7 Month Old System Corals Struggling, Why?

[I never finish anythi]

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

And zero phosphate.

 

[Gribbles]

Wouldn't trust that test

Why not? I've read and seen good things about Aquaspin

 

[Scotty LaBeouf]

How do you keep salinity stable???

Ato

 

[RedReefer]

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

From this pic the sand and rock look really new with no good colors?

 

[StatelineReefer]

Ammonium is food for corals, not harmful. Being a fishless tank, corals only, I would look into dosing small levels of ammonium and phosphate.

@Randy Holmes-Farley Weren't you discussing this very idea in a thread recently?

 

[CoastalTownLayabout]

Had a quick look at you build thread.

You AI prime isn’t at a low enough intensity to cause the immediate problems you’re seeing. You’re photoperiod may be though, 6 hrs isn’t a lot.

I doubt low nutrients are the cause of immediate issues either, you’d expect a more gradual decline particularly with your LPS.

Have you done any water changes since start up? If not, get on a weekly 10 - 20% regimen.

You will be able to run this tank fishless without dosing. Feeding the corals will be beneficial but again, the immediate issues in week old corals points to some other problem.

Before adding or dosing anything, start doing weekly 10 - 20% temp matched water changes and look for any positive responses from your corals.

 

[Scotty LaBeouf]

Ammonium is food for corals, not harmful. Being a fishless tank, corals only, I would look into dosing small levels of ammonium and phosphate.

@Randy Holmes-Farley Weren't you discussing this very idea in a thread recently?

Is ammonium and ammonia the same thing?

 

[Scotty LaBeouf]

Had a quick look at you build thread.

You AI prime isn’t at a low enough intensity to cause the immediate problems you’re seeing. You’re photoperiod may be though, 6 hrs isn’t a lot.

I doubt low nutrients are the cause of immediate issues either, you’d expect a more gradual decline particularly with your LPS.

Have you done any water changes since start up? If not, get on a weekly 10 - 20% regimen.

You will be able to run this tank fishless without dosing. Feeding the corals will be beneficial but again, the immediate issues in week old corals points to some other problem.

Before adding or dosing anything, start doing weekly 10 - 20% temp matched water changes and look for any positive responses from your corals.

Thank you for taking the time to read that thread! I think a big mistake I made was I didn’t do water changes on it at all since I transferred the sand, biolux, and water over from the 20g tank that had fish in it (that tank is no longer running, just the 6g now). That was basically 5 months, maybe 2 10% water changes in that whole time. Just sand, rock, carbon, biolux in the tank and the lights were no on. I would top the tank off manually everyday and add a little microbacter 7 here and there. I figured the tank easily should have been cycled in that time since I was using cycled water, sand, and biolux, but new dry Marco rock. I really should have tested for ammonia before adding corals. In the last 3 weeks I’ve been doing quite a few 5-10% water changes. Today just did at least a 50% change. Gonna see how that does for a couple days. And then do another 30-50% change.

 

[Scotty LaBeouf]

Also my temperature swing throughout the day is 2 degrees. Stays between 76 and 78. Really only gets to 76 if I have the window open at night. Otherwise it’s stays between 77-78.

 

[Gribbles]

Also my temperature swing throughout the day is 2 degrees. Stays between 76 and 78. Really only gets to 76 if I have the window open at night. Otherwise it’s stays between 77-78.

I don't think that temperature swing is any concern

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

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.

me2

 

[Scotty LaBeouf]

I don't think that temperature swing is any concern

Same