This hobby is just impossible!

[FrostyKevin]

I just can't figure out what's wrong with my tank. I tried keeping coral 10 years ago and they all died without me ever figuring out the problem. I figured I'd try again this year, but my coral are dying and I can't figure it out again.

I got a 10 gallon tank and cycled it for 2 months in the dark. No diatoms or cyano ever broke out. It went perfectly. Ammonia converted to nitrate within hours.

Set Up:

AI Prime HD: 25% for UV, Royal Blue, Violet, and Blue for 7 hours with 1 hour for ramp up and another hour for ramp down; 10% whites for 2 hours with 30 min ramp up and down time.
Algae turf scrubber: For nutrient export. Since I'm not keeping any fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, etc., I'm dosing Red Sea AB+ and Brightwell Nitrate and phosphate to keep nutrients up.


Parameters:

Temp: 78F (using Inkbird temp controller)
Nitrates: 30-40 ppm (using Hanna Checker)
Phosphate: 0.10-0.20 ppm (using Hanna Checker)
dKH: ~8
SG: 1.023 (increasing this slowly to 1.024)

Livestock:

GSP: Almost dead within a few months
Zoas: Some open, other frags closed, and 2 frags completely died
Ricordea Florida: 1 bleached and didn't survive, another bleached but hanging in there. All other ricordea lost some bubbles and became smooth and dark blue (see photos)
Rhodactis Mushroom: 1 bleached, one doing very well, and one lost it's texture and became smooth (see before and after photo below).
Candy Crush mushroom: died within a month
St. Thomas Mushroom: Doing very well.

Before:

After:

 

[Koh23]

Welcome to the club....again

There is no,.except in some cases, definitive answer to problems.

Factor x, everything is either this or that, or something else, without definitive "problem-solution" answer.

Sometimes, what appears to be perfect condition can produce poor results. Why? Nobody knows.... And when every other explanation fails, then cause is "something".... That we cannot measure, have no impact on it, even dont know that it exist....

All one can do is keep head up, and continue, it will be ok someday

The battle goes on.....

 

[Alexopora]

Just curious since u did not specify. What are you using for flow? Perhaps sharing an overall picture of your tank setup might help.

 

[Create New]

I'm worried about you dosing Red Sea AB+ and Brightwell Nitrate and phosphate - I don't think anyone starting out needs to dose right away, maybe this is the cause of your problems.

 

[Reef Psychology]

This is why I don’t put my first coral in until I can keep 1 fish alive in the tank for a couple of months. Then I start with 1 coral, see how it goes, then start getting more.

Your nitrates and phosphates are high, especially for such a new tank. At this point you should be trying to get them higher, not fighting to lower them. This tells me there’s something wrong.

 

[homer1475]

Your nitrates and phosphates are high, especially for such a new tank. At this point you should be trying to get them higher, not fighting to lower them. This tells me there’s something wrong.

Huh?

They are high, and he should be trying to raise them not fighting to lower them? That makes no sense.

I'm going out on a limb here, but your salinity is a tad bit low(Natural reefs are around 1.026), and nitrate and phosphates are a tad on the high side, but should not be causing issues with the livestock you have.

 

[Miami Reef]

What water do you use to make salt/top off? RO/DI? Tap?

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Nitrates and phosphate too high for a new small tank. Lighting is too low. On my 10g my Prime is almost a foot above the surface, running Saxby at 100% max peak for 10-12 hours a day, ramp up ramp down inc.
Phosphate should be less than .05
Why are you running a turf scrubber when you are adding nutrients ?

 

[Reef Psychology]

Huh?

They are high, and he should be trying to raise them not fighting to lower them? That makes no sense.

I'm going out on a limb here, but your salinity is a tad bit low(Natural reefs are around 1.026), and nitrate and phosphates are a tad on the high side, but should not be causing issues with the livestock you have.

Let me say it another way. His nitrates and phosphates are high. At the 2 month mark its my experience that they drop after the tank cycles [and can remain low for months]. This can lead to algae/bacterial issues. Thus, some people try to feed more or dose to raise them to avoid these issues. At this stage he shouldn’t be having high nutrients - they should be low.

I don’t see how they can be this high at only 2-3 months.

 

[Miami Reef]

I don’t see how they can be this high at only 2-3 months.

He mentioned that he’s dosing nitrates and phosphates.

 

[PeterEde]

I just can't figure out what's wrong with my tank. I tried keeping coral 10 years ago and they all died without me ever figuring out the problem. I figured I'd try again this year, but my coral are dying and I can't figure it out again.

I got a 10 gallon tank and cycled it for 2 months in the dark. No diatoms or cyano ever broke out. It went perfectly. Ammonia converted to nitrate within hours.

Set Up:

AI Prime HD: 25% for UV, Royal Blue, Violet, and Blue for 7 hours with 1 hour for ramp up and another hour for ramp down; 10% whites for 2 hours with 30 min ramp up and down time.
Algae turf scrubber: For nutrient export. Since I'm not keeping any fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, etc., I'm dosing Red Sea AB+ and Brightwell Nitrate and phosphate to keep nutrients up.


