Help!! Coral issues. Separate?

fishyfish22

fishyfish22

Premium member
So recently my open brains went from being large and puffy to shriveled up to the point where the skeleton was showing. A water test showed that the calcium was too high and the magnesium was too low. Ca was 480 and the mg was 1200.

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I have a 180 gallon so raisin the magnesium is going to take a crazy long time and a large amount of magnesium(I use the kent marine tech m magnesium). Furthermore, I recently ran out and I ordered online and it'll here within the next two days, so I doubt the corals will make it in this state.

Should I set up a 10 gallon tank with fresh saltwater that has the proper chemistry And put the corals in there until everything is sorted out, however long that'll take? or should i leave them in the tank where they are? I have some sps so my magnesium should be at 1400(correct me if I'm wrong please) and calcium at 450( again correct me if I'm wrong)

Would the lighting be an issue if I put them in the 10 gallon? can lps use natural sunlight for their lighting? They would be placed in front of a glass sliding door. Please help.
 
You can get some Epson salt from local pharmacy & make your own Mg mix.
With your parameters imbalance, I'd be more worried on your alk levels than Mg. I suspect your alkalinity levels is way too low & you'd have to raise that slowly.
 
Also, don't move the corals from regular reef lights to sun light that quickly, that is bound to stress them out a lot & bleach or most likely fade them. I don't think you should do this. In my experience, Mg & calcium does not effect corals as much as Alkalinity does. Alkalinity swings can pretty much wipe SPS out.
 
480 ca isn't that high and def wouldn't be the cause of this issue as far as I know


Brains/ wellsos go from very puffy looking to very sick looking but would come back. So if its been like that only for a cpl of days don't worry yet.

And yes check your alk with that high of cal your alk might be in imbalance.
 
Giancarlo, if you have the transport, come on out to my house tomorrow. I'll give you the perfect amount of magnesium powders you need to get it back to where it should be. And I can check your Calcium/Alkalinity/Magnesium levels on Salifert test kits. LMK
 
tinman said:
Brains/ wellsos go from very puffy looking to very sick looking but would come back. So if its been like that only for a cpl of days don't worry yet.
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i wasnt very worried in the beginning but it's been like this for about two weeks and the skeleton recently started showing and there has been some algae growth on it so i know it's not in the best of shape.


here's a picture right now.

you can see that a lot of the skeleton is showing, but there are still some fleshy parts so i assume that it can be saved.


Funlad3 said:
Giancarlo, if you have the transport, come on out to my house tomorrow. I'll give you the perfect amount of magnesium powders you need to get it back to where it should be. And I can check your Calcium/Alkalinity/Magnesium levels on Salifert test kits. LMK
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wow thanks! i'll take you up on that offer!
surprisingly enough the shipment arrived about a half hour after i started the thread... wow so i received 463 ml of magnesium but already i know that isn't enough. i added 180ml and now the mg is between 1230-1260.

also it seems that both my open brain and my welso are affected and shriveling up (the welso isn't as bat, the skeleton isn't showing yet) but my fox coral, another lps, is still inflated completely as if there was nothing wrong. same with my hammer colony and frogspawn. is there a reason for this?
 
I'd check the other levels...because your cal and mag levels aren't dangerous and still within acceptable ranges. Alk, temp, lighting can also play an important role. Also, is that the only coral having problems?
 
Like smitty said if those test numbers r right those levels arent horrible . My tank runs at about same levels when i do test which is once every few years. Could be lighting or flow. I would have u water tested and c if u test r accurate.Ive seen people with bad test start doseing stuff that test was off and crash whole system. Imo lps u should be good with just biweekly water changes. Again jmo from my own personal experiances well as long as u useing a decent salt . Stay away from crystal sea or reef what ever its called the 150g box with green and yellow lettering mag is super low in that garbage
 
+1 on checking alk. DIY dosing is easy by the way, and cheap - if you needed another alternative, but it sounds like Ben's got you covered. Have you also considered other causes for it shrinking? Is it being stung by something nearby, or aggravated by a fish or something?
 
+1 alk is the most important test to take, calcium and mag not so much as long as the alk is good. people will disagree with me but meh.
 
After a brief visit to funlad's we tested and it turns out my magnesium a and my alkalinity are in parameters, however my calcium seems to be a little to high. Around 500. Any ideas on how I can lower it?
Also thank you funlad :) you have an awesome tank and the 120 looks amazing too!
 
fishyfish22 said:
After a brief visit to funlad's we tested and it turns out my magnesium a and my alkalinity are in parameters, however my calcium seems to be a little to high. Around 500. Any ideas on how I can lower it?
Also thank you funlad :) you have an awesome tank and the 120 looks amazing too!
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What's your dkh? You could just let that Calk fall naturally or through water changes, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I doubt that it's the reason you're having issues.
 
I would just stop dosing calcium and let it fall naturally. Mines was that high or higher before. Nothing was affected other than my nem. This was when I left a dosing pump on and it emptied my container but as it fell naturally and with water changes it went back to normal
 
Theres a lot of fish in my tank.
Vlamingi tang
Tomini tang
Sailfin tang
Regal tang
Yelloy tang
One spot foxface
True percula clownfish pair
Saddleback clownfish pair
Coral beauty
Flame angel
Six line wrasse
Blue spot yellow watchman goby
Blue mandarin dragonet
Three yelowtail damsels
Zebra dartfish
Ans finally one four stiped damsel.

I have a pretty big stocking list but ad far as ammonia/nitrates/nitrites go everything is at zero. Also the tangs are fairly small and i plan to sell then when they get big
 
I don't understand why the corals would be like this. The open brain, the welso, and my scoly aren't opening up like they once dis. The open brain is suffering. The welso is very shriveled and thee scoly isnt showing skeleton or badly shriveled up but it isn't inflating itself like it should.
 
The fox face wouldnt dare. Haha none of my fish pick at corals, if they do they'd out of the tank and on a fore sale thread in a matter of minutes. Well, it might take longer to get out of tank but itd be on a for sale thread.
 
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