Richordea and blasthomesa dissapearing

[ToastBurrito]

Something is destroying my blasthomesa and richordea. They both are withdrawing into themselves and disapearing. and i find them covered in what looks like spiderwebs. i have asked around and cant get an answer. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
*note*
this was originaly posted in the identification section. Please disregard that post. unless you can tell me what the webby stuff is

 

[mikeguerrero]

Can you give us more info on tank: age, salinity, ph, other tank mates, water parameters, ammonia etc?

 

[ToastBurrito]

3 gallon. 4 months. Salinity. 23 water perfect. Purple firefish. Small emerald crab and a few small hermit crabs and one sexy shrimp.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Your tank isn't really mature. Have you been doing regular water changes? Have you maintained current elements such as calcium, iodine, strotonium etc?

I need to know what was the last change you did to your tank when all of a sudden your ric and blasto started to deteriorate?

Usually it's the last thing you did that can swiftly make an impact on sensitive corals.

I will suspect if you had any sudden drop in temp whether high or low, it can and will stress out a blasto or a ric and they can die.

Also it's sometimes bad luck of a draw that you brought home an infected specimen if it suddenly happened.

Florida rics are pretty strong so I am not sure what else might be a play. Once again what was the last changes that occured to this tank, that will give me a clue.

 

[ToastBurrito]

i do water changes about every 3 days to adjust the salinity which i check every day. i test my water about once a week at my LFS which i buy everything from. its a great saltwater only store that my brother works at and they are very knowledgeable. i cant think of anything out of the ordinary that i have done recently other than the addition of phytoplankton which i add one drop every week and a half, but that was after i started to see the blasto and the richs having issues. after the richs disappeared completely i removed the live rock that they were attached to just in case. and my water quality is always spot on with only trace amounts of nitrates and phosphates and i only use RO water. the blastos are barely hanging on and most are dead. i have never checked for iodine or strontium. calcium is good

 

[ToastBurrito]

Update. My green blastos are making a comeback. But I'm left with three of 25 in the colony. My red blasto still looks terrible. And the richs are all gone.

 

[mikeguerrero]

What do you mean you change your water ever three days? That doesn't make sense, you need to leave your reef as stable as possible.

These sudden changes you are doing can quickly stress out a coral and it can go upside down as it did.

Only evaporated water should be replaced with R/O filtered water as a change during the week.

Anything else you are doing can and will upset the balance.

I would have waited for a bit longer to have that tank completely mature; that means it goes through diatom/algae blooms.

Only then would I have added those corals that you did, even at that you always take a risk with the delicate corals that you choose.

The more exotic they are the riskier it is to loose it.

Stick to the corals and shrooms that are blooming and keep away from ones that you have lost.

Something stressed it to something as I have mentioned and that was it.

I hope that your tank comes around quickly and your remaining corals fight back and start to recover.