Corals not thriving... advice

[Musictoyourhome]

I have a 10 month old Red Sea 350.
2x kessil 360 x
Nyos skimmer
Refugium
UV
About 13 fish
2x MP40
A few corals are doing great and some just slowly die or just hang on for months. Most lps and Zoas do well but sps just start going down hill after a few weeks. Parameters are
Phosphate 0.03
Nitrate 5–10 ppm
Salinity 1.026
Dkh 8.0
Cal 410-420
Had an icp everything was normal except a little high aluminum. Also
Par tested and the sps are placed in 250-300 par.
but even candy cane corals are just hanging on for 6 months like totally shrunk. Nothing really thrives or has great polyp extension.
Any thoughts. Want this tank to really take off....
Thanks in advance.

 

[Kfactor]

welcome to my life lol my corals live but never thrive

 

[Musictoyourhome]

welcome to my life lol my corals live but never thrive

Yeah. Very frustrating. I had a tank 5 years ago with halides and never tested water. It was over growing. The new tank I’m all over testing and tinkering with expensive equipment and can’t even come close..... still love it though

 

[Kfactor]

Yeah. Very frustrating. I had a tank 5 years ago with halides and never tested water. It was over growing. The new tank I’m all over testing and tinkering with expensive equipment and can’t even come close..... still love it though

your tank is pretty new i think it will just take time

 

[Musictoyourhome]

your tank is pretty new i think it will just take time

I hope that’s it...

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Did you use dry or live rock?

 

[Kryptonian]

I'm far from an expert but in the middle of doing a lot of research myself regarding dosing. A lot of the information I'm coming across is heavily pushing me to want to raise dkh to closer to 10.5-11.5 and stating that many corals need the continued high dkh to help them thrive. I'm in the same boat as you and wondering why my corals are having trouble thriving, resulting in my pursuit of dosing information for calcium, mag, alk, and trace elements. Just a thought.

 

[Musictoyourhome]

Did you use dry or live rock?

Started with dry rock. Do you think that makes a difference? I did add some live rock about a month ago to the sump also.

 

[Musictoyourhome]

I'm far from an expert but in the middle of doing a lot of research myself regarding dosing. A lot of the information I'm coming across is heavily pushing me to want to raise dkh to closer to 10.5-11.5 and stating that many corals need the continued high dkh to help them thrive. I'm in the same boat as you and wondering why my corals are having trouble thriving, resulting in my pursuit of dosing information for calcium, mag, alk, and trace elements. Just a thought.

Thanks for the input. I’m just not sure though as I’ve seen so many tanks with lower alk. But who knows. Really would like to get to the bottom of what I’m doing wrong.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Started with dry rock. Do you think that makes a difference? I did add some live rock about a month ago to the sump also.

Yes starting with dry rock takes longer than live ocean rock to get the tank well established. Do you have any coralline algae growing on the rock generally an indication that the tank can support stoney growth

 

[Kryptonian]

Thanks for the input. I’m just not sure though as I’ve seen so many tanks with lower alk. But who knows. Really would like to get to the bottom of what I’m doing wrong.

I agree that I've seen a lot of tanks with lower alk but alk is basically sodium carbonate and corals use sodium carbonate to build a skeleton. One of the parameters that made me pursue dosing was looking at the fact that I was using salt (Red Sea Coral Pro) with an 11.5 alk rating but my alk in my tank was rarely over 8.5. (again, not an expert so don't hate) But if the corals were clearly consuming carbonate to grow and reducing the alk to 8.5, opening the window for pH shifts, the best thing to do would be to replenish alk to stable 10.5-11.5 levels to make carbonate available and slow pH shifts.

I really only started this dosing thing about a week ago but know how to do my research. Again, just a thought!

 

[Musictoyourhome]

I agree that I've seen a lot of tanks with lower alk but alk is basically sodium carbonate and corals use sodium carbonate to build a skeleton. One of the parameters that made me pursue dosing was looking at the fact that I was using salt (Red Sea Coral Pro) with an 11.5 alk rating but my alk in my tank was rarely over 8.5. (again, not an expert so don't hate) But if the corals were clearly consuming carbonate to grow and reducing the alk to 8.5, opening the window for pH shifts, the best thing to do would be to replenish alk to stable 10.5-11.5 levels to make carbonate available and slow pH shifts.

I really only started this dosing thing about a week ago but know how to do my research. Again, just a thought!

Please keep me posted on your results. Thanks!

 

[Musictoyourhome]

Yes starting with dry rock takes longer than live ocean rock to get the tank well established. Do you have any coralline algae growing on the rock generally an indication that the tank can support stoney growth

Yeah tons of coralline.. that’s what’s so strange.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Yeah tons of coralline.. that’s what’s so strange.

Unable to view

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Yeah tons of coralline.. that’s what’s so strange.

If you have marine media that is where you aluminum is coming from. How do you maintain alk and cal?

 

[Musictoyourhome]

Unable to view

 

[CollectOyster04]

May want to do a bit more researching regarding higher alk. My understanding, tanks with higher alk tend to run higher nutrients as well. Tanks with lower nutrients may not fair so well. Everything is a balancing act. Even light levels may need to be adjusted depending on the alk/nutrients in a tank. Just went through an episode on my tank with too low nutrients and sps stn'd. Corals stopped growing which caused alk to raise because of dosing(not spike as I caught it with my trident pretty quick), and burnt a bunch of tips along with everything else going on. Lowered my light intensity and upped the nutrient levels, and thankfully my corals are on the mend.

 

[Musictoyourhome]

If you have marine media that is where you aluminum is coming from. How do you maintain alk and cal?

I did have a few marine pure cubes in the sump. Really small ones 4 of them. Took them out in January.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Corals do not look that bad. Your rock was not previously used was it?

 

[Musictoyourhome]

If you have marine media that is where you aluminum is coming from. How do you maintain alk and cal?

I use ESV 2 part. Test with Hannah checkers.