Can't keep acros in 8 month old tank

[ReefSlice]

I started a new 40 gallon tank just after new years with the intention of being able to grow acros eventually. I soaked the rockwork in a rubbermaid container for a month pre-setup, adding microbacter start and biodigest weekly along with ammonia to complete my cycle before the tank went up (dry marco rock and tropic eden sand). I added a pair of clowns and a pajama cardinal as well as some zoas a few weeks after the tank was set up, and after 2 months, my phosphates bottomed out, causing a lyngbya bloom. I began dosing po4 daily, and after a few months I started dosing microbacter clean which ultimately cleared the tank of lyngbya by the end of May. I dialed in my po4 dosing and the tank is consistently at .03-.05 po4, 3-5 nitrates. Coralline started taking off just after the lyngbya disappeared, and the tank has been clear of nuisance algae since then, minus a few pieces of bubble algae on a few frags that have been removed during water changes, and some random hair algae on snail shells mainly. I had a small dino bloom in the sand after the lyngbya that has slowly waned, but didn't seem to really bother anything other than making a few patches of sand ugly. My zoas deepened in color and began to all grow at a much faster rate with nutrients in line and alk/cal consumption went up to .4 dkh/day, so I began dosing kalk 15 times a day in July to keep it stable after just manually dosing 2 part to keep it stable. My anacropora which I added in april has slowly gained more color and thicker tissue since paling out in the beginning, and just in the last month and a half or so is finally showing some growth, encrusting onto the plug and even getting growth tips, although the polyps could still be darker. I decided to add a few tester acro frags, an unknown mini colony and a frag of tortuosa. They both looked ok for a few weeks, and then began losing color and slowly stning. Both are pretty much completely dead now, while everything else in the tank continues to thrive. Which leads me to what I should be doing next to better my tank for future acro additions. An ICP showed optimal levels and no heavy metals as well.
Is my tank just too young still? I've seen so many people have success with acros in a young tank when parameters are managed appropriately so I am a little confused as to why mine still can't support acros. Is there anything I should be doing next to better support acros, or should I just be patient and wait until the year mark to try again? My next step is to add 2 more fish from Dr. reefs to up my bioload and increase nutrients naturally so I can ultimately back off on dosing them.
Parameters: Alk - 8.4
Cal - 420
Mag - 1400
Po4 - .04
No3 - 5
SG - 1.026
Temp - 78
System specs: Skimmer - BM 3.5
Flow - 2x Jebao SOW 8's run on else mode, full power
Lighting - 2 old Kessil A350w's in an aquatic life t5ho hybrid, with 2 blue+ bulbs, 1 coral+ and 1 actinic. Kessils at 40% white and 60% blue. Kessils on for 6 hours at max intensity, t5s on from 11 am - 9 pm with only blues for 1.5 hours of that
Heater - Eheim Jager controlled by Ranco
Filter sock changed every 4 days
Fish fed 2x a day with LRS (still just 3 fish, tons of trochus snails and some ceriths)
20 ml phyto daily
3 ml of neophos daily
Water change every other week of 7g
Microbacter clean dosed weekly, Biodigest dosed biweekly after water change
Red sea blue bucket salt (just recently switched from Fritz)
7 stage RO/DI with nothing showing on ICP

Pic taken after cleaning coralline off of powerheads 3 days ago
Sorry for the long winded info dump, just want to see if anyone has any recommendations as to what I should be doing next! Appreciate any insight

 

[Dburr1014]