Parameters:

Temp: 78F (using Inkbird temp controller)
Nitrates: 30-40 ppm (using Hanna Checker)
Phosphate: 0.10-0.20 ppm (using Hanna Checker)
dKH: ~8
SG: 1.023 (increasing this slowly to 1.024)

Livestock:

GSP: Almost dead within a few months
Zoas: Some open, other frags closed, and 2 frags completely died
Ricordea Florida: 1 bleached and didn't survive, another bleached but hanging in there. All other ricordea lost some bubbles and became smooth and dark blue (see photos)
Rhodactis Mushroom: 1 bleached, one doing very well, and one lost it's texture and became smooth (see before and after photo below).
Candy Crush mushroom: died within a month
St. Thomas Mushroom: Doing very well.

Before:

After:

I watched BRS latest video today. Actually said on small nano systems water change is all that's necessary. NO dosing anything until corals are happy and an icp says WC are not keeping.
No AB no 2 part.
BRS are worth watching.

 

[Alexopora]

Let me say it another way. His nitrates and phosphates are high. At the 2 month mark its my experience that they drop after the tank cycles [and can remain low for months]. This can lead to algae/bacterial issues. Thus, some people try to feed more or dose to raise them to avoid these issues. At this stage he shouldn’t be having high nutrients - they should be low.

I don’t see how they can be this high at only 2-3 months.

He did say that he cycled his tank for two months in the dark. That might be the reason why the nitrates and phosphates are high, since there isnt much photosynthetic life in the tank (algae etc) to take up those nutrients besides the algae scrubber.

 

[Reef Psychology]

He mentioned that he’s dosing nitrates and phosphates.

Ah, missed that last sentence. Think this is one of the key reasons for his issues.

 

[slythy]

Rent a par meter. No use guessing. Also id stop all the dosing and just do 10-20% weekly water changes on such a small tank

 

[Miami Reef]

Rent a par meter. No use guessing. Also id stop all the dosing and just do 10-20% weekly water changes on such a small tank

I think this is the best advice here.

 

[LisaMarie]

The smaller the tank, the more challenging it is to keep stable parameters. Nano reefs are very unforgiving.

 

[sslinky]

How are you measuring salinity?
If you're using a refractometer to measure salinity you should make sure its calibrated using distilled or rodi water. Mine wasn't calibrated at all out of the box.

 

[Jase4224]

Honestly that’s a tiny tank.. it would be so easy to do a 5gal bucket water change weekly. Start with a 100% water change to begin with then to 50% weekly after that. All your Params will be forced to fall in line this way unless your doing something crazy.

Remove the scrubber it’s totally unnecessary. You need:
1. Correct light levels (get a good LFS to help you)
2. Some flow in all parts of the tank but nothing crazy
3. Correct temp
4. Salinity 1.026
5. Water parameters will fall in line no matter what with 50% weekly water changes

You can add aminos at 1/2 dose if you want. If you want to add No3 and Po4 put it into your system via the fresh mixed salt water only and in tiny doses like No3 @ 1-2ppm and Po4 @ 0.03ppm.

Please get your LFS to make sure your salinity measuring device is in fact accurate.

Please understand that your scrubber is removing what you want for your corals. Then you are dosing it back. Doesn’t make sense. No skimmer or other equipment is needed.

Large water changes is all you need for a system like this. Vac the sand and toothbrush the rocks every so often when you do your water change if things get a bit dirty.

 

[Jase4224]

How are you measuring salinity?
If you're using a refractometer to measure salinity you should make sure its calibrated using distilled or rodi water. Mine wasn't calibrated at all out of the box.

Some are calibrated with salt water so check to be sure..

 

[Steven Garland]

Honestly that’s a tiny tank.. it would be so easy to do a 5gal bucket water change weekly. Start with a 100% water change to begin with then to 50% weekly after that. All your Params will be forced to fall in line this way unless your doing something crazy.

Remove the scrubber it’s totally unnecessary. You need:
1. Correct light levels (get a good LFS to help you)
2. Some flow in all parts of the tank but nothing crazy
3. Correct temp
4. Salinity 1.026
5. Water parameters will fall in line no matter what with 50% weekly water changes

You can add aminos at 1/2 dose if you want. If you want to add No3 and Po4 put it into your system via the fresh mixed salt water only and in tiny doses like No3 @ 1-2ppm and Po4 @ 0.03ppm.

Please get your LFS to make sure your salinity measuring device is in fact accurate.

Please understand that your scrubber is removing what you want for your corals. Then you are dosing it back. Doesn’t make sense. No skimmer or other equipment is needed.

Large water changes is all you need for a system like this. Vac the sand and toothbrush the rocks every so often when you do your water change if things get a bit dirty.

+1 this. There soo many helpful threads to get you started. I would step back and dot you i's and cross your t's.

I know you have tried for years,but something obviously isn't right in the tank,I would test for stray voltage. Turn your lights up,get nutrients and salinity in check and stable for at least a month before adding more coral.