LPS corals aren't rebounding and happy

[Revir22]

Thanks for reading. Having troubles with getting my tank to balance out. 6 months ago i upgraded tanks from about 45gallons of water to about 90 gallons of water from a 15cube to a 75 gallon display. Battled Hair algea pretty badly, removed refugium from sump, added large clean up crew with many pods, installed gfo reactor and dosed vibrant for about two months. did weekly water changes of 5-10gallons. corals and fish were happy and growing with extended polyps. 1 month ago things started to go south, my gfo reactor wasnt working properly and my phosphates went up to 34 ppb. i dosed chemiclean to help fight a cyano bloom, along with weekly sand vacuums. soon after one heater went down on the tank and it dropped to a low of 72 degrees over a few days. a few of my more hardy corals like hollywood stunner and acans started fading. i have been slowly adjusting my phosphates and they are down to 24 ppb and reducing. the water is back up to 80 degrees. corals still look like they are getting worse. Just wondering if there is anything i might be missing. I just moved the acans and bowerbanki to the sand bed from the center rock column hoping to reduce stress and help color back up. i don't want to lose my acans!

i can send my light schedule if that might be a problem, they are on almost full intensity for short part of the day and are at least 16 inches from the surface of the water and about 30 in from the rockwork.

weekly water changes 5-10 gallons
dKH 9.0
Phosphorus 24 ppb
temp 80
salanity 1.036


running gfo, protein skimmer bm curve 5, 2 ai primes, dose 3 ml of 2 part every other day

thanks again in advance, first time posting

 

[Webslinger]

Do you run a fuge. Figuring out your algae issue will go a long way in helping your corals

 

[Revir22]

no the water just runs thru the sump with some bio bricks, gfo and protein skimmer , vibrant has been helping with the algea if the gfo keeps the phos at 0.

 

[Revir22]

i had one for a while but it clogged my protein skimmer full of hair algea so i have stopped it for the time being trying to get algea down

 

[Webslinger]

throw a light and some macro algae down there. weekly 10% water changes. Rodi water?

 

[Revir22]

ok should i still do some vibrant? and yeah rodi, i just chanegd the filters a month or two ago thinking that was the problem

 

[Webslinger]

IMO vibrant is a bandaid. Are you over feeding?

 

[Revir22]

i might be, i try really hard not to. i do pellets 2 days then feed frozen cube one day and thaw it out first for the nem. make sure to keep the thawed water out of the tank. i use neptunes crossover pellet and some veggie pellets once in a while

 

[Revir22]

what kind of macro would you use, i have always used chaeto which works alright but the hair algae always does really well with it.

 

[Webslinger]

You don't need to feed anemones. If you like feeding them then once or twice a month. I run 3 different types but have my sump light on 24/7 so it doesn't go sexual. My rocks have no algae on them except for some coralline the sump algae works crazy well.

 

[Revir22]

good to know, i guess i should have looked more into that. Pretty sure my refugium light is this one down below. is that overkill? or can i just run it 24/7? so just feed a pinch of pellets at night other than twice a month?
thanks for help

 

[Revir22]

COB LED Grow Light 150w Grow Lights for Indoor Plants Kolem Full Spectrum Plant Lights, Waterproof Grow Panel Light, Veg, Seedling for Plants Tent, Greenhouse, Garden, Hydroponic

 

[Rosie]

Hi Revir, I just want to double check your salinity value - is it 1.036 or was that a typo? If it is 1.036 then this could be the problem.

 

[Webslinger]

Light depends on macro sump area size size. I use a 30w LED spot grow light. area is 9x11 .Feeding depends on fish needs? I feed lightly 3 times a day.

 

[brandon429]

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[brandon429]

.

 

[Revir22]

there is no way that my light is as strong as it says, i will give it another try, i just ordered some macro algae and get that up and running again, what type of food do you feed your tank 3 times a day? is it automatic? i have 6 fish in my tank that arent finicky.

yes thanks the water is 1.026

 

[Webslinger]

flakes, pellets, frozen

 

[Revir22]

i appreciate the help brandon but i think im looking for a less intrusive way, when i water change i will vacum the sand almost every week at least 3 times a month. the tank isnt that old and the sand bed is very thin.
i do agree that the gfo and chemicals should be reduced in the perfect situation

 

[Indytraveler83]

I don't wanna add any confusion here, but my 2 cents:

A LOT had varied and changed. Corals love stability. Try to balance things out and hold it, even if parameters aren't perfect.

My LPS do terrible when nitrate and phosphate bottom out. Try to keep low, but readable values of both.

Acans can usually rebound from almost anything, as long as there's still flesh on them. Give them some time and try to keep from throwing nutrient values around too much.