Need help with making my tank flourish

[mansoormb]

Hey Reef2Reef,

I've been a long time follower of this forum and always enjoyed coming on here to see everyone's tanks. I am in love with my tank but I can never get it right or build a tank that makes my little heart happy. Yes I am one of those people that rushed in and now I kinda regret the decision I made .

Here is where I am:

I have a 20 Gallon nano tank with 5 fish (looking to give one up to keep it at 4)
- Baby blue tang (I know I'll have to get rid of her when she gets bigger)
- Clown fish
- Yellow goby
- Six Line wrasse
- Bi-color blenny

I have a waterbox 20 AIO, AI prime 16HD,Nero 3, a 50w heater from petco, an ATO system and etc.

For filter material, I am using an Intank Chamber:
- 2 inch premium filter floss
- 8 Biocubes
- Activated carbon (Smaller grains)
- Protein skimmer (Cheap one but its the only one I can get to fit but doesn't work well)Dosing:
2ML Reef Code B daily
2ML Reef Code A weekly

Water changes:
5 gallons monthly

Topoff with RO water from the LFS

I have always had trouble keeping my coral alive and I always put blame on my light. Softies like leathers and zoas/poly do well and the xenia does really well and have a lot of growth. I can't grow any monti or any SPS. I am not sure what I am missing.

What I would like to do:
- Build a new layout of rocks (I don't know if I can start over with base rock or use the current rock I have in place)
- Reduce the amount of corals I have to give it a more intentional look
- Reduce the tank mates by getting rid of the bi-color blenny (open to trades if anyone wants one)

Here is where I need help:
I'd like the tank to really sparkle, I've seen so many other tanks that look beautiful and wonder why mine doesn't
Provide a thriving environment for all my corals to grow and flourish
Super clear water no particles floating

Any help would be appreciated, I've attached photos for reference.

 

[CoralB]

As far as clarity , use a high grade carbon and or UV light , floss for mechanical . Just shut off the carbon when broad feeding your coral with fuel , Red Sea ab + , reef roids or anything like that that you may be using , then turn it back on a couple hours later . Keep your glass clean and watch your parameters. I had a aio 20 back in the day and was able to grow sps . They need to be higher in the tank but it is possible . Keep your parameters correct and stable also I would do water changes weekly not monthly . That’s my opinion !

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

I can grow some SPS in my 10 gallon nano actually, just gotta watch your parameters and not overfeed...as for water clarity I'd just use high quality carbon in a high flow area like a HOB filter

Edit: your light could be playing a part in making coral survival difficult....

 

[d0gFartz]

I can grow some SPS in my 10 gallon nano actually, just gotta watch your parameters and not overfeed...as for water clarity I'd just use high quality carbon in a high flow area like a HOB filter

Edit: your light could be playing a part in making coral survival difficult....

I agree could be lighting. I run my lighting per a schedule I downloaded from waterbox site when they used have the AI schedules posted. I added moonlight to it was all other than that its been working fantastic.

I'm running a waterbox 10 and have some SPS, a few digi and monti caps. The monti cap grow very quickly and i have to keep fragging off . I have mostly euphyilla in mine. Love the torches, hammers and frog/octo spawns

Your basically using the exact same components I am just twice the size tank. I run my nero on the side, just my 2 cents but being directly under the intake weir seems counter productive to me, I'd feel like a lot of waters directed away from the weir.

I also upgraded to a stronger Sicce pump in mine. I run the filter sock as well. I bought the InTank tray and floss then read horror stories of overflows and daily changes of filter floss so i left the sock and run the 2 sponges with Chemipure sandwiched in between. I do a 2 gallon water change once a week.

I only dose All For Reef in mine and monitor the ALK to determine the amount to dose which currently is 4ml daily. This is done with a Hydros pump 2ml every 12 hours. I only started having to dose a few months ago and my tanks packed with corals. When i was first researching this hobby I thought this is way to expensive with all these chems and reactors but it seems a lot of people just want gadgets and think they need all this stuff to grow coral. I use reef crystals salt which is believe the cheapest as well. I tried that expensive stuff and that's all it was. I use a hydros controller to run it all so all i do is water changes weekly and change the filter sock monthly

Nothing good happens in a hurry either in this hobby