Is anyone else just... failing?

[Doclight]

Your not the only one.. I too have had struggles. Things happen that don't match up to anything I have read. Some things were my fault... but that's part of why I like it. It makes you think, reason, and discover. If it was too easy, it wouldn't be worth doing.

 

[Ocean Lotion]

The hydroids could certainly be a contributing factor, but probably not the cause of the issue.

How much are you feeding? My initial thought is that marginally high alk (8+) coupled with stronger lighting (LED+T5) could be starving the SPS if you aren't feeding enough. This would make sense in light of you seeing some growth and then recession. For example, if your Alk was a little lower in that range and you were feeding a little more you might have hit a threshold where they were happy and started growing; then later the Alk creeps up and you feed a little less and they start to starve.

When the SPS have been growing are they rich in color or somewhat pale and/or have that "thin" tissue appearance? That could confirm the above.

Where are you sourcing your SPS frags? If you are primarily getting maricultured pieces and trying them in a new-ish tank that is right on the edge of alk/light/food balance it isn't surprising that they "sort of" do ok and then fade away.

Final thought for now: what are you doing for flow? Is it sufficient?

You are probably very close to having it all click; it's just a little bit off.

-Ed

When you described how your corals were dieing my first thought is that after using up their reserves they are starting to die off. If that is a possibilities try spot feeding reef roids with a syringe like come in salifert test kits with flow off.

 

[[Cameron]]

Given your previous success, I am interested in where you got this tank from? It isn't uncommon for used tanks to at some point have something like copper dosed in it which can impact a tank for years.

I would also run an ICP test as previously suggested. Test the temp in the tank with a thermometer dialed in using the ice water method. Test for stray voltage.

If you run through all that and still struggle, I will be surprised.

 

[dutch27]

TLDR; you're definitely not alone.

I'm absolutely failing with my 40B lately. I fought back a GHA infestation with some flucon, but my aiptasia reached plague levels after losing my peppermints and the local shops not being to get any for some reason. That and some alk issues have killed just about all of my SPS now, one of my LPS, and is threatening zoas. Added some berghia about a week ago, but there's no discernible difference yet. I'm trying to get my water quality back on track with water changes and re-starting kalk water, but it's a battle every day not to shut it down. The tank looks awful, full of dead corals, aiptasia, and some cyano, also I'm trying to sell my place and buy a new one. In combination with having to possibly move my tank multiple times this year, to be able to close a home sale and purchase, it's tough to keep up the motivation. Not to mention I'll also need to patch/paint the ceiling before a closing, because ATI can't be bothered to make a tank mount for their lights, so the sooner I get on that the better.

I've been in the hobby for 8-9 years, and I've had some nice and successful tanks. This one I've had for a couple of years, and has just been one problem after the next; ich, flat worms, bryopsis, GHA, bad salt, aiptasia. All I seem to do is move from one problem to the next, and never really hit a point of regular maintenance and enjoyment, just constant frustration. The hobby stops being fun for me at that point. The only corals that seem to thrive are my duncan and my dragon's breath favia, and the duncan has not been happy the past couple of weeks. It may be time to pack it all in until after I settle my housing, and then consider a restart, maybe even going back to FW where I started. ;Dead

 

[J Rog]

Sorry, what's an ICP test?

Here's my equipment. I listed the symptoms of the corals above as well.
Tank: 57 gal Deep Blue rimless reef ready
Sump/return: eshopps r100 3rd gen refugium sump and Jebao DC 3000 return
Lighting: 36" ATI NanoBox retro T5/LED hybrid. 6 T5 bulbs, 6 NanoBox LED pucks. Should be more than enough light.
Skimmer: None right now. PSK-100 sitting in the sump but I haven't turned it on due to light bio load/feeding regimen. Nitrates have been around 0-2 ppm, phosphates 0-0.03 ppm
Flow: 1x MP-40, plus the return flow.
Other Info: Bubble Magus BM-T01 for automated dosing of 2-part calcium alkalinity additives, turned off right now due to low coral demand
Rock/sand: about 60 lbs of dry rock, 10-15 lbs live rock added later, and 20 lbs sand
Tank inhabitants- fish: two oscellaris clownfish, 1 copperband butterflyfish. Two remaining corals that haven't died (some purple stylo and a large red encrusting monti)

Just tossing this out there but maybe the nutrients are an issue being very low and the corals are starving over time? Just an idea

 

[Nobbygas]

I had similar issues with SPS until I started dosing Red Sea Energy A+B. Now, my SPS are growing well.

 

[TechnicalFisher]

I can’t prove it but think this is a function of using dry rock. My tank is 15 months old and up until the one year mark I experienced the exact same problems. Other than low nutrients (which I now dose KNO3 for) my parameters were all perfect. But SPS either failed to thrive or outright RTN’d.

It’s just been in the last few months that things have improved. Acros and montis are colorful and growing and the few pieces that survived the last year, which all failed to grow at all, are showing good growth.

