2 of my soft corals are now closed up..why??

[TonyOrlando]

About a month ago i bought a leather spaghetti finger and a green toadstool. For the first 2 weeks they were looking great staying "bloomed" most of the time. Then i noticed over the last couple weeks them started to change colors and also not bloom. The only thing that i know that changed is my nitrates they were at 20 not at 40. I did a 20% water change today with ro/di water. I still have to remove my bio balls to lower my nitrates.
My question is it the nitrates that the reason or something else. Ive also have added ca/alk doses everyday and iodine every 2-3 days. All other parameter are good:
Nitrite 0
amonia 0
ph 8.3
salinity 1.25
nitrate 40 (as stated above)
Please help!!
I dont want to loose these corals.
I also wanted to add that i am dosing plankton and brine shrimp as well.

[tinyreef]

could be the nitrates, could a myriad of other issues that aren't detected by the tests we use.

i'd remove the bioballs slowly but also add carbon into your filtration. i'd switch it out on a weekly basis (aggressive level imo). sinularia (the spaghetti coral) is pretty noxious ime. later on when/if they recover you may be able to back it off to a biweekly change of carbon.

you might want to back off of the iodine, 2~3 days (depending on dosage and type of iodine, of course) might be too much. but sometimes/often too much iodine could be detrimental.

are the plankton and brine new changes or always done before?

[TonyOrlando]

Well i have been dosing plankton and brine for about a month now. When i remove the bio balls how should i take them out. For example. how many should i take out each time and how long of a period?
I will also start using some carbon tonite.

[TitansFan]

Originally posted by TonyOrlando
Ive also have added ca/alk doses everyday and iodine every 2-3 days.

You say you are dosing these items but I don't see levels listed in your params? Are you testing for these items? I wouldn't dose iodine. Its very easy to over do and not easily tested for. Water changes should take care of those levels as well as your nitrates. How much flow do you have? My toadstools like quite abit of varied flow.

[drummereef]

Originally posted by TonyOrlando
Well i have been dosing plankton and brine for about a month now. When i remove the bio balls how should i take them out. For example. how many should i take out each time and how long of a period?
I will also start using some carbon tonite.

Like stated below, I would test before dosing, not the other way around. I would remove the bioballs very slowly over the course of a few weeks to allow the biofilter to catch up. Depending on how much you have I'd say less than 1/4th per week.