Getting frustrated with initial success then failure

[AstroCoral]

As the title suggests, I was having good success with my 3 gallon tank. Frogspawn was looking fantastic, I had my old AI Prime slowly ramping up over two months. About half way through the ramp (up to a maximum of intensity of around 35% using David Saxby’s settings) my frogspawn started to expel zooxanthellae during the more white spectrum of my lighting each day. I don’t know what is going on with my tank at this point, test kits aren’t showing me anything awful so I sent off an ICP test (hopefully getting results back tomorrow or Monday). I don’t know if it’s the new tank syndrome (tank was upgraded from smaller tank that was started in November, upgraded to 3 gallon in February) but stony corals just aren’t looking great (except my hammer coral which looks fantastic). Even my leptoseris started bleaching at the edges. Stylophora has remained brown since purchasing it but it shows great polyp extension. I don’t know what to say at this point, just disappointed. Picture 1 was a little over a month ago (the head had four mouths on it that were beginning to split apart). Diatoms became progressively worse and have remained since then as seen on rock in Picture 2 with the same Frogspawn looking very bad. It’s just odd that some of the corals look great and other ones look horrible, I don’t know what to make of it.

 

[billyocean]

3 gallons is a tough task.

 

[AstroCoral]

3 gallons is a tough task.

It certainly is, I don’t know what is going on anymore. If it was a failure from day 1 than I probably would have been less disappointed then finding initial success followed by failure. Now I just want to get back to how the corals were doing during the first two months.

 

[billyocean]

It certainly is, I don’t know what is going on anymore. If it was a failure from day 1 then I probably would have been less disappointed then finding initial success followed by failure. Now I just want to get back to how the corals were doing during the first two months.

Is this your first tank or only tank now?

 

[Dallascowboys16]

As the title suggests, I was having good success with my 3 gallon tank. Frogspawn was looking fantastic, I had my old AI Prime slowly ramping up over two months. About half way through the ramp (up to a maximum of intensity of around 35% using David Saxby’s settings) my frogspawn started to expel zooxanthellae during the more white spectrum of my lighting each day. I don’t know what is going on with my tank at this point, test kits aren’t showing me anything awful so I sent off an ICP test (hopefully getting results back tomorrow or Monday). I don’t know if it’s the new tank syndrome (tank was upgraded from smaller tank that was started in November, upgraded to 3 gallon in February) but stony corals just aren’t looking great (except my hammer coral which looks fantastic). Even my leptoseris started bleaching at the edges. Stylophora has remained brown since purchasing it but it shows great polyp extension. I don’t know what to say at this point, just disappointed. Picture 1 was a little over a month ago (the head had four mouths on it that were beginning to split apart). Diatoms became progressively worse and have remained since then as seen on rock in Picture 2 with the same Frogspawn looking very bad. It’s just odd that some of the corals look great and other ones look horrible, I don’t know what to make of it.

Your tank looks brand new. The rock is still stark white. Did you bring anything over from the old tank into the new setup? In the grand scheme of things, even a tank started in November would likely still be going through some new tank struggles. I have known LPS to be finicky at times in young systems.

If you have not seeded the tank with anything from an established setup, I would consider getting some live rock rubble from a well aged reef at your LFS.

 

[AstroCoral]

Is this your first tank or only tank now?

I’ve been in the hobby for 10 years (off and on). This is my only tank at the moment though, I bought an Apex and Trident for it (I also plan to use the Apex on larger tanks down the road). I just need to keep a closer eye on how things are fluctuating.

 

[AstroCoral]

Your tank looks brand new. The rock is still stark white. Did you bring anything over from the old tank into the new setup? In the grand scheme of things, even a tank started in November would likely still be going through some new tank struggles. I have known LPS to be finicky at times in young systems.

If you have not seeded the tank with anything from an established setup, I would consider getting some live rock rubble from a well aged reef at your LFS.

I brought rock over from the original tank (not seen in the picture) but also added new rock which the frogspawn is sitting on in the picture. The original tank was seeded with live rock and sand from Biota.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

This is my only tank at the moment though, I bought an Apex and Trident for it (I also plan to use the Apex on larger tanks down the road)

Using an Apex controller on such a small system is immense overkill. Realistically there is no reason to even run something like that unless you have an automatic dosing system to pair with it.

Take it from someone who has a small reef as well (10 gallons), chasing parameters almost always leads to more harm than good, especially in such a small tank. It really takes a high level of technical acumen with reef chemistry to successfully automate your dosing.

 

[billyocean]

I’ve been in the hobby for 10 years (off and on). This is my only tank at the moment though, I bought an Apex and Trident for it (I also plan to use the Apex on larger tanks down the road). I just need to keep a closer eye on how things are fluctuating.

Cool, so you know the game. I'm thinking the rock is still just to new by the looks of it. Icp may not show anything as it may be bacteria fighting to level out. The newer rock could still be absorbing nutrients as well.

Edit..just saw your last post.

Second thought could just simply be things changing too quickly in such a small tank. Any type of ato?

 

[AstroCoral]

Agreed, I thought it was overkill as well but I plan on doing small automatic water changes or potentially dosing with a Neptune systems DoS. Again, the Apex was bought more for future tanks but I might as well use it now.

Using an Apex controller on such a small system is immense overkill. Realistically there is no reason to even run something like that unless you have an automatic dosing system to pair with it.

Take it from someone who has a small reef as well (10 gallons), chasing parameters almost always leads to more harm than good, especially in such a small tank.

 

[AstroCoral]

Cool, so you know the game. I'm thinking the rock is still just to new by the looks of it. Icp may not show anything as it may be bacteria fighting to level out. The newer rock could still be absorbing nutrients as well.

Edit..just saw your last post.

Second thought could just simply be things changing too quickly in such a small tank. Any type of ato?

It does have a micro ATO currently

 

[AstroCoral]

Well I received my ICP results, no contamination of heavy metals. RODI water is perfect. dKH was 5.7 so I need to get that up (waiting on delivery of a new pH probe as well), also need to get a new test kit because that carbonate hardness doesn’t match my home test results. Bromine, lithium, and iodine were low. Phosphorus and Phosphate were low (0.01mg/l) - I’m guessing some of this is bound up by the present algae. Nitrate was 10mg/l

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Well I received my ICP results, no contamination of heavy metals. RODI water is perfect. dKH was 5.7 so I need to get that up (waiting on delivery of a new pH probe as well), also need to get a new test kit because that carbonate hardness doesn’t match my home test results. Bromine, lithium, and iodine were low. Phosphorus and Phosphate were low (0.01mg/l) - I’m guessing some of this is bound up by the present algae. Nitrate was 10mg/l

No smoking gun there really and that is a good thing. You would not have wanted to be dealing with a heavy metal poisoning.

As far as the KH goes, it would be nice to raise it a few degrees but I’ve seen a ton of tanks do very well even with KH readings between 5-7.

I imagine you are on the right track, but just need a few more months for the tank to establish itself properly. If you want to help the process along, ask your LFS for a handful of rock rubble from one of their established reefs. Even a small amount will be covered in coralline and all the other micro organisms we associate with a mature tank. When I was having issues with my current setup, I got some established rubble from another reefer and within weeks my overall tank health seemed to improve dramatically. Coralline started to grow, some pods started to appear, water was clearer, etc. I really do think that natural biodiversity of microfauna and algae is something that is very much overlooked by many hobbyists.