I’ve got no idea what the reason behind it is, but I’ve read many similar accounts from folks who started with dry rock. I think it just takes a lot more time to establish a stable system when you start dry. The good news is that, at least from how things stand in my tank now, it appears that patience pays off.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

An MP40 plus the return pump is fine for flow on your 57g. I have a 60g with the same on a mixed reef and the Acros are great.

You don't need to dose anything for phosphate. The food will have some phos in it. Make sure you are using a high quality food that is good for the fish and coral (LRS, Rod's, or make some yourself from fresh seafood). The fish waste will drive the nitrate a little bit higher as well.

How often are you feeding? I generally feed my tanks 3-4x per day. You should try feeding smaller amounts more frequently if possible.

What SPS have died thus far? Is it possible you have chosen more finicky acros? Some might look pretty yet be very temperamental as to fluctuations in chemistry and/or nutrition.

How strong are you running those LED pucks? Do you know your PAR? It's not critical, but you might back them down a bit and sort of "reset" things as a starting point with more food and less light.

Try keeping your Alk right at 8 (not closer to 9; I personally notice my acros get pale at around mid-8's, and tip burn at low 9's). On the other side of the spectrum, recession from the base is common with too low of Alk.

Hope this helps,
Ed

I feed once per day now, used to be every other day. It's been since I increased to once per day, and lots of food going uneaten, that hydrozoans got bad, so that's its own issue.

Well let's see what have I killed so far... a huge frag of montipora digitata, some plating montis, acroporas (bonsai, red dragon, paletta's blue), stylopora frags, birdsnest (which come on, should be so easy to keep, in my old tank it grew like a dang weed). There were others too. Oh and an RBTA I attempted before a year like an idiot. No softies or zoas have been attempted because I just don't like them very much.

The LED pucks are set to:
AM: 35% blue, 24% white
Midday: 84% blue, 35% white (turned up quite a bit when things were not doing well. Made no difference).
Evening: back at 35/24%

I've tried much lower light. I've tried much higher light. I tried changing the light altogether. I did not see a recognizable difference

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

My first tank was successful against all odds. I used tap water for the water changes, which took place every 3 months or so because I was in college. I fed pellet food heavily and never removed the excess. The sandbed was actually a coarse freshwater gravel that resembled large-grained sand, and I never vacuumed it. The only "filtration" I had was a HOB filter, which I stopped using all together after a while. From that point on, it was flow only: no GFO, no GAC, no organic carbon dosing, nothing. Never had a single algae outbreak, and the tank was always covered with coralline algae. And I had nothing but success. I didn't keep SPS, but the few soft corals I kept did very well. They didn't grow out of control, but they were exceptionally healthy.

Fast forward to the current tank. It's been set up for just over two years and have been fighting algae issues the whole time. I'm just now starting to get growth on a few of the SPS I have. Most are not growing at all. I've tried water change schedules from once a month to 50% every other day. Whatever the secret is, I have't found it yet.

The only real difference between these two tanks is that the first tank was started with beautiful uncured rock from Live Aquaria, while this one was started with dry rock. Sadly, Live Aquaria doesn't offer that live rock product anymore.

I had terrible algae issues thru several setups over the years. I finally learned it was poor CUC ,poor lighting & nutrient issues . I can still melt an Acro in short order !

Your not the only one.. I too have had struggles. Things happen that don't match up to anything I have read. Some things were my fault... but that's part of why I like it. It makes you think, reason, and discover. If it was too easy, it wouldn't be worth doing.

TLDR; you're definitely not alone.

I'm absolutely failing with my 40B lately. I fought back a GHA infestation with some flucon, but my aiptasia reached plague levels after losing my peppermints and the local shops not being to get any for some reason. That and some alk issues have killed just about all of my SPS now, one of my LPS, and is threatening zoas. Added some berghia about a week ago, but there's no discernible difference yet. I'm trying to get my water quality back on track with water changes and re-starting kalk water, but it's a battle every day not to shut it down. The tank looks awful, full of dead corals, aiptasia, and some cyano, also I'm trying to sell my place and buy a new one. In combination with having to possibly move my tank multiple times this year, to be able to close a home sale and purchase, it's tough to keep up the motivation. Not to mention I'll also need to patch/paint the ceiling before a closing, because ATI can't be bothered to make a tank mount for their lights, so the sooner I get on that the better.

I've been in the hobby for 8-9 years, and I've had some nice and successful tanks. This one I've had for a couple of years, and has just been one problem after the next; ich, flat worms, bryopsis, GHA, bad salt, aiptasia. All I seem to do is move from one problem to the next, and never really hit a point of regular maintenance and enjoyment, just constant frustration. The hobby stops being fun for me at that point. The only corals that seem to thrive are my duncan and my dragon's breath favia, and the duncan has not been happy the past couple of weeks. It may be time to pack it all in until after I settle my housing, and then consider a restart, maybe even going back to FW where I started. ;Dead

I can’t prove it but think this is a function of using dry rock. My tank is 15 months old and up until the one year mark I experienced the exact same problems. Other than low nutrients (which I now dose KNO3 for) my parameters were all perfect. But SPS either failed to thrive or outright RTN’d.

