I really need some help with corals

[elcapitan1993]

So I really need some help figuring this whole coral thing because it doesn’t make sense to me, I can keep zoas/palys no problem I recently added a red monti cap and it is doing fine so far, I can keep Duncan corals as well but every single time I try to add a soft coral like pulsing Xenia or green star polyps or any other LPS besides Duncan they all seem to melt or die, not matter what I do or how perfect my parameters are I cannot seem to keep anything besides monti cap, Duncan,zoa/palys, my parameters are great 9.0 alk, 475 calcium, 0 ammonia, nitrate 0-5 “api test kit” l, mag 1360.

I really am getting frustrated with this hobby right now and so far it’s not worth the effort to me, I added some photos of corals that are doing good and the ones doing bad

 

[P-Dub]

How old is the tank? How large is your system? What is your filtration comprised of? What flow do you have? What lighting are you using? Where are the corals placed in your system? How much rock and what kind of rock are you using? What is your phosphate at? What salt are you using? What is your source of water? What additives/supplements are you using? How are you dosing CA, Alk, MG?
So, really we need a lot more info to better help you out.

 

[Pistondog]

Softies and lps don't like as much light as the others you mentioned.
But more tank details might point out something else.

 

[elcapitan1993]

How old is the tank? How large is your system? What is your filtration comprised of? What flow do you have? What lighting are you using? Where are the corals placed in your system? How much rock and what kind of rock are you using? What is your phosphate at? What salt are you using? What is your source of water? What additives/supplements are you using? How are you dosing CA, Alk, MG?
So, really we need a lot more info to better help you out. I place the corals based on research I have done and flow and lighting requirements,50 pounds of rocks, phosphates are at 0.08,

The tank is a little over 7 months old, I place the corals based on research I have done and flow and lighting requirements,50 pounds of rocks, phosphates are at 0.08,it’s a 90 gallon with a 20 gallon sump, I use 100 micron socks switched out every three days a protein skimmer rated for the size of my tank, bio media/ rubble, a refuge with cheato after that I have multiple layers of filter pads, I jus have the flow from my out put “800gph” witch is on wave mode, I am using IO reef crystals “ only salt I can get my hands on without ordering online” , I am using a 5 stage RO/DI system with 0 tds water checked with the inline DM1 dual tds meter, supplements consist of: Brightwell amino acids, Brightwell restor, Red Sea no2 po4x, Red Sea ab plus, seachem adtvantage calcium, seachem fusion 2 for alkalinity, Brightwell magnesion-p for magnesium, fluval iodine “when needed”, lighting is 2 wills 165 watt black boxes

also forgot to mention my lights are set at 40 percent whites and 49 percent blue on each light, they are 23 inches above my tank

 

[elcapitan1993]

Softies and lps don't like as much light as the others you mentioned.
But more tank details might point out something else.

I try and place them as close to the sand bed as possible, I don’t know if that helps but that’s what I read you should do for lower light corals, but even when I did t have good lights I had problems with soft corals dying

 

[Pistondog]

I'd stop dosing all that you aren't testing for.
Try an icp test.
What are nitrates and phosphates. Remove the filter pads, sox and skimmer enough.

 

[Not an IT guy]

Agree you have way too much extra additives. Try just water changes ditch the reactors for the time being ab plus no pox seachem. Let the IO rc do their thing. Might be over loading with nutrients. And removing them at the same time. Kind of doing a yo yo effect.

 

[elcapitan1993]

I'd stop dosing all that you aren't testing for.
Try an icp test.
What are nitrates and phosphates. Remove the filter pads, sox and skimmer enough.

I test for everything the Red Sea iodine test kit is kind of whack though so I’m going to stop doing that nitrates seem to be undetectable using my api test kit, phosphate is 0.08 using Hanna checker.

 

[elcapitan1993]

Agree you have way too much extra additives. Try just water changes ditch the reactors for the time being ab plus no pox seachem. Let the IO rc do their thing. Might be over loading with nutrients. And removing them at the same time. Kind of doing a yo yo effect.

Interesting I have never thought about it like that, I started the no pox veiny phosphates were through the roof my phosphates were read at 0.38 until I started using ot

 

[Not an IT guy]

I have phos around that range and my no3 sit at 15 ish. 7 months is still a young tank. I’ve had mine for about 3 years and the first year was all kinds of mess. But it will stabilize after.

 

[elcapitan1993]

I have phos around that range and my no3 sit at 15 ish. 7 months is still a young tank. I’ve had mine for about 3 years and the first year was all kinds of mess. But it will stabilize after.

Yeah it’s hard for me to tell using the api test kit it sucks, I just don’t know what kit to buy for nitrates, I hear the Hanna checker for nitrates sucks lol, really? I thought 7 months would be pretty old, I really hope I don’t have another 5 months of these problems

 

[jtp7004ft]

Yeah it’s hard for me to tell using the api test kit it sucks, I just don’t know what kit to buy for nitrates, I hear the Hanna checker for nitrates sucks lol, really? I thought 7 months would be pretty old, I really hope I don’t have another 5 months of these problems

I am happy with the Salifert test kits.

 

[Not an IT guy]

Yeah it’s hard for me to tell using the api test kit it sucks, I just don’t know what kit to buy for nitrates, I hear the Hanna checker for nitrates sucks lol, really? I thought 7 months would be pretty old, I really hope I don’t have another 5 months of these problems

The nyos one for nitrates is a good one