Feeling defeated one year in (reef tank)

[Bushnell]

1.032 is way too high for salinity, but I wouldn't necessarily trust that refractometer compared to the Hanna... Have you calibrated it? Do you have a calibration solution?

The measurement for the Hanna you'd be aiming for about 35ppt, so while it's still high it's not too far off. I'd think the Hanna is more accurate probably, but definitely get those verified. Maybe you can take a sample to your LFS and have them check salinity for you?

I will do that, I’ll take some water to my LFS this weekend and see what they say, that’s a great idea.

With the video I shared a few posts above - does it seem like my Zoas might be gone now? If they are, what should I do?

 

[saltcats]

I will do that, I’ll take some water to my LFS this weekend and see what they say, that’s a great idea.

With the video I shared a few posts above - does it seem like my Zoas might be gone now? If they are, what should I do?

Hmm, I haven't seen that before but it doesn't look promising
In terms of what to do... I've always just left them in just in case. IMO they're not big enough to cause any issues decaying. Had one frag that stayed closed for over a month and then finally opened, but they always looked solid...

 

[Stigigemla]

If You are using tap water I believe that is the problem.
When the snow melts and many times after the leaves have fallen the water quality is not as good as the rest of the year. With the extra water from melting snow or in the autumn many pollutants is washed out and a part of it comes in the tap water system.
0.3 or 0.5 phosphate should not be a problem with the coral types you have.
Put up the light as it was before. You know that the corals like that intensity from before.
That many corals survive in low light does not mean that they do best in minimum light.
I believe in big water changes. If you change 50% of the water the pollutants in the water will go down to the half of the value. But You should use RO water. If you use tap water it is a risk that you just renew your pollutants,

 

[jay1976]

Hey everyone! My family has been trying to keep a reef tank with clowns for about a year. These past 2 months, our Zoas have slowly closed up and our GSPs have gotten smaller and look “less full”. We just purchased testing kits to check phosphates, alkalinity, and calcium. We have maintained the others ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels!

The only change we made was 2 weeks ago when we lowered the light (settings below). We were following the 20k settings for the RS50 that came with the up until this point. 2 days ago we dipped the Zoas with an iodine solution.

Does anyone have any advice on what we could be doing wrong? We have read a lot of posts and it seems “less is more” and smaller changes are better than large ones.

Tank age: one year
Tank: Stock RS MAX Nano Peninsula with an ATO and with a power head in the back to help add more flow
Size: 26 gallons
Water changes: 5 gallons a week
Stock: 2 clownfish, 6 hermit crabs, 4 trochus snails, 5 turbo snails
Food: pellets once a day and reef frenzy and twice a week
Filtration: we use activated carbon in a small bag replace it every 2 months

Corals: (3) GSP, (4) waving hand anthelias, Kenya tree (with 3 little babies it dropped), Knobby Sea Rod Gorgonian, zoas, Neon Glowstick Cabbage Leather Soft Coral
Food: reef energy plus 3 times a week

Temp: 78 F
Salinity: 36
Phosphates: 0.28
Alkalinity: 8.4
Nitrate: 5


thank you all so much!

Had the same issues on a nano tank,in aquariums bigger is definately better,still running the nano with just live rock and no lights and it still has major issues,moved everything to a red sea max s 500 6 months ago and all sorted.get a bigger tank you will keep all your hair guaranteed.

 

[jay1976]

Hey everyone! My family has been trying to keep a reef tank with clowns for about a year. These past 2 months, our Zoas have slowly closed up and our GSPs have gotten smaller and look “less full”. We just purchased testing kits to check phosphates, alkalinity, and calcium. We have maintained the others ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels!

The only change we made was 2 weeks ago when we lowered the light (settings below). We were following the 20k settings for the RS50 that came with the up until this point. 2 days ago we dipped the Zoas with an iodine solution.

Does anyone have any advice on what we could be doing wrong? We have read a lot of posts and it seems “less is more” and smaller changes are better than large ones.

Tank age: one year
Tank: Stock RS MAX Nano Peninsula with an ATO and with a power head in the back to help add more flow
Size: 26 gallons
Water changes: 5 gallons a week
Stock: 2 clownfish, 6 hermit crabs, 4 trochus snails, 5 turbo snails
Food: pellets once a day and reef frenzy and twice a week
Filtration: we use activated carbon in a small bag replace it every 2 months

Corals: (3) GSP, (4) waving hand anthelias, Kenya tree (with 3 little babies it dropped), Knobby Sea Rod Gorgonian, zoas, Neon Glowstick Cabbage Leather Soft Coral
Food: reef energy plus 3 times a week

Temp: 78 F
Salinity: 36
Phosphates: 0.28
Alkalinity: 8.4
Nitrate: 5


thank you all so much!

