Flame Angels Suck!(SPS?)

[Reefer4ever]

So, over the past couple of days, I've been noticing my SPS polyps vanishing. I have a ORA German Blue Digi that had beautiful blue polyps, now... ONLY ONE POLYP remains! I had a small colony and a few frags of purple digitata as well... NONE left! I had a small colony of acropora tenuis... NONE left! Sunset montipora capricornus frag... nope. Montipora Undata... uh uh. Only thing I can think of is the flame angel or the coral banded shrimp that would do this. Everything else is good. What could this be?

[Big_Pun]

coral could be "unhappy" i have a couple dwarf angels with no problems, but the dwarfs dont always touch sps usually lps and clams, but it can happen. if its that bad you should be able to sit and watch your tank for a while and catch the flame in the act. what size tank and lighting, do you have a auto top off, lil parameter swings can affect sps

[RayAllen]

Unless you see the flame angel doing it, I would not jump to that conclusion.

My flame angel has not touched a thing in my tank, but as Chris mentioned I had a Coral Beauty that loved clams. I have a coral banded shrimp in my tank to, no problems. That being said I do not have any SPS. Just softies, zoas, leathers and LPS.

[txg8gxp]

I have a cherub angel and it don't touch any of my sps. What size tank? When I first had sps in my biocube they would look ok, but never any super crazy polyp extension. Now that I have a larger, stable system...if I don't see tons of PE I know there is something really wrong.

[alton]

I once sold a Purple Tang to Texas Tropical and they in turn sold it to Sean Elliot and in one week he ate two hundred dollars worth of coral, so I know anything is possible but my wifes Flame has been perfect so far? Maybe setup a video camera for a couple of hours and tape him?

[aquasport24]

Have you check it out at night? Most of my SPS only have polyp extension at night and that is totally normal.

[Mr Cob]

I once sold a Purple Tang to Texas Tropical and they in turn sold it to Sean Elliot and in one week he ate two hundred dollars worth of coral, so I know anything is possible but my wifes Flame has been perfect so far? Maybe setup a video camera for a couple of hours and tape him?

That's funny.....I also had a Purple Tang that was fine for a year and then one day decided to start eating all of my acans....darn fish...made me tear the entire 144g down!

I have also had a Coral Beauty that was fine for two years and then started nipping my clams...

This one is awesome.... Cleaner Wrasse....great for a year then started nipping my clams....I've never heard of that one. I had to build cages to protect my clams until I caught the darn booger which took over a month to catch and a fish trap.

[ErikH]

I would move the corals or the fish.

[Reefer4ever]

I've been at school so I haven't been able to answer, but I' here now. I've had a crocea clam since LMAR and its doing fine. I'll check my levels in a bit. Now that I think about it, I've been busy on the weekends and the last time I did a water change was the day after LMAR. This might be the problem.

[Reefer4ever]

Soooo..... I think I may have found the problem. Here are the parameters(all but Kh):

Ammonia-~0.1
Nitrate-40
Nitrite-0
Calcium-450
Magnesium-1280
Phosphorus-~0.1
pH-7.8

I'm going to do a water change tonight or tomorrow night.

The Flame Angel was bought with the tank and has been in there 2 years. Its a 20 gallon tank(tall).

These levels may have something to do with the small patch of red slime that popped up this morning.

[Big_Pun]

what test kit are you using

[Reefer4ever]

Tropic Marin Calcium/Magnesium
API Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Phosphate, pH
Salifert Kh but I can't find it right now

I'm looking to upgrade pretty soon. I've heard good things from Salifert, Elos, and Tropic Marin. Never really heard of anything else. Input please

[Big_Pun]

with a small tank like that, small water changes weekly should be good. you shouldn't even have to dose anything that way also. with my 29 biocubes I did 5 gallons a week, and had good results

[wolff809]

Yea I only do a 3 gallon water change every Friday on my 30 gallon

[Reefer4ever]

Thanks guys. I'll let ya'll know how the sticks do in the next week or so.

[Reefer4ever]

I haven't seen polyp extension on any of my SPS except an orange digi and a BOP birdsnest. I did a 2 gallon water change just now... Its like a miracle or something! It turns out SPS corals like their water being changed! I'm starting to think they like clean water! lol. My ORA German Blue Digitata already has its browned out polyps(from not being out?), with a little bit of blue color left, coming out! Also my acroporas have a little bit of polyps come out that didn't even come out on the mother colony I got them from. My green acro also has poylps coming out which I'm happy about. Thanks for all the help. I'm also going to do another 2 gallon water change on friday.