Feeding in a nano tank

[bashierr]

So I was forced to downgrade to a nanotank...

Tank: LED Biocube 16
Lighting: Stock Lighting
ATO: Tunze
Built in Refugium: Live Rock, Chaeto, and Carbon
Total Live Rocko: Maybe 10-12lbs (I have plenty more from my 90 I can add if I want)
UV Sterilizer: Biocube UV Sterilizer

Livestock: Clownfish (2), Aptasia Eating Filefish (1), Molly Miller Blenny (1), Engineer Goby (1), Rose Bubbletip Anemone (2), Coral (2). I had to save what livestock I could from my catastrophic tank failure in my main tank; I know I am overstocked. I lost most of my corals. Cleanup Crew (reefcleaners 25 gallon pack).

Questions: I'm having a hair algae problem. And some of my livestock has died off. I've scrubbed my liverock, do 5 gallon waterchanges... All of my fish are doing great. Anemones doing good. I have some sort of a bright blue encrusting coral that is doing good. My polyps are doing great. My duncan died. I bought another duncan and it died within 24 hours. Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites, Salinity are all within normal limits. Other hardy corals have died rapidly... I'm not sure what is going on. Any advise?

I'm using Sera Marine Granules Staple Food and Reef Buzzard-L as well as krill and mysis periodically. I'm really not sure how many granules of food I should be feeding per day. I'm doing one scoop of the Reef Buzzard per day. Krill or mysis 1-2 times per week (one cube per feeding). Am I overfeeding?

Any advise is appreciated.

 

[Nanojoe]

What happened to your original tank?

Can you run just blues on the biocubes? Its been a few years since i have worked on one. That would help with the hair algae you are dealing with.

If food is blowing all over the place and not being eaten up. Then you might be overfeeding. All that food is just breaking down and fueling the algae. I would stop the reef blizzard in a tank that small, with your bio load from the fish, corals should get enough nutrition from fish waste.

Are you rinsing the frozen foods?
How often are the water changes?

Another thing to note is that your water volume is less that 16gallons due to water displacement. As we know water params can swing quickly in nano tanks. So, that may contribute to your coral problems as well.

 

[bashierr]

What happened to your original tank?

Can you run just blues on the biocubes? Its been a few years since i have worked on one. That would help with the hair algae you are dealing with.

If food is blowing all over the place and not being eaten up. Then you might be overfeeding. All that food is just breaking down and fueling the algae. I would stop the reef blizzard in a tank that small, with your bio load from the fish, corals should get enough nutrition from fish waste.

Are you rinsing the frozen foods?
How often are the water changes?

Another thing to note is that your water volume is less that 16gallons due to water displacement. As we know water params can swing quickly in nano tanks. So, that may contribute to your coral problems as well.

The original tank had a spider crack at one of the bottom seams. Luckily I caught it before it was too big of a mess.

I can run just blues, but I'm not sure what the PAR would be with just blues.

The algae problem is I would say at a managable stage... I just remove it every few days, but it grows back. I rinse the frozen foods with RODI. I have been doing 5 gallon water changes every 3-4 days.

My main concern is why every new coral I'm putting in it is dying. I'm acclimating, but they die within a day.

 

[i cant think]

Check phosphates, I couldn’t keep LPS when my phosphates were on the rise and I never knew why they died due to me not checking phosphates. In the past months after reducing phosphates, having something in there to eat them (I added a Hectors goby but I recommend skipping this stage), turning my lights to white because blue only made cyano stronger did I get rid of it.

White lights slow algae growth compared to blue lights is what I found out from that experiment.

 

[Nanojoe]

The original tank had a spider crack at one of the bottom seams. Luckily I caught it before it was too big of a mess.

I can run just blues, but I'm not sure what the PAR would be with just blues.

The algae problem is I would say at a managable stage... I just remove it every few days, but it grows back. I rinse the frozen foods with RODI. I have been doing 5 gallon water changes every 3-4 days.

My main concern is why every new coral I'm putting in it is dying. I'm acclimating, but they die within a day.

Sorry for the late reply, work and life etc. etc.

Get yourself past the algae issue and then focus on corals. I hate to see you dump money into more corals without crossing off all variables as to why you are losing corals. This way you will have an easier time pin pointing what exactly is wrong.
If you can, an ICP test may be worth it. Could be a containment in the water, rocks , sand or even your gear.
I have seen rusty magnets be the culprit and drive the aquarist mad trying to figure out what the heck is going on. When all along.. it was a rusty magnet.
It could be your salt mix too. Mark levenson "Melevs reef" just went through this. His parameters in check yet still losing corals and a quickly crashing tank.
Is your flow adequate?
The lights may be an issue, but honestly cheap blue LEDs can still grow softies and LPS.. im currently doing it now.

See where im going?

Its a pain in the butt to figure out. Could be a simple issue with a quick resolution or a long endeavor.

For now, what i would do,
-Get past the algae.

-Dose bacteria like microbacter clean (will help clean surfaces) it works i use it in my own reef. This and in conjunction with other bacteria, helped me beat dinos and turf algae. Along with me scrubbing and sand siphoning.
Microbacter 7 and Dr tims bacteria are all products i use.

-Run some carbon, this will help suck up anything undesirable in the water.

-Maybe cut down you water changes to weekly 10% to help with any drastic changes. Every 3-4 days seems excessive unless you are trying to bring down NO3 or PO4 levels.

- ICP test if you really think its much deeper issue.

-Give the tank time to settle in too. Nothing good happens in a reef tank overnight, and im talking months. This hobby will truly test your patience.

Hope this helps. Always feel free to message me for any questions if you want some 1:1 discussion.