Soft Coral Toxins

[markreefer]

Has anyone out there ever experienced high levels of chemicals produced by Soft Corals killing off Hard Corals? Just cant get a Hard Coral to survive in my tank for more than a couple of weeks but the soft ones look great.

[ReefDiver]

Exactly what type of "soft corals" are you referring to? Yes, they can produce toxins which one cannot measure. Many aquarist can and do keep hard & soft corals together. We need to know more about your system and tank water chemistry. Are you running carbon? How often are you doing water changes & how much? With a 260 gal tank, I would think that you should be able to keep a select group of both softies & hard corals very happy. Finally, what "hard corals" have you tried??

[markreefer]

Soft Corals I have are Leather Corals, Star Polyps, Medusa, Mushrooms (not doing that well). Red Sea Pulse looks good although not great. The Hard Corals I have tried are Montipora, Histerix, Turbonaria and a Plate Coral. All died or showed signs of deteriation within two weeks.

I run Carbon which is changed monthly. I change 24 gallons of water every month although last month I did 4 x 24 gallon changes in two weeks before trying Montipora again, but sadly the new introductions are looking sad. Nitrate is zero and Nitrite very low. DKH is 9 with Calcium 400. Phosphate is kept between undetectable and 0.015ppm using Rowaphos.

[ReefDiver]

Ok, so why are you getting any Nitrite readings at all? How long has the system been cycling? What is your water flow like? I would suggest doing a 15 to 20 gal water change weekly for now until things stabilize. I am not familiar with "Rowaphos"? Does it give off any chemicals besides absorbing PO4?

[markreefer]

Nitrite is less than 1ppm and barely visible on the test. The system has now been running for 16 months. Water flow is 1560 gph. The Rowaphos is used by many very successful Reefkeepers in UK. Doesn't give of any chemicals as far as I know. http://www.rowa-wasser.de/index_en.phtml

[EricHugo]

can you please describe the deterioration of the stony corals? Are they all dying the same way?

[markreefer]

After approximately 2 weeks the florets on the Montipora start to die off from the top down. Thanks for your reply.

Mark

[EricHugo]

That's not helping much...did they bleach, slowly fade away, how fast? tissue peeling? What about the others?

[markreefer]

They bleach. Gradual process. Once they have started, they die off in 3/4 weeks. I cant see any tissue. The only other I have tried recently is Histerix. Difficult to be sure as the florets are so small.

[EricHugo]

Well, you have a lot of light and really low nurients...perhaps that is part of it?

[markreefer]

Which nutrients would you suggest introducing?

[EricHugo]

Well, I'm not really convinced I have enough information to ensure that what I am suggesting is right or will help, but it is the only thing I can see from what you have provided. Feed your corals more...artemia nauplii, Cyclopeze, etc. See food recipe at tthe tp of the forum. Your skimmer and RowaPhos will pull out more than enough to keep your dissolved nutrients plenty low. The light...well, shade the corals upon introduction and only allow them fullsunlight if they are high light species and after some acclimation time of weeks to months.

[markreefer]

Do the Soft Corals feed on different organisms to the Stony Corals? My Soft Corals look great?

[EricHugo]

depends on the soft corals, but generally, yes. They do not have many nematocysts of the piercing type used to impale and ensnare larger more motile prey items.