Coral Problems, any thoughts/suggestions?

[Yorgi]

Hi all I've been running my tank for about 10 months now will see if I can post pics not sure how do it from my iPhone. Anyway I have plenty of coral in my tank and most of which I'm told is harder to keep happy than the ones that die almost immediately. Frog spawn, torches, hammers, clove polyps, flower pots all do really well for me which some struggle with yet I can't keep leathers or toad stools for trying, within weeks they literally disentegrate. As for acro and monti with 2 weeks they develop RTS and are dead shortly after. Anyone have any answers? I'm not getting any good reasons from any store I ask and it's making me mental.

Here's my tank info
150 gallon with 45 gal sump back overflow box 30" high 18" deep
Vortex powerhead
2 Kessil A350 lights
Reef octopus skimmer
Phosphate reactor

I was running charcoal in bags in the sump as well just because I liked the water clarity. Stopped weeks ago when I was told my water is too clean.

WAter info
Temp 78.5
I do regular water changes of 20-40 gal before last change here are levels
Ph 8.2
Ammonia -0
Nitrate - 30-40
Nitrite - 0
Phosphate - 0.25
Salinity - 1.025
Calcium - 420
Hardness - 160/200

My fish do great with exception of a Radiant wrasse that's missing but everyone else is doing very well.

Also added some rock about two months ago and battling aiptasia but just added peppermint shrimp to help that prob

Any ideas? Answers? Suggestions?

[Mike-fish]

your nitrate is very high for a mixed reef should be under 5ppm preferably 0ppm. the reason that your goniopora aka flower pot is doing well is that they come from nutrient and food loaded waters.

[Reef Pilot]

Your phosphates and nitrates are a little on the high side for SPS. Are you running GFO in your phosphate reactor? Would expect it to be lower if you are.

I have 2 tanks. In one I run bio pellets, GFO and Carbon in reactors. N03 is zero and P04 near zero. SPS and other corals, all do great.

The other tank has no reactors, just a filter sock and skimmer in my sump. N03 is around 20 while P04 is at .59 (just tested it yesterday). LPS and softies all do well, but I don't have any SPS in this one. I don't think SPS would like my high phosphates.

Are there any pests like AEFW (heaven forbid) that might be killing your acros?

You might also consider a bio pellet reactor if you have exhausted all other means of getting your N03 down. And you might want to look at your phosphate reactor to see why your P04 isn't lower.

[FragIt Dan]

+1 on the nitrates comment.

[CM125]

acros and montis have very different flow requirements than frogspawn, you may want to look into the placement of these items or even think about if your flow is high enough to have these corals. Unfortunately in this hobby you cant have everything in one tank :( Ive fought with it over and over but we always end up with multiple tanks for this reason. Also your nitrates are high lol

[daniella3d]

well, water of 30 to 40 ppm of nitrates and .25 of phosphates is anything but "too clean".

I don't think that would be the reason for RTN though, because my nitrates are quite high right now and phosphates around .15 but I have no problem with my SPS, even the delicate ones.

I suspect a mixt of things, probably water quality, the light, and probably stability is pushing your SPS on the limit of their endurance.

I would not keep any leather corals with SPS. They are not very compatible and migth trigger chimical war. I avoid leather corals all together.

I would lower the nitrates with dosing with NOPOX, and use GFO to lower the phosphates, plus I would make sure the parameters are very stable with dosing for KH and calcium with a dosing pump. Make sure the light is not too strong. This is a good factor for RTN when the light is blasting the corals and LED is very strong and corals need acclimation for it.

[asylumdown]

I've never seen carbonate hardness expressed in those units, what does that translate to in dKH or meq/l?

How are you maintaining your water water chemistry? Are you using an auto-doser, or are you dosing by hand? If you dose by hand, how often do you test, and how much do your parameters fluctuate week over week?

IME SPS corals have a very hard time dealing with large swings in carbonate hardness over time, it stresses them out to no end. They can adapt to a pretty wide range of parameters, but not to regular swings in those parameters. I never had any luck with SPS until I got a doser and was able to keep my numbers (especially carbonate hardness) steady over a period of weeks. If your levels are fluctuating and you have high nutrient levels, it might just be too much for SPS.

