What am I doing wrong?

[Surfzone]

So any stony corals I try slowly die that's both sps and lps corals even my soft corals seem to be withering away. I tested my water myself on Aug 31 and got
7.7 alk
424 calcium
1360 mag
0.01 PO4
4 NO3
I also did an ICP test on the same day.

My lighting is an Ecotech xr15 pro gen 4. It ramps up for an hour 75% for 6 hours then ramps back down to 0 over an hour. Running the AB+ settings.

Flow is provided by two vortech mp 10s set to counter sync for 30 seconds at 100%. The pumps are on opposite sides of the tank which is a 27 gallon cube and after the sump I have roughly 30 gallons.

My filtration is one filter sock changed weekly and skimmed by a reef octopus regal 150-s. Return pump is a Vectra s1

Average pH is 8.0 temp ranges from 78 to 80 alk and calcium is provided by a Geo's calcium reactor.

I also have a hair algae issue so I know my NO3 and PO4 are enough. I also have a clam that is growing just fine. The tank was first setup in December.

Here are the results of the ICP test, sample taken in the 31st of August.

The only thing I dose is KZ's sponge power.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mical]

From what you posted, I would up the Alk (slowly) my SPS are happy around the 8.0 mark. IMO your lighting schedule is too short - both of my tanks ramp up an hour, run almost 9 hours before ramping down an hour plus. You might also try running your MP10s on opposing reefcrest settings about 75% - at least a starting point.

 

[LiveWire]

I agree with @Mical. I would add more flow for sure as SPS need A LOT of flow to thrive. I would get your Alk up to 8.5/9 and you will see a difference I believe.

 

[Difrano]

0.01PO4 snd 4 NO3 no bueno...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Med flow and light, raise alk and iodine a little, salinity range 1.024-1.026 and take a look at your salt mix which could be offering low alk, etc

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

So you are only running your lights for 7 hours? You should be running them for 10-12. I run my radions for 12 hours and they ramp up for 1 hour. The rest of the time is full intensity

 

[Surfzone]

At 75% I'm getting PAR readings of 300 at the top of the rock work and 150 at the bottom of the tank.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

At 75% I'm getting PAR readings of 300 at the top of the rock work and 150 at the bottom of the tank.

Those are pretty good numbers for a mixed reef you just have to have a longer photo period

 

[snowhite]

Unfortunately, a longer photo period is also going to grow more algae, so you're going to need to get that in line also.

Didn't notice how long the tanks been up and runnings... more Clean Up Crew, Scrub Scrub the algae, Vaccuum/Clean your gravel good, Vibrant, Water Changes, repeat repeat repeat and you can beat the algae.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Are you using RODI water?

 

[Surfzone]

Are you using RODI water?

Yes with 0 tds

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Yes with 0 tds

What unit, and what TDS meter? When’s the last time you changed media?

 

[Surfzone]

What unit, and what TDS meter? When’s the last time you changed media?

I'm not sure what brand the unit is but it's a four stage rodi unit 5 micron sediment, 1 micron carbon, membrain, and mixed bed di. The yes meter is an HM mesuring going into the membrain and measuring after the DI. All filters and the TDS meter where changed last month. My old meter got wet and ended up not being able to display the TDS. Also I do weekly water changes with Redsea Blue bucket.

 

[Pistondog]

So any stony corals I try slowly die that's both sps and lps corals even my soft corals seem to be withering away. I tested my water myself on Aug 31 and got
7.7 alk
424 calcium
1360 mag
0.01 PO4
4 NO3
I also did an ICP test on the same day.

My lighting is an Ecotech xr15 pro gen 4. It ramps up for an hour 75% for 6 hours then ramps back down to 0 over an hour. Running the AB+ settings.

Flow is provided by two vortech mp 10s set to counter sync for 30 seconds at 100%. The pumps are on opposite sides of the tank which is a 27 gallon cube and after the sump I have roughly 30 gallons.

