Beyond frustrated

[Piqued]

Before moving ten years ago, I had a Red Sea 250. It was doing great. Before moving, my house was robbed, and the thieves poisoned my aquarium. Everything was killed. I decided to give up on saltwater aquariums after that--until I saw the FOWLR a friend has. I only had a small space for an aquarium so I purchased a 32 gallon Corallife all-in-one. I was careful to set it up correctly and tried to do everything correctly. The result? Four years later the only good thing is the pH is correct. I have aptasia, cyano, hair algae, dead corals, ammonia, phosphates and two fish (a dottyback and a purple tang). I've run the lights and got algae, turned off the lights and got algae and sad corals. I feed the corals and they still die and I get algae. I try to clean out the algae and kill the fish. The only things that are doing well are the sponges (and the algae). I'm tired of killing every thing and spending money. Nothing I try works. I have great flow and lots of filtration. The only other thing I can think of is crappy Southwestern water. It as though the aquarium never cycled. Arrgh!

 

[rtparty]

A dottyback and purple tang in a 32g tank?

That’s problem number 1 to sort out before anything else needs to be fixed

 

[Fish Fan]

The only other thing I can think of is crappy Southwestern water.

I'm sorry you're having so many problems, and I am sure you'll get a lot of replies here. This seems like a red flag to me, what are you using for source water?

 

[VintageReefer]

The lighting is probably not great

There’s no reason you couldn’t empty it, clean it and start from scratch. Might be easier than fixing every individual issue

 

[CalypZooReef]

You use RODI water right??

 

[reneeL]

Before moving ten years ago, I had a Red Sea 250. It was doing great. Before moving, my house was robbed, and the thieves poisoned my aquarium. Everything was killed. I decided to give up on saltwater aquariums after that--until I saw the FOWLR a friend has. I only had a small space for an aquarium so I purchased a 32 gallon Corallife all-in-one. I was careful to set it up correctly and tried to do everything correctly. The result? Four years later the only good thing is the pH is correct. I have aptasia, cyano, hair algae, dead corals, ammonia, phosphates and two fish (a dottyback and a purple tang). I've run the lights and got algae, turned off the lights and got algae and sad corals. I feed the corals and they still die and I get algae. I try to clean out the algae and kill the fish. The only things that are doing well are the sponges (and the algae). I'm tired of killing every thing and spending money. Nothing I try works. I have great flow and lots of filtration. The only other thing I can think of is crappy Southwestern water. It as though the aquarium never cycled. Arrgh!

Your water source, test it.

 

[winxp_man]

You use RODI water right??

When the statement was crappy water, that was the first thing that came to my mind.

OP you need to use RODI from a LFS or buy a RODI filter system. No RO but RODI. That might be your biggest issue is bad water. One thing about salt tanks, tap water is not correct to use.

 

[ErikVR]

I agree that it points to the water source.
Personally, I had similar issues. Even with a top of the line rodi system. Turned out, the container I stored the rodi water in was leeching all kinds of bad stuff into the water. I can be something as simple as that. I’d suggest an icp test that also includes a test for the rodi water. That saved me.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Why in the world put a tang in a 32 gallon, then complain its not working out for you? You can't be successful in a fish caring hobby if you are disrespecting the animals that we care for.

As others have mentioned, there are some very obvious red flags here. I also wonder about the lighting source and flow. Tank pictures will help identify some points to correct.