Ready to give up :(

[lucyretz]

Let me preface this by saying i’m not trying to be a downer. i’m just so incredibly frustrated.

We have a redsea 250 packed with euphyllia (mainly, some other Lps as well). I’m going to try to give everyone as much information on this tank as literal possible because i cannot find the definite reason why everything is so unhappy. we are getting an ICP as well, but for now:

filtration:
-has a refugium running reverse schedule with cheato. sand, live rock and marine pure “gems” are in there
-bubble magus curve 3 pulling a thick skim
-aquaforest carbon in a media cup
-a single bag of purigen

equipment:
-apex pro and trident
-2x ai primes running the saxby schedule (i will post a screenshot of the settings at peak)
-nero 5 in the bottom right, 5” above sand bed running 75% 1:1 pulse. runs behind the scape and bounces off the left pane giving indirect gentle flow to the euphyllia.

we are struggling with flow. bought a maxspect gyre. too much even on the lowest setting indirect. I have it vertical right now on 10% 4:4 alternating gyre hitting behind the scape like the nero and giving me a bit more surface agitation. we also have the VCA loc line upgrade kit that is giving me 90% of my surface agitation. bought a aqamai kps to replace the gyre and hopefully get a nice wave. hopefully.

everything is so ticked off. please help me determine why.

aside from parameters pictured, nitrate is 13 and phosphate is 0, but i have since dosed neophos and plan to do so until i’m at 0.04

 

[paulgriffin971]

You're probably in the same boat as me. Can't figure out what's going on but I've gotten a lot of feedback on the thread I started at the beginning of August:

Nothing "Hard" Survives in my Tank!!!

I'm going to be as detailed as possible so you see what I'm dealing with. This issue has been going on for almots 3 years, cost me at least $350 in frags, and it's getting OLD!! EVERYTHING that I've tried to grow that is not soft coral related slowly turns splotchy white over about 7-10 days...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[CoralClasher]

Don’t give up!! How old is the tank?

 

[Syntax1235]

Are you running carbon?

Have you tried turning off the gyre to see if they open up more?

how long have you been dosing phosphate?

i don’t know much about led’s.

 

[Jedi1199]

Let me preface this by saying i’m not trying to be a downer. i’m just so incredibly frustrated.

We have a redsea 250 packed with euphyllia (mainly, some other Lps as well). I’m going to try to give everyone as much information on this tank as literal possible because i cannot find the definite reason why everything is so unhappy. we are getting an ICP as well, but for now:

filtration:
-has a refugium running reverse schedule with cheato. sand, live rock and marine pure “gems” are in there
-bubble magus curve 3 pulling a thick skim
-aquaforest carbon in a media cup
-a single bag of purigen

equipment:
-apex pro and trident
-2x ai primes running the saxby schedule (i will post a screenshot of the settings at peak)
-nero 5 in the bottom right, 5” above sand bed running 75% 1:1 pulse. runs behind the scape and bounces off the left pane giving indirect gentle flow to the euphyllia.

we are struggling with flow. bought a maxspect gyre. too much even on the lowest setting indirect. I have it vertical right now on 10% 4:4 alternating gyre hitting behind the scape like the nero and giving me a bit more surface agitation. we also have the VCA loc line upgrade kit that is giving me 90% of my surface agitation. bought a aqamai kps to replace the gyre and hopefully get a nice wave. hopefully.

everything is so ticked off. please help me determine why.

aside from parameters pictured, nitrate is 13 and phosphate is 0, but i have since dosed neophos and plan to do so until i’m at 0.04

The tank looks fantastic!! I don't see the problem?

 

[Sump Crab]

Tank looks nice to me. Hammers are weird sometimes and just close up.

 

[lucyretz]

The tank looks fantastic!! I don't see the problem?

all the colonies are basically closed up. this is what it looks like open ; you can see the difference

 

[CoralClasher]

Pictures with just white lights might help us see.

 

[lucyretz]

Are you running carbon?

Have you tried turning off the gyre to see if they open up more?

how long have you been dosing phosphate?

i don’t know much about led’s.

Yes i’m running aquaforest carbon just replaced about 3 weeks ago so i’m coming due. I will turn the gyre off, but it’s not really doing much the way i have it anyways

 

[Sump Crab]

all the colonies are basically closed up. this is what it looks like open ; you can see the difference

How long they been unhappy? Try running carbon.

 

[Fredrxn]

Let me preface this by saying i’m not trying to be a downer. i’m just so incredibly frustrated.

