# My Corals are in ill health need help!



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

I have currently had my river reef 48L for about half a year now at first everything was till i started to add corals! At the moment I have around three corals which you will see in the pictures they have lost all there colours and are slowly dying I tested my Ammonia which has read 0.6
My other results where:

GH-120
KH-120
PH-0.8
NO2-0
NO3-80

If anyone can help please do!

Heres the link to look at my Photo's.

Pictures by tommygee54 - Photobucket

I also have an infestation of strange corals growing on my liverock as you can see!


----------



## trouble93 (Nov 8, 2008)

tommygee54 said:


> I have currently had my river reef 48L for about half a year now at first everything was till i started to add corals! At the moment I have around three corals which you will see in the pictures they have lost all there colours and are slowly dying I tested my Ammonia which has read 0.6
> My other results where:
> 
> GH-120
> ...


 First off welcome... The problem that stands out to me right off the bat is Ammonia. Then your Nitrates are very high. You are going to have to do a few water changes to bring them down. Have you lost any fish? What do you feed and how often?


----------



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

I have never lost a fish I only ever had my 2 clowns and firefish which are in good condition I feed them once everyday should i feed less?

And how often should I do these water changes???


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Moving to salt water section.


----------



## e-zlight (Mar 20, 2011)

tommygee54 said:


> I have never lost a fish I only ever had my 2 clowns and firefish which are in good condition I feed them once everyday should i feed less?
> 
> And how often should I do these water changes???


Daily if your parms are out of whack, weekly until there is a good balance, then bi-weekly when you have things under control.

Some do less often, but bi-weekly works for me.


----------



## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

In Coral's natural habitat, Nitrates are near zero. Nirates are deadly to Corals and also promote Algae growth. Don't introduce any expensive or sensative fish to your tank until you get the Nitrates down, they don't like Nitrates either. The easiest way to lower your Nitrates is through water changes. A slow 10% to 20% change every day avoids shocking your fish and Corals. Your ph is also a little low, 8.2 is better.


----------



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

Ok I will give the water changes a go and see if things improve  Thanks for the advice! And I will keep you posted.


----------



## csingh07 (Sep 20, 2010)

#1 The nuisance growth you see on your liverock is Aiptasia. Once you get your water parameters in check, use some joe's juice aiptasia eliminator to kill them off, they will sting and possibly kill your nearby corals

Let's try to solve this issue and find out why coral started to die in the first place. The first thing I see is that the coral is placed around the aiptasia, it is most likely stinging and killing it.... As a result, your Ammonia is increasing at a faster rate than your nitrifying bacteria can process.

What I would do: KILL THE AIPTASIA ASAP, and for the next 7 days after applying the Joe's Juice, do a 10% water change daily. 

Doing water changes will only prolong your problem, your main problem is that your corals are being stung and killed by the aiptasia which is polluting your tank. Solve that problem and everything else will stabilize itself


----------



## trouble93 (Nov 8, 2008)

Just to add here...I don't know about anywhere else. but here in Southeast Ohio we have not been able to get Joe's juice for a few month now. Aiptasia Stop will work to. As stated above that has to be dealt with A.S.A.P. Your aiptasia is being fueled by the excessive nutrients in your tank. I have another question what type of test kits are you using. I was looking to see what your PH level was and I'm not familiar with a 0.8 reading. Could you possibly mean 8.0? that would make more since. Any rate Joe's juice and products like that will lower your PH a bit. So you might get a funny reaction out of your anemone at the bottom of the tank. You will have to make up a bunch of water change water, but at this point you are going to have to do water changes after every step.


----------



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

Thanks guys I will start killing them AIPTASIA asap! I am using lemon juice at the moment because I heard it was good method to kill the AIPTASIA. I am just injecting the lemon juice into the flesh. I am only injecting about 4 at a time because I know the lemon will be very acidic. Is this a good idea?


----------



## trouble93 (Nov 8, 2008)

tommygee54 said:


> Thanks guys I will start killing them AIPTASIA asap! I am using lemon juice at the moment because I heard it was good method to kill the AIPTASIA. I am just injecting the lemon juice into the flesh. I am only injecting about 4 at a time because I know the lemon will be very acidic. Is this a good idea?


