Need Coral Help

[jaylam]

Hi,

My cabbage leather coral is looking a bit ill. The only thing's I have done since it started looking ill was 1) added rowaphos to the media chamber in my skimmer and reduced the lighting by 2 hours (now put back). It all used to look like the top right hand side piece but it seems to be shriveling up.

Also my mushroom looks funny, don't think its ill but wanted to check. It seems to have curled up:

Just done a water test and the results are:

ph - 8
Alkalinity - 0-16
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 25/5.0
Ammonia - 0

Can anyone advise what I should do?

 

[seffieuk]

Phosphates?

Seffie x

 

[jaylam]

Phosphates?

Seffie x

I don't have a phosphate tester but they were all doing fine until about a week ago

 

[ozzie2011]

I don't have a phosphate tester but they were all doing fine until about a week ago

Get one mate in my opinion Phos and nitrate kits are essential

What brand of kit are you using? Is the nitrate between 25 and 50?

Higher nitrates might be making your corals shrivel like the mushroom. Saying that it looks like the mushy is falling apart, melting, is it? If it is I would cut it off the rock incase its something else and stop it spreading to your others.

I have read your diary before, but how long have those been in there?

 

[jaylam]

I don't have a phosphate tester but they were all doing fine until about a week ago

Get one mate in my opinion Phos and nitrate kits are essential

What brand of kit are you using? Is the nitrate between 25 and 50?

Higher nitrates might be making your corals shrivel like the mushroom. Saying that it looks like the mushy is falling apart, melting, is it? If it is I would cut it off the rock incase its something else and stop it spreading to your others.

I have read your diary before, but how long have those been in there?

I am using the Red Sea Marine Lab kit, LINK

The nitrate card has two numbers each side of each colour one low range and one high range, so the colour in the tube after the test matches with the one that says a low range of 25 and a high range of 5.0.

I don't think its melting, that was the biggest mushroom I had much bigger than the others in the picture but it seems to have folded up the top part but as you can see from the picture the bottom part of it remains fine.

Mushroom has been in there and fine since 30th Dec and the leather I put in on the 22nd of Jan. Both were fine until I added the Rowaphos on the 5th Feb.

 

[ozzie2011]

Maybe im wrong but I cant see the rowa doing any harm.

Regards to the mushie if it is just folding then I wouldn't worry about it. As for the other it doesnt look great to me, Ive never owned one to be honest. Maybe its just sulking? Id give it another week and see how it goes.

 

[jaylam]

Maybe im wrong but I cant see the rowa doing any harm.

Regards to the mushie if it is just folding then I wouldn't worry about it. As for the other it doesnt look great to me, Ive never owned one to be honest. Maybe its just sulking? Id give it another week and see how it goes.

I agree and dont think the rowa would cause this........however I removed it last night and just got back and it looks a bit better. Will leave it out for the rest of the week and see what happens.

Phew, could they be splitting and will end up with more?

 

[Donya]

I've never used Rowa specifically so I may be way off base here, but I've read in a number of places now that leathers are sensitive to dust from phosphate removers, although said places had it as more of an issue for Al-based removers than Fe-based ones. Same sources recommended a quick dunk in RO to wash off the dust before putting into the tank/sump/etc. Of course, all of these references are totally anacdotal and didn't cite any studies or controlled experiments, so it could be totally wrong. I haven't seen any problems not washing phosphate pads before adding, but I also put a sponge on top of them to minimize any particles escaping. Maybe someone else here has a diffinitive answer on the issue of the Al/Fe remover dust?

As far as the shroom, if it's the crumpling up, my shrooms do that all the time, although it usually doesn't last for more than a day or so and seems to be partly an attempt to remove unwanted debris if it catches on them.

 

[jaylam]

I've never used Rowa specifically so I may be way off base here, but I've read in a number of places now that leathers are sensitive to dust from phosphate removers, although said places had it as more of an issue for Al-based removers than Fe-based ones. Same sources recommended a quick dunk in RO to wash off the dust before putting into the tank/sump/etc. Of course, all of these references are totally anacdotal and didn't cite any studies or controlled experiments, so it could be totally wrong. I haven't seen any problems not washing phosphate pads before adding, but I also put a sponge on top of them to minimize any particles escaping. Maybe someone else here has a diffinitive answer on the issue of the Al/Fe remover dust?

As far as the shroom, if it's the crumpling up, my shrooms do that all the time, although it usually doesn't last for more than a day or so and seems to be partly an attempt to remove unwanted debris if it catches on them.

That's interesting, thanks for the info will do some reading up on it now.

As for the RO water was im off to the lfs tomorrow to get some so will give that a go.

 

[ozzie2011]

I took it for granted you wash the rowa off, i think it says in in the instructions

 

[jaylam]

I took it for granted you wash the rowa off, i think it says in in the instructions

I did but it's the only thing apart from the lighting hours I changed so go to be worth a try.

 

[kj23502]

here's my story and I'm sticking to it haha!

You always rinse GFO before using it.

Adding gfo to tank that could potentially have a decent amount of phosphate can HURT the corals. If you put to much gfo in or are running the reactor at full speed it will suck the phosphate out at a rapid rate and can even pull some from the corals. Yes corals even need some phosphate, but not much at all.

Also if you ever think something is amiss in your tank, get some carbon running on it. If a contaminant did get introduced it will put that out before you could with water changes. Still a water change is a good idea too.

 

[jaylam]

here's my story and I'm sticking to it haha!

You always rinse GFO before using it.

Adding gfo to tank that could potentially have a decent amount of phosphate can HURT the corals. If you put to much gfo in or are running the reactor at full speed it will suck the phosphate out at a rapid rate and can even pull some from the corals. Yes corals even need some phosphate, but not much at all.

Also if you ever think something is amiss in your tank, get some carbon running on it. If a contaminant did get introduced it will put that out before you could with water changes. Still a water change is a good idea too.

Thanks for all the info guys, I have just done a 20% water change and bought a phosphate test kit so will wait an hour and test the water.