As far as the zoas all my zoas were basically dead,from being in a water box peninsula 25, just could not get it stable after a year and loads of maintenance and testing hereare my zoas today.The toxic green ones at the top of this rock were non existent and now they are perfect.

 

[Bushnell]

If You are using tap water I believe that is the problem.
When the snow melts and many times after the leaves have fallen the water quality is not as good as the rest of the year. With the extra water from melting snow or in the autumn many pollutants is washed out and a part of it comes in the tap water system.
0.3 or 0.5 phosphate should not be a problem with the coral types you have.
Put up the light as it was before. You know that the corals like that intensity from before.
That many corals survive in low light does not mean that they do best in minimum light.
I believe in big water changes. If you change 50% of the water the pollutants in the water will go down to the half of the value. But You should use RO water. If you use tap water it is a risk that you just renew your pollutants,

Thank you very much! I do not use tap water though, only RODI!

 

[Goaway]

I will do that, I’ll take some water to my LFS this weekend and see what they say, that’s a great idea.

With the video I shared a few posts above - does it seem like my Zoas might be gone now? If they are, what should I do?

In the video, theyre dead. Not sure on best removal here.

 

[Bushnell]

Hmm, I haven't seen that before but it doesn't look promising
In terms of what to do... I've always just left them in just in case. IMO they're not big enough to cause any issues decaying. Had one frag that stayed closed for over a month and then finally opened, but they always looked solid...

Thank you so much! There are a few polyps that look like there could be hope so maybe I will leave them. This is definitely a bummer!

 

[Bushnell]

As far as the zoas all my zoas were basically dead,from being in a water box peninsula 25, just could not get it stable after a year and loads of maintenance and testing hereare my zoas today.The toxic green ones at the top of this rock were non existent and now they are perfect.

That sounds like the story we are going through here! What is the time difference between that last year of not being stable and where you are today? Did you do anything different?

 

[Bushnell]

In the video, theyre dead. Not sure on best removal here.

Yeah that frame there is what I was hoping people would see, I couldn’t tell if it’s like “shedding skin” or just a dead coral. There are a few polyps that look okay so I’m wondering if I should leave them all or try to use tweezers to remove the evidently dead ones

 

[Goaway]

Yeah that frame there is what I was hoping people would see, I couldn’t tell if it’s like “shedding skin” or just a dead coral. There are a few polyps that look okay so I’m wondering if I should leave them all or try to use tweezers to remove the evidently dead ones

I've had a small colony that did just this. It all melted into nothing and none of them came back.

Some people have reported their zoas poping up out of nowhere after they all vanished. So, I'd wait and hope someone with more experience will chime in..

@PicassoClown04 what does one do with mushy skin zoa rock??

 

[twentyleagues]

Its not a big tank. Water changes will fix a lot of issues. You do need to figure out which method of measuring salinity is correct though. If the refractometer is correct the sg is too high. if the Hannah is right it is just about right a tad high. I have seen the hannah checkers be off as well as refractometers off or not calibrated correctly. Take a water sample to lfs along with both measuring devices. Have them test your water with their device and their water with your devices, Once you figure out which is closest shoot for 35ppt or 1.026-27 and do 4-5 5g water changes in a week or week and a half this should take care of water quality concerns for the moment.

The only way to know if the light is adequate is to test it. See if you can rent/borrow a par meter. Just because someone has that light and runs X on it doesn't mean running their X will work for you. Its a ball park but differences in water clarity and a lot more may mean it is not enough or maybe too much for your tank.

 

[jay1976]

That sounds like the story we are going through here! What is the time difference between that last year of not being stable and where you are today? Did you do anything different?

