Help keeping corals.

[Chris Kunz]

I have been trying to keep some easier corals to show I can do it before upgrading to a larger tank, but so far have had no luck. My current system has been running for about a year now. The first coral I put in was some Frogspawn about 3 months after the tank had been setup. 2 months later I added a Hammerhead, followed a few months later by a Duncan and a Star Polyp. By the time I had added the Duncan and Star Polyp the frogspawn had started another new head and the hammerhead and grown enough to notice. About 2 months after that the Duncan died, followed quickly by the frogspawn. A month or so later the star polyp and hammerhead followed. Over the year I never really changed my maintenance, nor did I notice a real change in any of my water parameters.


I have been trying to read online to figure out where I went wrong so I can fix my mistake, but currently I am at a loss. Any advice, or direction would be greatly appreciated so I can change what I am doing. Below is my current setup. Right now there are no corals in the tank since the last one just died.


Thanks in advance for any help you can give.


Equipment:

Biocube 32 LED w/ stock lighting, lights on from 11 - 7

Minimax reactor w/ carbon/GFO mix (replaced monthly)

Minimax reactor w/ biopellets

Hydor slim-skim nano

Main pump Cobalt MJ1200

Reefkeeper light running an Eheim heater and fan to keep temp at 78

Koralia 1350 powerhead that is on for 4 hrs a day

20 lbs of live rock


Maintenance:

I replace my filter pad every 2-3 days

5 gallon weekly water change with Red Sea Coral Pro Salt and 0 TDS RO/DI water

Replace carbon/GFO mix monthly

Feed once a day (Frozen Hikari spirulina brine shrimp and Mysis shrimp)

There is an ATO


Fish:

2 clownfish

1 Banggai Cardinalfish

1 Fire Shrimp

2 Trochus snails

3 Nassarius Snails

2 Emerald Crabs


Tank Parameters:

dKH – 8 (API test kit)

pH – 8.0 (API test kit)

Ammonia – 0 ppm (API test kit)

Nitrate – 12 ppm (Red Sea Pro Reef Test Kit)

Nitrite – 0 ppm (API test kit)

Phosphate – 0 ppm (Hanna Low Phosphate Checker)

Salinity – 1.025 (Refractometer, calibrated before each use with calibration solution)

Temperature – 78.0 – 78.6 (confirmed by two other temp probes)

 

[Flippers4pups]

When your lps started down hill, was there any sign of brown jelly disease?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Did you feed the corals at all? Could be system is too clean for the lps and gsp. They like a bit more yummy stuff in the water. Only 2 clowns is not enough waste to feed. Did you broadcast any reef roid or similar coral food?

When they died did they die quick or over time? Any brown jelly? Any possible pests come in on a coral? These corals you chose do like lots of flow, so I would keep power head on all day or keep off a short time overnight.

I have never run a biopellet reactor, so no idea if that cleans the water too much for these corals. Hope someone else chimes in on that one. I would say it could be many factors associated with pests from added corals to just starving.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Quicker than me on that one! Brown Jelly

 

[LetItReef]

Could be your light and I would raise a bit your Po4.

 

[Chris Kunz]

I didn't notice any signs of brown jelly (although I just did a quick google search of what it is). I don't currently see any signs of it either, and never noticed an unpleasant smell in the aquarium. As far as pests, I do notice some bristle worms around there. When I took one of the corals out there was a really dark purple/red almost coralline looking algae underneath it (but much darker).

As far as coral food, I did not feed any. My LFS said for those kind of corals there was no need, so perhaps that is what I did wrong?

The corals slowly died over the course of several weeks once they started dying. You would see them come out less and less, and then polyps would just start going away until it was gone.

I didn't realize the corals would like that much flow in such a small tank. Leaving the powerhead on isn't going to cause to much flow for the fish will it?

I wouldn't think the tank is too clean? I still have to clean of the glass every week, and pull some hair algae off the rocks during the weekly water change, so I assume that meant there were some nutrients in the tank?

Thank you so much for all the input, it really helps out.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Duncan's do best with a spot feed once a week. Hammer's can be hit or miss, most of the time they, like torches, need no spot feeding. GPS usually is hard to kill.

Sounds like your dealing with other issues in your tank. You may for the time being focus on your GHA problems before adding any coral and yes, sounds like you have excess nutrients fueling the GHA.

Light intensity and light acclimation is key when introducing any corals. Too much par all at once can shock them. As well as too much flow.