Help...ready to give up on reefing

[((FORDTECH))]

That's what I have for a nitrate kit.

I will order a new phosphate kit, keep testing nitrates, start overfeeding, and see what happens. Probably add an extra mp10 on the opposite side to get more flow as well.

No matter what you do (get bigger tank, more flow, stronger lights) none of it will make a difference if you have 0 or close to 0 nitrates and phosphates............this seems to be a huge Trend in new or fairly new reefers lately with all of them at 6-12 month mark with dying corals and 0 nitrates and phosphates.... anyways good luck if you dont change this. I struggled with this for years until I finally believed someone and raised them. I truly think this site needs a sticky post for this at top of most fourm. Also would be nice if it was send out to new members in a welcome email as being the number 1 issue with new reefers and new posts coming up about this multiple times a day that new reefers obviously don’t read or believe like I did at first

 

[terraincognita]

Current setup: innovative marine 40 gallon aio. Reef octopus hob skimmer. Tunze algae reactor. Carbon reactor. Auto water change and top off. Radion xr15 pro. 4 stage rodi. Aragonite sand and 30 to 40 pounds of live rock.

Tank history: this setup has been running for a year, I set this tank up to be a low maintenance mixed reef. The first 4 to 5 months went pretty well. Was adding corals and they were surviving but never seemed to grow much. At about 6 to 8 months I started seeing a decline in coral health. Then everything except for my zoas, a green star polyp, and a goniopora died. I lost beautiful big hammers and a Duncan that had grown a lot, along with mushrooms, a rbta, birds nest, too many to list.
My rocks were completed covered in coralline algae but the color is now fading on that as well.

I feel like this should be a perfect setup but just can't seem to get it doing well.

Current tank parameters tested last night:
Ph: 8.2
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0. Both of these have been undetectable since month 1 and never spiked even during cycling
Ammonia: 0
Alk: 7 to 7.5
Calcium: 500
Magnesium: 1600
Salinity: 1.26

Fish have always done well, I have a powder brown tang, I know it's too small of a tank for this but my 10 year old daughter bought it for a gift so it had to stay. 2 clowns besides that as well as sea star, multiple snails, hermit crabs, and a shrimp. I get green algae and some cyano here and there but no huge blooms.

The only thing I can think of is that my rodi filters were bad earlier than I thought and I was putting contaminated water into the tank. I changed these out this week and will be doing a large water change.

Any help to get this thing going well is much appreciated. I have been debating on switching to a zeovit system and getting rid of the algae reactor to try something different but not sure I want to keep up with daily dosing. Thought I had a perfect setup but it just seems to keep failing.

Thanks in advance.

I think you're consuming a lot of alk and not replenishing it.

What's your salt mix?

Try to get that alk above 8. I keep mine ideally right below or above 9.

what's your phosphates? Euphyllia hate super high phosphates. Ive seen spiked phosphates with no nitrates which seems to act like poison.

When there's nitrates present also it's different.

Also you may be doing TOO MUCH nutrient export for such a small tank.

 

[terraincognita]

can you give us a FTS and photos of some corals? Thanks

 

[dhnguyen]

I am suspicious of your 0 nitrate reading. What kit are you using to test this?

 

[Afoer499]

Using the red sea test kits for everything. I have a new phosphate kit on order. I can get those numbers out once I get the kit.

I just noticed the alk was low. Hoping a water change with red sea coral pro brings that back up.

I have always thought that getting rid of nitrates would lead to a great tank with little to no algae which is why I did my set up this way. Focus on reducing nitrates in the system will keep me away from nuisance algae. I feel like I'm so close but just can't get the tank where I want it.

I will increase feedings to raise nitrates in the system. Hopefully that will be a simple fix to my issues.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Using the red sea test kits for everything. I have a new phosphate kit on order. I can get those numbers out once I get the kit.

I just noticed the alk was low. Hoping a water change with red sea coral pro brings that back up.

I have always thought that getting rid of nitrates would lead to a great tank with little to no algae which is why I did my set up this way. Focus on reducing nitrates in the system will keep me away from nuisance algae. I feel like I'm so close but just can't get the tank where I want it.

I will increase feedings to raise nitrates in the system. Hopefully that will be a simple fix to my issues.

Water change will further lower your nitrates and phosphates. In this situation depending what alk is you should dose. What is alk ? You never posted it you just said it’s low.......

 

[Afoer499]

Water change will further lower your nitrates and phosphates. In this situation depending what alk is you should dose. What is alk ? You never posted it you just said it’s low.......

That was in the original water parameters. I got tests ranging from 7 to 7.5 last night with the red sea pro titration kit. I did multiple because I think I read the first wrong. Looked at liquid level instead of plunger level. My last test that I completed carefully gave a reading of 7.

 

[Afoer499]

That was in the original water parameters. I got tests ranging from 7 to 7.5 last night with the red sea pro titration kit. I did multiple because I think I read the first wrong. Looked at liquid level instead of plunger level. My last test that I completed carefully gave a reading of 7.

I am wanting to do a large water change because of the possibility of contaminants getting through my rodi unit due to older filters which have now been changed.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

That was in the original water parameters. I got tests ranging from 7 to 7.5 last night with the red sea pro titration kit. I did multiple because I think I read the first wrong. Looked at liquid level instead of plunger level. My last test that I completed carefully gave a reading of 7.

