Can anyone help me figure out what's going on??

[Reefermadness98]

Sorry for the super long post but I've ran into a few problems lately, I'll start with my parameters
Temp-76 Sg-1.026 ph-8.2 Alk-8.2 Calc-420
Mag-1290 nitrate-2 nitrite-0 ammonia-0
Phos-0
It all started with high nitrates, I had a bunch of gha, after a few good water changes, a better light and some tlc I brought a lot of it down. After that cyano started to take over so I did a few more larger water changes and brought all of my parameters down. I'm still getting cyano and gha and possibly diatoms and or dinos but not near as bad since i've been using a turkey baster daily to blast the rocks.
I have a mystic sunset monti and a meteor shower cyphastrea that are almost acting like the have stn or rtn? Everything else is doing pretty good except my zoas have been acting really weird lately and my coral have lost a lot of their brighter colors . I just checked the other day and realized I let my phosphate zero out and im wondering if that could be the problem? Or possibly trace elements? Mabe both?
Okay, so first real question, does anyone know what else might be playing a role here? #2 with the phosphate what can I do to safely raise it? #3 can anyone identify the problem with the cyphastrea, monti and zoas? And last but not least what could be causing the loss of color? I'm also wondering if I should switch from brs 2 part to tropic Marin all for reef? Again sorry for such a long post, I hope I can get this tackled soon, thanks everyone!

 

[fishguy242]

bump

 

[fishguy242]

i'm sorry going to bed ,do nothing fast,raise phos by feeding fish

 

[xxkenny90xx]

I think you answered your own question, phosphates. Feed the corals some reef roids (or similar), that'll up the phos. Also, how long have you had the green brittle star? Any fish aggression (sorry, I'm a brittle/serpent star nut)?

 

[Reefermadness98]

I think you answered your own question, phosphates. Feed the corals some reef roids (or similar), that'll up the phos. Also, how long have you had the green brittle star? Any fish aggression (sorry, I'm a brittle/serpent star nut)?

I kinda figured, its driving me crazy lol, and I've had him about 3 months, he was kind of a mascot at my lfs, but they decided to sell him. No aggression so far, I've seen him reach for my mandarin but hes a lot faster and swims off. Also any time I see him reaching I give him food, I've been making sure to keep him fattened up to stay away from the tank mates hes pretty cool he knows when its feeding time, he'll stretch his arm up the glass and grab food right from my hand!

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Awesome, you'll have to let me know if he ever attacks anyone. I've got a huge brown brittle, orange serpent, and tan and red banded serpent in my tank, but the green is in the sump (I'd love to add him to the tank)

 

[SPR1968]

Your magnesium’s a little on the low side and it’s a ‘facilitator’ for the other elements so I would raise it up a little anyway, say 1350 or thereabouts

I wouldn’t worry about the phosphate level, it needs to be very low at around 0.03 but if it is zero, and remember test error margins, and your nitrates are also low, I would add coral food to the system, maybe reef roids, reef energy etc to feed the corals, as the water is pretty sterile at the moment.

A good nitrate target is around 5-10 as a basic guide. I target higher at 10-20 personally.

As far as trace elements are concerned you’ll only know by testing or getting an ICP test but if your doing water changes that will help.

And also make sure that ‘worm’ isn’t irritating the corals and causing your isssues