Corals keep dying... What am I doing wrong?

[brilovescats]

Funny how that works, eh? My sister-in-law seems to have that "success" method - she threw everything into a tank, cobbled together a few pieces of a equipment, threw in fish without checking compatibility, threw in corals, and poof - she has wall-to-wall corals. I'm not even sure if she uses RO/DI water in her tank. As for doing similar, I was bad about that over the summer, but I didn't add anything during the summer either - my partner calls this my "winter hobby", because I'm far more enthusiastic about it when I can't go outside and are expecting almost 5' of snow overnight tonight.

I guess my newest foray is into the ULNS; I've only had Zeolite running about a week and a half now, so I guess we'll see if that works. I also have periodic algae blooms despite undetectable phosphate or nitrate. I'm stumped, in general, for sure. I think my next step is to send my water away for ICP testing to see what they come up with - perhaps they will be able to see something that I can't. On that note, anyone have any experience here with ICP testing? Does it work? (I'll check the other forums too)

Either way, I hope we figure it out. I have another 29 gal tank, maybe I'll set it up and intentionally do a really bad job of taking care of it and see what happens.

 

[brilovescats]

there is a light alk nutrient relation ship with corals. On of the other reef squad was mentioning it too. Hes seen more nutrient stripped tanks in the last 2 years than in 15 before.

and there's a dimmer on leds. And your tank so your par may be very different.

Thank you Salty - the relationship between Alk and LED/PAR - is this a feed somewhere here? If so, can you point me to it?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thank you Salty - the relationship between Alk and LED/PAR - is this a feed somewhere here? If so, can you point me to it?

no directly off the top of my head no. But consider this. You plant a flower in sand not soil. there's no food in sand. So you have to dose Nitrogen and phosphate. if you have good air flow the plant can breathe better to photosynthesise. The more it does the more nutrints it needs to build cell walls to grow more. To do this it needs carbon. Nitrogen, phosphate and c02 are carbon sources.

Although it a fairly dry read. Dig through Randy Farley's articles a bit more as the answers are there. But also understand this principle, you can understand all the chemistry in the world about carbon exchange in various terrestrial organisms as it relates to life on the planet, or just know how to fertilise well.

 

[Squid]

Your alk is too high and your nutrients are too low. Lower your alk to about 7.5 and things should start doing better. Put all new corals on the sand bed and gradually raise them to the heights you want them to be at so they can acclimate to your lighting.

 

[Yojoe10]

Funny how that works, eh? My sister-in-law seems to have that "success" method - she threw everything into a tank, cobbled together a few pieces of a equipment, threw in fish without checking compatibility, threw in corals, and poof - she has wall-to-wall corals. I'm not even sure if she uses RO/DI water in her tank. As for doing similar, I was bad about that over the summer, but I didn't add anything during the summer either - my partner calls this my "winter hobby", because I'm far more enthusiastic about it when I can't go outside and are expecting almost 5' of snow overnight tonight.

I guess my newest foray is into the ULNS; I've only had Zeolite running about a week and a half now, so I guess we'll see if that works. I also have periodic algae blooms despite undetectable phosphate or nitrate. I'm stumped, in general, for sure. I think my next step is to send my water away for ICP testing to see what they come up with - perhaps they will be able to see something that I can't. On that note, anyone have any experience here with ICP testing? Does it work? (I'll check the other forums too)

Either way, I hope we figure it out. I have another 29 gal tank, maybe I'll set it up and intentionally do a really bad job of taking care of it and see what happens.

Wow that's even weirder. My system also has algae blooms randomly and cloudy water that will just "appear" one day despite low measurable phosphate and nearly immeasurable nitrate. My algae just appears as that thin green coating on the glass. Last week when the random bloom happened I cleaned the glass and literally came down about an hour or two later and it was covered again. Today it's crystal clear. So stumped. But it's eerie how similar our issues are. Makes me wonder even more about maybe an invasive bacteria that flares up in our system from time to time or something.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Another thought, If you are using an old tank that was previously used for freshwater, there is a good chance you have some copper floating around. But, like others have said, I'm putting my money on low nutrients, high alk and lighting might be an issue as well. FWIW ricordia florida is hard to kill in my experience.

