Stomatopods17
Active Member
Alright, I made a thread a while back that my zoanthids were 'umbrella' and dying, then I lost my little shop of horrors frag.... nothing I've done seemed to cause any improvement and all my other corals suddenly decided to board the 'Lowering Stomatopods17's morale' train.
Now everything is just dying or on the verge of death. The zoanthids that haven't melted yet its been weeks since I seen them open or trying to open, the mushrooms look shrunken and never expanded (I even have them growing in another tank for reference so they're really unhappy in this tank for some reason), all the hard corals melted and I have yet to have a torch that didn't brown jelly within 24 hrs, aaaaaannnndd my parameters got me stumped.
Parameters
Temp: 77 F (going to try dropping it down tonight, I want it somewhere closer to 74 cause I'm getting a cold water squillid to put in the sump and it occasionally goes up past 78 here)
Phosphate: 0.01 (red sea phosphate pro)
Nitrates: undetectable (API, ik I should get the nitrate version of above for this, but RN wouldn't surprise me if thats being undetectable due to cyano)
Ammonia/Nitrite: 0 (API)
Salinity: 1.024 (refractometer), no top off system
Calcium: 420 (API)
Alk: 9 (API)
Ph: 8.3 pretty steady day and night here too (API)
Mag: Don't know, don't have the test for it, but I've had my 125 running without a single water change in 8 years and the same corals are thriving in there but this new tank seems to really upset them while I keep up with it, not sure if mag has to do with some of the corals.
Water Source: RO/DI
Gallons: 29 gallon display with a drilled in overflow, sump is 20 gallons but likely only 8-10 gallons filled. Bio media - > heater - > chemipure elite - > refugium (mostly just filled with starfish for my harlequins (stars are recent, only been here a week) and putting in a mantis this week, my attempt to keep some nutrients in the tank since there's very little in the display to dirty the water) - > 300 GPH pump back to display. There's pads laying ontop of the biomedia to catch detritus and algae.
Food: Reef roids for the coral, even mixed some PE mysis with it, used to feed weekly, slowed down cause of the diatoms and cyano, gave up when they were dying anyways. Mantis gets the occasional clam, krill, or CuC snail, fish eats the leftovers and what it somehow gets away with ripping from the mantis's claws without punishment.
Lighting: 10 inches above the water column, I have two ai primes, blues and UV are set at around 80%, I keep the others lower (15% whites, 5% reds/greens) cause I didn't want any green outbreaks in this tank (inhabitants are a mantis shrimp and 1 damsel, so CuC is limited and neither bothered any of the corals). I thought maybe the lighting was too strong so I set it on 50% acclimation mode this week going on until end of the month to see if at any point they perked up.
Husbandry: Feed the mantis every 3 days or so, using a baster blow off any cyano/diatoms on the coral frags. Test Ph, ammonia, and salinity every few day to make sure those are stable and then every other week full test everything I can (except nitrite, rarely I do nitrite...). I used to water change weekly, then back pedaled a bit on that post corals dying to let the water get dirty, I recently did one last night.
The corals
Lord Acans I had for a few months in this tank, showing growth, last month they "ejected" from their stalks and I can still occasionally find one or two of the ejected heads around the mantis's burrow but I know they ain't gunna make it like that.
A thick branch gorgonian that is still standing but is getting thinner and thinner each day and I keep having to blow off cyano from it. This coral was growing in my other tank literally face planted in the sand and didn't mind one bit but anchored and glued in here the coral is dying? It was in here quite a few months.
Green Star Polyp, all gone. Fragged it from my invasive colony literally taken over half of the 125 gallon and it doesn't even survive in this??????? It lasted the shortest I think.
5 Zoanthids
The fire and ice zoanthids did really well, going from 2 heads to about 7 or 8, then just permanantly closed and I noticed some hair algae grew inbetween them where I couldn't rip it out, I took them out, cleaned it, saw the occasional attempt to open, then cyano covered them and they're no more.
Unknown colony, did really well too, even growing off the frag plug and onto the rock, but suddenly cyano grew over them with not attempts to open, I've cleaned them multiple times now and assuming the worst.
Gorilla nipples ?, this colony also spread, from 2 heads to about 10 even starting to get in the rock, this colony looks like its the most likely to be saved cause there's nothing growing on it, there never was, but they haven't opened in weeks and I don't see signs of melting.