[props]

Nitrate and phosphate are a tad high imho but shouldn't be an issue to why you're losing croals. How do you introduce corals to the tank?? Why I ask is you could be burning them to death due to your water clarity. Start them from the bottom of your tank in high flow areas or decrease the time your main lights are on.

[Yorgi]

Your phosphates and nitrates are a little on the high side for SPS. Are you running GFO in your phosphate reactor? Would expect it to be lower if you are.



Are there any pests like AEFW (heaven forbid) that might be killing your acros?

You might also consider a bio pellet reactor if you have exhausted all other means of getting your N03 down. And you might want to look at your phosphate reactor to see why your P04 isn't lower.

I'm very new to this hobby in saltwater so I have no idea what GFO is? There is a Phosguard being run in the reactor as well as carbon. What is AEFW??

I use a service company for my tank ( bi weekly) so I tend to only do my own testing infrequently. I'm not sure what these other additives are that are being suggested -still learning sorry I'm quite a newbie so if I sound uneducated about it I am but I am learning and tend to pick up quickly.

So from what I'm hearing a "melting pot" of coral so to speak is either risky or a dream lol. Makes sense.

Does anyone have a good suggestion for a company( in Edmonton) that does good aqua/reef scraping? While my service company does a good job that aspect lacks and I want something more elaborate than what they have provided

[Reef Pilot]

I'm very new to this hobby in saltwater so I have no idea what GFO is? There is a Phosguard being run in the reactor as well as carbon. What is AEFW??


GFO, Granulated Ferric Oxide (iron shavings), is commonly used in reactors to bring down phosphates. Phosguard is similar, but uses aluminum instead. But they have to be refreshed regularly to work, and some flow through the material is needed, too. So you have to be sure your reactor is working properly.

AEFW, Acropora Eating Flat Worms, a terrible scourge, if you ever get those in your tank. They will attack your Acros, and are very difficult to eradicate. To prevent infestation by these coral pests, and others, be sure to dip your corals before adding them to your display tank.

Lots of discussion here on these topics, if you do a search.

[Madreefer]

G granular
F ferric
O oxide
Just a fancy name for rust JK that is used to help lower phosphates.

A acropora
E eating
F flat
W worms

I would think a maintenance company would have to come way ore than that to give you a awesome looking tank. It involves alot of time and determination in the long run. If the client isn't willing to spend the extra money on equipment to help in this your tank will only be ok I look after a couple I tanks in my town and really don't like doing it. Takes the fun out of my own hobby. I can't find anyone to take over for me and I don't want to leave these tanks to die if I abandon them. It's the reason I look after the now

[Madreefer]

Damn iPhones. Takes too long to type

[Mike-fish]

Best way to get the aqua scape to look the way you want is to get your own arms wet.

[Myka]

Nitrate - 30-40
Phosphate - 0.25

As everyone else said, I think nitrate and phosphate are likely the leading problem. However, the two values you posted don't really compliment each other too well. I would expect phosphate to be much higher than it is with the 30-40 ppm nitrate, and it very well may be. I do notice though that you have a lot of (what was) dry rock in the tank which colonizes nitrifying bacteria quite quickly, but takes much longer to colonize denitrifying bacteria. Denitrifying (anaerobic) bacteria mainly convert nitrate to nitrogen gas so a lack of these bacteria would allow nitrate to build up unusually high compared to phosphate. The significant bioload you have introduced to the tank in a mere 10 months adds to the problem.

Do you have room in your sump to add some live rock there? If so, I would suggest you add some more live rock to the system. This will help a certain amount, but will not take care of the problem by itself. You will need to get more aggressive in your cleaning. You only mention one powerhead, for a mixed reef that size you should have at least 2 or 3 powerheads with a combined turnover of about 25-40x the volume of the display tank (so about 3750 to 6000 gph) minimum. SPS will prefer much, much more flow. How often do you do waterchanges? Do you have biological media anywhere (like bioballs or ceramic rings)?