I’m at a loss

[dwest]

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.

I think your water parameters are fine.

 

[Stevorino]

Some things I would look at doing (not all at once):

- Drop Biopellet reactor. Those can be tricky to dial in. I've personally had more problems than successes with mine over the years.

- Consider doing more water changes. At a tank your size you can cost-effectively solve a lot of problems with a more intense water change schedule.

- If you aren't already running carbon, add carbon and see if that helps.

- Consider an aquascape reboot. The rockwork is piled up in a way that it wouldn't surprise me if there was a ton of **** collecting down there and piling onto the problem.

- 10dkh is high. Not too high necessarily, but if you are just keeping LPS/softies I would think the 8's would be a better goal.

What is the maintenance guy doing that you can't do? I'm scratching my head where his value is if you can't keep LPS corals after 2 years and he is out of answers.

 

[C4ctus99]

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.

Think he was talking to David there…

T5s are just a kind of fluorescent light like t8s. Kinda a plug and forget but without the ability to fine tune your spectrum

 

[sshumer14]

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.

I’ve thought about the flame angel but have literally never seen it pick at anything. Plus it’s beautiful and I’d hate to take it out and be wrong. But the angel wouldn’t explain why problems with the acan and the acro. The euphylia, I get, but not the others. Thanks for the compliment.

 

[sshumer14]

Some things I would look at doing (not all at once):

- Drop Biopellet reactor. Those can be tricky to dial in. I've personally had more problems than successes with mine over the years.

- Consider doing more water changes. At a tank your size you can cost-effectively solve a lot of problems with a more intense water change schedule.

- If you aren't already running carbon, add carbon and see if that helps.

- Consider an aquascape reboot. The rockwork is piled up in a way that it wouldn't surprise me if there was a ton of **** collecting down there and piling onto the problem.

- 10dkh is high. Not too high necessarily, but if you are just keeping LPS/softies I would think the 8's would be a better goal.

What is the maintenance guy doing that you can't do? I'm scratching my head where his value is if you can't keep LPS corals after 2 years and he is out of answers.

I am questioning as well. Truthfully, it’s nothing more than having a real experienced resource and my limited time for the big changes, the mixing of the water, etc. I work long hours during the week and the promise I made my wife when I started this was that it would not impede on our weekend time. As to the maintenance guy, he is literally the number one guy in my area on Long Island having built other’s stores, and taught most of the people in the area. I’m scared to leave him and change but I am tempted.

 

[Crustaceon]

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

Do you vacuum your sand?

 

[Dave1993]

Do you vacuum your sand?

the sand was brand new the tank was like 6 months old had the problem with nitrates since day 1 no clue what it was the tank is closed down now

 

[Crustaceon]

I am questioning as well. Truthfully, it’s nothing more than having a real experienced resource and my limited time for the big changes, the mixing of the water, etc. I work long hours during the week and the promise I made my wife when I started this was that it would not impede on our weekend time. As to the maintenance guy, he is literally the number one guy in my area on Long Island having built other’s stores, and taught most of the people in the area. I’m scared to leave him and change but I am tempted.

Having worked for an aquarium maintenance company as a field tech, I can tell you from experience, some company owners are stuck in a reef keeping mentality that's either really archaic or flat out wrong. If your tank isn't going as planned and supposedly this guy is the best in the area, I'd be looking for someone else. I know for a fact, what you're seeing are problems I or any other sound reefer here could easily resolve within two months.

 

[Crustaceon]

the sand was brand new the tank was like 6 months old had the problem with nitrates since day 1 no clue what it was the tank is closed down now

Could've been a bad nitrate test kit. It happens quite frequently actually. It's why we always recommend getting an ICP test when in doubt.

 

[Dave1993]

Could've been a bad nitrate test kit. It happens quite frequently actually. It's why we always recommend getting an ICP test when in doubt.

i tested with 3 different tests + 3 different hanna regents i think it was crappy rock the rock wasnt cheap but it was crap

 

[Crustaceon]

i tested with 3 different tests + 3 different hanna regents i think it was crappy rock the rock wasnt cheap but it was crap

That's a possibility. Also source water if you're not using ro/di. I've also heard of batches of salt mix containing ammonia which would convert into nitrate.

 

[Dave1993]

That's a possibility. Also source water if you're not using ro/di. I've also heard of batches of salt mix containing ammonia which would convert into nitrate.

using rodi also tested the rodi for nitrates had none i use red sea blue bucket has that had reviews of containing ammonia

 

[Crustaceon]

using rodi also tested the rodi for nitrates had none i use red sea blue bucket has that had reviews of containing ammonia

It's an interesting thought. Out of curiosity, what were you using for nitrate reduction on that tank.? I'd imagine chaeto under bright enough lighting would've had no problem keeping up with any amount of nitrates leeching from rockwork. I had a 187g with little sand, lots of rocks, big fish and struggled to keep nitrates in that system with a basket of chaeto in my sump under a 5k 120w equivalent cree led spotlight.

 

[shakeandbake]

For about a year and a half I lost every LPS coral that I added to my tank. Zoas and mushrooms survived but did not thrive. I started by diving into all of my parameters, until they looked good. Then I looked into my LED lighting, adjusting intensity to dial in par. Then I played with flow. After each attempted fix I would add a test coral like a $20 duncan or hammer, maybe every 4 to 6-months. Nothing seemed to address the issue and I would experience an LPS bail out roughly a month after each new addition.

In the end I found that I had a bad RO filter. After swapping that out and doing a series of water changes things improved and I have been able to successfully add LPS and SPS corals. Obviously, I wish I had started by checking that, but my test kits and TDS meter didn't pick up on the issue.

 

[Dave1993]

It's an interesting thought. Out of curiosity, what were you using for nitrate reduction on that tank.? I'd imagine chaeto under bright enough lighting would've had no problem keeping up with any amount of nitrates leeching from rockwork. I had a 187g with little sand, lots of rocks, big fish and struggled to keep nitrates in that system with a basket of chaeto in my sump under a 5k 120w equivalent cree led spotlight.

i was using water changes it was a brand new tank that was not getting fed and had no fish i should have not been getting nitrates lol

 

[Lavey29]

Have you done a recent ICP test to check everything? Have you rented a par meter? I was shocked how low my par was from XR15 lights at 70% intensity. I also greatly reduced my flow. I run my lights at 100% now with the reduced flow and my 2 year old mixed reef is thriving huge now.

 

[leemont]

Reaching for light isn't a good thing it means there light starved and doing everything they can to get as much as possible. I'd also look at flow maybe too much or not enough.

 

[Crustaceon]

i was using water changes it was a brand new tank that was not getting fed and had no fish i should have not been getting nitrates lol

Weird. Doing water changes on a new tank with no livestock. That's definitely a good sign that something isn't right.

 

[MrGisonni]

Nitrates aren't a big problem at 25 imho. Your lighting may need to be tuned up a bit. My mixed reef didn't like any alkalinity over 9.5 10 might be too high. What are your calcium and magnesium levels? I would test those asap.

 

[sshumer14]

Do you vacuum your sand?

Periodically but not weekly