Frag tank not performing well

[Tomnmisty]

Good evening all,

I have a 40 gallon frag tank setup that has been running about 4 months now since the cycle finished. I have several sps frags and some zoa and lps in the tank. None of them seem happy. All the corals have went dull and some are bleaching. Some only open a little or every few days. I have 2 ai primes and 4 T5 bulbs. 3 blue + and a purple+. Running the primes on the ab+ program from 7-7 with the t5 from 11-1.

I have decided that my water is to clean thru a lot of research on here. I have undetectable nitrate and .02 phosphate. Everything else seems inline with what everyone else is running.
So, Is it better, safer, more consistent to does nitrate or just get some fish. If it is better to use fish how many? Anything good in this type of setup?

Any other ways to get this tank to thrive?

TIA
Tom

 

[tdileo]

Do you have any fish currently? If not I’d put in a six line wrasse and an algae eating blenny. They should get along fine and the combo will go after both pests and algae as well as raising your NO3 and PO4 to a good number without it getting higher than you want it from a normal tank stocking load.

 

[BoomCorals]

This article I just wrote might help. If the tank isn’t growing coralline it’s probably going to struggle with sps.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/tips-for-sps-care-and-increasing-chances-of-success.462/

 

[Tomnmisty]

I have no fish currently. I was originally thinking that I needed 0 nitrate and phosphate. I was shooting to keep my water as pure as possible. Have large sump with cheato, marine pure, and a skimmer.

I’m not growing coralline currently. Or any other algae for that matter. I haven’t even had to wipe the glass on this tank.

 

[Tomnmisty]

This article I just wrote might help. If the tank isn’t growing coralline it’s probably going to struggle with sps.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/tips-for-sps-care-and-increasing-chances-of-success.462/

Thanks for your replies. I will read your article and check out those fish.

 

[tdileo]

I have no fish currently. I was originally thinking that I needed 0 nitrate and phosphate. I was shooting to keep my water as pure as possible. Have large sump with cheato, marine pure, and a skimmer.

I’m not growing coralline currently. Or any other algae for that matter. I haven’t even had to wipe the glass on this tank.

0 nitrate and phosphate will not work unless you’re dosing amino acids and feeding your corals multiple times a week and keep a lower alkalinity. Even then it’s usually better to have some. NO3 2-5 PPM and PO4 at around 0.08-0.14 has seems to work great for me. Keeps all kinds of corals happy and will show both good coloration and growth. I am not a fan of ULNS systems, I feel like they are much more hassle than they are worth.

 

[Tomnmisty]

0 nitrate and phosphate will not work unless you’re dosing amino acids and feeding your corals multiple times a week and keep a lower alkalinity. Even then it’s usually better to have some. NO3 2-5 PPM and PO4 at around 0.08-0.14 has seems to work great for me. Keeps all kinds of corals happy and will show both good coloration and growth. I am not a fan of ULNS systems, I feel like they are much more hassle than they are worth.

My other 2 tanks I have battled algae and nutrient export so in this one I took everything I learned from them and thru it at it. Apparently it is very effective because it does what I designed it to do. However I didn’t realize the coral would hate it lol. I have been feeding reef roids and polyp booster (which I think is amino acid).

I will look into getting some fish and starting a feeding schedule to get them up. I have heard you can dose nitrate but I’m not sure if that is better or not.

Also think I maybe have to much flow. I battled cyano and dead spots in my other tanks so I also went big on the return pump.

 

[jda]

.02 phosphate is nothing to worry about. You have N, just you cannot measure it with a hobby-grade kit - mine is usually around .1, but I have to send it in as part of an ICP/IC test. .02 P and .1 N is not ULNS, it is just low and actually more than sea water on the reef - you need to be dosing organic carbon, GFO, LC, etc. to get to Ultra Low, which is not a very good idea for most folks, IMO.

I have a frag tank with no fish and I pour the "juice" from the dissolved mysis into the tank. This keeps a trace for the corals, but not enough for really any algae issues.

12 hours of LED is probably too much for even softies and LPS unless you have it really low intensity. I would start to run the T5s for 10-12 hours and let them do the heavy lifting. I would only use the Hydras for looks and stuff. You can get vastly more benefit from the higher quality light source than you can by chasing N and P, which is a drop in the bucket compared to lighting which is the ultimate coral food.

All of that said, four months is not any kind of time to start chasing a number or nutrient. Is your tank covered in coralline to where a doser or CaRx needs to run consistently to keep up? - if not, then you probably just need more time. I just set up a new tank and the few acros that I have in it are not thriving, just encrusting, not really growing and look pale. PE is good, but that is not always a good thing since it can indicated a deficiency in gas exchange. Coralline is just now popping up on the glass and powerheads, so it will probably turn a corner in another month or two.

Even though it is hard, you probably just need to wait it out.

 

[Big E]

Put in some fish and feed them, it's the easiest and most efficient option.

I'd also jettison the chaeto.............with little to no load a skimmer is all you need. Even with 2-3 small- med size fish the skimmer will easily handle the load.