What’s wrong with my tank?

[Edo Cohen]

I’ve been in the hobby for a while and complexly perplexed with my tank.


My nitrates are below 5, phosphates 0, ph around 8, temp 77, MG and Calc good levels, tank has been running for 6 months.

I have 100 gallons total - 25 in a refugium with an algae scrubber.

8 fish total and a variety of corals - mushrooms, torches, plate coral, zoanthids...


I don’t run a protein skimmer as I like to keep micro life in the refugium and in the tank and the skimmers kill that.

My refugium has chaeto, mangrove, and tons of other plants. Its full of copepods and micro life.

All that being said, certain Corals that should not be too hard to keep just don’t survive. They slowly die. Most recently, an awesome duncun with 12 heads is slowly dying over a period of 2 months and a huge montipora is just slowly losing its color.

I have this feeling that between my algae scrubber and plants, that the tank just doesn’t have enough nutrients in it. It almost feels too sterile.

Any thoughts? Ideas?

 

[Crabs McJones]

I have this feeling that between my algae scrubber and plants, that the tank just doesn’t have enough nutrients in it. It almost feels too sterile.

Any thoughts? Ideas?

Not enough nutrients would be my guess as well. Sps need some nutrients, and lps tend to do well in dirtier water as well. I would cut back on your fuge light cycle to help raise nutrients

 

[Edo Cohen]

Thanks - I’m going to try to cut the light on the scrubber for a bit and see what happens...

 

[LetItReef]

What type of lighting do you have?

 

[Edo Cohen]

AI hydra 26. It’s a reefer 425 deluxe