All of my LPS...please help?

[Hoss]

Hi all, so I have been having some major tank issues following a rather gigantic Alk swing back in january. About a month ago I removed the sand from my display and my frogspawn and hammer detatched from their skeletons and got brown jelly, and my duncans also succumbed to brown jelly, as well as a colony of acans. My chalices slowly over a couple of weeks detatched from their skeletons and floated away (I removed them, though they never actually "died") I have now kept my parameters stable since Feb 11 or so, but still my candy canes are doing the same slow detatching thing as my chalices, and my platygyra, while it is extending it's feeder tentacles, appears to be starting this same slow process of detaching from the skeleton. It should be noted that even while my chalices were detaching they were showing normal polyp extension and feeding response, as is my candy cane. any ideas?

 

oh also, my zoos and softies are doing great and growing, but my turbo snails have gotten "lazy" and don't seem to be eating as much lately, sometimes they don't appear to move for a couple of days.

 

Here's my stats:

 

First my setup

29 gallon display

10 gallon sump

55 gallon refugium with DSB, chaeto, and some other assorted macros

Current Sundial 4x24 watt T5

mag 5 return pump for display

oddysea 700 return pump for refugium

Koralia 4 circulation pump in display

unknown skimmer in sump (works pretty well)

 

Here's what I can test for with the test kits I have

alk 10

calcium 420

ph 8

sg 1.025

temp 78

phosphates test at 0 with api phosphate test

[andy]

How are your nitrates? I've seen similar behavior when they get > 25 or so.

[impur]

I've had acans do this at random and I really don't know what the cause is. I've had about 5 total do this in the last 6 months, and these are established colonies of at least a year in my tank. I've never had any swings or anything like you experienced though, so there may be more to the problem.

 

In fact i had this happen over the weekend to a colony i've had for 2 years. I always remove the colony and dip it. Usually i dip in Furan-2 for a long time, 4+ hours. This time i decided to try interceptor.

 

After the dip the recession/polyp bail out always stops, but i never know for how long. I've now started hand feeding the colonies that have done this. I'm hoping that maybe they were lacking something that actual feeding gives them.

 

For the next round, if/when it happens again, i'm going to try a trifecta dip using Furan-2, interceptor, and melafix.

 

Sorry to hear of your problems, but you are not alone!! If i come up with something concrete i will surely let you know.

 

Good luck!

 

 

BTW you should check your mag levels, LPS are very sensitive to low mag levels.

[Algae]

Have you tried a major water change (40% or so)?

[impur]

Have you tried a major water change (40% or so)?

 

Thats a good question.

 

Also how often to you do water changes?

[Mandinga]

You may want to take your water to a place like Upscales or another ship that is close. could be one of your test kits is off...or possibly your hydrometer.

[pledosophy]

I would do a 30g water change and run a copious amount of carbon.

 

There is something wrong with your water. Replace it and filter out contaminants.

 

JMO

[Hoss]

Thanks for the responses guys.

- I don't know what my nitrates are, but when I had it tested at rose city they were slightly elevated, this was about a month ago though, and I wonder if I might have started a mini cycle, or just raised the nitrates a bunch when I removed the sand from my display to my refugium.

 

- I do small (5g) water changes weekly, I know that's not a lot.

 

- I know for a fact that my hydrometer is accurate because I had my salinity checked on a refractometer and it read the same as my hydrometer (imagine that).

Looks like the next purchases I make are going to be a nitrate test, mag test, and a new bucket of salt for a major water change. I will start running carbon immediately though.

 

Thanks for all the advice!