What’s killing my ricordea and euphyllia coral :(

[Kbrogdon97]

1. Type & how long you have had it: Hi ya’ll. I got this euphyllia about 2 weeks ago and this ricordea mushroom about 3 weeks ago. All was going well…until it wasn’t.
2. Current lighting & Bulb Age: LED 30W
3. Nitrate: 0-5 ppm
4. Calcium: 420 ppm
5. Phosphate: no way to test
6. Alkalinity: 140
7. pH: 8.2
8. Salinity: 1.026
9. Temperature: 78
10. Liquid or strip test kits: API
11. Location in tank: The euphyllia is near the front under moderate-high flow and low-medium light. The ricordea is shaded in low flow.
Dose iodide and calcium almost daily.

Euphyllia was doing well for about 2 weeks. Suddenly started showing skeleton and shriveling up. Has been going on for 4 days now. The ricordea has been fine and started having problems yesterday. Looks like it might be bleaching, but I’m not sure.

 

[Kbrogdon97]

Is it a parameters problem? Duncan, zoas, lepto, and hammer all doing fine. The ricordea is now sucking himself in.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

How big is this tank? A 30 watt light will likely not suffice. How often, what, and what method do you dose- daily? Manual? Dosing pump? Do you dose alk?

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

And API test strips will not suffice for accurate numbers. Look into better test kits- Red Sea, Salifert, etc.

 

[melosu58]

Its not too close to other corals is it? Chemical warfare will burn up your coral.

 

[melosu58]

I also agree with the lighting is too low.

 

[Sniperhank]

This is an issue with lighting. Looking at that duncan polyp shows such, it is bleaching. Should we assume this is a stock light that came with the tank? It will need upgraded.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

This is an issue with lighting. Looking at that duncan polyp shows such, it is bleaching. Should we assume this is a stock light that came with the tank? It will need upgraded.

Hate to be pessimistic here but I’m inclined to think there’s much more than lighting issues. Typically coral bleaching is too much light, as they shed the zooxanthella as a defense mechanism. The wall frogspawn is known to be very sensitive to alk swings as well.

Pieces of the puzzle:

Low end test kits
No way to test PO4
Insufficient lighting
No dosing method mentioned
Dosing iodide and cal daily

This could be, with no intent to insult whatsoever, a large lack of proper tank maintenance and overwatch.

 

[Kbrogdon97]

This is the light I have.

Aquarium Lights – Aquarium LED Light 30Watts（±5%） Saltwater Lighting with Touch Control, 3W/5W LED Chips for Coral Reef Nano Fish Tank Marine Tanks https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0727V8C5...abc_9K3K1W3JHYAJ4A9BCB70?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I have a 30 gallon vertical tank. I don’t think the Duncan is bleaching. That was a poor picture to show his colors but he is green and pink and towards the bottom of my tank. I dose manually. Dose calcium daily as it drops throughout the day if I don’t. Alk is higher at 12. Mag is low and have begun dosing for that as well. Actually today I noticed brown residue on the wall frogspawn . BJD I believe. Ricordea is looking 1000x better today.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Kbrogdon97]

Manual dosing. Tank is 30 gallon vertical tank. Do not dose Alk. Alk is at 12.
Also I don’t use API test strips. Is the liquid solutions. Also have Hanna checker for alk and calcium.

 

[Kbrogdon97]

Also Question? You say my light is to low for the tank, but that my Duncan is bleaching….isn’t that contradictory. I thought corals bleach when they have too much light?

 

[Kbrogdon97]

Wall frogspawn looks like a goner
Also included photos of ricordea, Duncan, and hammer. I don’t think the Duncan is bleaching…? But I’m no expert. How is the hammer doing okay but the frogspawn is not? I thought they were similar to each other and had similar temperaments.

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Also Question? You say my light is to low for the tank, but that my Duncan is bleaching….isn’t that contradictory. I thought corals bleach when they have too much light?

Not contradictory because I said I did not think light was the only factor

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Manual dosing. Tank is 30 gallon vertical tank. Do not dose Alk. Alk is at 12.
Also I don’t use API test strips. Is the liquid solutions. Also have Hanna checker for alk and calcium.

Something is off here if you need to dose cal daily but alk is remaining high. Alk and cal are equally consumed at a 1:1 ratio. One or both of your parameters could be wildly off and you see getting inaccurate readings in your test kits.

 

[Kbrogdon97]

Mmmh. I have two different tests for calc. The API liquid and Hanna checker so if I did have a test problem I’d say it may be KH.

 

[Sniperhank]

Well, that light should be more than enough to support your tank. I'm on board with parameter issues now. There is no reason to be dosing anything into this tank. Standard water changes is all you'll need. This is a small tank with not enough coral to remove enough of the calcium or alk out of the water column to require dosing. You'll just end up causing issues, which you might already have started. Seeing the light, I'm on board with Flaxon.
But when it comes to coral being similar and having similar requirements, that doesn't change how something will react to a stressor in our closed systems. There can be no rhyme or reason why one will go beside another at times, as I've had a hammer die right beside another hammer with no issues in the tank I was ever able to discover, so it could just be that the 'personality' of that coral didn't like something in that spot and it tried to save face by polyp bailout.
With that said, there is still hope. Leave it in there. If there is tissue remaining in any coral skeleton it can come back if the parameters are pristine.