My tank is Alive, but not Thriving

[Jillianh]

Hello all,
I was hoping for some advice on my reef tank. 50 Gallon tank with LPS and Soft corals. Set up February 2022.

My soft corals are starting to look unhealthy with very little growth. I’m also starting to see a red/ brown slimy growth on the tank sides and occasionally on the soft coral.

current test result are:

Alk 7.5 Hanna and 8.2 Red Sea
Mag >1600 (Red Sea)
Cal 550. (Red Sea)
Nitrate 0 (Nyos)
Phosphate .11 Hanna
Salinity 1.025

* Dosing BRS soda ash 20 ml/ day
* Red Sea Nutrition AB + 20 ml/ week
* ~10% water change/ week with IO Reef
crystals
Running a skimmer and a refugium with Chaeto.

What is the best approach to getting the nitrates up some? I *think* that maybe my corals are looking sad because of the skewed phos/nitrate ratio. I don’t dose for Calcium or Magnesium and the numbers run continuously high on those two; IDK if that’s part of the issue?

Any input would be very much appreciated!

 

[TnFishwater98]

Hello all,
I was hoping for some advice on my reef tank. 50 Gallon tank with LPS and Soft corals. Set up February 2022.

My soft corals are starting to look unhealthy with very little growth. I’m also starting to see a red/ brown slimy growth on the tank sides and occasionally on the soft coral.

current test result are:

Alk 7.5 Hanna and 8.2 Red Sea
Mag >1600 (Red Sea)
Cal 550. (Red Sea)
Nitrate 0 (Nyos)
Phosphate .11 Hanna
Salinity 1.025

* Dosing BRS soda ash 20 ml/ day
* Red Sea Nutrition AB + 20 ml/ week
* ~10% water change/ week with IO Reef
crystals
Running a skimmer and a refugium with Chaeto.

What is the best approach to getting the nitrates up some? I *think* that maybe my corals are looking sad because of the skewed phos/nitrate ratio. I don’t dose for Calcium or Magnesium and the numbers run continuously high on those two; IDK if that’s part of the issue?

Any input would be very much appreciated!

Pics… Please…

 

[Idech]

I use Neonitro for nitrates. And Neophos for phosphate.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello all,
I was hoping for some advice on my reef tank. 50 Gallon tank with LPS and Soft corals. Set up February 2022.

My soft corals are starting to look unhealthy with very little growth. I’m also starting to see a red/ brown slimy growth on the tank sides and occasionally on the soft coral.

current test result are:

Alk 7.5 Hanna and 8.2 Red Sea
Mag >1600 (Red Sea)
Cal 550. (Red Sea)
Nitrate 0 (Nyos)
Phosphate .11 Hanna
Salinity 1.025

* Dosing BRS soda ash 20 ml/ day
* Red Sea Nutrition AB + 20 ml/ week
* ~10% water change/ week with IO Reef
crystals
Running a skimmer and a refugium with Chaeto.

What is the best approach to getting the nitrates up some? I *think* that maybe my corals are looking sad because of the skewed phos/nitrate ratio. I don’t dose for Calcium or Magnesium and the numbers run continuously high on those two; IDK if that’s part of the issue?

Any input would be very much appreciated!

To raise nitrates- Feeding will help as well as doing water changes less often, , ,, But there is a concern with extending water changes.
Stop dosing everything and do daily water changes of one gallon per day for 10 days.
Reason is you have some Very High levels affecting coral health:

Mag >1600 (Red Sea) - Should be 1300-1400
Cal 550. (Red Sea) Should be 400-450, no higher than 480
Nitrate 0 (Nyos) - I advice a second opinion taking a water sample to an lfs and have them test to verify
Phosphate .11 Hanna - This is likely huge effect - should be .04-.08, no higher than 1

Are you using RODI water or tap water from faucet?

 

[Jillianh]

Main Lights are out for the night; I got these with a kessil on white.

 

[Jillianh]

Sadly there is no LFS in my area. I am using RODI; TDS reading 0.

I will try the 1-gallon a day method. There are for fish in the tank, and I feed 3/4 cube of ocean nutrition/ day. Too much?

 

[Dom]

I understand your frustration. When I first joined in 2016, in my tank, everything would survive, but the tank didn't seem to thrive.

But since joining, my tanks have thrived. There is a lot of expert advice here and you certainly will learn enough to take your tank to the next level.

My tank when I joined R2R was a standard 55 gallon with a canister filter. The first piece of advice I received was this:

"A 55 gallon tank is too small not to do faithful, weekly 20% water changes."

And that's what I did.

In such a small tank, water changes exported nutrients and replenished minerals consumed by the tank. It also added stability to the water chemistry.

Post a full tank shot when you get a chance. It will help people to further guide you as a lot can be determined by observation.

Also, I would stop dosing everything and complete a months worth of water changes. Then test again to get baseline numbers. You want to determine your alkalinity and calcium consumption rates. You can't do that without a baseline.

With a Calcium of 550, I'd say you are dosing too much calcium.

Dom

 

[Jillianh]

If I don’t dose the soda ash, Alk drops to the 6.5 range.
I did add some Chemi pure blue today as well.

 

[Lavey29]

Others already advised you of some parameters being well off. The 0 nitrates is critical. Your corals are starving to death. Raising nitrates will also help lower phosphates and once your corals start to grow your calcium will balance lower also. Corals can take months to show the effects of 0 nitrates but when they do things go downhill fast. Get nitrates to 10 to 15 for LPS

 

[Max93]

I can help you identify the issue if you get an ICP Test via ATI completed. I think what happened so far is one day you dosed soda ash when you didn’t have to due to some kind of nutrient imbalance period, and due to the nutrient issue your corals where unable to calcify. Probably with the daily dosing of soda ash, the calcium kept climbing up to due a nutrient issue and so did your mag. The reason it went up was because the corals stopped using the alk.

