Why am I losing "stonier" corals?

[Mattj815]

I dont know if stonier is the right word. But I cant keep a chalice for the life of me.

I had a hollywood stunner which was doing great for a few weeks then just gone overnight. My war coral, which was doing great in my last tank is barely hanging on.

All my other corals seem to be doing well, zoas,euphyillia duncan etc.

I thought my alk was low. I was using an api kit and was getting like 6/7. I know they suck so I just bought a Hanna checker and got 8.2 first test.

Nitrates - ~10
Po4- 0
Alk- 8.2
Cal 430

Any ideas? I heard the stunner grows like a weed so didnt think it was a good sign mine took such a hard turn

 

[HotRocks]

#reefsquad, any suggestions?

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

Temp? And salinity?
Phos Being 0. How are you measuring it?

 

[Ranjib]

Do you have any acro or some other hard to keep coral that is growing ?
Hollywood stunner does grow like weed, at least for me. I had to keep it in shades to contain its growth
Do you have any temperature monitoring ? Would love to know your temperature chart for past week. Do you use any ato ?

 

[Coralreefer1]

Is most of your coral,
soft corals?

 

[reeferfoxx]

Temp? And salinity?
Phos Being 0. How are you measuring it?

+1

Also, lighting?

 

[User1]

I dont know if stonier is the right word. But I cant keep a chalice for the life of me.

Because drugs are bad??? /rolls eyes at bad joke.

I don't know but if your phosphate is really 0 I would probably start there. I don't think zero is the right value but listen to what others have to say.

 

[Mattj815]

So ill try to answer all these w/o quoting everything

Temp is a pretty stable 78 degrees. Monitored by an amazon digital thermometer. With a jaeger heater

Salinity is 1.026. I do have an ato. Tunze 3155. And nitrate and phos are tested on red sea kits

Most of my corals are lps, shrooms and zoas. I have had a few sps frags but tried them way too early and theyre long gone. I did just buy a monti cap to try again. But its only a few days old.

Lighting is reefbreeders photon v2. 16 inch. On at about 10. Ramp up and ramp down.

I dont know if po4 is a true 0 reading or not bc like i said. I do still have some gha on the back wall. Also running tunze 9004 dc skimmer. Try to maintain a weekly water change but been slacking to about bi weekly for the past month or two.

Also running brs hi cap gfo in a reactor.

 

[lapin]

Most of my corals are lps, shrooms and zoas. I have had a few sps frags but tried them way too early and theyre long gone. I did just buy a monti cap to try again. But its only a few days old.

My first guess is lighting. Since other numbers seem ok. Softies are pretty hardy. Sticks are very uptown and need pampering.
Have you read this thread?
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reefbreeder-photon-v2-settings.349598/

 

[Mattj815]

My first guess is lighting. Since other numbers seem ok. Softies are pretty hardy. Sticks are very uptown and need pampering.
Have you read this thread?
ttps://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reefbreeder-photon-v2-settings.349598/

I have read that. Thanks. Are you saying too much or too little. At its max I have blues at i think 60 and whites at i think 40. Everything else is very low.

And theyre not sticks. These are supposedly easy growing lps. Even the war coral is supposed to be a fast grower no? I dont know what else it could be. I was actually thinking of bumping up the lights again. But didnt know if i should go any higher.

 

[Fishfinder]

The two things that stand out to me...

Reef breeders on 60% and 40% is a lot of light. I don't know where you have them placed. Combine that with GFO use and a reading of 0 = Dead coral

 

[saltyhog]

My Stunner grew at the very bottom of my tank as far away from the light as I could place it. I don't think it's lack of light. You said your PO4 was zero but how are you measuring it?

 

[Mattj815]

The two things that stand out to me...

Reef breeders on 60% and 40% is a lot of light. I don't know where you have them placed. Combine that with GFO use and a reading of 0 = Dead coral

Both of these corals were almost on the bed. Talking like 2 inches off the sandbed in a nuvo 40. Lights are abiut 10 inches above water line.

 

[Mattj815]

My Stunner grew at the very bottom of my tank as far away from the light as I could place it. I don't think it's lack of light. You said your PO4 was zero but how are you measuring it?

Using red sea kits. But dont know if its the problem of reading 0 bc of gha absorbing it before kits will show results. But its funny bc gha is only growing on ky back wall not my rock.

I had it on my rocks earlier in the year when the tank was newer. I then statted the gfo and it helped a lot. Honestly i havent even changed my gfo in about a month. Was planning on it this weekend. Could that be a problem. I heard it can actually leak back out, but also read about a month was the time most people were going with the high cap gfo.

 

[lapin]

I have read that. Thanks. Are you saying too much or too little. At its max I have blues at I think 60 and whites at I think 40.

Im guessing here, but 40 white is a lot if the coral is not used to it. I had to turn my whites down because my montis were bleaching. One was 18" down in the tank with lights 10" above the water.

 

[saltyhog]

I would hold off on changing the GFO and just remove whatever is in the reactor. It's not that hard to over do it with GFO....believe me I learned the hard way. See if you can get your PO4 up to around 0.03 and see if that promotes some better growth.

 

[Fishfinder]

Every tank is different, I'm just using my tank as an example. My lights are mounted 16" off the water. I'm running mine at 60% and 18%. The lights have a very strong white. Also my chalices hate 0 PO4. I went through the same thing with my reef breeders. I killed a ton of stuff until I turned my down

 

[Mattj815]

So I just checked and my whites max at 30% for an hour at 4pm. So slow ramp up to 30 for an hour then back down.

I will def try and take the gfo out for a little bit. Just hoping the gha doesnt start to get out of control.