24G Reef

[Fielder0024]

Tank has been up and running since April. Up until about a month ago my tank has been doing exceptionally well but recently it took a tur for the worse. My lighting went bad and I didnt realize until my torch coral and bubble coral started to bleach. I replaced the lights as soon as I could but the corals dont seem to be responding to it. Just purchased the Nova Extreme Pro which I am hoping should take care of all that and hopefully help the tank start thriving again. My tank is currently stocked with some mushrooms, several colonies of zoas, some LPS (Duncan, Torch, Bubble) and 2 anemones (1 actually split into two healthy pieces under my old lighting). Any comments are appreciated. Thanks alot.

I included pictures of the tank before the crisis and what it looks like now. When I get the Nova I will repost new pics.

Before

After

My poor Bubble

 

[jaa1456]

Corals don't normally bleach from lights going bad, they bleach when they are put under new light that is to strong. What are the parameters in the tank?

 

[Fielder0024]

Doesnt bleaching involve the corals releasing the zooxanthellae from starving due to lack of light. Anyway, I tested my water personally and my results came out:
PH 8.0
Temp 82
Ammonia 0-.2
Nitrate .2-.4
Nitrite .4-.6

I did not have a test kit for phosphates but i am running half a container of phosban along with chemi pure elite. I eve took the water to get tested at my lfs and they said my water chemistry is good enough that it shouldnt be causing problems. The thing that really stumped me s the capability of my tank to house a toadstool. I had one several month ago which was doing extremely well in my tank except for the occasional buildup of sand on it from my sand sifting goby. I finally took the goby out but the toadstool just wasnt looking any better. It kept deteriorating until finally it just completely melted. I did a water change and all seemed fine until this little mishap. Then, 2 weeks ago I placed a live order from liveaquaria and ordered another toadstool thinking I would have no problem with it. For about two days it seemed to be doing great. It was fully opening and had its color. Then out of nowhere it stopped opening. I moved it around the tank thinking maybe the lighting was either too strong or too weak. As I moved it around I saw die-off coming off of it. That night I came home and it was completely shredded. I am so confused by all this. My other corals seem to be doing really well tho even throughout all this.

Corals don't normally bleach from lights going bad, they bleach when they are put under new light that is to strong. What are the parameters in the tank?

 

[jaa1456]

Bleaching is normally due to High water temps or from to much light. I'm not 100% sure about corals losing their algae due to not enough light, Never heard that before. But one thing I see is that you have a nitirte reading, Nitrites are worse than Phosphates and nitrates. And very toxic to corals. At this point in time you should have no ammonia or nitrites. Did you do something new to your tank lately? Add rock, sand, Stir up the sand? Anything at all?

 

[Fielder0024]

The newest thing I did for the tank was start using filter floss. My main concern with the nitrites is that I am worried I somehow lost some nitrifying bacteria somehow. Basically the tank started really suffering when I changed the rockwork around and did like a 50% water change after getting rid of the sand sifting goby. I had to pretty much tear apart the entire tank to do it and i had to pull some of the rocks out of the tank but I placed them in a bcket of salt water with a powerhead for about 2 hours. The corals were in the bucket too. Could this have been the problem? If so what would be the best thing to do?

Bleaching is normally due to High water temps or from to much light. I'm not 100% sure about corals losing their algae due to not enough light, Never heard that before. But one thing I see is that you have a nitirte reading, Nitrites are worse than Phosphates and nitrates. And very toxic to corals. At this point in time you should have no ammonia or nitrites. Did you do something new to your tank lately? Add rock, sand, Stir up the sand? Anything at all?