I started a new 40 gallon tank just after new years with the intention of being able to grow acros eventually. I soaked the rockwork in a rubbermaid container for a month pre-setup, adding microbacter start and biodigest weekly along with ammonia to complete my cycle before the tank went up (dry marco rock and tropic eden sand). I added a pair of clowns and a pajama cardinal as well as some zoas a few weeks after the tank was set up, and after 2 months, my phosphates bottomed out, causing a lyngbya bloom. I began dosing po4 daily, and after a few months I started dosing microbacter clean which ultimately cleared the tank of lyngbya by the end of May. I dialed in my po4 dosing and the tank is consistently at .03-.05 po4, 3-5 nitrates. Coralline started taking off just after the lyngbya disappeared, and the tank has been clear of nuisance algae since then, minus a few pieces of bubble algae on a few frags that have been removed during water changes, and some random hair algae on snail shells mainly. I had a small dino bloom in the sand after the lyngbya that has slowly waned, but didn't seem to really bother anything other than making a few patches of sand ugly. My zoas deepened in color and began to all grow at a much faster rate with nutrients in line and alk/cal consumption went up to .4 dkh/day, so I began dosing kalk 15 times a day in July to keep it stable after just manually dosing 2 part to keep it stable. My anacropora which I added in april has slowly gained more color and thicker tissue since paling out in the beginning, and just in the last month and a half or so is finally showing some growth, encrusting onto the plug and even getting growth tips, although the polyps could still be darker. I decided to add a few tester acro frags, an unknown mini colony and a frag of tortuosa. They both looked ok for a few weeks, and then began losing color and slowly stning. Both are pretty much completely dead now, while everything else in the tank continues to thrive. Which leads me to what I should be doing next to better my tank for future acro additions. An ICP showed optimal levels and no heavy metals as well.
Is my tank just too young still? I've seen so many people have success with acros in a young tank when parameters are managed appropriately so I am a little confused as to why mine still can't support acros. Is there anything I should be doing next to better support acros, or should I just be patient and wait until the year mark to try again? My next step is to add 2 more fish from Dr. reefs to up my bioload and increase nutrients naturally so I can ultimately back off on dosing them.
Parameters: Alk - 8.4
Cal - 420
Mag - 1400
Po4 - .04
No3 - 5
SG - 1.026
Temp - 78
System specs: Skimmer - BM 3.5
Flow - 2x Jebao SOW 8's run on else mode, full power
Lighting - 2 old Kessil A350w's in an aquatic life t5ho hybrid, with 2 blue+ bulbs, 1 coral+ and 1 actinic. Kessils at 40% white and 60% blue. Kessils on for 6 hours at max intensity, t5s on from 11 am - 9 pm with only blues for 1.5 hours of that
Heater - Eheim Jager controlled by Ranco
Filter sock changed every 4 days
Fish fed 2x a day with LRS (still just 3 fish, tons of trochus snails and some ceriths)
20 ml phyto daily
3 ml of neophos daily
Water change every other week of 7g
Microbacter clean dosed weekly, Biodigest dosed biweekly after water change
Red sea blue bucket salt (just recently switched from Fritz)
7 stage RO/DI with nothing showing on ICP

Pic taken after cleaning coralline off of powerheads 3 days ago
Sorry for the long winded info dump, just want to see if anyone has any recommendations as to what I should be doing next! Appreciate any insight

Do you have friends in the hobby?
Or maybe a lfs to pickup a couple small pieces of live rock.
I think you may need some bio-diversity. Tank is going thru lots of changes still.

 

[ReefSlice]

Do you have friends in the hobby?
Or maybe a lfs to pickup a couple small pieces of live rock.
I think you may need some bio-diversity. Tank is going thru lots of changes still.

No one locally unfortunately! I'm afraid of adding unwanted pests to the tank with the addition of random LR, but I would love to get some small pieces from someone with a thriving tank. I may see if I can get a few chunks from WWC or TSA next time I'm up that way.

 

[Spare time]

What test kits do you use? I typically think slow tissue necrosis is an issue with something lacking (i.e. too little nitrogen/phosphate, poor lighting, etc.). I would try dosing something like fuel, reef energy, or vitachem.

 

[ReefSlice]

What test kits do you use?

Hanna for nutrients, Red sea for alk, cal and mag. Getting a hanna alk tester tomorrow as well just for redundancy.

 

[stephj03]

A lot of ppl are about to tell you they e been growing sticks fine since their tank was 2-3mo old and have any number reccomendations. They are the exception or will encounter normal first yr challenges at some point like you.



Your tank is still too young. Be happy some SPS is doing ok.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Your parameters look good. You’re probably safe to turn those kessils up a bit, that’s a great lighting setup for acros. Good that your using kalk. I would try another “easy” acro like a green slimer.

 

[Lavey29]

Sounds like you have all the key points checked off diligently. I can tell you that about one year my tank made a complete change and became much more stable and predictable. This lead to much better corals including SPS. I think you are still in the maturing process. Keep trying a few easy SPS like stylos and monti digi. Verify your par numbers. Run carbon to keep unwanted stuff out of the water.

 

[ReefSlice]

That's the answer I figured I would get: Patience! Just wanted to see if anything stood out to anyone. With such limited space in a 40 gallon I don't want to add any quick growing, boring corals that will be a problem in the future, so I will wait another few months and try again with a green slimer or such. I will also be adding an aquabiomics reef rubble pack in the future hopefully once they are in stock.

Your parameters look good. You’re probably safe to turn those kessils up a bit, that’s a great lighting setup for acros. Good that your using kalk. I would try another “easy” acro like a green slimer.

I am slowly working them up by 5% or so on one channel at a time every few weeks/month. I'm one of the exceptions that loves a bright green acro so green slimer will definitely be one of my next testers, also always loved a PC rainbow which I know are a bit easier to keep. I sometimes worry that after 6 years of running these kessils have lost some spectrum or punch, I will be looking into switching to radions or a few primes perhaps around black friday as well as biting the bullet and renting a par meter.

 

[ScottB]

There is a tough trade-off with early SPS. Been through it myself with a lot of cheap, very leggy slimers and others that suddenly decided it was time to rock & roll. Just had to chop it out and literally give it away. Still think it beats killing a bunch of fancy milli, tenuis at $250 a throw. YMMV. But 8 months with a sterile start is a big stretch. Four months with a live rock start is almost as sketchy.