Reef Not Doing Well

[Francisco Amanti]

Ok, I'm really frustrated with my reef. So much so that I'm starting to consider just leaving the hobby. My corals are all very pale, and it appears that no matter what I attempt to do, they fail to improve until they slowly die. I've lost several coral and the remaining inhabitants aren't doing great by any means. This tank is not my first reef, but unlike my first reef, since I "moved into" this larger aquarium nothing is doing well.

The aquarium is a 75gal main display tank with a 40 gal sump.
Current equipment list:

Controller: Apex
Skimmer: Vertex 130
GFO Reactor: Phosban 150
BioPellet: JNS Alpha 1
Return pump: Mag 9 split into two returns
Wave Maker: Dual Jebao WP25 modified for Apex control
Light: Dual Hamilton 250W Metal Halides 14K
ATO: AutoAqua Smart ATO
Chiller: 1/2 HP plumbed into sump with Apex control
Water: Spectrapure 4 stage with dual TDS monitors


Current water parameters: (I tested last night)

Salinity: 1.025 (Refractometer calibrated with solution)
Temperature: 78 (Apex)
Ph: 8.17 (Apex) <- I tested at night. During the day my Ph is 8.3
Calcium: 420 (Salifert)
Magnesium: 1335 (Salifert)
KH: 9 (API)
Nitrite: 0 (Salifert)
Nitrate: 1 (Salifert)
Phosphate: 0.15 (Hanna Photometer)
Strontium: 2 (Salifert)
Iodine = 0.3 (Red Sea)
Potassium = 426 (Red Sea)
Iron = 0 (Red Sea)

Salt and Additives: (I dose based on testing, not by a schedule)

Salt: Coral Pro
Calcium: Kalkwasser dosed by ATO
Magnesium: BRS Mg Sulfate and Mg Chloride
Sr: Kent Turbo Strontium


Fish:
2 Yellow and blue damsels
2 Oscellaris clowns
3 Anthias
1 Coral Beauty
3 Green Chromis

Inverts:

12 Blue leg hermits
10 (roughly I'm not sure I counted them all) turbo snails
1 cleaner shrimp
3 Acropora (2 green, 1 blue)
3 Birds nest
1 Euphyllia divisa
1 Stylophora
4 brain corals
3 montipora
1 galaxea
too many mushrooms and button polyps to count
1 sarcophyton


A brief history of this tank: I set this tank up from my original reef which was a 40 gallon tall aquarium. The 40 gallon had been running for 5 years and had very good growth. SO much so, that I eventually decided to go bigger. I moved the entire contents of the tank over, (which was a bit less than its current contents) and began the process of acclimating everything to the new tank. That was in April of last year. Pretty soon after the transition, I decided to switch from MH lights to LEDs. I installed the light, raised it, and started with a dim light setting, hoping to get everything acclimated to the light. That was a disaster. After 3 weeks when my corals starting looking ill I contacted the manufacturer. To make a long story short, I got nowhere with them. I searched the forums for light schedules, and tried over time, to get the light to work for the reef. I never could. 2 months ago I ditched the LED (I really did try to give it a good try) and went back to my MHs. The LED or perhaps my lack of knowledge about it, trashed my tank. In the past two months, I have done everything I could to restore the health of my inverts. I started out with a short light schedule and slowly increased it until my current 7 hours. The tank water has been stable the entire time. At first the corals seemed to recover. Some of them were I suppose too far gone. One of the birdsnests had lost 90% of its tissue, the stylophora is so pale it looks like tissue paper. But, the Acros were starting to darken up. Two of the monti's were starting to grow, and the third, which I thought was completely dead and nothing but skeleton started showing polyps and a small amount of growth. I was beginning to get some hope back. Everything was still very very pale, but I was seeing bit of improvement. Another of the birds nests, which looked like pure calcite skeleton suddenly put out a bright pink branch. So far, so good. And then I go take a look today and my heart sank. The acros have large sections of flesh missing. The montis have white spots like bare skeleton. My wife says the tank still looks "great" but to me, it's heartbreaking.

I'm posting because I'm at my wits end. To have gone from a thriving reef for several years, to one that is struggling just to stay alive is really hard. Any advice or help you guys can offer I will gladly take. One of my friends who also has reef says I'm "chasing a ghost." Am I overlooking something?

 

[brotherd]

I'm also struggling with led's. What was the brand name?

 

[Francisco Amanti]

Reef Radiance

 

[Robthorn]

I have reefledlights with good color and growth. My tank is only 4 months old so colors aren't perfect yet. The phosphate seems a bit high but I am most concerned with the dosing as tested statement. Not sure what that means but it seems you test once in a while then add an amount you think may correct whats tested. Consistency is key in reefs. If you dose 1 ml per day instead of 7 ml every saturday you will be better off. It really is the difference between alive and thrive.

 

[Francisco Amanti]

I perform bi-weekly water changes of 15%. I only add Mg and Sr. I calculate those and add exact amounts, then re-test after an hour to ensure that my math was correct. I test my water every Friday.

 

[ritter6788]

Whenever I have tank issues I can't solve I go back to basics. Take the phosphate removing media offline, no carbon, no unnecessary dosing or additives and start over with your calcium and alk dosing as well. Make sure your RO/DI water is 100% zero TDS.

I know coral pro has a high alk also so maybe your nutrients are too low and the higher alk salt is causing problems. Maybe that's not it either but just throwing out an option. I know some have had issues with that salt.

 

[ritter6788]

If you're dosing mag and strontium I would stop as well. Most tanks need little mag dosing and strontium is not a recommend parameter to dose for.

