Corals not looking good, w/ pics

Thanks JohnO! Too much pressure!!!!!

In any event,

I use Lugol's...and in my system I have only needed about 4 drops in 4 months. Don't add iodine if you are not testing for it.

Obvoiusly, from your pics....something is wrong with the water. We just need to figure out what.

What are your results for the following necessary tests

Specific Gravity, Ammonia, pH, Alkalinity, Nitrite, Nitrate, Calcium (260 is low, but that alone I don't think is the problem)

If you have an iodine test kit, that would help as well.

By the looks of your glass, you have some excess nutrients, there seems to be quite a bit of algae growing there. ;D How is your skimmer working? Are you running with a wetter skimmate? Perhaps that may help.

Sorry for all the ??? ;D

 

Oh yeah, how often do you clean those prefilter sponges on the powerheads?

 

Hey, Jay you have been very helpful. Keep giving me advise ;D I am going to clean that one sponge tonight and also get a test kit for the idodine. I'll report back with the levels tonight. I know that all my nitrates, amm. etc are fine though, so it has to be something else. My water smells kind of funny. Not sure if that is normal. Also, this green alge has been around for about 2 weeks now and I can't get it to dissappear. Does that mean anything? Thanks again everyone, Im still new to this, I hope I don't loose anything.

Andrew

 

Algae is fueled by a couple of things....

Too much iodine , nitrates, or phoshates possibly.

If you can afford it, get the iodine and a phosphate test kit.

When was your last water change and how much? How often do you feed and what?

;D

 

everythings sounds good but while you are doing all of this how about adding a clean up crew ;D

 

I have about 25 blue leg crabs, 15 red leg, 2 turbo snails, 3 Nasarius snails, 1 Cleaner Shrimp. Do I need more??? I am going to get some kits tonight after work. I did a 20% water change this weekend and that didn't help much. I'll report back soon. It's probably phospates or iodine, hopefully the stores have kits tonight.

Andrew

 

Iodine is a very hard thing to test. I have yet to find a test kit that I would call reliable.

The first step I would do to try and fix things, would be to stop adding anything until you find what your current tank parameters are. with regular water changes you should be able to maintain good levels of Iodine and Mag. You may find you need to supplement for CA and ALk. But that would not cause your corals to look the way they do.

Something is bothering them. it could be chemistry or water flow or even lighting. But the advise above is great Test everything before adding anything. I would first get an idea of you Ammonia, nitrate, nitrite levels. I don;t think low Iodine will cause this and Phosphate will just promote algae growth but High Iodine can kill

Good Luck and let us know how you made out

J

 

Well, checked everything again and it reads out ok. Amm. 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, Phoshpate 0. I checked 4 different fish stores and not one had an Iodine test. I think my tests are accurate but I could be wrong. I don't know what to do :'( I'm going to call the reliable LFS and see if they can test my water and figure something out.

Thanks for all your replies and reading

Andrew

 

A couple of quick things

Are you using ro/di water? Have you tried changing flow directions or moving the corals? When was your carbon last changed? What test kits are you and you LFS using?

Also, I believe you tank is a bit over stock for only being 6 months old which could be part of the problem.

 

Andrew,

Water readings of zero, particularlity for Nitrate and Phosphate always make me a bit suspicious of the test kits. Getting a LFS to do a test and verify the results is an excellent idea.

At the moment I would just try moving the coral(s) up in the water column and leave the tank for a few days to see if you get a positive response.

BTW, have you noticed if the hermit crabs have been feeding near the coral?

John