Struggling With Coral

mattH · Sep 17, 2020

Hello,

I have been running a 150gal tank set up for a little over 2 years and have been struggling with corals. I am curious if anyone has any ideas on what I should be checking to get corals to thrive in my tank. The fish all seem to do fine and have all grown quit a bit. I am dealing with an algea out break right now but am working on getting back under control. I have two maxspect gyres in the tank along with a maxspect razor R420r light. I have a reefo octopus skimmer (might be a little over sized) and a penguin chiller to keep the water right at 75F.

Levels:
Sal - 1.025
Alk - 8.7
Cal - 450
PO4 - 0.03
NO3 - 0

Thanks,

Matt

xxkenny90xx · Sep 17, 2020

What corals are you struggling with? I'm not familiar with that light, are you confident it is enough for corals? Other than that I would feed heavily to get those nutrients up, your corals may be starving

mattH · Sep 17, 2020

It is a 200W LED fixture. Are you saying NO3/PO4 should run higher?

mattH · Sep 17, 2020

Also, I am struggling with all types of coral zoa's, softies, lps, and sps.

xxkenny90xx · Sep 17, 2020

Yes I would take action to get your nitrates up and maybe raise Po4 a little bit too. What kind of algae are you dealing with and how are you combating it?

I see a 150w and 300w version of that light, no 200w?? How high do you have the channels turned up?

PicassoClown04 · Sep 17, 2020

The chiller for 75 F is freaking me out a little, that seems cold. The general consensus seems to be about 78

xxkenny90xx · Sep 17, 2020

footgal said:
The chiller for 75 F is freaking me out a little, that seems cold. The general consensus seems to be about 78

75 degrees won't hurt anything. Some people keep their tanks around that temp so they can keep some slightly colder water fish (like the blue spotted jawfish) along with regular reef fish

Paulie069 · Sep 17, 2020

mattH said:
Also, I am struggling with all types of coral zoa's, softies, lps, and sps.

Got a UV light?? Could be something in water column you can’t detect,, idk just a thought,, I had such an ugly outbreak of some kind of algae that it looked like someone was ticking in it for a week. I couldn’t even see my rock scape and couldn’t see or find any of my seahorses (had 26 of them) I didn’t know if they were alive or not. Tried every piece of advice I could get nothing worked,, now going on a week I was just gonna give up and walk away,, then my buddy said just give one more thing a try before you decide to quit. He told me to get a UV light rated for just a bit more than my tank (55gal). Well brother let me tell you, within a 5-6 hour period I swear there was a 30% improvement when I went to bed I’d say it was half way cleared up. The next morning it was crystal clear and All my ponies were fine and swimming around. Moral of story. Try a UV light. Good luck brother

mattH · Sep 17, 2020

Looks to be GHA.
Yes it is the 200W. Settings are:
A (white) - 75
B (blue) - 60
C (dark blue) - 65
D (red) - 10
I will up the temp to 78 and work one getting NO3/PO4 up a touch.

Paulie069 · Sep 17, 2020

footgal said:
The chiller for 75 F is freaking me out a little, that seems cold. The general consensus seems to be about 78

Heck you’d have a heart attack if you saw my tank temp 72-73 in summer 72-70 in winter

xxkenny90xx · Sep 17, 2020

mattH said:
Looks to be GHA.
Yes it is the 200W. Settings are:
A (white) - 75
B (blue) - 60
C (dark blue) - 65
D (red) - 10
I will up the temp to 78 and work one getting NO3/PO4 up a touch.

If you have gha then you have nutrient in your tank, the algae is just eating it up so your test isn't picking it up. I would try lowering your lights alot. Like I said I'm not familiar with that light so do your own research but I'm guessing it'll need lowered to half that intensity or even less (especially the whites)

vetteguy53081 · Sep 17, 2020

Reduce white light intensity to 19% and blue up to 75% and add clean up crew:
3 Turbo snail
3 Nassarius snail
4 astrea snail
4 Nerite snail
10 blue leg hermits

You can also kill the white lights and add either liquid vibrant or fluconasal (flux) but try the clean up route first
What kits are you using to test phosphate and are you using RO water or tap water from the faucet ?

Pistondog · Sep 17, 2020

Do you have coralline growing?
Can you list your livestock?

mattH · Sep 17, 2020

Two clownfish
Goldflake angelfish
Yellow tang
Tomini tang
Three blue green chromis
Four lyretail antheas
Diamond gobie

Yes, coralline grows very well on the back panel of glass. Nearly covers the whole thing.

RODI water only.

I also have some activated carbon in to get rid of an unseen contamination.

I will try some of these things in phases and update on results.

Pistondog · Sep 17, 2020

mattH said:
Two clownfish
Goldflake angelfish
Yellow tang
Tomini tang
Three blue green chromis
Four lyretail antheas
Diamond gobie

Yes, coralline grows very well on the back panel of glass. Nearly covers the whole thing.

RODI water only.

I also have some activated carbon in to get rid of an unseen contamination.

I will try some of these things in phases and update on results.

Watch the angel

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