Have My Corals Died?

Well for some of you that have read a recent post of mine i had a terrible few weeks with sky high nitrates and it was down to my RO filter being at fault.

To my amazment all off my fish have survived along with all my inverts but ime dreading that my corals may have been very badly effected by it or have been killed by the nitrates.

Heres a picture of my green star polyp rock.....the nice purple skin it had has gone very dark and none of the heads have opened since the whole problem started. Have quicly lifted it out the water and smelt it and it doesnt smell bad at all which if ime right if it smells bad its dead right???

How can i post multipull pictures in 1 post as for some reason i can only upload 100k of images which is only enough for 1??

Heres a picture of my zoos...they were a nice brown colour with an orange centre but as u can see how the heads are all going brown and havnt opened since the ordeal started

And 3rd of all my leather coral its stayed this size for a while now and ive knowtised today thats somethings been eating it as you can see from the picture below?? would this indicate its dead as ive never had any probs with it or any other corals being eaten??

i've just had the same problem with a green star polyp been open for six months then one day just never opened. it's been shut for about 5 days then did a biggish water change. it's been about 2 days now and it's started 2 reopen it's about have open now

well ive done 4 water decent sized water changes since the nitrate problem started and they have not even fort about opening at all.....all tank paramaters are fine now but still there refusing to open.

I find the same thing happens with my gren star polyps. some days they are all out and then I may not see thema again for a week or so. seems like they are very easily stressed and any changes in water chemistry or manual touching can keep them away for days and even weeks etc.

Some of your zoo's like like they're dieing/dead but a lot of them look like they are ok. Try repositioning them around the tank in areas of both low and medium flow/light. Some of mine didnt open for a week or so when I got them but when I moved them around a bit a couple of times I noticed they started to open slowly when they found a spot they were happy with!

hmmm i never fort of that ill defo gove that a try....but sayin that it seems weird that both the zoos an polyps have been fine where they are for a gd months or 2 before the nitrate crisis......but sayin that they may just fancy a change of placement in the tank lol

Anything on the leather coral an why its being eaten???

what is actually in your tank?

2 commen clown fish, 1 bangai cardinal fish, 1 firefish, 1 watchman goby and a spotted mandarin.

and for inverts i have 1 fire shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 5 small hermit crabs, 6 turbo snails and 2 big snails....and a dreaded mantis shrimp that come from my liverock.

and for corals i have a pulsing xenia, leather coral, mushroom coral, green star polyp, and a frag with lots of zoos on it.

1entra said:

I find the same thing happens with my gren star polyps. some days they are all out and then I may not see thema again for a week or so. seems like they are very easily stressed and any changes in water chemistry or manual touching can keep them away for days and even weeks etc.

Some of your zoo's like like they're dieing/dead but a lot of them look like they are ok. Try repositioning them around the tank in areas of both low and medium flow/light. Some of mine didnt open for a week or so when I got them but when I moved them around a bit a couple of times I noticed they started to open slowly when they found a spot they were happy with!

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My green stars dont want to open either. But every time i move them the reopen for about a week and then shut up.

My stars always stay open in medium flow but they dont get as puffy as I like. It looks like something may be eating them though if something is eating your leather.

If you're having multiple different species behave this way, something's prolly wrong. Either you have a predator in the tank, or something's wrong with your chemistry.

IME, star polyps, Leathers, and Zoas will react this way if the alkalinity is drastically low, or the salinity is drastically high. I may have asked you this, but have you recently verified your salinity measuring device?

Well ime using a refractometer to measure salinity and coincidently enough i checked its calibration sunday night with de-ironised water and i had to adjust it down a very small bit but nothing drastic as all.

Went to my LFS today whilst at work and spoke to them about my problem and they said that if all my other tank stats are fine and i have got my nitrates down in the water that it could be possible that the waste could still be breaking down in my sand?? and if this is the case it releases some sort of acid or something which will lower the PH

And i tested my ph this morning and its at about 7.6 which is very low.....so looks like ive found my problem and maybe the cause of it.

Man at LFS said also that the live rock itself should adjust ph to 8.2 ish with no need for additives.......so does this mean that once the problem is sorted out that the ph will rise itself to the required level??? and when i do water changes the ph of the RO water is about 7.8 and once added to the tank it may change the ph for a short time but will adjust back upto around 8.2

Most common cause for high pH is NOT acid byproducts of nutrient breakdown. Its excess CO2. CO2 dissolved in water makes that water more acidic (lowers pH). In our closed homes in the winter especially, CO2 levels that were "on the edge" during the summer when the house was open and air was circulating can become too high in the winter when the house is buttoned up as best as possible.

In order to lower dissolved CO2, remove any glass covers from the tank. Increase surface agitation by pointing a powerhead at the surface, and if CO2 remains high, consider blowing a small computer-sized fan across the water level. These methods should increase gas exchange and favorably reomve CO2 from the tank. You should see changes within a day if any of these methods prove successful.

Do remember though, only test pH at the same time everyday as CO2 uptake by algaes varies throughout the light cycle (photosynthesis). Your pH SHOULD remain stable if you have sufficient gas exchange, but it might still wane in the morning and rise a bit in the evening. Never should it be 7.6 though

Edit: If you paid less than say 80 (quid or dollars) for your refractometer, chances are its a cheaply made one. And the cheap ones are not necessarily relaible across their entire range of use. Meaning if you calibrate it at 0, it may not be correct at 1.026. But if you calibrate it at 1.026, it will be accurate across the range you want to measure

Nother option to maintain steady pH is to add a refugium containing macroalgae of some sort eg. chaeto, caulerpa ec. You should keep the fuge lights on in reverse to your tank ie. when tank lights go off, the fuge lights turn onand vice versa! This way the macroalgae will contine to photsynthesise at night using up the CO2 and adding oxygen to the water!