Urgent help needed Corals dying

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Hi guys

Over the last few months something very strange has been happening in my tank.

It started off with one or two corals getting sick and not recovering. More recently single corals will start to die, or even a single head (like my torch) but the rest of the coral, or neihgbouring corals of similar species remain healthy.

Here are my parameters:

pH: 8.2
kH: 8
Mag: 1300
Cal: 420
Salinity: 1.026

I use Seachem Reefsalt, 15% WC once a month.

Filtration:
18cm DSB with chaeto and algae scrubber above.
TS2 skimmer.
500ml biocubes

Dosing:
Seachem Aquavitro Range - 8.4, Calcium and Ions, with Fuel added every now and then.

Lighting: 54* cree 3W LEDs, DIY

Livestock:

Regal Tang
Sailfin Tang
Clownfish
Mandarin
Lionfish
Cleaner Wrasse
Black Tang (don't know proper name, the common one caught in Natal)

Coral banded shrimp

Ok, the hard part - here is the list of corals that have gotten sick or died in the last few months:

Red plating monti
Green plating monti - the red went first, literally died over the space of 2 days. The green went about a month later. Both corals had started off the size of a R5 coin and grown to about the size of a side plate. The weird thing is, with the green monti I had bumped it once and broken a few pieces off, so I put them elsewhere in the tank. These frags are still doing fine! ???Had these for more than 3 years, really sad to lose them.

Trumpet coral - had it for 2 years, one day all the heads remained retracted. A week later it was dead.

Open brain
Hammer coral
Moon coral
Various mushrooms


Here's a full tank shot (the green monti is still fine here, the red had just died):


This pic I took this morning - I've had this brain for about 18 months and it has thrived - until now. You can see the dead moon coral behind, and the dead green monti to the right.

With each coral, the same process happens - it closes up and slowly fades away. Very disheartening!

Sorry for the long post, I thought it best to post as much info as possible.

I'm at a loss. Do I have some bacteria? Or perhaps something that comes out at night and munches on corals?

Any help, ideas or insight, please!

Cheers
Dan

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Can you maybe confirm your alkalinity of your tank ? SPS needs quite a high alkalinity range to survive. That will explain the monti that died
 
Also what is your NO3 and PO4 readings? I would suggest to take a sample of your water to a petshop and have it tested.
 
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Also you have a lionfish in your set up which means that you most propably dont have a cleanup crew like snails, crabs ect. If i have to take a quess i would say that your phosphate and nitrate levels is high.
 
thanks @Zandy

havent bought a NO3 or PO4 testkit since I first started the tank 4 years ago, will go get new ones.

I've kept lionfish almost continuously since the first year, so I don't think it's that. although... i must admit I haven't topped up my hermit or snail population in a while. will go get some this weekend.

I suspect the NO3 and PO4 readings may be highish... will go get a kit today and post results.

thanks!
 
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If nutrients were high, youd see discoulouring/browning of corals before they died.
Such fast tissue recession like that is usually caused by a spike in a parameter (normally temp, KH, pH) or by a pest. have you changed anything recently?
Have a look at your tank a few hours after lights out and see whats crawling around.
 
Nothing wrong with kh of eight if it is stable it might be a lighting problem. Ask for someone with par tester to test your par in the various areas of tank
 
I agree that it might be nitrates and phosphates. What liverock do you have in there? Is any of it sandstone based?
 
Black Tang :eek: R8000-R12000, I though you means blue eye Kole tang
test PO4 NO3, how is temp swipe? and do you give coral food? or element ....
 
Where do you get your RO water from? Any idea of TDS reading?
 
I've got a waterboy RO unit, haven't checked the TDS in ages - will do that tonight!

Could be an issue, maybe you have gone through your membrane, and need to replace it as well as pre filters. Always advise put an inline tds meter from @TheWaterboy to be used with ro machine
 
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Could definitely be the RO, ran mine for 5 years, then decided to test TDS and it was sitting at 126! :eek:
 
I still remain to say that the high nitrate & phosphate could be the issue. Although i am running biocubes , i also run phosgaurd as well as activated carbon.
 
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