What would you do?

[Ryan303]

I've had an issue with my tank for about the last 2 months. The Hammers have died off to about a third and the frogspawn have gone almost completely. Most of the other corals seem to be doing fine. I've been having a hair algae bloom that I've been fighting back by manually pulling. My metallic orange mushrooms are all shriveled up. Should I try and cut them off The Rock and move them to another tank to hopefully Salvage or leave them where they are and hope for the best?
Nitrates are 2.5
KH is at 7.6
Temp is at 76.3
Phosphorus is at 83
In salinity is at 33
Any advice is appreciated.

 

[ryewalk84]

Is phosphorus PPB or PPM? Salinity is low. What’s calcium and magnesium?

 

[Jacob H]

what is your calcium and magnesium at?

 

[SynDen]

Ya, agree Phos is high, salinity is low and need to know what Ca and MG at at too

 

[Ryan303]

Canon is 386
and MG 1240

 

[SynDen]

Ca could be a bit higher but its not far enough off to be an issue really. MG looks fine. Just get that Phos down and raise your salinity a touch then.

One other thing you should check is for stray current in the tank. Even a small stray current could cause hammers to lose heads and some corals to be closed up

 

[Ryan303]

Thanks for the help. Is there a good way to check for stray current?

 

[SynDen]

Best way is with a multi-meter or voltage meter. Saltwater always shows a slight conductive voltage in it but if you see voltage above 30-40 volts then you have a problem. Here is a somewhat cheezy video on how to test the voltage in your tank

 

[jda123]

Change water weekly over the next month or two. This is the ultimate reset... and also the cheapest. See if Petco or Chewy has a sale on IO where you can sign up for auto ship and cancel it a week later.

Get some urchins. Continue to pull the hair algae on your own.

If you have been "feeding" your corals, then you likely have been feeding the algae instead.

You don't need any detectable orthophosphate nor nitrate to grow algae - the algae can use (and prefers) other forms of phosphorous and ammonia for all of the N and P that it can need. Don't sweat the numbers too much. no3 of 2.5 and po4 of .25 is not that bad... but I would lower them once you get this sorted.

 

[jda123]

This is the best presentation on Algae that I have ever seen:

 

[jda123]

I would also get the salinity up to 35. This way, if you have a testing error, you are less likely to get low enough to make LPS mad.

 

[Ryan303]

Thanks for all the help.