Forest fire digi giving me trouble, need tips advice

[vcarlyle62]

So I have had these forest fire digi both for over a year, they have been lovely and full with good growth. The one on the right has slowly been shrinking polyps and now having issues with algea trying to grow on the tips. I have not moved it and they both used to look like the one on the left.

Ph 8.01
Alk 9.6
Ca 550
Mag >1500
Nitrates 11
Phos 0.03
And I tested for copper just in case, I do use it for my qt and am careful not to mix up tools and it came back fine

I love my digi and am really starting to worry , any help would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks Thanks

 

[Saltyreef]

Looks like STN if algae is growing on exposed skeleton.

Numbers look good but have they been stable?

I would advise to send out an ICP analysis ASAP if contamination is your concern and buy some boyds polyfilter pads to run in the meantime.

Keep testing your nutrients to ensure they dont bottom out while using the polyfilter.

 

[vcarlyle62]

Yeah, parameters have been stable, I test bi-monthly at this point with the patameters i listed above being from last night. I did do a sump clean out a few months ago and I tested daily for about a week to make sure no spikes.

As a side note maybe unrelated and maybe not, I did have a couple of my euphilia lost to brown jelly a few months ago. Nothing new added to the tank, no snails or new coral and no new fish. I managed to save the rest of them but not sure what kicked that off either. I feel something underlying is wrong that I'm missing so I think your idea of the ICP test is a great one. I will do that.

I will get some of the poly filter. Currently I have 2 bags of fresh carbon running.

 

[Dburr1014]

So I have had these forest fire digi both for over a year, they have been lovely and full with good growth. The one on the right has slowly been shrinking polyps and now having issues with algea trying to grow on the tips. I have not moved it and they both used to look like the one on the left.

Ph 8.01
Alk 9.6
Ca 550
Mag >1500
Nitrates 11
Phos 0.03
And I tested for copper just in case, I do use it for my qt and am careful not to mix up tools and it came back fine

I love my digi and am really starting to worry , any help would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks Thanks

Have you thought about adding a touch more po4?

 

[vcarlyle62]

Not really, is there a better range for the digi ?

 

[Pod_01]

Not really, is there a better range for the digi ?

I will comment from my experience.
Any time I had phosphate (PO4) below the 0.05 value, I unfortunately killed lot of SPS corals. If the phosphate was sinking 0.05 to 0.01 it was really bad. On the other hand if the values is in the 0.1 - 0.4 range SPS corals are good. The 0.05-0.1 is ok as well but I find it risky, the test kits are not that accurate/ my hands are shaky/ eye colour coordination is a question and as result I ended up in the not desirable range.
Yes I lost forest fire digi when my phosphate was going from 0.05 to 0.02.
There appear to be ways to make it work in the below 0.05 range but I had zero success.

As a reference my nutrition values and some SPS corals:

Good luck, hope it comes back.

 

[vcarlyle62]

OK, I am willing to give it a try. I've had it in my brain that low low phos was the way to go. Your corals look very happy tho so maybe that's it. Thanks for your input

 

[keanenk]

Check your potassium. If my montis pale out I know K is low.

 

[Dburr1014]

I also try to stay in the 0.1 range of po4.
At 0.05 I get nervous and add some of feed more pellets.