ALL MY CORAL IS DYING..........help

[JohnnyAirtime]

.........How do I stop this????

Get those nitrates down!!! that'd be MY first step!

[hydrahawk]

More questions to OP, did you get a 70w, 150w, 250w or 400w MH? What is the temperature of your tank?

[Madjamey]

I'm sorry guys..... I forgot to mention I just put this light in a week ago. They started dying before and I thought the light would help.... But maybe it just killed them faster??? I also have red slime algae on my rocks.... How do I stop this????

WATER CHANGES !!! I have been doing a lot of water changes in my garage reef due to the overwhelming amount of the same " red slime " algae that has some how started to take over. Kenya tree could survive a nuclear bomb , but once this stuff hit my Kenya , it fell flat and started to die !!! Suck as much out when you are draining and try doing larger water changes in general , I think 5-6 gallons every 2 weeks is not near enough !

[specvjeff]

I saw that you were using RO water. Is it deionized as well? If not, constant water changes will be introducing more silicates and phosphates which will only feed the cyano. I strongly recommend you use ro/di water. Secondly decrease your photo period to around 4 hours. You can manually remove as much as possible too. Also make sure your tank has plenty of flow. Cyano doesn't like flow and this can help prevent detritus build up. You need to increase your alk to 10-11 dkh and maintain in there.

Please figure out the source of the nitrates! Over feeding, poor flow allowing detritus to settle, detritus build up in the sump, lack of water changes, over stocked tank are all causes.

I would also recommend the use of purigen and chemipure. They will remove all kinds of bad things from the water and the purigen can be regenerated for repetitive use.

Once the cyano is gone slowly increase your photo period. I like 1 hour a week till you get back to 8-9 hours. A sudden increase can shock your corals and also induce an algae bloom. Speaking of lighting which metal halide bulb(s) are you using and in what color? 10k, 14k, 20k? Also how old are the bulbs?

When you test all your perameters please post them so I can review them.


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[pinoyreef]

The temperature of your tank must be maintain not too far away to 79degrees. Check your temperature at night compare during the day after 4hrs of turning on your metal halide. night temperature and day temparature should not have morethan 6degrees difference, if posible try to maintain same temperature at all times.
Also, some of your corals dying fast because of the metal halide shock them all. Your set up is been running for nine months and tell's me that the light is not the solution for your problems, they grow without this metal halide, so I would recomend to bring back your old lights until everything back to normal. Do that while figuringout the solution for your nitrate problems.
Once nitrate back to normal you need to observe your tank for two weeks and see if your live stock is going back to life. If every thing back to normal then you can swap your metal halide slowly "what I mean is start your metal halide 2 feet high and bring it down one inch per day till you get to the spot that you want it to be".
Some how this will help your tank back and grow more corals.
lmk if this help.
Good luck
John

[ford4life]

The light fixture is 125w...... 15 k blue. But I also have a 20 k white as back up.... The temp is usually around 77-79 degrees.

[pinoyreef]

Like everyone says water change is the solution for nitrate. Also how is the condition of your dying corals? Observe them carefuly! separate from your main tank the corals that you think will not going to survive, because this corals can spread the desis to another corals. Do that only if you think they are not going back to life.
Also if you can take a picture of your tank, show us your dying corals, the metal halide, your skimmer, your power head and something else that you think might be important for us to know. This might help us to figure out the solution to your problems.
Thanks
John

[ford4life]

Ok I will take pics when I get off work today at 3:30. I just tested the water and this is what resulted....... kH=16 drops to yellow......PH=8.0.......ammonia=Oppm..........nit rIte=Oppm ........ NitrAte= 40 ppm...... So my nitrates are going down from last test which was at 80 ppm. I'm going to doing a 40%-50% water change today while attempting to loosen up all the cyano and get rid of it.

[ford4life]

Also in my filter now I've had chemical pure elite inside for 9 days. And I've been adding reef bio fuel to try and lower the nitrates....... Thanks again guys for the help and time taken out of you're lives to read this and assist me . I thought my tank was doing good

[pinoyreef]

Good job, obviously you are doing something wright for dropping 80ppm to 40ppm keep up the good work soon you will going to have a stable and heathier reef.
John

[ford4life]

so I did the big 45% water change\........ when should my nitrates be back to normal???? I will be going back to a 20% water change in a day or two...... I took pics of my tank and will load them tomorrow.

[hydrahawk]

Did you retest your perimeters?

[ford4life]

i will retest in a couple hours. I tested two days ago and it was between 20-40.....so getting better!!! also just bought new salt. I think the random salt company I had wasnt good and might have contained nitrates.

[hydrahawk]

What brand were you using? Now?

[ford4life]

I got the old salt from tri city tropical fish in Oceanside and there wasn't a name on it but the employees said it was good salt..... The new bag I got is instant ocean