Echino Problem

[Lazyreefer]

I have done 2 50% waterchanges since things have been acting up.

Much better to do 4 25% water changes

[ReefMonger]

Still having the same problem. Here are some pics of whats happening to some. Also my orange plate which I have had for 2 years out of the blue does this and perished.Im have switched to t-5s so the light isnt as intense. I am going to rip out all the black sand and go back to the white. This is when things started going downhill is when i switched from my 65 to the 90 and went with black sand.

[The Beaut]

Oh i feel for you. I went through the same thing. I swtiched to T5 and bleached all my corals, the challices were the worst. Try and put them in a shady area,in time they recovered. Second when i swicthed my wet dry to a fuge my PH dropped dramatically and i lost three challices. Challices in general are extremely easy corals to care for, keep them low and watch your water quality.BTW they dont look that bad.

[ReefMonger]

The recession started before the t-5s. The others I have completely lost.

[xdusty6920]

wow, i cant believe they still havent settled in yet.....but of course......the valonia is looking great lol.
the move to t-5's might have been alittle drastic but if they can survive it, i think theyll be better of for the time being. low light and low flow should allow the stress level to drop a good bit and hopefully induce repair and growth. good luck man and keep on posting.

[The Beaut]

You still havnt said what your PH was or is. Like i said when my PH dropped to 7.6 all my challices started suffering. After i buffered and moved them into the shade the ones that were not bad recovered. Even now when i get a new challice i have to put it in the shade and move it out gradually. T5s are extremely intense.

[ReefMonger]

Ph is setting at 8.2-8.3. I went from 2 250 watt halides to 4 t-5 bulbs. The t-5s are actually 10 inches off the water because they were mounted in my halide canopy. Did an iodine dip yesterday 2 of them have more recession today. I moved them to my frag tank to see if it is some kind of irritant in my tank.

[The Beaut]

Ok not the ph. How long are you running your T5s. I had to cut back my daytime lights quite a bit.

[ReefMonger]

Its not the t-5s. I had this problem before hand when I had the halides.

[The Beaut]

Cant help you then, must be something with your water, they are one of the easiest corals to take care of.

[ReefMonger]

Well I gutted out my black sand and switched back to the white sand. Unfortunately it still hasnt solved the problem. Im still having recession start at the edge of the echino and proceed slowly. Its now affecting all type of echinos. I dont think it could be chemical war fare as I run a carbon reactor and a g2 skimmer on my 90 gallon. I have one green polyp toadstool in there and some zoos as far as softies. Echinos are being hit in all areas of the tank top and bottom. Im getting very disheartened as Im starting to lose some really cool morphs. I have started doing iodine dips to see if that helps. Anyways heres before and after pics of the tank redo Im really happy with the redo itself.

Before


After

[ALTI]

what r u testing your salinity with. swing arm hydrometers can be way off sometimes. same thing was happening to my echinos and candy canes. i couldnt find any problem for a couple weeks until one of my customers told me that when they tested the salinity during acclimation the level was at 1.033. the hydrometer i was using read 1.025. the only corals effected were plates, candy canes and echinos. i completely lost all plates, but saves the rest.

[ReefMonger]

Im using a refractometer.