I’m at a loss

sshumer14 · May 23, 2023

Looking for help. Let me start with I have been in the hobby for 2 years. Admittedly I have a very well respected maintenance guy who does the heavy lifting with me doing the daily and weekly cleaning and work. 65 gallon mixed reef. 2 Kessil canisters, 2 power heads, full sump with skimmer, refugium and biopellet reactor (went that way when I was having a high nitrate issue that we could not control). Parameters are basically stable, Phos .20, nitrates 25, cal 400, alk 10, ph 8.2, mag 1360, salin 1.025, zero nitrites and ammonia. Phosphates and nitrates are slightly high but not crazy. With that said, for two years now, I simply cannot keep LPS. Euphylia last a month or two then melt, duncans hardly open then die, acans don’t puff up, even lost a trumpet. Other than a melting zoa here and there, softies thrive. The zoas and cloves are actually reaching for light so it can’t be the light. Nothing is making sense to me, my maintenance guy or the LFS. Why can’t I keep LPS? Any ideas or input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Crustaceon · May 23, 2023

sshumer14 said:
The zoas and cloves are actually reaching for light so it can’t be the light

Corals, including LPS need stronger light than zoas to thrive. If your zoas and cloves are reaching, your lighting isn't strong enough for them and definitely not strong enough for LPS.

sshumer14 · May 23, 2023

Crustaceon said:
Corals, including LPS need stronger light than zoas to thrive. If your zoas and cloves are reaching, your lighting isn't strong enough for them and definitely not strong enough for LPS.

Whites or blues???

Dave1993 · May 23, 2023

i'm the same can't keep coral to save my life but no problem with fish

sshumer14 · May 23, 2023

Dave1993 said:
i'm the same can't keep coral to save my life but no problem with fish

It’s painfully frustrating!!!

Dave1993 · May 23, 2023

sshumer14 said:
It’s painfully frustrating!!!

i lost a £350 torch a £1000 torch £700 torch £200 scoly

FoolishWizard · May 23, 2023

What are the tank dimensions? Which Kessils?

sshumer14 · May 23, 2023

Dave1993 said:
i lost a £350 torch a £1000 torch £700 torch £200 scoly

Wow, I was staying cheaper until I figure it all out but when I add up how much I’ve spent on lps, it’s just crazy.

Crustaceon · May 23, 2023

sshumer14 said:
Whites or blues???

It's typically going to be blues. Here's a good thread that seem pretty relevant. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/kessil-a360x-lighting-setting.726806/

sshumer14 · May 23, 2023

FoolishWizard said:
What are the tank dimensions? Which Kessils?

Dimensions I would have to go home and provide but the kessils are A360NE. For reference here’s the setup…

Crustaceon · May 23, 2023

Dave1993 said:
i'm the same can't keep coral to save my life but no problem with fish

Most of the time it's not the water parameters that causes the issue. You can have great water parameters and still lose coral like crazy. What causes the problem is the maintenance procedure. I was in the same boat in the beginning until I realized just how much of an impact changing water without properly warming it up to display temp and ensuring it was fully mixed and oxygenated for at least a few hours had. It's tricky because we don't see the damage done to corals immediately. It's like a sunburn for us. It can take a day or so for it to show up and by that time it's too late.

kenchilada · May 23, 2023

If you want to grow coral and take the guess work out of it just get some T5s.

Dave1993 · May 23, 2023

Crustaceon said:
Most of the time it's not the water parameters that causes the issue. You can have great water parameters and still lose coral like crazy. What causes the problem is the maintenance procedure. I was in the same boat in the beginning until I realized just how much of an impact changing water without properly warming it up to display temp and ensuring it was fully mixed and oxygenated for at least a few hours had. It's tricky because we don't see the damage done to corals immediately. It's like a sunburn for us. It can take a day or so for it to show up and by that time it's too late.

i use red sea blue bucket only ment to mix it for 2 hour and i have hanna salinity checker shows the temp of the water i was doing water changes every 3 days

Pistondog · May 23, 2023

make sure you are running gac, preferably in a reactor if you are trying to mix hard corals and softies.
I got rid of leathers when trying to run LPS, sps.

Crustaceon · May 23, 2023

Dave1993 said:
i use red sea blue bucket only ment to mix it for 2 hour and i have hanna salinity checker shows the temp of the water i was doing water changes every 3 days

You're probably shocking your corals if you're doing water changes every three days, especially if your nitrates are under 5ppm and phosphates are under .02ppm. What are your water parameters? I'll bet we can fix this and get you growing coral.

Troylee · May 23, 2023

Sounds like you got bad bacteria or something.. try carbon or even cipro if you can gets your hands on it.. there’s procedure you need to look up besides just throwing stuff in the tank. I personally know plenty of people who cured your exact problem with cipro in the display.

sshumer14 · May 23, 2023

FoolishWizard said:
What are the tank dimensions? Which Kessils?

Dimensions I would have to go home and provide but the kessils are A360NE. For reference here’s the setup…

Crustaceon said:
It's typically going to be blues. Here's a good thread that seem pretty relevant. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/kessil-a360x-lighting-setting.726806/

only issue is that I have the A 360NE not the X

kenchilada said:
If you want to grow coral and take the guess work out of it just get some T5s.

maybe I sound naive but what are T5s?

Dave1993 · May 23, 2023

Crustaceon said:
You're probably shocking your corals if you're doing water changes every three days, especially if your nitrates are under 5ppm and phosphates are under .02ppm. What are your water parameters? I'll bet we can fix this and get you growing coral.

my nitrates we're through the roof idk how i had no fish didnt feed the tank nothing nitrates use to go to 75+ppm would do a water change 2 days later 75ppm again

was with hanna checker i bought 3 packs of regents so was not a error also tested with other tests

sshumer14 · May 23, 2023

Crustaceon said:
You're probably shocking your corals if you're doing water changes every three days, especially if your nitrates are under 5ppm and phosphates are under .02ppm. What are your water parameters? I'll bet we can fix this and get you growing coral.

Certainly not changing water every three days. It’s every two or three weeks. As to parameters, they are detailed in my initial post above. Any help would be appreciated.

dwest · May 23, 2023

I’ll be honest. Your tangs have or will soon outgrow that tank. My 180 gallon tank is too small for my pacific blue tang. The sailfin tang is getting big too. Replacing them with smaller fish will help your nitrates go down naturally as you won’t need to feed as much.

But that doesn’t answer your question.

I am wondering if your flame angel is eating your corals. I’ve never kept one as they are amazingly beautiful but are known to be fleshy coral munchers. It seems that most flame angel owners think that theirs isn’t a problem. Then they see them eat some corals at some point down the road. Not always though.

I am also wondering what your PAR levels are. Kessil NE’s would focus light well, but your lights seem pretty high off the water so it’s hard to imagine that lots of light is getting to the corals. As mentioned earlier, reaching zoos might be a good indicator of low light. I have kessils in an aquaticlife T5 hybrid system and think it’s great.

Your tank is very nice and I think this is solvable.