Little shop of horrors, was open for a few weeks, then closed never opening again, and has been slowly melting since. You can see my thread on them here, I even have my lighting details the same, its also when I got a better phosphate kit.
Candy apple reds which "umbrella'd" and were the first to go even though they did really well at first growing.
Duncan which actually grew a third head from the 2 head frag I bought, then just... ceased to exist?
Green hairy mushroom which RN is still alive, but its closed up and not expanding at all, I have about 100 in my 125 gallon so I simply moved a rock in here and this one was open first few weeks then stopped?
Blue spot red mushrooms, Possibly the most random contrary coral in this tank... I put it in while everyone else was doing great, it immidiately started melting... BUT one month later actually made a complete turn around recovery and grew bigger and brighter and still seems to be thriving exactly the same even with everything else gone. Maybe I should just buy a hundred of these and pretend I'm successful.
Clove polyps, had only a few heads on it, grew several more, then they all disappeared. There's a couple heads left that are still open around the frag itself.
Specific tank parts and media:
Wavemaker (I believe mine is 300GPH but I don't see a listing here, this is the link from my 'Buy it again' page for the brand. It doesn't feel that strong in the tank itself FWIW.)
Sump Pump
Thermometer
Heater (don't remember which one but assume recommendation for 29g
Skimmer (The page of the one I bought was removed, it was magtool brand)
Silicone used for custom built sump, used it before on my 125 gallon's sump, covering my PVC with sand on one of my old mantis tanks, and for my tarantulas.
Salt: Reef Crystals Instant Ocean
Lights: 2x ai Prime 16 HD, measured 10 inches above water surface, settings (3 PM to 1 AM):
History of the tank itself:
Built in late December, 2022. Using live sand and aquacultured rock. First week of january I added two animals; Peacock Mantis Shrimp and a Yellow Tail Damsel, they are both thriving to this day and show no behavioral differences, damsel grew, at one point the Mantis got a spot of shell rot and it cured within a month. If they were the only indication they'd lead to me believe they're perfectly content with the way things are. I did not have the AI primes on it yet, infact lighting and corals wasn't added until around February or March, this tank did actually have a skimmer on it, but it produced a little skimmate in the months I had it, I was told to turn it off to let nutrients build up a bit for coral growth, aaaannnd then I tried plugging it in when that wasn't working and suddenly the skimmer decided to just die on me and never work again.
Sometime later I took apart the rockwork and readjusted them to lean from the back of the tank, they were leaning too forward creating a lot of shadowing from the lights and making it difficult to place coral anywhere, so I adjusted them to give more surface area to build off of, corals took this relatively well, the only frag I moved and likely got a change in atmosphere is the thick gorgonian cause it was hidden in the back in a shaded spot of rock and I put it more in the open in the bottom corner.
Around April I think, diatoms took over, this actually didn't affect the coral much but definitely threw me off on parameters. 3 day black out and they were more manageable with corals opening at the end of it just fine. Sometime after this I actually did have an ammonia spike, no clue where it came from but I did a water change, which didn't do anything, then dosed with amquel plus, that detoxed it at least, then I added searchem stability to restore whatever happened to my bacteria, there hasn't been any ammonia problems since this event, no ill effects from it during that time period, and seems pretty stable now.
I added 10 snails to the tank, astrea and mexican turbo. This is when cyano arc I'm at has begun, naturally the mantis killed the snails off except 1 mexican turbo which has been in there a month now surprisingly enough. They got rid of any hair algae traces that might've killed my fire and ice zoas, and I placed an order arriving for Thursday that would be 20 snails I can toss back in, overkill? Maybe, I just really want to mop as much of the rock as I can while adding more sources of nutrients since they're so low already, as well as more starfish for the refugium and the squillid because... I make bad decisions
.
I was debating seeing if I can fix the skimmer pump by poking the fan (cause I learned I can fix a powerhead by doing that.. I threw so many away not knowing). In that same order I also bought a few frags, a ricordia and another duncan. I would've bought more but I shouldn't until I get the problem solved.
Tour of the tank (very sorry for low quality, my phone doesn't compress videos well and blue light doesn't help, primarily my concern is the wave maker on the top right front corner, its aimed towards the bottom left corner to try and circulate flow, while the outtake nozzle is aimed at the wave maker itself in the top right back corner)
And this is where I'm at. I'm stumped why I can't be successful with corals, so this thread will hopefully serve as a journal on all my failures in hopes of finally discovering something that solves the problem. I'm hoping for suggestions or pointing out anything particularly wrong from my lighting, to my flow, to the corals I buy and where I place them that might give me some leads. Appreciate the read!