I've done it in the past, but what I noticed was a lot of times I went through the flesh and it closed up to fast to get a second shot at that one. Not to worry though you have enough to keep you quite busy.


----------



## csingh07 (Sep 20, 2010)

trouble93 said:


> Just to add here...I don't know about anywhere else. but here in Southeast Ohio we have not been able to get Joe's juice for a few month now. Aiptasia Stop will work to. As stated above that has to be dealt with A.S.A.P. Your aiptasia is being fueled by the excessive nutrients in your tank. I have another question what type of test kits are you using. I was looking to see what your PH level was and I'm not familiar with a 0.8 reading. Could you possibly mean 8.0? that would make more since. Any rate Joe's juice and products like that will lower your PH a bit. So you might get a funny reaction out of your anemone at the bottom of the tank. You will have to make up a bunch of water change water, but at this point you are going to have to do water changes after ever step.


Well put, thank you for the additional information  Goodluck tommygee, if you are able to get all those suckers out of your tank, anything else will seem like a piece of cake!


----------



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

Hey guys just a quick update on my tank. I have killed most of the Aptasia now! But are you sure alls I need to do is more water changes then my unhealthy coral problem will be solved?


----------



## e-zlight (Mar 20, 2011)

tommygee54 said:


> Hey guys just a quick update on my tank. I have killed most of the Aptasia now! But are you sure alls I need to do is more water changes then my unhealthy coral problem will be solved?


aptasia gone+ water changes = good water parms.

Corals will love you. They should come back with time, assuming you have proper lighting.


----------



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

Well I have a 48l River Reef are them lights strong enough? I am just using the lights that came with the tank :/


----------



## trouble93 (Nov 8, 2008)

tommygee54 said:


> Well I have a 48l River Reef are them lights strong enough? I am just using the lights that came with the tank :/


Those lights maybe good for low light corals mushrooms some leathers zoo's and so on.


----------



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

If that is so, is there anyway i can improve the lighting?


----------



## trouble93 (Nov 8, 2008)

tommygee54 said:


> If that is so, is there anyway i can improve the lighting?


You could do a T5 ho unit or you could retro fit a unit yourself if your good with tools and wood working. There are tons of diagrams on the internet.


----------



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

I have been researching into lighting a stuff but can't seem to find anything on my tank I decided to look on youtube at other peoples tanks like mine and found this video > ‪River Reef 48L Nano - 1st Video‬‏ - YouTube < Now towards the end of the video the guy lifts up his tank lid and shows his lighting and from what I can see he has a blue tube light can anyone tell me is this right or not because i am crap on lighting with tanks! Mines has just got little tini blue lights around the outside of the main lighting. I will see if I can get of picture of my tanks lighting.


----------



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

Heres is my Lights > Pictures by tommygee54 - Photobucket <

Click the Link!


----------



## trouble93 (Nov 8, 2008)

tommygee54 said:


> Heres is my Lights > Pictures by tommygee54 - Photobucket <
> 
> Click the Link!


I think those are compact florescent. Mid to low light corals will do fine. I have seen upgrades for those types of hoods.


----------



## tommygee54 (Jul 17, 2011)

Well I have been looking at these > 

Interpets T5 36 Watt Twin Blue Moon Compact Lamp: CD Aquatics Interpets T5 36 Watt Twin Blue Moon Compact Lamp <


Reefstore :: Lighting :: Aquaray LED Lighting :: New!!! AquaBlue Flexi-LED

Would these benifit corals in anyway or are they just show lights? :/


----------



## trouble93 (Nov 8, 2008)

tommygee54 said:


> Well I have been looking at these >
> 
> Interpets T5 36 Watt Twin Blue Moon Compact Lamp: CD Aquatics Interpets T5 36 Watt Twin Blue Moon Compact Lamp <
> 
> ...


They have benefits but these both are the second is more of a night light. and the first is a actinic light you want to look for a 10k bulb or a 50/50 bulb.


----------

