No Luck With Corals

[redkoicarp]

i have a 50 gallon tank with sand filter skimmer and fluval canister filter and 250w halide lights it has been up and running for 18 months with 1 cardinal 3 damsels 1 file fish and a luna wrasse .

all fish are feeding and growing

my problem is that every time i put corals in the tank they last a week or two and die

i have been told low storium

corals i have tried are leather coral pulsing zenia button polyps mushrooms

took my water to shop for testing all ok

please any ideas

 

[amstar15]

where do you place them in the tank??? if they are placed high the 250 watt bulb could be killing them. what type of water do you use for top-offs and water changes?? what temp do you keep your tank? and does the temp change (at my house my programable thermostat turns the house down to 64 or 65 degrees at night so with bigger heaters (to keep the tanks up to temp during the drop in the house at night) to keep the tanks at a constant temp. what do you keep your salt level at?? what is your alk? ph? nitrates, etc

 

[andywg]

Storium? Do you mean perhaps Strontium? If you do then having it low may not be a bad thing. I am sure I read in the foreward to Dr Ronald Shimek's book on identifying invertebrates that strontium causes heavier skeletal growth in corals by restricting growth, in effect it stunts the outward expansion of corals, so cannot be considered a good thing. I may have my elements mixed up however.

I am leaning perhaps towards bleaching and wrong conditions. What is the turnover. If you have a high turnover as well as powerful lights then you are getting to a similar position I was in, I have found any soft corals left over from when I started out did very poorly once I got the tank set up for SPS corals. The toadstool was torn in half and the xenia just faded away.

 

[Lynden]

I would, if nothing else, blame high flow. Strontium has no beneficial effect on the growths of soft corals (no additives do in my opinion). I am going to ask, and am not implying anything, how could you be sure they were dying?

 

[1entra]

Has copper ever been used in the tank in the form of Ich/whitespot treatment?

 

[SkiFletch]

And what fish do you have in the tank?

 

[redkoicarp]

hi all thanks for advice
just done test on water

ph 8.1
ca 860mg/l
po4 0.5 to 1.0 mg/l
no2 o.1
nh3 o
fe o
sg 25​

i have now put a small power head in the tank just to stir the water up a bit more
the fish seem to like it but my only little mushroom has shrivled up

i will give it a few days to see what happends

there has been no copper in the tank at all

the power heads i use are small and only enough to power sand filter and skimmer

water changes are done every week approx 5 gallons

water used comes from my own ro unit witch i test every time i use it

any other ideas guys

all corals that i put in the tank are placed at the bottom away from strong light and high flow

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh wait, just looked at your stock list. Some species of filefish eat corals. Could be a problem. Do you notice it picking at rocks/corals?

 

[Lynden]

"Some" do, most do not eat large amounts, and none that I am aware of eat softies. Again, how can you be sure they were dying?

 

[redkoicarp]

Oh wait, just looked at your stock list. Some species of filefish eat corals. Could be a problem. Do you notice it picking at rocks/corals?

i did think of that but this started a long time before i got the file fish .

my tank was over run with aptasia i think thats what they call it . it was the only think that was growing and multiplying i was advised to get the file fish to eat it witch it has done

 

[redkoicarp]

"Some" do, most do not eat large amounts, and none that I am aware of eat softies. Again, how can you be sure they were dying?

the leather coral wilted and broke up [ went to a mush on the bottom]
the zenia broke up into single pieces then decintgrated
the button polyps lasted the longest about 3-4 months then it started to get smaller and smaller untill it was a blob on the rock then it went hard and fell to the bottom

 

[SkiFletch]

This may sound off the wall, but have you tried any aggressive stony corals?

 

[steelhealr]

Low 'anything' is a lot of you know what. No coral dies because the strontium or iodine or molybdenum or etc was low. These elements are necessary for healthy long term growth and are wonderfully supplemented with regular water changes.

Some corals can be 'shocked' by strong lighting and it would be my opinion that THAT is the most likely culprit. If you see bleaching before death, I would guess that. You may want to shorten your lighting invterval for the first few days your corals are in the tank and gradually bring it back up to a 12 hour schedule.

SH

 

[jeasko]

sorry guys cant ignor the ca level!

is it me or is that high compared to where we would normally try and keep it?

also I would be tempted with the same as ski's suggestion of live stock going for corals, had an angel fish in my tank and a few corrals were ok but couldnt work out why the others were suffering, just by chance one day i saw it go for a bit of xenia and realised it was a prob, once i got the angel out the tank things changed within a few days! really would suggest observe fish for a while and see what you spot

 

[jaypime]

how about this..... guys.. tell me if am wrong..


Kent Coral Accel is a Hard & Soft Coral Growth Stimulator • It provides complex proteins which provide a natural source of necessary amino acids that spur coral tissue growth • Contains rich marine lipids • Particularly designed for use when fragmenting small polyped stony corals and propagating soft corals, octocorals, and colonial anemones.