Lost and Dont Know What To Do, Easy Corals Dying

[Moorpark Reefer]

So basically I setup a reef tank Mid Last year December, and added a HOB refugium shortly after.
The tank is a 30 gallon JBJ rimless, and lit by 1 Prime HD LED light, I use IO Reef crystals when water changing and 1 Hydor Slim Skin nano protein skimmer, 3 Clownfish

I always test my water or get it tested by a friend who works in the saltwater tank/coral propagation industry and my values are always
Salinity 1.025-1.026
Alkalinity 9-10
Calcium-420
Mag-1250-1300
Nitrates-0
Phosphate-undetectable

1.Basically In my HOB refugium I added a ball of Chaeto and a small LED grow light but the chaeto didn't grow and in fact died slowly but steadily until all that was left was a little bit of chaeto
2.I Then thought maybe my refugium doesn't have enough strong lighting and got a strong 40W pink/red spectrum light and noticed my chaeto still didn't grow and in fact turned to a dark green mum and died again
3.Meanwhile while this was happening my corals were doing terrible and nothing ever opened up including my frogspawn and green star polyp frag, also my live rocks started looking green color in the dark. I believe the dying Chaeto was releasing something into the tank.
4. I ditched the chateo and added some Caulerpa plolifera in the HOB refugium and also started feeding the tank more often
5. The frogspawn have started opening and look happy now, but my green Star poly has disintigrated and still doesn't open, plus my live rock exhibit a green color once the lights are off.

Question:
1.How do I get rid of the green color on the live rocks?
2.I really want to start growing GSP on the wall but how do I make them happy?
3.Is something still wrong with my water?
4.What went wrong?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Nitrates-0
Phosphate-undetectable

You actually want some nitrate and phosphate, likely the reason why your refugium isn't doing so well is that it does not have a constant amount of nutrients to consume. Having some nutrients in the water will help your softies, especially the green stars. Your tank also looks relatively young, so you may need to let it mature a bit before trying to go full force with a refugium, this means letting some algae grow in the tank, possibly having a small diatom bloom as well.

Did you add an active bacteria culture to the tank?

How many fish do you currently have? I see the two clowns, you may need another small fish or two to better establish a bio-load in the tank, which in turn will provide more nutrients for your corals and macro-algae to consume.

The green color on the rocks is good, it is most likely some sort of coraline algae or something very similar. Everyone gets it and it is a part of the establishment of life on the rock. Eventually, other coraline algae's such as pink or red coraline will cover this green, you will also have corals covering it in due time as well so in a sense it will go away on it's own eventually

 

[BeejReef]

That's exactly how my tank looks. It's been up a little over a month. What's your source of water? I've read a few posts this week where peeps are having issues with chaeto not growing. Seems to be a bellwether.

Following w interest. Good luck

 

[saintsreturn]

From what i can see, your tank looks great and young. The green is healthy maturing of the live rock and will change as time progresses. Your tank and water look very clean. If this is the case, your refugium is not supporting life due to the water being to clean. Algae, both good and bad, need nutrients to live besides lite alone. If you truly have no phosphates or nitrates, that is why your chaeto is not growing.

As mentioned above, you dont seem to have much livestock, so nothing is really pushing past the bacteria breakdown rates. This is where a refugium comes into play.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Tank looks new and very clean. Alk can come down a little. I would hold off on any more stocking of tank and let the cycle take its course and take time to enjoy your new creation and not worry too much yet about numbers

 

[Moorpark Reefer]

1. The tank consists of 5 fish in total
3 clownfish
1 six line
1 shrimp goby

2. I have purposely started feeding 2x or 3x a day and have been seeming positive growth on the kaulerpa algae in the refugium
3. I really think the dying Chaeto algae I added in the refugium had a negative effect on the tank and caused the GSP coral to never open, I think the dying Chaeto ball was releasing something into the water

4. After I cleaned the refugium of dying Chaeto and did a couple of water changes I noticed the frogspawn coral finally opening up and looking healthy..it has been ever since

 

[Moorpark Reefer]

4. Really hoping that green color in the rocks goes away and becomes purple

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

I don't think I'd worry about the refugium for now. You're also not going to want to keep those 3 clownfish long-term. 2 of them are going to pair up and bully the other one. Have you tried a zoanthid or anything?

 

[BeejReef]

Have you doublechecked the water flow through your fuge? I imagine the seasoned hands are correct and that it could be uber low nitrate and phosphate. I can't really comment on that. Just that you mentioned that your corals looked better after removing the dead macro algae. Be sure there's no stagnant water back there. I'm as guilty as anyone about having a dirty sump, but I also noticed what looks like a very rusty screw just above the fuge. Probably nothing, probably wouldn't matter if it was laying in the sand, but it's one more variable you can control and that much less uncertainty.

 

[Oldreefer44]

To me, I would get a verification of your test results. Without nitrates and phosphates you should not be getting algae growth. Suggest either an ICP test or taking a water sample to your local LFS just to be sure that your test results are accurate. Also, you don't mention what your PH is. If you live in a cold climate and your home is well insulated you can get pretty low PH this time of year due to the high amount of CO2 that builds up indoors. I run an air line to the outside year round just top keep PH up to acceptable levels. Had trouble getting consistent growth prior to doing so.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Have you check for copper or other heavy metal contamination ?

I see rust here.