 

[Bdog4u2]

Sometimes we make matters worse by trying to correct issues. I'm a lazy reefer do to my schedule i do maybe 4 water changes a year I run a crap load of chaeto and just recently started testing alk but I've never had a coral die unless it fell into no man's land behind rocks and sometimes they still hang around. decent parameters good light, tons of flow and a lot of food is how I roll.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I wouldn't be lazy on alk testing. Alk swings can be a killer.

 

[brilovescats]

Another thought, If you are using an old tank that was previously used for freshwater, there is a good chance you have some copper floating around. But, like others have said, I'm putting my money on low nutrients, high alk and lighting might be an issue as well. FWIW ricordia florida is hard to kill in my experience.

It's brand new, I wish it was that easy - great thought tho! Sounds like high alk, but stumped on nutrients; I feed them Reef Energy A&B, mysis and others, target feed and they eat.

 

[Seanb1]

Where does your water come from.
What salt are you using.

 

[brilovescats]

Where does your water come from.
What salt are you using.

Hi SeanNDenise - I make my own water at home from the city water supply with my RO/DI and 0ppm TDS.

I just started using Aquaforest Probiotic Reef salt (two water changes ago), before that I was using Red Sea Reef Pro (for two years), which would likely explain my higher Alk, I've heard it can cause the Alk swing. When I switched to AF, my Alk after a water change went gradually down to 8.1ish from 12(!).

 

[Roy 9121]

Thanks for the quick replies!

Food -
There is, I feed them Reef Energy A+B, and Ricco food for the ricordia.

Livestock -
Roaming trochus (not sure how many)
Clown
Coral beauty
Cardinal
Mandarin (who is fat and happy)
Chromis
Orange spot Blenny

The corals that died -
ORA birds nest - went to bed and woke up and they were completely bleached like the polyps had all booked put
Steriapora - same
Zoas - various - melted over about a week
Montipora - gradually eroded over a week
Acans - happy for about two months, then suddenly one day disappeared.
Hammer - same but stayed for about 4 months..
What lighting are you running, and how long each day?

 

[Roy 9121]

What lighting are you running, and how long each day?

 

[brilovescats]

What lighting are you running, and how long each day?

Hi Roy!
I'm running 2x Radion XR15, I use their suggested coral brilliance, starts at about 10am and sun sets about 6pm, I think - I then drag out the "evening" (dark blue) until about 11pm.

 

[Roy 9121]

Hi Roy!
I'm running 2x Radion XR15, I use their suggested coral brilliance, starts at about 10am and sun sets about 6pm, I think - I then drag out the "evening" (dark blue) until about 11pm.

What percentage are you running the whites at?

 

[brilovescats]

What percentage are you running the whites at?

Starts at 38% peaks at 69% at 2pm...

 

[Roy 9121]

Starts at 38% peaks at 69% at 2pm...

May want to dial it back a little, my whites peck at about 45%.

 

[brilovescats]

May want to dial it back a little, my whites peck at about 45%.

I'll give it a try - how deep is your tank? Are you mostly SPS/mixed? My tank is about 2' deep, and the lights are about 10" above the water I think.

 

[Roy 9121]

I'll give it a try - how deep is your tank? Are you mostly SPS/mixed? My tank is about 2' deep, and the lights are about 10" above the water I think.

My tank is 24" deep and my lights are about the same, 8" above. I have mostly LPS, softies, one BTA. I just added a piece of SPS a week or so ago.

 

[brilovescats]

My tank is 24" deep and my lights are about the same, 8" above. I have mostly LPS, softies, one BTA. I just added a piece of SPS a week or so ago.

Great - same boat then, I'll give it a try.