Ok just an FYI 7-8 dkh is a good range that a lot of people target. I target 7.5 myself. So back to phosphates and nitrates being an issue..order yourself some loud wolf nitrate and phosphates and prepair to dose one or both if adding regular feedings does not raise both. I does 5ml of sodium nitrate a day to hold a 10-15 nitrate level. Your dose may be different depending on how strong you mix it

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Ok with a reef octopus skimmer and algae reactor on a 40g ill bet you're over filtering and thats why you're nutrients are so low. Turn down the light cycle of the algae reactor to just 4-6hrs a day to keep the algae alive and turn off your skimmer. You should try to get nitrates to atleast 5 and phosphates to 0.03 minimum. I would also do an icp test just to make sure nothing else is causing issues.

Also do you have any algae problems right now? You're definitely in dinoflaggelate territory which can be toxic to corals

 

[Zotch]

You mean 1.026 salinity right, not 1.26

 

[Joeg]

I still think the Alk, No3, and potentially the Po4 (once you measure it) are the trio that's going to get things back in line. You can does for all 3 of these and likely have levels adjusted within a week assuming the Po4 isn't through the roof.

 

[Zeal]

Current setup: innovative marine 40 gallon aio. Reef octopus hob skimmer. Tunze algae reactor. Carbon reactor. Auto water change and top off. Radion xr15 pro. 4 stage rodi. Aragonite sand and 30 to 40 pounds of live rock.

Tank history: this setup has been running for a year, I set this tank up to be a low maintenance mixed reef. The first 4 to 5 months went pretty well. Was adding corals and they were surviving but never seemed to grow much. At about 6 to 8 months I started seeing a decline in coral health. Then everything except for my zoas, a green star polyp, and a goniopora died. I lost beautiful big hammers and a Duncan that had grown a lot, along with mushrooms, a rbta, birds nest, too many to list.
My rocks were completed covered in coralline algae but the color is now fading on that as well.

I feel like this should be a perfect setup but just can't seem to get it doing well.

Current tank parameters tested last night:
Ph: 8.2
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0. Both of these have been undetectable since month 1 and never spiked even during cycling
Ammonia: 0
Alk: 7 to 7.5
Calcium: 500
Magnesium: 1600
Salinity: 1.26

Fish have always done well, I have a powder brown tang, I know it's too small of a tank for this but my 10 year old daughter bought it for a gift so it had to stay. 2 clowns besides that as well as sea star, multiple snails, hermit crabs, and a shrimp. I get green algae and some cyano here and there but no huge blooms.

The only thing I can think of is that my rodi filters were bad earlier than I thought and I was putting contaminated water into the tank. I changed these out this week and will be doing a large water change.

Any help to get this thing going well is much appreciated. I have been debating on switching to a zeovit system and getting rid of the algae reactor to try something different but not sure I want to keep up with daily dosing. Thought I had a perfect setup but it just seems to keep failing.

Thanks in advance.

you have a tang in a 10g tank? It kills me to know that. Poor fish.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

you have a tang in a 10g tank? It kills me to know that. Poor fish.

Not sure where you see 10 gallon tank looks like it’s a 40gallon aio

 

[dhnguyen]

you have a tang in a 10g tank? It kills me to know that. Poor fish.

He has a 40g tank but yeah still woefully small for a tang.

 

[vetteguy53081]

CA High - 440-450 best
Mag extremely high - should be 1300

All those zeros tell me you are using an API test kit(s) ? If so, you may be getting false readings. I would take a water sample to a trusted LFS that does NOT use API test kits and have them verify your readings for you.


Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .4
phos < .04
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-9
CA 440

 

[dhnguyen]

CA High - 440-450 best
Mag extremely high - should be 1300

All those zeros tell me you are using an API test kit(s) ? If so, you may be getting false readings. I would take a water sample to a trusted LFS that does NOT use API test kits and have them verify your readings for you.


Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .4
phos < .04
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-9
CA 440

He stated he's using a Red Sea test kit. But yeah I am still suspicious of those readings.
A tang in a 40g, hard to believe there is 0 nitrate.

 

[terraincognita]

CA High - 440-450 best
Mag extremely high - should be 1300

All those zeros tell me you are using an API test kit(s) ? If so, you may be getting false readings. I would take a water sample to a trusted LFS that does NOT use API test kits and have them verify your readings for you.


Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .4
phos < .04
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-9
CA 440

Every LFS in Los Angeles I know uses API for their kits unless you specifically ask them to use another kit btw. They save their nice kits for their own tanks.

So ask for them not to use API if you do this, or specifically ask them to test your Phos and Nitrates with Salifert or another test kit they use besides API. Otherwise they're mainly checking to see if their customers Saltwater tanks are "fish ready".

 

[Screwgunner]

Just run some carbon in a reactor . And I would definitely do the water changes.

 

[Alvaro_Spain]

Ok with a reef octopus skimmer and algae reactor on a 40g ill bet you're over filtering and thats why you're nutrients are so low. Turn down the light cycle of the algae reactor to just 4-6hrs a day to keep the algae alive and turn off your skimmer. You should try to get nitrates to atleast 5 and phosphates to 0.03 minimum. I would also do an icp test just to make sure nothing else is causing issues.

Also do you have any algae problems right now? You're definitely in dinoflaggelate territory which can be toxic to corals

+1

I too think you are exporting so many nutrients in your setup. reduce the light of algae reactor and take the cup out of the skimmer. Just use it for aeration.