 

[Francisco Amanti]

What I meant by that statement is that I don't add chemicals to the reef just because a box of trace elements or whatever says: "Add every 4 days." I test weekly and will correct any drift. I hardly ever have to add anything other than just calcium which the Kalkwasser takes care of.

 

[Braves Fan]

I would test Alk. & Calcium every other day,,, you have to know what your tank is using, like Robthorn said, stability is the key. What are you doing when it comes to water changes and how much GFO are you running?

 

[Francisco Amanti]

I currently have a bit under 1 cup of GFO in the reactor. My water changes are bi-weekly 15%. In order for me to test the calcium uptake, are you suggesting that I stop the Kalkwasser ATO or test with it on?

 

[Braves Fan]

I would, go back to basic's test your tank, dose your tank & do a water change once a week. I would work on that phosphate number also, its kinda high. Either you are over feeding or maybe your rock is leaching phosphates into your tank. I have read by the pros in here, when your phosphates are high, they leash into your rock, when you start to lower the phosphates going into the tank, they will start to leach back out. Don't just go throw a bunch of GFO at it though, that can also kill your corals ask me how I know that lol You can never go wrong when you test your tank, the more stable you can make it, the better off it will be.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I would, go back to basic's test your tank, dose your tank & do a water change once a week. I would work on that phosphate number also, its kinda high. Either you are over feeding or maybe your rock is leaching phosphates into your tank. I have read by the pros in here, when your phosphates are high, they leash into your rock, when you start to lower the phosphates going into the tank, they will start to leach back out. Don't just go throw a bunch of GFO at it though, that can also kill your corals ask me how I know that lol You can never go wrong when you test your tank, the more stable you can make it, the better off it will be.

+1. I read your post several times and I kept getting caught on the phosphate number.

 

[jt17]

+1 on going back to the basics and keeping it simple. I had the same problem as you when I ran biopellets. I thought it was my LEDs and switched to t5 and still had the problems. All my parameters would check out accept the nitrate to phosphate ratio. Carbon dosing takes out more nitrate than phosphate leaving that imbalance, also the problem with biopellets is the performance is always changing as the pellets reduce or the reactor flow becomes blocked and then there's the change when you add more pellets. IMO it's hard to keep stable. It's also very easy to get too much nutrient removal and that could be your problem as it was with me. I took the BP offline a year ago and have been amazed at the turn around in my tank. I didn't want to go cold turkey from carbon dosing so I switched to vinegar. The nice thing with vinegar dosing is you have complete control over the amount added. I was trying to keep my water crystal clear and what was doing was removing too much nutrition from the water. What I realized is we try to match our water parameters to that of the ocean but we forget that there are millions of organisms in competition for all the nutrition on the reef and that's why we think this stuff is not in the ocean, it is but the inhabitants of the reef consume it as quickly as it's available. Don't worry about having numbers at zero. I have even stopped using my filter sock but once a month during tank cleaning and polyp extension got even better.

 

[Francisco Amanti]

Ok, I will increase the frequency of my water changes. I calibrated the TDS meter and it still shows my RO output at zero, so that's good. I will pull the BioPellets and the GFO. It's a strange feeling to just turn equipment off, but I will go back to the basics of water changes and hopefully the tank will respond. As for lights, while I'm doing this, would it be helpfull to cut the photoperiod or should I leave that variable alone? The tank does not have an algae problem, I just see the lightened corals and my instinct is that the light is a factor. (Not saying at all that my instinct is correct, just acknowledging that it is what i've been focusing on) Perhaps that's why I wasn't looking at the Biopellets.

 

[jackson6745]

Also agree with removing the bio pellets. Since you're SPS are becoming pale, I would lay off the GFO for now as well. I would also do a couple water changes and see how things respond. I'm not against chasing numbers since it gives us an idea where we want to be, but I don't like maintaing 0 nitrates. If you get your nitrate up a little, you will see an improvement in SPS color and safely be able to use GFO to maintain low po4. Feed your fish twice per day to keep some nutrient in the water.

 

[tigerdragon]

I run the reef radiance leds and i am getting great growth and color. I agree with pulling pellets and gfo maybe stripping the water too much. Look at an ats i am having great success with mine and have great stability.

 

[jackson6745]

He's currently running dual MH's if I'm not mistaken

 

[Francisco Amanti]

I am in fact running dual MHs. i took the led down because I couldn't get it to cooperate with my tank. It may not have been the light. It may have been the BioPellets but I was starting to eliminate variables and go back to what had worked for me in the past. I would be quite interested in your light schedule for the reef radiance, as a friend of mine runs them on his tank and he is also starting to have bleaching issues. We were both thinking it was a light issue, as he does not run BioPellets and his tank was behaving similar to mine under the light.

 

[tigerdragon]

I run the dm165e lights started with whites at 20-25% blues at 70%. Let corals get used to it and have been slowly bringing up pwr. Am now at 40% white and 100% blue. Blues come on at 8 go off at 8. Whites come on at 9 go off at 7. Mine are Dimmable not programmable.

 

[Braves Fan]

I wouldn't take the GFO off line just yet,,,, your Phosphates are at 0.15 and thats kinda high, no telling what they would be if you took the GFO off line, they just might go thru the roof. If I were to do anything, I would drop it down to 3/4 of a cup and keep testing your Phosphates till you get it down to a phosphate number you want. Then reduse your GFO till the amount of GFO you are running won't maintain that number and increase till it can maintain that number. Like I said though, I am no pro, right or wrong, its what I would do.