What am I doing wrong?

[Drewpy]

I’ve had a 10 gal waterbox tank running since November. First stocked inverts around the end of December, fish in January, corals around the same time. I can’t seem to get anything right. My fish died off after about a month, some of the inverts followed suit soon after. Most of my corals are bleaching out. I do regular water changes. My water parameters are always in the correct range, but it doesn’t seem to translate into success. Now my tank is full of every algae known to man. Any advice is greatly appreciated. This is my first time diving into salt water. I want to correct these issues and start building up a healthy stocking.

 

[Webslinger]

Slow and steady wins the race. Your tank takes about a year to mature and go through all the algae stages. Feed properly and water changes (rodi) will help keep it under control. Don’t overstock.

 

[Jeto2004]

Tell us more about your approach and journey thus far. How did you cycle your tank? Have tested all relevant parameters on a consistent basis if yes what are they? Do you do regular what changes? Do you top of your water daily or not?
Knowing these things will help all us to PinPoint were thing could have gone wrong.

 

[Neoalchemist]

Small tanks can be difficult even for the experienced.
Stocking any tank too quickly is almost a quarantee of serious problems for any newer hobbiest.

 

[Drewpy]

Tell us more about your approach and journey thus far. How did you cycle your tank? Have tested all relevant parameters on a consistent basis if yes what are they? Do you do regular what changes? Do you top of your water daily or not?
Knowing these things will help all us to PinPoint were thing could have gone wrong.

Cycled with a raw shrimp. Took about a month to get my nitrites to 0. My ammonia is always 0 ppm, nitrates are 0 ppm, my nitrates never go over 10 ppm. I do a weekly water change with 3 gallons of temperature acclimated distilled water. Salinity is always at 1.026. Temp runs a little high - somewhere around 81 degrees. I top off daily.

 

[Jeto2004]

Have you ever tested your alkalinity, phosphate or your pH? While ok to use distilled water in general it is not always clear how it is produced and depending of method it could contain very low levels of copper that could have bad effects on your inverts.
May I ask how to check your salinity?
One suggestion would be to take a water sample to your local fish store and let them test your water to cross check your results. Recently one of my test kit did not picked up nitrate but I knew it was there because I have algae and Cheto growing well. I had a suspicion that it went bad and used a new one. The new one picked up nitrate......

Worthwhile to ask if they sale RO/DI water too.

 

[Webslinger]

I would start using rodi water. I would never have a saltwater tank without it. Lower salinity to .025 and temp closer to 76

 

[Victor_C3]

Algae-takeover is a pretty normal phase for a young tank to go through. You kind of just have to let it work itself out.

Are you running any sort of a sump? If so, what equipment do you have in it? What are you doing for nutrient export?

 

[Mical]

What are your EXACT parameters? Too often we hear "My water parameters are always in the correct range" especially on newer tanks. I'm not ripping on you, just trying to help. The more info you can give us, the more eyes on this forum can help solve and save you $$$ and heartbreak. We've all been through bad advice from LFS or just plain bad advice. There's no one way to the perfect reef but there's a million ways to screw one up.