half my corals look bad / die off

bmkid1997

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Hey all, wondering if any more experienced than myself might have an idea of why some of my corals are looking bad / just straight up dying. My tank is 6 months old, all live rock start 50 gallon. My parameters are as follow:
Alk - 7.6
calcium - 400
Phosphate - 0.08
Nothing strikes me out of range, and I do the same weekly maintance (10% WC, change filter floss every other day, blast any detritus around to be picked up). All my corals are picked up from a local guy who trims them from his display. half are bad, the others are showing great color and starting to encrust the rock. Kinda at a lost if its something I may be doing, or just what happens sometimes!
 
Send an ICP, dip the bad ones and look for parasites, shut off amino dosing (if you are doing so), post pictures.
 
Looks like your Po4 has dropped significantly in 4 weeks
Did you start using gfo and nopox?
 
Looks like your Po4 has dropped significantly in 4 weeks
Did you start using gfo and nopox?
Nope, I havent done anything to lower it. I thought about it but decided against; Ive overused in the past and didnt really want to go that route. Im not sure if maybe I had false readings from hanna. First was 0.00 and next was 0.08. Only things im dosing is alk and calcium
 
Nope, I havent done anything to lower it. I thought about it but decided against; Ive overused in the past and didnt really want to go that route. Im not sure if maybe I had false readings from hanna. First was 0.00 and next was 0.08. Only things im dosing is alk and calcium
Icp and check for pests.
 
It sounds to me your tank may not be mature enough just yet for SPS. It took me 8 months to a year before I could successfully keep SPS in one of my bare bottom system.
 
It sounds to me your tank may not be mature enough just yet for SPS. It took me 8 months to a year before I could successfully keep SPS in one of my bare bottom system.
Might be, I just wonder the difference when starting with everything fully established vs obviously fresh start
 
In my opinion, it’s nutrient levels that cause failure in young tanks, either too high or too low. I opt for twice weekly nitrate and phosphate checks with targets of 10/0.10-0.15. Once the tank becomes reasonably stable in this range, you are probably good to go.
 

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