Are my corals killing each other?

[danno]

Things were going great in my 24gallon Solana reef up until 4 weeks ago. I need some experienced advice. The particulars:

Up and running well since January 2009. I added a galaxea 4 weeks ago and things started going downhill.

temp 79-81
ph 8.1
alk 2.5 meq/l
150w MH
5gal water change weekly

Contents:
<ul>
<li>~ 50lbs live rock</li>
<li>brown monti</li>
<li>torch coral</li>
<li>frogspawn</li>
<li>green trachyphyllia (brain)</li>
<li>green and red mushrooms</li>
<li>pumping xenia</li>
<li>galaxea</li>
<li>various yellow and green polyps</li>
<li>lots of purple coraline algae</li>
<li>small oscellaris clown</li>
<li>orange spot goby</li>
</ul>
I know the LPS corals I have in there are agressive so I have them placed as far apart as I can and set so the current doesn't blow their tentacles against their neighbors. My monti was growing well. The xenia had split. All the others had good polyp expansion. Then I had to have the galaxea. In the 4 weeks its been in there the monti is starting to bleach in the center, one xenia died and the other is going south. the mushrooms are shrinking. My skimmer puts out more gunk than it used to.

I observe it all at night and while sweeper tentacles are out in force they are not touching. Could I have incited some chemical warfare in the the small tank?

Help!

 

[nickmg]

I had to get rid my galaxea almost as soon as I put it in. They have stinging sweeper tentacles that can reach almost a foot long!!! In my 30 gallon that meant my whole tank

 

[sj miller guy]

nickmg;359552 wrote: I had to get rid my galaxea almost as soon as I put it in. They have stinging sweeper tentacles that can reach almost a foot long!!! In my 30 gallon that meant my whole tank

I didn't read a thing you posted

 

[danno]

Screw my tank.

Regards,
Big Papi

 

[danno]

I'm dosing iodide and trace elements according to instructions. I just got an iodide test kit and that tested in the normal range. With weekly water changes my Mg stays in the right range also.

I use Brightwell part A & B for Alk and Calcium. I do have a tough time keeping the Alk up though and am lucky to get it to 3 meq/l. The Calcium level stays in the 400-430 range. This has been the case since the tank was set up.

I was going to add another fish, I only have the two, but figured I'd better this issue figured out first.

It's not just the xenia going downhill. My monti went from growing well to bleachnig in the center. the monti is about 8" across and there is now a center section of about 3 square inches that has turned white. This happened in the past week.

Is it possible the higher summer temperature is causing this problem? I'm not sure how accurate my Corallife digital thermometer is. It says 81.5 to 82 by the time light goes off at night.

I'm stumped.

 

[tokejr]

Are you running activated charcoal in your filter system?

If chemical warfare IS going on, the charcoal will help remove the chemicals in the water.

You do have a number of very aggressive corals in a small space.

 

[tokejr]

Here's a great post by an ARC member about coral interaction: