Am I Starving My Corals?

[maroonman]

I have read so Much That I 'm pretty sure I have confused myself.

The tank was a upgrade 1 yr ago. But previously in a 125 for 1 yr before the upgrade.

I've had a bad leaching problem from my rocks ,( bad GH outbreak ) early in the upgrade. Replaced 50% of the rock ( Slowly ) with Life Rock.

I still have patches of GH ( 90% ) better then when it started and small patches of Diatom . I have ran Carbon & Gfo ( seperate reactors ) for the past 4 months. Slowly ramping up the GFO to full dose.


My issue is .
Still have GH patches Along with Small Diatom patches
Random Euphyllias very slowly receeding down to nothing . ( no BJ )
a milli colony that has burnt tips with no PE. . If I do a 10-20% water change ..It literally speeds up the receeding
Very Slow growth on all my corals. Coloring is nice.

All My Acans , Chalice, Birdsnest & Stylos are doing good ..but little growth
I even Have very Little Coralline algae growth.

Params.
1.026 Refrac.
alk. 10-10.5
Cal. 450
Mag. 1320 < Sal.
P04 .0632 < Hanna UL
No3 .0

I use RC with RODI 0-TDS
Have Auto top off

System is a 180. 72x24x24 = 200 Twv.
Dc12000 return @ 75%
2 - WP-25s @ 50 %.
Reefbreeders Auto Leds. ran @ 90% Blues,reds & V. 30% whites ( 10" above Water surface . Slow ramping up & Down from 10am to 9pm
SRO5000
Gfo Reactor
Carbon Reactor.
Small Cheato ball & light setup.

Fish
4" yellow belly Hippo,
2- SF Clowns
3- wrasses
1 firefish
1 cardinal

I feed once a day . 1 cube of brine , 1 cube of mysis, and a chip of Rods food about the size of the cubes. 2x2 Square of Nori

. Should I Try Dosing Nitrates??
. Take the Skimmer off line for a little bit??
. Feed more?
. Take The GFO off Line .....I just bought a new Refug. Light for better growth on my Cheato.

I just don't want to do anything to make my GH get worse.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'd be somewhat surprised if you are starving corals if that phosphate value is correct and you do not use an aggressive nitrate export method (such as carbon dosing), but it is easy enough to try feeding more or dosing nitrate. I would not take the GFO off line at 0.06 ppm phosphate.

 

[Omarons]

Hey @maroonman , I know it’s been a long tome but we’re you able to figure out what was wrong ? I’m thinking I have the same problem !
Most of My coral are perfectly fine , but some of my corals like my milli receded and almost died

 

[Heart of Dixie]

Did you use any real, live rock? I have read an article by Mike Paletta that started a new tank with just dry rock and had similar problems.

 

[Omarons]

my corals we’re doing fine for the past few months , just this past week things started going downhill . Only difference is I started dosing nitrate and iron to feed the Chaeto to reduce phosphate

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

my corals we’re doing fine for the past few months , just this past week things started going downhill . Only difference is I started dosing nitrate and iron to feed the Chaeto to reduce phosphate

What exactly did you dose?

Neither of those in appropriate amounts and purity will directly cause any issues.

 

[Omarons]

I dosed bright well aquatics neonitro about 3 ml per day every day
Also dosed brightwell aquatics ferrion 2ml every other day

I have a 30 gallon system

 

[Omarons]

I agree that none of this alone could cause the loss in coral , but maybe the change in chemistry really quickly did ? Nitrates would go up and down quickly , possibly stressing the coral ? This is my theory , don’t know if it’s correct or wrong

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The Recommended iron level by Brightell is crazy high. You could dose far, far less.

but I do not think either chemical is directly responsible. Maybe it had nothing to do with the dosing, or maybe it has allowed something undesirable to grow.

 

[Omarons]

Testers my nitrates, it was 1 ppm. Could it be my refuguim working too well that my nitrates are always low? Killing my coral ?

 

[Cory]

Testers my nitrates, it was 1 ppm. Could it be my refuguim working too well that my nitrates are always low? Killing my coral ?

Not likely. But you could try taking it off for a while or reduce lighting. If you want to try feeding corals try an amino acid mix with aspartic acid.

Coral deaths in our hobby have been mostly from pests/high metals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree it isn't likely if the algae is growing well, but you can always try lighting it fewer hours and let nutrients rise.