Now everything is just dying or on the verge of death. The zoanthids that haven't melted yet its been weeks since I seen them open or trying to open, the mushrooms look shrunken and never expanded (I even have them growing in another tank for reference so they're really unhappy in this tank for some reason), all the hard corals melted and I have yet to have a torch that didn't brown jelly within 24 hrs, aaaaaannnndd my parameters got me stumped.
Parameters
Temp: 77 F (going to try dropping it down tonight, I want it somewhere closer to 74 cause I'm getting a cold water squillid to put in the sump and it occasionally goes up past 78 here)
Phosphate: 0.01 (red sea phosphate pro)
Nitrates: undetectable (API, ik I should get the nitrate version of above for this, but RN wouldn't surprise me if thats being undetectable due to cyano)
Ammonia/Nitrite: 0 (API)
Salinity: 1.024 (refractometer), no top off system
Calcium: 420 (API)
Alk: 9 (API)
Ph: 8.3 pretty steady day and night here too (API)
Mag: Don't know, don't have the test for it, but I've had my 125 running without a single water change in 8 years and the same corals are thriving in there but this new tank seems to really upset them while I keep up with it, not sure if mag has to do with some of the corals.
Water Source: RO/DI
Gallons: 29 gallon display with a drilled in overflow, sump is 20 gallons but likely only 8-10 gallons filled. Bio media - > heater - > chemipure elite - > refugium (mostly just filled with starfish for my harlequins (stars are recent, only been here a week) and putting in a mantis this week, my attempt to keep some nutrients in the tank since there's very little in the display to dirty the water) - > 300 GPH pump back to display. There's pads laying ontop of the biomedia to catch detritus and algae.
Food: Reef roids for the coral, even mixed some PE mysis with it, used to feed weekly, slowed down cause of the diatoms and cyano, gave up when they were dying anyways. Mantis gets the occasional clam, krill, or CuC snail, fish eats the leftovers and what it somehow gets away with ripping from the mantis's claws without punishment.
Lighting: 10 inches above the water column, I have two ai primes, blues and UV are set at around 80%, I keep the others lower (15% whites, 5% reds/greens) cause I didn't want any green outbreaks in this tank (inhabitants are a mantis shrimp and 1 damsel, so CuC is limited and neither bothered any of the corals). I thought maybe the lighting was too strong so I set it on 50% acclimation mode this week going on until end of the month to see if at any point they perked up.
Husbandry: Feed the mantis every 3 days or so, using a baster blow off any cyano/diatoms on the coral frags. Test Ph, ammonia, and salinity every few day to make sure those are stable and then every other week full test everything I can (except nitrite, rarely I do nitrite...). I used to water change weekly, then back pedaled a bit on that post corals dying to let the water get dirty, I recently did one last night.
The corals
Lord Acans I had for a few months in this tank, showing growth, last month they "ejected" from their stalks and I can still occasionally find one or two of the ejected heads around the mantis's burrow but I know they ain't gunna make it like that.
A thick branch gorgonian that is still standing but is getting thinner and thinner each day and I keep having to blow off cyano from it. This coral was growing in my other tank literally face planted in the sand and didn't mind one bit but anchored and glued in here the coral is dying? It was in here quite a few months.
Green Star Polyp, all gone. Fragged it from my invasive colony literally taken over half of the 125 gallon and it doesn't even survive in this??????? It lasted the shortest I think.
5 Zoanthids
The fire and ice zoanthids did really well, going from 2 heads to about 7 or 8, then just permanantly closed and I noticed some hair algae grew inbetween them where I couldn't rip it out, I took them out, cleaned it, saw the occasional attempt to open, then cyano covered them and they're no more.
Unknown colony, did really well too, even growing off the frag plug and onto the rock, but suddenly cyano grew over them with not attempts to open, I've cleaned them multiple times now and assuming the worst.
Gorilla nipples ?, this colony also spread, from 2 heads to about 10 even starting to get in the rock, this colony looks like its the most likely to be saved cause there's nothing growing on it, there never was, but they haven't opened in weeks and I don't see signs of melting.
Little shop of horrors, was open for a few weeks, then closed never opening again, and has been slowly melting since. You can see my thread on them here, I even have my lighting details the same, its also when I got a better phosphate kit.
