Cannot keep SPS/LPS alive!

[TheBirdsNest]

I'll have a play around.. I worry about disturbing things too much for the things that are happy.. But I guess incremental changes are the key!

 

[Tired]

Cyano blooms and the rocks being fairly pale aside from green algae would suggest that the tank isn't very mature yet. Though that does sound like too much light- crank it way down and see what happens. Your softies can tolerate a couple weeks of less light than they prefer, if you inadvertently crank it down too far.

 

[Tonycass12]

Get your alk down to around 8 give or take .5, you will have a lot more success starting out with stony corals that way.

 

[TheBirdsNest]

I’ll give both a go, thanks!!

 

[Moonraker76]

So I guess the consensus is the tank needs longer to establish?

I really appreciate the feedback this far! In terms of the BRS meter - I don’t think they are in the UK

Where abouts in the UK are you?

 

[dbroncos]

My money is still on too much light. I never understood Red Sea's recommendations of blasting 100% by default.
I'm not exaggerating when I say I need sunglasses on in the living room if I blast my 3 reefled 90's at 100%.

 

[dbroncos]

When you say blasting them at 100% both blues and whites?

 

[Idech]

Is there a way to calculate it? I dont know anyone with a Par meter and they seem extremely expensive online..
I did ask when I first got the tank on light settings and the majority said not to deviate from the settings Red Sea have as they are designed specifically for the tanks.. So I assumed it was a case of putting the corals higher or lower in the tank.

You can buy the Photone App for a few bucks and a waterproof phone case on Amazon. A reefer on Youtube made a video on how to use it, and compared it with an expensive par meter and results were the same.

That will give you a very good idea for under 20$.

 

[Lavey29]

That was the only thing left I could think of

I have x2 Reef Wave 25's at the back of the tank which are running at 50%...
Not sure if I should move them lower (about 2/3 up the tank) or set them higher.

My return pump is on at 75% and my lights are the ReedLED's at the 20K setting (100% blue, 15% white), on from 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM, then 1 hour of moonlight.

You want 3x to 10x turnover through your sump and 20x to 40x GPH with your tank powerheads that includes good surface ripple. Lower GPH for soft and LPS. higher GPH for SPS.

 

[TheBirdsNest]

Are there any foreign contaminants? Cleaning products? Copper,tin or brass elements in the tank? You have another tank but didn’t use any of that live rock or sand. Why? Having ammonia is a concern. Why are phosphates so low?

I've never been able to get my phosphate above 0.1 in any of my tanks without dosing it.
I dosed it to 0.3 thinking that was needed, but then had another algae breakout, worse than current and the advice was to reduce phosphates so I stopped dosing and now back to 0.1.

 

[Tired]

0.1ppm phosphate isn't low.

I would also be curious why you didn't use anything from the other tank, though.