Was spending loads of time every evening trying to get it stable from doing 50 percent water changes every week to testing every evening to feeding less to finding a skimmer that fits to more rock to everything you and I could do or think of it just wasn't working.Only other thing you can do is get real live rock and see if that helps,to everything from old tank plus 50 kilos of live rock ,30 kilos of live sand and a full new set up and the tank is stable as can be, do battle nitrates but all other parameters are rock solid. Worst thing I ever did was buy a small tank almost gave up ,to mutch maintenance and no fun.This was taken this evening,kept malawi cichlids for thirty years,so has similarities never struggled so mutch with AIO nano tank as I did,bite the bullet get bigger water volume you can send me a beer when you do.....lol

 

[jay1976]

That sounds like the story we are going through here! What is the time difference between that last year of not being stable and where you are today? Did you do anything different?

Only thing that was different was real live rock so do that before buying a new set up I guess.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I've had a small colony that did just this. It all melted into nothing and none of them came back.

Some people have reported their zoas poping up out of nowhere after they all vanished. So, I'd wait and hope someone with more experience will chime in..

@PicassoClown04 what does one do with mushy skin zoa rock??

If it were me (looks like quite a few polyps and these are notoriously toxic) I would just give em a little suction during a water change. If they are actually dead they should get sucked up which prevents the tank from fouling. If they’re alive they wont get sucked up and the suction will only take the dead parts. Good luck!

 

[Dom]

Lowered the light because doing some research some others mentioned the RS50 puts out high par readings and they had more success with lowering the blue lights

I have not!

Red Sea salt

I do not dose, my LFS mentioned that it wasn’t required for these corals. I am not opposed to it though!

Thank you!

Here is the thing; the life in your tank consumes elements from the salt mix you use.

Many people think of water changes as a way of removing excess nutrients. But water changes also replenish elements consumed by the tank.

Your tank should do fine with faithful, weekly 20% water changes (for your tank, that would be 5 gallon, weekly).

I would suggest that you keep it simple, and just do regular water changes for a month or two then reassess the tank.

Are you doing regular water changes?

 

[Naekuh]

Fix salinity....
Keep using the same salt.
And keep up with weekly 5 gal water changes.
Make sure your light par values are good enough.

In about 2 months tops, you will start getting a bump back with coraline growth, unless you had a massive die off.

If you had a massive die off, check ammonia.

Everything else is pretty much moot unless your not keeping up with the weekly water change.

But if you do the weekly water change, its very difficult to fail, unless your salinity is all messed up from evaporation, which is why i asked if you had a ATO.

 

[Bushnell]

Here is the thing; the life in your tank consumes elements from the salt mix you use.

Many people think of water changes as a way of removing excess nutrients. But water changes also replenish elements consumed by the tank.

Your tank should do fine with faithful, weekly 20% water changes (for your tank, that would be 5 gallon, weekly).

I would suggest that you keep it simple, and just do regular water changes for a month or two then reassess the tank.

Are you doing regular water changes?

Thanks for the tips! I do a 5 gallon water change every Sunday morning and have only missed it one time due to a trip!

 

[Bushnell]

One question i did have, is now I feel like I’m having to check everything, is I noticed some build up in my rear sump skimmer chamber and return pump chamber. This is red seas max nano peninsula so it’s an all in one rear sump tank. I also have a couple pieces of charcoal that fell out of a bag during the beginning at the bottom

is there any value in powering the tank down and cleaning this area? I would imagine just draining out the entire rear dump and wiping it down would suffice? Then maybe check my salinity and adjust from there after powering it on?

My skimmer that came with the AIO has acted crazy at times and would overfill. I think this created some gunk to make it in the back

The best way to describe it is that it looks like left over pellet food floating around. I could remove my mechanical filtration (sponge) in the return area to allow this all to pass through the tank and back into my mesh filter. I just don’t know if now is a good time with everything else happening. I will try to get a picture of the rear sump area

 

[tbrown]

One question i did have, is now I feel like I’m having to check everything, is I noticed some build up in my rear sump skimmer chamber and return pump chamber. This is red seas max nano peninsula so it’s an all in one rear sump tank. I also have a couple pieces of charcoal that fell out of a bag during the beginning at the bottom

is there any value in powering the tank down and cleaning this area? I would imagine just draining out the entire rear dump and wiping it down would suffice? Then maybe check my salinity and adjust from there after powering it on?

My skimmer that came with the AIO has acted crazy at times and would overfill. I think this created some gunk to make it in the back

The best way to describe it is that it looks like left over pellet food floating around. I could remove my mechanical filtration (sponge) in the return area to allow this all to pass through the tank and back into my mesh filter. I just don’t know if now is a good time with everything else happening. I will try to get a picture of the rear sump area

That would basically be a little ate change so it would work.