My filtration is one filter sock changed weekly and skimmed by a reef octopus regal 150-s. Return pump is a Vectra s1

Average pH is 8.0 temp ranges from 78 to 80 alk and calcium is provided by a Geo's calcium reactor.

I also have a hair algae issue so I know my NO3 and PO4 are enough. I also have a clam that is growing just fine. The tank was first setup in December.

Here are the results of the ICP test, sample taken in the 31st of August.

The only thing I dose is KZ's sponge power.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Might try losing the filter sock. You are taking coral food out of the water.

 

[Surfzone]

I increased the photo period to 10 hours and the intensity to 80 percent. I made these drastic changes because I only have zoanthids right now. Im going to the LFS for more cleanup crew today and a few tester sps.

 

[Surfzone]

I got 20 more snails and started to scrub the rock with a tooth brush. The LFS didn't have any sps frags that I was willing to risk in the tank (too expensive). The zoas have opened up more now that I have more light going to them.

 

[Mical]

I got 20 more snails and started to scrub the rock with a tooth brush. The LFS didn't have any sps frags that I was willing to risk in the tank (too expensive). The zoas have opened up more now that I have more light going to them.

Now give them time - like a couple of weeks and keep your params stable...

 

[wilsonline]

I'm new in the hobby with pretty much the same time you have. I got my first fish (par of ocellaris) in Dec 15 +-.
My goal is to have an SPS dominated tank. By now I lost a few frags, lost a ton of fish (;Sorry), but also have some frags going and 3 species of fish that lay eggs.

So many details, definitely not simple to ide an issue in a sw tank.
Starting from the basics ( I don't know the more advanced lol). How is your salinity? How do you measure it? How stable it is (like what was the last time you took measures)?
I had an issue with salinity in the second month. My refractometer was weird and I was relying on the salinity probe (apex), reading was at 34 ppt. Big mistake. As I knew that wasn't ideal haha,I went and bought the hanna conductivity meter. My salinity was actually 29.5or 30 ppt. It took about 10 days to raise that to 34. Today I keep it at 35 ppt.
Not saying your issue is that, but as you didn't mention anything about it, I think that's worth checking.
Then, my sand was always brown. At one point things were very weird. Anthias stopped eating, frags doing really bad. I did a quick research and it was dinos, probably ostreopsis. I did a 4 days blackout with UV and dosed Dr Tims waste away and vibrant. Lost my anthias, yes, all the purple queen anthias died. And almost lost the acros.The blackout or the dinos or the vibrant, something were very rough on the acro frags. I didn't actually lose any, but they came out bad!
So check if you don't have any issues with dinos. Many people like me have/had it and didn't know about it until too late.

All that said, my main and maybe my only cause of coral death here was to forget them in the sand. Like something would knock a frag out of the rock and I was too lazy to put it back. 2~3 days later the frag was covered by sand and would die. So make sure you glue them right and don't forget them in the sand. cyanoacrylate on the plug + bit of epoxy + bit of cyanoacrylate on the epoxy. Great way to glue corals.
Yeah, those were my big problems here, at least the ones I caught.

Supplementation: why a calcium reactor on if you don't have hard corals growing? I may be wrong but a calcium reactor on a small tang with little to no alk/ca uptake may be more an issue than a solution. That's lowering your pH which ideally would be around 8.2 to 8.4. Do you know the values that it reads during the day/night?? The same for temperature, do you know the values it varies during the day? What do you use to control temp?
Here I keep it between 78 and 78.5 but at night it drops to 77.5 F. And I would never know that without the apex. I don't thing that's the issue, but worth checking and maybe improving.

 

[Surfzone]

Did some testing today NO3 at 8 and PO4 at 0.01. Still have a hair algae problem. Should I reduce these values further?

 

[ryshark]

Did some testing today NO3 at 8 and PO4 at 0.01. Still have a hair algae problem. Should I reduce these values further?

If you get rid of the algae your PO4 will probably start to go up since it is consuming the phosphate. What kind of snails did you get? Maybe try Vibrant? I've never used it, but look into it.