Help - Snails deaths, Torch Coral not extending

[Friendly Fire]

In the last week my smaller snails have died and some of the larger snails have detached from the glass and they just dont look right. My torch coral has also stopped extending all the way out. My blue mushroom has kinda shriveled up....but still alive. I check the basic parameters and everything I am testing for looks good.
Temp 78
Salinity 1.025
API test kit
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - < 5 (hard to be exact with color wheels)
Ph - 8.1 - 8.3

Everything was fine until I went away on a business trip for five days. When I came back things just didn't seem right. My wife told me that the setting on my lights had changed to manual mode and that she had to manually turn them on and off. Manual mode is also 100% LED intensity and I usually never have the lights higher than 50%. That was the only thing that I know changed. So far I have fixed the lighting intensity and timer schedule, done a 20% water change, cleaned out my canister filter, added new CPE (carbon), added an additional 100ml Purigen, and done alot of wondering what it could be. It has been several days since I have done all the maintenance and still no improvement. I am looking now at getting more test kits to see if maybe I am missing something, and removing any snail that I think might have given up the ghost. But if those two things don't work I am out of ideas. Any suggestions on what to try next if things don't start looking better?



29gal nano
40lbs live rock
2in substrate
Fluval 306 canister filter (Carbon/GFO/Purigen)
No skimmer or sump

 

[whippetguy]

I'm thinking the corals are recovering from light stress. When snails can't keep attached to glass, it's usually a sign of low magnesium levels.

 

[reefer gladness]

I'm thinking the corals are recovering from light stress. When snails can't keep attached to glass, it's usually a sign of low magnesium levels.

I agree. You are testing for water quality but not water chemistry. Pick up test kits for alk, calcium and magnesium and let us know where you're at. If you're having trouble maintaining alk or calcium there's a good chance you have low mag. Low magnesium reduces calcium solubility and buffering capacity.

 

[Friendly Fire]

I should have also mentioned that the stalk of the coral has a increasing amount of green algae growing on it. Don't know if this could be the cause of the coral not opening. I'm thinking of waiting until tonight and trying to brush it off with a toothbrush.

 

[reefer gladness]

I should have also mentioned that the stalk of the coral has a increasing amount of green algae growing on it. Don't know if this could be the cause of the coral not opening. I'm thinking of waiting until tonight and trying to brush it off with a toothbrush.

That shouldn't be necessary and is unlikely to be the reason the coral isn't opening. The lights doubling in intensity would be enough to shock just about any coral but I'd still want to test for alk, calcium and mag. I suspect we'll find something out of balance once you test. If not then you can safely attribute the problems to the light issues and just wait for the coral to recover.

 

[Friendly Fire]

Got it! Thanks. I'm going to shop for a reef test kit right now.

 

[Friendly Fire]

Ok I got my test kit in the mail yesterday. Here are the readings I got from the tests.
Mg 1400
CA 475
dkH 14

Are any of these numbers too far off from optimal? Enough that would be causing the coral to not fully extend?

 

[Friendly Fire]

These reading seem a bit high. Any way to get them lower?

 

[Tigersref]

Do you add additives to the water such as dosing calcium or carbonate buffers? those numbers - although not lethal - seem a bit high, especially alkalinity. I don't know if doing salt water changes without additives would yield such high alkalinity and may be worth exploring. perhaps you may find answers if you can figure out why your numbers are high

 

[Friendly Fire]

I was buffering my water with API proper PH but I don't dose with anything. I'm thinking I should try mixing my salt before mixing with FW to see if I can balance the chemistry out.