Tank crashing?

[skipb1956]

This may be a bit long I apologize, but want to give as much background as possible.
This morning my neon dottyback, red wrasse and banded coral shrimp were found dead in my tank, and my 2 clownfish seem a bit sluggish.
I have a 36 gall tank that has been running for 8 months. I have been wrestling with high nitrate and phosphate issues for months. I didn't worry to much as all my fish and corals seemed happy and healthy. I do have issues with algae and in an attempt to get rid of them I started dosing vodka about 2 months ago and didn't notice any change in my parameters.
About 2 weeks ago I started dosing with AZ-N03 Absolute zero nitrate and Micro bacter as well. As the algae was growing and killing some of my coral frags. I also added Chemi pure to my canister filter.
I had been testing with API which I know is not very reliable and got about 40 for Nitrate and .25 for phosphate. My LFS usually got my nitrate at between .4 and .12 and phosphate always at .05.
I recently got a hanna checker for phosphate and have been getting it at .02 to .07.
Is it the additives I've been putting in or is something else going on with my tank?
I am going to stop dosing the Az-N03. Should I also stop the vodka and micro bacter?
I had been doing 15% water change every week, but lately doing a gall a day trying to get levels down.

I have a protein skimmer, canister filter and about 50 lbs of live rock, my lights are Orbit Marine Pro Leds.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[Duke4Life]

When was the last fish added? And how do your corals look? Have any pics?

 

[skipb1956]

When was the last fish added? And how do your corals look? Have any pics?

All the fish had been in my tank since October. I did get a twin spot Goby 2 weeks ago, but haven't seen him since the first night I put him in? here are a few pics from my phone of some coral.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I've heard canister filters are the biggest nitrate magnets due to the collection of detrius.

I just yesterday, pulled my chemi pure elite. I noticed my chalice coral was showing its skeleton and pretty much dying. Luckly i have another tank to hopefully rehabilitate. I pulled the coral because of google searches telling me that some people experienced coral death from the stuff stripping too much nutrients. Not sure if its true but keeping things simple always worked for me.

I vodka dosed in the past and had a bad bacteria outbreak.

I also did a 35% water change with some added bacteria because my phosphates were .03. Also i suspected my silicates were high due to the tank being only 5 months old using dry rock.

Just throwing it out there. But if you can keep additives down and get rid of the canister filter, your tank should bounce back nicely.

 

[skipb1956]

I've heard canister filters are the biggest nitrate magnets due to the collection of detrius.

I just yesterday, pulled my chemi pure elite. I noticed my chalice coral was showing its skeleton and pretty much dying. Luckly i have another tank to hopefully rehabilitate. I pulled the coral because of google searches telling me that some people experienced coral death from the stuff stripping too much nutrients. Not sure if its true but keeping things simple always worked for me.

I vodka dosed in the past and had a bad bacteria outbreak.

I also did a 35% water change with some added bacteria because my phosphates were .03. Also i suspected my silicates were high due to the tank being only 5 months old using dry rock.

Just throwing it out there. But if you can keep additives down and get rid of the canister filter, your tank should bounce back nicely.

Thanks, I may pull the Chemi then and put the carbon back in if the corals look at all bad when I get home today.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks, I may pull the Chemi then and put the carbon back in if the corals look at all bad when I get home today.

Is yours Chemi Pure or Chemi Pure elite? Only the Elite will drop phosphate and be a concern from overdoing it.

That also would not be impacting fish.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Is yours Chemi Pure or Chemi Pure elite? Only the Elite will drop phosphate and be a concern from overdoing it.

That also would not be impacting fish.

I was just giving some insight to some issues I had. I wasn't directly saying chemi pure was the root cause of his fish dying. However, he did say algae was causing his corals to die? I've never experienced that.

 

[skipb1956]

Is yours Chemi Pure or Chemi Pure elite? Only the Elite will drop phosphate and be a concern from overdoing it.

That also would not be impacting fish.

I don't remember, my local LFS suggested it and I threw away the container. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the elite, it was like 14.99