Parameters good - still losing everything

[donomite]

Tank fully cycled 6 or so months ago so tank is fairly new. cycled with mature kit and ensure that ammonia broke down within 24 hrs, etc. Bought some softies zoas, and cheap hardy acros like green slimer and red planet. They grew great for two months, started to encrust then all of sudden they just started to recede. I will post pictures here in minute. started threading at the ends. All parameters appear to be pretty dang good, no red signs. All info below should answer any pre-questions.

Reeefer 170
bubble magus 5
RODI 3 stage BRS, all new filters and water is typically 0-5ppm after wards

Red sea pro salt

Hanna alk 8.3
Hanna Phos .02
Ca 395
Mg 1230
Ammonia 0
nitrate 40
PH 8.3
salt 35
temp 78.5
FLow MP 10 and a mighty jet retrn
light - Radion pro 3 @ 10 hrs, went from 26 to 66 on slider and in between - PAR is 150-390 with meter, dont think its light though AB+ schedule

A couple of anomalies
not dosing yet. Dont need to really. Tried B-ionic two part to get Ca up but stopped since it was relatively stable and I didnt have anything pulling Ca out of tank
Did try acro power a few times but stopped after things went haywire, maybe 4 doees in total as recommended
Change filter socks every two days - washed them in washer with bleach and then reashed twice with just hot water,
This weekend I just tried hot water, although thy appear pretty dingy

FIsh are great, softies and zoas growing like champs, SPS and LPS receding. Im at a loss, tried to do everything right, was relatively patient. parameters appear to be pretty dang good. Just checking with you guys to see if there is any red flags that paybe I can do something to save some of the frags. If not, Im just going to wait it out and add slowly to see what tank can support. This is driving me nuts.

 

[donomite]

Green planet and slimer

 

[donomite]

Can’t not get a great picture but corals appear to have some brown algae on them. Maybe flow isn’t enough ? I think it’s water quality of sorts since sps were growing visibly , very quickly initially.

 

[donomite]

I guess everyone else is as confused as I am ;Stig

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I guess everyone else is as confused as I am ;Stig

The one thing I see in your pics is very young rock and i do know SPS don’t handle fluctuations very well. How often are you doing water changes? What size WC? Do you run a ATO system?

 

[Mical]

Cal is a little low and Nitrate is a little high.

 

[Elegance Coral]

What is your water change schedule??

 

[TexasTodd]

Full tank shot? Flow might be low.
Dry rock = 1 year+ before solid for sps. Can you get some good, old, live rock to add?

 

[Katrina71]

I agree add mature rock if possible.

 

[mbelanger]

Need more flow.. at least I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going on. I’ve been going through the same thing. I pretty much have the exact same set up as you. Same salt. Similar parameter.. my rocks are 5-7 years old but other than that... i added a second ai prime. And same thing. Zoas, nem, hammer seem happy. Space invader, birds nest, chalice not so much.... so I’m writing it off as not enough Flow and just ordered a second Mp10.. so hopefully it helps

 

[mtdaly85]

As others have stated, I think its a tank maturity issue. There is much more to keeping SPS happy than having solid parameters. There is a balance of different microfauna, bacteria, critters, and all sorts of other "stuff" in the water that SPS really need to thrive (LPS too for that matter). As a general rule of thumb, I wouldn't even consider SPS until you have a substantial amount of coraline algae.

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

I would agree that your tank is relatively new for SPS, even the hardy ones, although i'm sure there will be an argument on that. (there's already a few somewhere on here).

I'd also agree with adding some live rock and increasing flow.

Using the coral pro salt you should be tesing Alk in the 11-12 range,mag 1400 range and Calcium in the 450 range. I'd calibrate your salinity meter and make sure you are at 35 as stated.

It's also good if your water is a consistent 0ppm...

 

[MnFish1]

Your nitrate is 40. I know - everyone says 'nitrate doesnt matter' - and it probably is not a big deal if it slowly rises to most coral - but some corals are damaged by high nitrate in my experience.

