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Thread: Coraline die off question

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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    Coraline die off question

    For the last few weeks te sun has really been hitting the back of my tank. The only place I leave the coraling alone is in the back. It is turning greyish white and falling off in sheets. All the rocks are purple as could be, just the glass coraline is changing. It looks aweful so I'm probably going to jump in there with the razor and clean it up. Any thoughts on the sun theory?

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    Grand Master Reefer CarmieJo's Avatar
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    Does the sun come in through the back or from the front?
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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    Shines directly on the back. There is like air bubbles forming behind the coraline and pushing it off the glass and it falls off in clumps. Tomorrow I plan on puting the back cover on and scraping the back glass. I know cyano will produce bubbles but there is no algae other than the coraline.

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    Grand Master Reefer CarmieJo's Avatar
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    Hmm, is it only the part that gets exposed to air when you do a water change or the whole thing?
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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    Whole thing,top to the sand. Worried that when the sun can get past the glass and shine directly on the rock that it will happen there also. Thats why I'm going to put the blue background back on. I'v had new lights for the last couple weeks too, could that be a contributing factor also. I took the back off cause the corals perked up alot with the sun since I only had 50/50 pc's. Would t5 ho plus the sun be burning it off the glass?

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    Grand Master Reefer CarmieJo's Avatar
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    I would not think that it would be burning the coralline off the glass. What are your parameters?
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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    1.024
    Ammonia- 0
    No2- 0
    No3- 5
    Temp I try to keep at 78 but have seen it go to 83 in the sun in a very short period of time.
    I dont test for Cal. or Mag. since I dont have any demanding stonys just a bunch of softies. Figure the water changes take care of that.
    Figured I should add this in..a couple months back I started to get this fuzzy green hair algea on the glass. The turbos couldn't keep up with it so I figured that between phosphates and nitrates (seen No3 over 40 before) so I took extra action. I was doing 1 gallon a week water change ( probably only about 8 gallons in there) and went to 1 gallon every 4 days. I also added an extra HOB filter with just chemi pure elite in it. In the last couple months the No3 has dropped to barely detectable (due to more w/c I'm sure) and the green HA is gone (thinking the chemi pure is taking care of phosphates) and the water is clearer than ever.
    So I guess in a nutshell...the only changes are the sun with temp swings,new lights and chemi pure elite.

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    Insightful Reefer Rostr02's Avatar
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    It may be a good idea to test for your ca and mg and kh, these levels need to be good in order for there to be good coraline growth. What salt are you using?

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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    Woops.. I forgot to put kh in the above post. It is 180 ppm which converts to about 10 on the dkh. The salt is Instant Ocean. It's funny...for the last year and a half I been swearing at the coraline growing everywhere and I have to keep scraping it off the front and sides. And now I want it to stop dying. I think I just invented a new disease..BCS ( Bipolar Coraline Syndrome )..lol
    I also have more asterina stars than you can count and they are all concentrated on the back glass. I find it odd they are all over the coraline and not on the front and sides.

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    Insightful Reefer Rostr02's Avatar
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    Well I do believe that their diet is of coraline algae, but will eat softies as well. I would keep my eye on them maybe try some manual removal.

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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    Here is a surprise. After hours of picking stars out and scraping glass I got to cleaning equipment. I pulled out the chemi pure from the HOB filter and it was a huge red slimy ball. Guess it was doing more damage than good. I had been rinsing it out every couple weeks and the last time it did have a little color to it. I thought nothing of it because the GFO is a dark orange and thought it may have been staining the bag. Needless to say it's not on the tank anymore. I'm gonna stick to my new water change schedule and ease up on the feedings a little and see where that gets me.
    Here is a pic of it all cleaned up. The corals aren't real happy. I kinda smacked them around a little in the process. I dont like it...looks to new.
    Last edited by SaltyDawg; 09-26-2010 at 11:25 PM.

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    I think your tank looks great! I would guess that you don't have enough Ca and Mg to maintain good coralline growth. I have asterina stars in both of my tanks and the ones that I have don't bother any of my softies. They are grazers and I guess that they could eat coralline although I think if this was happening you'd see bare spots and not it falling off in sheets. The rough texture of the coralline may also hold minute pockets of detritus which they could be eating.
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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    any recommendation on a specific brand of test kit?
    Last edited by SaltyDawg; 09-27-2010 at 05:41 PM.

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    Insightful Reefer Rostr02's Avatar
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    I use all salifert test kits

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    Grand Master Reefer CarmieJo's Avatar
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    Salifert kits are good and I really like SeaChem's http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...Magnesium.html. It has a couple more steps because you filter the water but this is more like a lab test and I think it gives more accurate results.
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    Apprentice sunny d polyp's Avatar
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    Hi CarmieJo, I also have a ton of those little stars, thousands and they have eaten 2/3rds of my Coraline, I'm not sure what I can do I saw where you suggested manual removal, do harlequin shrimps eat those small starfish too?
    Don't sweat the small stuff...

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    Apprentice sunny d polyp's Avatar
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    Guess this is a bump!
    Don't sweat the small stuff...

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    Master Reefer SaltyDawg's Avatar
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    When the stars were on the back wall all over the coraline I would occasionally knock them off and see little white circles where they were. Since I scraped all the glass they are all over the rocks and the same is happening. I'm about to rig up some sort of spear with a needle and get 25-30 of them each night till they are few and far between

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    Insightful Reefer Rostr02's Avatar
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    You better be posting videos of the hunt!

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    Grand Master Reefer CarmieJo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sunny d polyp View Post
    Hi CarmieJo, I also have a ton of those little stars, thousands and they have eaten 2/3rds of my Coraline, I'm not sure what I can do I saw where you suggested manual removal, do harlequin shrimps eat those small starfish too?
    Sorry, I missed this. But yes, I have read that harlequins will eat the asterina stars too.
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