Maybe the nutrient levels isn’t my problem.

[Reef Devils]

I have lost a few coral that I thought were due to low nutrient levels like nitrate and phosphate. My nitrate has been are 5 with my Hanna checker. With my Hanna phosphate checker I kept getting a reading of 0.00. I talked with people at my LFS and they said I might need a more accurate test kit for that because it might not be reading the super low numbers. I just got the Hanna phosphate ulr and I got a reading of 0.03. That means my corals do have food in the water.

So what is my problem? Is my tank still too young? Tank is 5 months old. All my other parameters are good. Maybe lighting is my problem. I haven’t figured out my par yet and have a random light schedule.

Right now I have 2 coral hat have as white tissue loss at the base. Is this a lighting problem?

 

[bushdoc]

Not enough info to give reliable opinion.
What exactly is random light schedule?
For many reefers 5 months old tank is a infant or maybe toddler at most and many would recommend trying first stony corals just aroung that time or even later.
I would suggest zoas, perhaps to start with.
Chemistry is only one site of reefing and many on this forum erroneously think that good chemistry means thriving reef tank.
You need much more then that-lighting with proper intensity, photoperiod and spectrum mached for your corals, flow, biodiversity and patience.
Good luck!

 

[Reef Devils]

Not enough info to give reliable opinion.
What exactly is random light schedule?
For many reefers 5 months old tank is a infant or maybe toddler at most and many would recommend trying first stony corals just aroung that time or even later.
I would suggest zoas, perhaps to start with.
Chemistry is only one site of reefing and many on this forum erroneously think that good chemistry means thriving reef tank.
You need much more then that-lighting with proper intensity, photoperiod and spectrum mached for your corals, flow, biodiversity and patience.
Good luck!

I totally get that my tank may be too young.

Not enough info to give reliable opinion.
What exactly is random light schedule?
For many reefers 5 months old tank is a infant or maybe toddler at most and many would recommend trying first stony corals just aroung that time or even later.
I would suggest zoas, perhaps to start with.
Chemistry is only one site of reefing and many on this forum erroneously think that good chemistry means thriving reef tank.
You need much more then that-lighting with proper intensity, photoperiod and spectrum mached for your corals, flow, biodiversity and patience.
Good luck!

I totally get that my tank may be too young. I need to figure out the par lighting in my tank. I have some zoas that look great!

Here is my Red Sea 90 light schedule,

 

[Lavey29]

LPS like dirty water that's why my nitrates are 15 and phosphate .2 right now

 

[Reef Devils]

LPS like dirty water that's why my nitrates are 15 and phosphate .2 right now

Wow so they want really hight phosphate. Everything I looked up said 0.03-0.08

 

[Lavey29]

Wow so they want really hight phosphate. Everything I looked up said 0.03-0.08

In a perfect environment. 03 to .08 is fine if it's stable but a lot of times as tanks mature phosphate rises and settles at a stable higher number. Corals don't seem to mind at all. The only downside of higher nutrients may be nuisance algae such as GHA but mature tanks with strong biomes don't have algae issues even with much higher nutrients levels. Although a good tank environment does have a little algae here or there for balance and to feed inverts.