Also - I don't think the 'age' of the tank makes any difference - except for the fact that a person that has had a tank for >1 year has 1 year more experience with the various problems a reef tank owner may have. The reason that I would underscore this in this case is - he says the coral grew well for the first 2 months - and was encrusting.

 

[ScottB]

Your parameters are actually pretty close. Could use some nudge upward on Mg, Ca and primarily PO4. .02 is way too close to testing error (+-.04) of zero. SPS HATE zero PO4. And yeah, nitrate could come down. In fact at that level of nitrate, I am a bit surprised that your rock is so white. Do you have GHA or turf algae anywhere?

Which leads me to a frequent observation: white rocks and SPS don't last long together. I could throw out a dozen potential reasons why they soon part ways, but they do.

On my last few builds, I added SPS around the 3-5 month mark, but I started with a ton of old, live rock. It must be something about the steady & balanced way old rock processes nutrients; sometimes removing it and at other times releasing nutrient back into a slightly depleted water column. No data on this, but I feel like we underestimate the importance of stable and balanced (Redfield ratio or whatever) nutrients for the more delicate stonies.

@ 6 months, you gotta be getting close! Hang in there.

 

[donomite]

Thanks for all great responses. I was concerned with tank maturity, but my red planet frag started growing so well, and parameters matched, I thought I was in decent shape. I will add some more flow and see what it does. Right now I have one mp010 running at 100% lagoon.

10% water change every 2-4 weeks. Using standard reefer ATO with RODI water.

Im at a weird point where I dont want to invest much into tank until I figure out what the heck is going on - hence the reason Ive been waiting on second mp010.

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

Thanks for all great responses. I was concerned with tank maturity, but my red planet frag started growing so well, and parameters matched, I thought I was in decent shape. I will add some more flow and see what it does. Right now I have one mp010 running at 100% lagoon.

10% water change every 2-4 weeks. Using standard reefer ATO with RODI water.

Im at a weird point where I dont want to invest much into tank until I figure out what the heck is going on - hence the reason Ive been waiting on second mp010.

Its really just still growing pains my friend. They last different lengths for everyone. I'd increase water changes to weekly and invest in the flow. You will see things turn around faster. My main concern would be why your parameters aren't matching the salt that you are using. Calibrate that refractometer if you haven't!

 

[donomite]

Its really just still growing pains my friend. They last different lengths for everyone. I'd increase water changes to weekly and invest in the flow. You will see things turn around faster. My main concern would be why your parameters aren't matching the salt that you are using. Calibrate that refractometer if you haven't!

Understood . It should be calibrated. I used the calibration fluid. Ill check it again. I noticed my parameters dropped a bit from initial fill but I attributed it to absorption and still thought it was ok since it was in proper range. Im not big on frequent water changes, but maybe I need to change my mind and approach. I started doing weekly 5 gallon changes once it start to go south, but it didnt help at all so I went back to b-weekly or monthly even.

 

[TexasTodd]

I'm always a bit confused by the RS tank sizes. How many gallons is this display?

 

[MnFish1]

Understood . It should be calibrated. I used the calibration fluid. Ill check it again. I noticed my parameters dropped a bit from initial fill but I attributed it to absorption and still thought it was ok since it was in proper range. Im not big on frequent water changes, but maybe I need to change my mind and approach. I started doing weekly 5 gallon changes once it start to go south, but it didnt help at all so I went back to b-weekly or monthly even.

Realize also - not every coral grows next to every other coral. Sometimes - it is just competition - i.e. toxins that we cant measure - note some of the 'great tanks' here - have all of the same coral types. (Many also have varied corals) - but - its a lot easier to keep an Acoropora tank as compared to a mixed tank.

 

[ScottB]

I'm always a bit confused by the RS tank sizes. How many gallons is this display?

Red Sea is an Israeli company, so everything is in liters. 170 / 3.76 = so a 45G tank.