Why don't my corals grow or use major elements?

[RobW]

That's the last thing I have yet to try, however I don't see an easy way of doing this, and although I am aware a ph of 7.8 to 8.05 isn't perfect, is it enough to cause complete lack of calcium uptake?

I believe it could be.

 

[TX_Punisher]

Haven’t read the whole thread but I will share my experience.

My ca was very high at one point. I was not dosing. So not sure how this was possible. Icp showed 580. My alk was rising daily. I had to start bi weekly water changes with instant ocean to bring my ca down to 480-500. My alk still rises occasionally but testing everyday keeps this in check.

For quite a while I battled this issue. Nothing was growing either. I also added a co3 scrubber during this time to get my ph up above 8.1. This also helped with alk consumption. I’m running 8.16 at night and as high as 8.5 during the day. This has helped tremendously.

Food for thought.

 

[Jinko]

That's the last thing I have yet to try, however I don't see an easy way of doing this, and although I am aware a ph of 7.8 to 8.05 isn't perfect, is it enough to cause complete lack of calcium uptake?

Although it's probably not going to shut down calcifaction completely it's going to make it a lot harder than it should be.
I have had similar problems with ph in the past and have always noticed a lack of growth and some species of coral just stop growing altogether.
Zoas will turn to mush at low Ph in my experience.

There is no easy way to correct high carbon dioxide levels especially in the winter, a bunch of macro algae in your sump assuming you have one would be the first option and if that doesn't work more water surface agitation.

 

[ReefSlice]

Just an update, the tank hasn't grown a bit, have some STN on my only 2 mini colonies at the moment and terrible polyp extension. Current params are:
No3: 12-15
Po4: .05-.08 (finally stabilized)
Ca: 400-420
Kh: 8.2
Mg: 1300
Even added a 2nd DI stage to my already 0 tds Ro/di unit. Still have cyano and hair algae, and pale, dying corals. Zoas have ceased growth altogether, which was the only thing growing a few months ago. I haven't dosed anything, just feed LRS and once a week water changes, correcting kh if needed every other day. The tank uses about .1 kh/day. No coralline, no coral growth.
I've been leaving the windows and doors open all day to help with PH, but I haven't seen the slightest difference. I will be adding a co2 scrubber but just cant see how low Ph would cause pale, thin tissue and no PE?
Would really appreciate any input here! Cannot figure this out.

 

[Beats001]

I am facing similar issues, so I have decided to stop buying sps for a period of time. Sticking to anemones softies and lps. I got ICP results and water quality is good. Seems to just be one of them things.

 

[ckalupa]

Something you have said a couple times sticks out to me. If you don’t do a water change weekly your corals start to look bad? Lots of people don’t do water changes on a weekly basis and many just do them monthly or not at all with no problem. Is it possible that you should try purchased water for a bit? Maybe it is something pretty basic?

 

[ReefSlice]

That's honestly my last ditch effort, I may try using my lfs water for a few water changes and see if it makes a difference. Just doesn't make sense as I had 3 thriving tanks using this ro/di unit years ago, now I have moved 3 different places with this tank and it just suffers and withers away at every house just the same.
And I actually was ok with going softies and LPS, but now I can't even get my zoas to grow and LPS slowly recedes just like sps. Really sucks. I used to keep these corals with ease in a 29 gallon, PC lighting, and no filtration with bi weekly water changes.
I may set up a small tank with new rock, lights and all just to see if it has the same problems. Perhaps it's just the old LR and/or something in the tank I can't find.

 

[TX_Punisher]

Have you had an icp analysis performed?

 

[ReefSlice]

Have you had an icp analysis performed?

Yes, had an ATI test performed about 6 months ago, nothing really popped up. Slightly low iodine levels, a bit of silica in my ro/di.

 

[Jinko]

Have you measured your par just to make sure your giving the coral enough light.
Checked for stray voltage?
Tried changing your salt brand?

You mention that you plan to start a new build, if that's still the case I would dump your old rock and start new, although if it were something bound in the old rock it should show in an ICP test.

 

[ReefSlice]

No stray voltage, 3 different kinds of salt, and I don't have a par meter but coralline grows fine under any light at all, so theres another reason why it isn't growing that I just can't figure out. And I would imagine nearly 100% power on both fixtures would be more than enough for zoas and Lps at least.

 

[dean.reef]

I had no growth for a year!or very little,turns out I was running my tank to cold around 25.5deg turned it up to 27deg then boom massive growth!

 

[ReefSlice]

Temperature in the tank is maintained by a Ranco controller, 78-79 always.

 

[ReefSlice]

Here's some pictures of my corals. I know they look terrible, but mind you this is with nearly weekly 20% water changes at this point, stable parameters and Kessils. Notice no coralline growth either. Another very strange thing is the zoas all stretch like they want more light, but a lot of the sps are pale. And the monti in that one picture just gets dead patches overnight, then slowly grows over the dead spots over weeks, only to die back again a few weeks later for seemingly no reason. All of these frags are 14+ months old. The large zoa colony I got that size and it hasn't grown a single polyp, just died back a whole lot. A few encrusted as you can see, but nothing further and no growth at all anytime recently. Candy cane and war coral I've had for 2 years, they just slowly receded and stay the way they are... Anyone ever seen something like this? Theres vermetids everywhere as well, I plan on cutting out whatever I can and switching it over to a new tank in the future, but I'm trying to keep everything alive and healthy until then.

 

[P.Ankler]

Hi! What’s happening now?
Did you solve the sps problem?