7 Month Old System Corals Struggling, Why?

Scotty LaBeouf · Sep 20, 2023

I started a build thread here detailing the journey of this tank so far and the issue I dealing with. Just put coral in for first time last week and nothing is fully opening up. Not sure if it's lighting or water parameters. I waited as long as possible to let the tank mature and build up a proper biome, but it seems like something is still off. Getting Brightwell aminos, koralcolor, and restor this week. I was thinking this morning that to do a sort of automatic dose of the brightwell products I could figure out the necessary dose for my tank and just add them to my auto top off or auto water change reservoir. Would that work?

John Bolden · Sep 20, 2023

If you could give exact parameters and fts under white lights that would be great!

jkcoral · Sep 20, 2023

Hard to tell without knowing parameters.

Corals could still just be adjusting. They might not be getting enough, or getting too much light. Same thing with flow. They need nutrients in the water. So feeding some might help.

Your build thread said you’re running Chemipure. But if you haven’t been feeding (no nutrients in the water) the nutrients are already probably low or bottomed out and the chemipure would just remove any you add.

slogan315 · Sep 20, 2023

Doesn’t look like you have any fish. Need nutrients from somewhere or corals are going to wither away. Amino acids are good, but as your only source of nutrients, they provide nitrates but not phosphates. So your system (and corals) are phosphate limited.

If you don’t want to add any fish, you could dose nitrates and phosphates using something like brightwell neonitro and NeoPhos.

Scotty LaBeouf · Sep 20, 2023

John Bolden said:
If you could give exact parameters and fts under white lights that would be great!

Yeah I can get a you the parameters I have them on a spreadsheet. And a FTS under only white light?

BanZI29 · Sep 20, 2023

We need water parameters, what lights you have, and and maybe a pic of your tank to help you.

slogan315 · Sep 20, 2023

BanZI29 said:
We need water parameters, what lights you have, and and maybe a pic of your tank to help you.

Check the build thread link in the first post

Scotty LaBeouf · Sep 20, 2023

jkcoral said:
Hard to tell without knowing parameters.

Corals could still just be adjusting. They might not be getting enough, or getting too much light. Same thing with flow. They need nutrients in the water. So feeding some might help.

Your build thread said you’re running Chemipure. But if you haven’t been feeding (no nutrients in the water) the nutrients are already probably low or bottomed out and the chemipure would just remove any you add.

Yeah have had no fish in this tank I want to do a coral only tank. Having fish just stresses me out, but maybe I need to consider a tiny goby. I started adding some phytofeast this week. Going to test all my parameters today so I'll add those to my spreadsheet and post it.

Scotty LaBeouf · Sep 20, 2023

BanZI29 said:
We need water parameters, what lights you have, and and maybe a pic of your tank to help you.

got all that in the build thread link in first post

Scotty LaBeouf · Sep 20, 2023

slogan315 said:
Doesn’t look like you have any fish. Need nutrients from somewhere or corals are going to wither away. Amino acids are good, but as your only source of nutrients, they provide nitrates but not phosphates. So your system (and corals) are phosphate limited.

If you don’t want to add any fish, you could dose nitrates and phosphates using something like brightwell neonitro and NeoPhos.

Yeah no fish, I started adding phystofeast this week. Will that help with phosphate?

Mr. Mojo Rising · Sep 20, 2023

The build thread mentions an AI prime set at 30% for 6 hours only? I would suggest that is way too low for a 20 gallon tank, my AI Prime is on a 15 gallon softie tank set at 70% for 9 hours, I get amazing growth.

I don't see any powerheads in the tank, only a return nozzle, tanks really need flow, more than a return nozzle can provide IMO.

Nutrients are also important as mentioned above.

But most important, give them light.

Scotty LaBeouf · Sep 20, 2023

Mr. Mojo Rising said:
The build thread mentions an AI prime set at 30% for 6 hours only? I would suggest that is way too low for a 20 gallon tank, my AI Prime is on a 15 gallon softie tank set at 70% for 9 hours, I get amazing growth.

I don't see any powerheads in the tank, only a return nozzle, tanks really need flow, more than a return nozzle can provide IMO.

Nutrients are also important as mentioned above.

But most important, give them light.

It's a shallow 6 gallon. Tank is 7 inches tall thats why I have the light running so low. As far as flow it's getting a lot. I have that mighty jet return pump and I had to dial it back a bit.

jkcoral · Sep 20, 2023

Scotty LaBeouf said:
Yeah no fish, I started adding phystofeast this week. Will that help with phosphate?

I’d recommend getting some reefroids, or my personal favorite is Benereef. Benereef won’t skyrocket the nutrients like reefroids, which is why I prefer it nowadays.

bakbay · Sep 20, 2023

Agree -- need more nutrients! I've put easy SPS frags in the tank 2 weeks after cycled and they are doing fine. Softies didn't have any issues in the first month. Just watch your nutrients and avoid Alk swings...

Scotty LaBeouf · Sep 20, 2023

It's just weird cause you can see that one goni is kinda opening up and the other is just totally dying.

slogan315 · Sep 20, 2023

Scotty LaBeouf said:
Yeah no fish, I started adding phystofeast this week. Will that help with phosphate?

Possibly when some decomposes, but phyto is really going to feel copepods and some corals that can filter feed. You need available nitrates and phosphates for the zooxanthellae living in the coral tissue.

o2manyfish · Sep 20, 2023

A 6g tank is such a small bit of water. And your tank appears to be entirely open top. Anything could affect that tank and it's inhabitants that wouldn't have an effect on your 20g.

Tank temp alone could change quite a bit between lights on/off.

Anything on your hands when you reach into the tank wouldn't have any way to dilute - even the antibacterial soap you just used to wash your hands with.

Any kind of fragrance in the room - from smoke (of any kind), to room freshner, to Windex, Pledge, even running a vaccuum and throwing all that dust into the air.

You've come here posting a problem with your new corals not doing well in a new tank, and you already have decided on at least 3 different band-aid products to try on the tank.

You need to solve what the issue is first before adding a band-aid. And before adding the band-aid see if there is a way to permanently resolve the issue.

You don't know what your nutrient levels are. You don't know what your parameters are, you don't know if there is a penny that fell into the tank and is buried under the sand. But you're prepared to dose a bunch of different products basically throwing a dart at a dart boart that's at the far end of a football field.

I'm not harping that your tank is too small. But with a tank that size every variable in the room can have a significant impact on the biology of the aquarium. And any instability in the biology will greatly affect the happiness of the life you are trying to keep.

Scotty LaBeouf · Sep 20, 2023

Well I suspected ammonia was the issue. I didn’t have an ammonia test kit cause I thought the tank was cycled….

I never finish anythi · Sep 20, 2023

Scotty LaBeouf said:
It's a shallow 6 gallon. Tank is 7 inches tall thats why I have the light running so low. As far as flow it's getting a lot. I have that mighty jet return pump and I had to dial it back a bit.

How do you keep salinity stable???