my LFS uses water from the ocean. Didn't expect that living I the desert. So I purchased reef crystal and will start using that as my salt mix. I purchased 10g to change tonight in order to help the coral.

I also bought kent trace element, its a liquid product. Will this help. I bought it because it said it supply's vitamins and other stuff for the coral. Can I get an opinion on this?

[spoonman]

Where here did you get ocean water?

[Readingexcalibur]

Atlantis tropical on I95 and west lake mead blvd. they told me its tanked into there vendor and they go get it from the middle man.

[Schism]

Trace elements should be use very sparingly. Use less than recommended on the bottle and less often. Trace elements are in your saltmix and replenished during a water change.

No test kits exist for trace elements really, and you dont know how much to use or if you need to at all, it is possible to overdose.

Only tanks heavily stocked with coral need it doses usually. A good saltmix will do the job as well.

[Readingexcalibur]

Originally Posted by Schism

Trace elements should be use very sparingly. Use less than recommended on the bottle and less often. Trace elements are in your saltmix and replenished during a water change.

No test kits exist for trace elements really, and you dont know how much to use or if you need to at all, it is possible to overdose.

Only tanks heavily stocked with coral need it doses usually. A good saltmix will do the job as well.

Rog, well looks like i may have made a bad impulsive purchase once again. haha, i saw it on sale for 5 bucks, i was like yeah!