We have a redsea 250 packed with euphyllia (mainly, some other Lps as well). I’m going to try to give everyone as much information on this tank as literal possible because i cannot find the definite reason why everything is so unhappy. we are getting an ICP as well, but for now:

filtration:
-has a refugium running reverse schedule with cheato. sand, live rock and marine pure “gems” are in there
-bubble magus curve 3 pulling a thick skim
-aquaforest carbon in a media cup
-a single bag of purigen

equipment:
-apex pro and trident
-2x ai primes running the saxby schedule (i will post a screenshot of the settings at peak)
-nero 5 in the bottom right, 5” above sand bed running 75% 1:1 pulse. runs behind the scape and bounces off the left pane giving indirect gentle flow to the euphyllia.

we are struggling with flow. bought a maxspect gyre. too much even on the lowest setting indirect. I have it vertical right now on 10% 4:4 alternating gyre hitting behind the scape like the nero and giving me a bit more surface agitation. we also have the VCA loc line upgrade kit that is giving me 90% of my surface agitation. bought a aqamai kps to replace the gyre and hopefully get a nice wave. hopefully.

everything is so ticked off. please help me determine why.

aside from parameters pictured, nitrate is 13 and phosphate is 0, but i have since dosed neophos and plan to do so until i’m at 0.04

Have u tested par...my corals hate wen they get to much light..or to much flow

 

[lucyretz]

Don’t give up!! How old is the tank?

5 months ish. we cycled it with a mix of live and dry and moved what was left from our pico over. adding live bacteria in daily. we lost 99% of the pico from either a faulty heater, or a domino affect from something dying while i was at work and just not having the bacteria to deal with it and killing everything else. what exactly started it i’ll never know. difference is we lost maybe 2 grand in coral with the pico, if i lose this tank i’m losing 15k+.

 

[Jedi1199]

all the colonies are basically closed up. this is what it looks like open ; you can see the difference

Ok lets get to basics then...

I agree that your photo in this post looks happier. What have you changed since this was taken? You mentioned adding a Gyre, and some other flow changes. WHY did you change what was obviously working? Have you tried going back to exactly what you were doing before?

 

[lucyretz]

Have u tested par...my corals hate wen they get to much light..or to much flow

I have not, it’s entirely possible they are getting too much light. I tried turning them down and it made the corals worse. maybe because of the change. likely going to order a par meter tonight instead of just blindly playing with them.

 

[killer2001]

I know most will say disregard ORP but 193 seems low for a 5 month old tank. I noticed when my ORP dipped to 180 due to lack of aeration my fish were at the top gasping for air. Something else might be going on here.

 

[Reef_Colors]

Have you done any painting in the house, cleaning agents or spray or use air freshner in the same room? I painted a room with the tank and it ticked everything off n even slowly killed some. I fixed with a couple back to back wc n changing carbon every couple days

 

[Jedi1199]

Funny thing that comes to mind is how much light comes into play with nearly everything we face as issues in our systems.

Par is overrated. Spectrum is what counts. You could have the brightest light and highest par in the world, but if you are not providing the correct spectrum, you are going to kill coral.

I advise you to watch the video of Ryan (BRStv) presentation from RAP CA, on YouTube. He goes into quite a bit of nerdy detail on just exactly what light means to our systems.

 

[lucyretz]

Ok lets get to basics then...

I agree that your photo in this post looks happier. What have you changed since this was taken? You mentioned adding a Gyre, and some other flow changes. WHY did you change what was obviously working? Have you tried going back to exactly what you were doing before?

you ever start answering a question and start realizing where you went wrong? lol. in that photo the gyre is at the very top, it was on 10% constant WITH the small fish guards on. I changed it (stupidly) because i felt like i wasn’t getting enough flow throughout the tank (too still of polyps). the gyre wouldn’t turn back on when i adjusted the settings, so i pulled it out and REMOVED the small fish guards. any other setting was too strong so i tried to get the gyre back to where i had it, 10% constant. but when i did that, it was too strong and i couldn’t figure out why. THE FISH GUARDS!

 

[Jedi1199]

you ever start answering a question and start realizing where you went wrong? lol. in that photo the gyre is at the very top, it was on 10% constant WITH the small fish guards on. I changed it (stupidly) because i felt like i wasn’t getting enough flow throughout the tank (too still of polyps). the gyre wouldn’t turn back on when i adjusted the settings, so i pulled it out and REMOVED the small fish guards. any other setting was too strong so i tried to get the gyre back to where i had it, 10% constant. but when i did that, it was too strong and i couldn’t figure out why. THE FISH GUARDS!

I love when this kind of epiphany moment happens!! Makes it worth all of the time we spend and people who ask questions rejecting our advice.

This is what we are here for after all. To provide that outside source of information to make us think, and realize that sometimes it is the simplest answer that we completely overlook that is the fix for our problems.!!

I hope that going back to your earlier setup fixes your issue. I still advise watching the video cause it is full of great new stuff!!

 

[tweeter]

This is strictly just my opinion. 5 months is a new tank, it takes a good year - 2 years for them settle in. Also, LPS prefer more nutrients than sps. Don't starve them by trying to get your numbers to near zero. Have you tried feeding them with something like reef chili, reef roids, or Red Sea energy plus?