I would be completely wrong if you had data on an excel sheet or notebook, or somewhere, so I could see the trend and help minimize the most like problem you had. It probably happened a month ago.

Question: what is your lighting and did you make any changes to intensity/photoperiod recently?

thoughts, and what I would do: stop dosing everything, do a 20% water change and test the tank 2 days later.

do another water change of the same volume again after that test. Try to get your levels to textbook range.

the ICP will help me determine if maybe you have something leeching in your tank like aluminum. What pumps are you using (brand?)

have you changed your RODI filters even if TDS says zero? Meaning have you made a lot of water the last 6 months?

 

[TnFishwater98]

I spy 1 fish…

 

[TnFishwater98]

I was also going to ask you about your lights also.

 

[TnFishwater98]

Chemical warfare…? Are you running any carbon?

 

[Jillianh]

I’m not sure how to insert questions from other posters to address the questions in order, but here goes:
I have never done an ICP test, but I will purchase one tomorrow.

I am running carbon in a canister.
There may be some chemical warfare; the frogspawn growth is out of control and battling (and winning) the anthelia for space.
Lighting is two AI primes and a Kessil 160 for shimmer. . I have not made any recent changes.
I really started noticing the changes about a month ago. I returned from a work trip last week to find my toadstool completely closed and covered in red slime and the glass as well. It was really noticeable when the glass hadn’t been cleaned for four days.
Pumps are Sicce voyager and Sicce nano
Return Pump is Reef Octo 2

All RODI changed out in September, except for Sediment which I change out more often due to heavy sediment well water.

 

[TnFishwater98]

I’m not sure how to insert questions from other posters to address the questions in order, but here goes:
I have never done an ICP test, but I will purchase one tomorrow.

I am running carbon in a canister.
There may be some chemical warfare; the frogspawn growth is out of control and battling (and winning) the anthelia for space.
Lighting is two AI primes and a Kessil 160 for shimmer. . I have not made any recent changes.
I really started noticing the changes about a month ago. I returned from a work trip last week to find my toadstool completely closed and covered in red slime and the glass as well. It was really noticeable when the glass hadn’t been cleaned for four days.
Pumps are Sicce voyager and Sicce nano
Return Pump is Reef Octo 2

All RODI changed out in September, except for Sediment which I change out more often due to heavy sediment well water.

You don’t live in East Palestine do you…?

 

[Jillianh]

Nooooo

 

[Max93]

Ok, I’m leaning towards your RODI having high silicates or some kind of excess element in your disp, let’s see what ICP says. How many stages does your rodi have? Make sure you do the ICP on your RODI as well.

for example: my last RODI shows some silicates (I know there are certain acceptable levels of silicates), and I added an additional stage. My second ICP showed N/A for everything for RODI. I have 9 stages for my RODI unit, just because the water here just wouldn’t get clean to how I wanted it. So I eliminated that from my issue list.

forgot to ask, how old is the tank? Sorry if I missed this answer I’ll re-read and edit if I find it.

edit - Feb 2022 found it.

 

[Pistondog]

Sadly there is no LFS in my area. I am using RODI; TDS reading 0.

I will try the 1-gallon a day method. There are for fish in the tank, and I feed 3/4 cube of ocean nutrition/ day. Too much?

Do the 1g perday water changes and feed 1 cube
0.11 po4 is fine.
Run some carbon

 

[fersann]

Hello all,
I was hoping for some advice on my reef tank. 50 Gallon tank with LPS and Soft corals. Set up February 2022.

My soft corals are starting to look unhealthy with very little growth. I’m also starting to see a red/ brown slimy growth on the tank sides and occasionally on the soft coral.

current test result are:

Alk 7.5 Hanna and 8.2 Red Sea
Mag >1600 (Red Sea)
Cal 550. (Red Sea)
Nitrate 0 (Nyos)
Phosphate .11 Hanna
Salinity 1.025

* Dosing BRS soda ash 20 ml/ day
* Red Sea Nutrition AB + 20 ml/ week
* ~10% water change/ week with IO Reef
crystals
Running a skimmer and a refugium with Chaeto.

What is the best approach to getting the nitrates up some? I *think* that maybe my corals are looking sad because of the skewed phos/nitrate ratio. I don’t dose for Calcium or Magnesium and the numbers run continuously high on those two; IDK if that’s part of the issue?

Any input would be very much appreciated!

I had a similar problem.

my recomendation is to target for the nitrate/phosphate ratio.
The ratio is:
nitrates 10-15 ppm
Phosphates .01-1 ppm

i would def. get rid of the chaeto algee. Chaeto algee will drop your nitrate levels to 0 ppm.

having the nitrates on 0 is a big problem, you could get dinoflagellates or crash


i try to keep my alk in between 7-8

im posting a pic of my tank.

 

[Jillianh]

Hello, again,

After following recommendations on water changes as outlined above, I
received the results for my ATI ICP test. I see a couple of obvious issues including
- my (home) test results for Alk and calcium are way off
- high silicates despite changing the sediment filter the day before the RODI test
- salinity maybe a bit low

I am running a skimmer as well as Chaeto, in part to keep the pH above 8 (varies 7.9- -8.1) as I heat a fairly new home with a wood stove.

Todays test results are:

Alk 6.5 Hanna
Nitrates: 0-1 Nyos
Phosphate .06
Salinity 1.025 (corrected)

my questions are:
Should I dose recommend Alk and cal?
Shut down refugium/Chaeto and not worry about pH?
Do I need another filter on my (5-stage) RODI to help with silicates?
Any recommendations on water changes/frequency/ amount?
Dose NeoNitro or add nitrates in another way?
Thank You!