What am I doing wrong

[Perthegallon]

Okay so I must be doing something wrong and I’m trying to figure out what it is. This is how I run my tank weekly
-20% water change to my 65 total gallons
-I started a year ago with dry rock
-I made sure to measure the par on my kessil lights to give good par to my corals
- I do two small feedings a day for my fish
-I run a fuge and skimmer in my sump and keep phosphate at a healthy 0.10 level
- I have two mp 10 that give good water movement
- I have a ato and filter socks
-plenty of copper pods/and brittle starfish growing in my tank
-my heater keeps a good temp at 79f
-I test my levels weekly but don’t see much change especially not enough to dos

but the only corals I can keep are torch’s and my Acon and poly everything else dies in a matter of month when adding to my tank even starter corals like ducans.

what could I possibly be doing wrong to continue keep killing corals

 

[AquaBiomics]

What are your salinity and alkalinity levels?

 

[Gernader]

89 degrees is really high unless you meant 80? Corals do well at 78-80 degrees.

Also, do you dip corals when you get them?

Make sure your refractometer is calibrated and get a second opinion to see if you are getting the same salinity.

 

[AquaBiomics]

Oof good catch, I missed that one! Yeah, 89F is really warm...

 

[homer1475]

I hope that temp is a typo?

 

[Perthegallon]

What are your salinity and alkalinity levels?

35 ppt all stays at 9

What are your salinity and alkalinity levels?

 

[Perthegallon]

89 degrees is really high unless you meant 80? Corals do well at 78-80 degrees.

Also, do you dip corals when you get them?

Make sure your refractometer is calibrated and get a second opinion to see if you are getting the same salinity.

Sorry I ran 79 and I do dip my corals and I check with 3 different Salinity measures and have a prob in my tank to confirm it’s 35

 

[Perthegallon]

I hope that temp is a typo?

Indeed

 

[William Mumford]

Edit

 

[Perthegallon]

I also forgot to mention I even have coralline growing in my tank all over

 

[homer1475]

What are your par levels?

I would say it was your dry rock start, but after a year even beginner corals(duncan mentioned) should be good to go.

Don't feel to bad. In this tank even though it's 5 years old now, I cannot for the life of me keep acans. Everything else grows just fine.

 

[Gernader]

Have you done an ICP test for possible contaminants?

 

[dbowman5]

you document most of the stuff in your post. what water do you use for W/C and ATO?

 

[Perthegallon]

What are your par levels?

I would say it was your dry rock start, but after a year even beginner corals(duncan mentioned) should be good to go.

Don't feel to bad. In this tank even though it's 5 years old now, I cannot for the life of me keep acans. Everything else grows just fine.

Depending on the level from 300-200

 

[Perthegallon]

Have you done an ICP test for possible contaminants?

I’m thinking so any recommendation?

 

[Perthegallon]

you document most of the stuff in your post. what water do you use for W/C and ATO?

I use two little fishes for water changes and ato and the water for the water change runs through my 7 stage brs ro system so over kill for my well water but I know for a fact it’s 0TDS

 

[Perthegallon]

I also even have a grounder to make sure no stray volts are agarvating my corals

 

[homer1475]

Nutrient levels?

Alk - 9 Could be lower IMO
CAL - ?
Mag - ?
Nitrate - ?
Phosphate - ?

 

[tinhorse]

Try going 2 weeks between water changes. Keep very thing as stable as possible and start the new corals low in shaded areas in the tank. Make sure PH is 8-8.3 and alk is a reasonable measure. Are all the corals you are getting from the same supplier? If so maybe yours and their water levels are to different for the new corals to adapt?

 

[Darren in Tacoma]

I'm wondering what your fish stock is and your nitrates level. You may actually be too clean considering you run a skimmer, a refugium and do 20% weekly water changes. Some corals like it a little dirty.