It’s just been in the last few months that things have improved. Acros and montis are colorful and growing and the few pieces that survived the last year, which all failed to grow at all, are showing good growth.

I’ve got no idea what the reason behind it is, but I’ve read many similar accounts from folks who started with dry rock. I think it just takes a lot more time to establish a stable system when you start dry. The good news is that, at least from how things stand in my tank now, it appears that patience pays off.

Thank you all for this. Makes me feel much less alone. Because I thought I was the only one and was starting to be like... am I stupid or something? Why can't I do this?

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Oops messed up quoting

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

Given your previous success, I am interested in where you got this tank from? It isn't uncommon for used tanks to at some point have something like copper dosed in it which can impact a tank for years.

I would also run an ICP test as previously suggested. Test the temp in the tank with a thermometer dialed in using the ice water method. Test for stray voltage.

If you run through all that and still struggle, I will be surprised.

I will test the thermometer. I used to have a stray voltage tester thing and I lost track of it when I moved but I should buy another.

This tank was used, as was my first tank. So I have no way of knowing what's been used in it. Could be copper I suppose.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

When you described how your corals were dieing my first thought is that after using up their reserves they are starting to die off. If that is a possibilities try spot feeding reef roids with a syringe like come in salifert test kits with flow off.

Oh I forgot to mention! I did feed reef roids for a while (I want to say maybe a month?) Gave me terrible cyano, no visible change in corals.

 

[Servo]

Did you start with live rock or dead rock? Marco rock, real reef rock etc all need about a year to really pick up steam to support microfauna and SPS. You could try to add a bucket of Fiji Gold Mud into your sump. It has beneficial enzymes and maybe bacteria that seems to help jump start the biologic process. I have a friend who owns a LFS and gets excellent early SPS success on start up tanks with this. I second the ICP triton testing to look for heavy metals etc. Every system is different. Some humble you quickly, others make difficult reefkeeping bulletproof.

Good luck

 

[Newb73]

My tank languished for a while.

I had to spend some $$$$ and make changes to start tracking.

I added a sulfur denitrator, ozone, chaeto under a kessil A380 and switched from doing regular water changes to doing continuous water changes at 1.4% a day spread over 24 hours.

I wasn't doing anything wrong before but it took these to get sps really going.

I honesty think some people just have crappy source water thar not even a 7 stage rodi system can fix and not even triton testing can really reveal....and i think my water had that problem, so macro, ozone, better nitrate control and very SLOOOW water changes helped. I just added UV to top it off.

Getting the flow and lighting right are childs play if you have the mystery bad water curse i am proposing.

I also add reef energy A&B and seachen phyto and zoo every week.

I dont skim anymore and corals looks better when I DONT change filter socks every 3 days.

 

[lucyretz]

Yes. I got ich 3 weeks ago and found dinoflagellates in my tank 2 nights ago. Now I’m dosing bleach and have two tanks running. I love this hobby but I hate the landmines at every turn. Just gotta keep your head up, take it Day by day, and remember what got you in this hobby in the first place. Reefing is tough, but you’re tougher.

 

[Badspstank]

One of the biggest mistake people make is falling for all the new gimmicks and chemicals that are out there keep it simple do your water changes test weekly a good quality salt will have all you need in it if you make a bi-weekly water change you should be absolutely fine I stayed in The Hobbit the close to 30 years before I just got tired

 

[Badspstank]

This hobby is not rocket science you guys are making it way too hard on yourself keep in mind that this is a live ocean trapped in a tank mimic the ocean as best as possible. I've always been the type that approach the hobby as simple as possible good lighting water changes testing water and good water movement I did not drip calcium didn't do magnesium didn't use a skimmer for probably the first 20 years of being in the hobby I just felt that it wasn't needed if I done all the upkeep and all the house maintenance that I was supposed to do which I did and my tank Thrive for years

 

[Mark Waltermire]

I would suggesting looking up Sanjay Yoshi and Mike from American reefing had a similar struggle. If you don't know either of their names then look them up also, as they have basically been founders of the hobby. They both, on completely separate systems, were unable to grow SPS until they had at least 50% live rock. They both started new tanks and used 100% dry rock and couldn't keep any SPS. I tried looking up the article, but couldn't find it tonight. I know it's also mentioned in one of their youtube videos on Mike's 90 gallon build.

 

[dricc]

Yes. I got ich 3 weeks ago and found dinoflagellates in my tank 2 nights ago. Now I’m dosing bleach and have two tanks running. I love this hobby but I hate the landmines at every turn. Just gotta keep your head up, take it Day by day, and remember what got you in this hobby in the first place. Reefing is tough, but you’re tougher.

Do you really dose bleach?

 

[LadyMac]

Yep. I’ve had my tank for about a year. I’ve had hair algae diatoms and a constant cloudy tank. My levels are good, but I’ve lost every snail except one and two fish. My clowns are thriving. I lost a BTA and some green star polyps. My eagles eye zoa is still alive. It’s been a struggle and the tank is now dubbed the ugly tank.

I’m not giving up. I’ve learned a lot. One day I’ll have a beautiful tank.