Candy apple reds which "umbrella'd" and were the first to go even though they did really well at first growing.
Duncan which actually grew a third head from the 2 head frag I bought, then just... ceased to exist?
Green hairy mushroom which RN is still alive, but its closed up and not expanding at all, I have about 100 in my 125 gallon so I simply moved a rock in here and this one was open first few weeks then stopped?
Blue spot red mushrooms, Possibly the most random contrary coral in this tank... I put it in while everyone else was doing great, it immidiately started melting... BUT one month later actually made a complete turn around recovery and grew bigger and brighter and still seems to be thriving exactly the same even with everything else gone. Maybe I should just buy a hundred of these and pretend I'm successful.
Clove polyps, had only a few heads on it, grew several more, then they all disappeared. There's a couple heads left that are still open around the frag itself.
Specific tank parts and media:
Wavemaker (I believe mine is 300GPH but I don't see a listing here, this is the link from my 'Buy it again' page for the brand. It doesn't feel that strong in the tank itself FWIW.)
Sump Pump
Thermometer
Heater (don't remember which one but assume recommendation for 29g
Skimmer (The page of the one I bought was removed, it was magtool brand)
Silicone used for custom built sump, used it before on my 125 gallon's sump, covering my PVC with sand on one of my old mantis tanks, and for my tarantulas.
Salt: Reef Crystals Instant Ocean
Lights: 2x ai Prime 16 HD, measured 10 inches above water surface, settings (3 PM to 1 AM):
History of the tank itself:
Built in late December, 2022. Using live sand and aquacultured rock. First week of january I added two animals; Peacock Mantis Shrimp and a Yellow Tail Damsel, they are both thriving to this day and show no behavioral differences, damsel grew, at one point the Mantis got a spot of shell rot and it cured within a month. If they were the only indication they'd lead to me believe they're perfectly content with the way things are. I did not have the AI primes on it yet, infact lighting and corals wasn't added until around February or March, this tank did actually have a skimmer on it, but it produced a little skimmate in the months I had it, I was told to turn it off to let nutrients build up a bit for coral growth, aaaannnd then I tried plugging it in when that wasn't working and suddenly the skimmer decided to just die on me and never work again.
Sometime later I took apart the rockwork and readjusted them to lean from the back of the tank, they were leaning too forward creating a lot of shadowing from the lights and making it difficult to place coral anywhere, so I adjusted them to give more surface area to build off of, corals took this relatively well, the only frag I moved and likely got a change in atmosphere is the thick gorgonian cause it was hidden in the back in a shaded spot of rock and I put it more in the open in the bottom corner.
Around April I think, diatoms took over, this actually didn't affect the coral much but definitely threw me off on parameters. 3 day black out and they were more manageable with corals opening at the end of it just fine. Sometime after this I actually did have an ammonia spike, no clue where it came from but I did a water change, which didn't do anything, then dosed with amquel plus, that detoxed it at least, then I added searchem stability to restore whatever happened to my bacteria, there hasn't been any ammonia problems since this event, no ill effects from it during that time period, and seems pretty stable now.
I added 10 snails to the tank, astrea and mexican turbo. This is when cyano arc I'm at has begun, naturally the mantis killed the snails off except 1 mexican turbo which has been in there a month now surprisingly enough. They got rid of any hair algae traces that might've killed my fire and ice zoas, and I placed an order arriving for Thursday that would be 20 snails I can toss back in, overkill? Maybe, I just really want to mop as much of the rock as I can while adding more sources of nutrients since they're so low already, as well as more starfish for the refugium and the squillid because... I make bad decisions
.I was debating seeing if I can fix the skimmer pump by poking the fan (cause I learned I can fix a powerhead by doing that.. I threw so many away not knowing). In that same order I also bought a few frags, a ricordia and another duncan. I would've bought more but I shouldn't until I get the problem solved.
Tour of the tank (very sorry for low quality, my phone doesn't compress videos well and blue light doesn't help, primarily my concern is the wave maker on the top right front corner, its aimed towards the bottom left corner to try and circulate flow, while the outtake nozzle is aimed at the wave maker itself in the top right back corner)
And this is where I'm at. I'm stumped why I can't be successful with corals, so this thread will hopefully serve as a journal on all my failures in hopes of finally discovering something that solves the problem. I'm hoping for suggestions or pointing out anything particularly wrong from my lighting, to my flow, to the corals I buy and where I place them that might give me some leads. Appreciate the read!
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