Can't keep corals alive!

Thefishguy · Apr 23, 2018

I have no idea what I am doing wrong but I can't seem to keep any coral alive or get any of them to grow because of it. Its getting frustrating as I'm losing a lot of money just trying. My parameters are all good, as far as I know.

PH 8
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Phosphate 0
Calcium 480
Kh 9

I have a 180 with 3 giesmann vervee lights. Flow is probably around 3k-4k per hour. I have killed so many different corals that none seem to stick around. My latest corals on the verge of death is a pom pom and favia. I had a zoa frag doing okay and starting to spread but than it started to melt and now it never opens up and just looks bad.

The pom pom was staying alive, far from thriving, it wouldn't spread but was staying the same. Now its starting to stay consistently closed. I added the favias 2 days ago, and placed at the bottom of the tank near the 2 front corners, one at each corner on the sand bed. They looked good when I bought them, but now they are starting to turn brown/grey on some of the ridges along the "eyes". I also got a candy cane that was green and placed it near the bottom of the tank on a piece of LR and it is now turning a greyish color also.

What am I doing wrong?!?! Please help me fix this so I can have corals start growing in, meaning they are staying alive and thriving....

rtparty · Apr 23, 2018

How old is the tank? Was it started with live or dry rock? Nitrate and phosphate at zero is not good. Corals need food.

Instigate · Apr 23, 2018

I'm no expert but some basic things you could do is get your LFS to double check your parameters and you could test your water for copper. Maybe your lights are cranked up too high? I hear too much light and not enough no3 and po4 will melt corals. Calcium is a bit high but not crazy high.

Thefishguy · Apr 23, 2018

I'll head there tomorrow to get it double checked.

I run my lights off the preset they have, I have no idea what to set the graphs to. I really don't know the spectrums to feel confident with that, any suggestions?

MTBake · Apr 23, 2018

Sounds like the tank could use a bit of nutrients. Your corals are starving with 0ppm no3 and 0ppm po4.

Could also be too much light or too high of placement in tank.

WVNed · Apr 23, 2018

I have 3000-4000 flow in my 50 gallon.

2 MP-10s and a Jebao PP-15

MTBake · Apr 23, 2018

Could you post pics of the problem corals?

WVNed said:
I have 3000-4000 flow in my 50 gallon.

2 MP-10s and a Jebao PP-15

Good point! Flow seems low for that tank size. Does that include your return pump flow as well?

Thefishguy · Apr 23, 2018

Tank is about 8 months old maybe 9. Was started with 3/4 dry 1/4 live. I've tried to raise my nutrient levels by over feeding but it never seems to raise, I get the algae like mad but no nutrients it doesn't make sense. I also use reef chili and squirt onto the corals, not sure if they eat it but I try and offer it. I do this a few times a week.

I will post a pic tomorrow when I can get a good picture of the problems. Maybe even change the lighting to see if I can get the problems enhanced in the photos to get a clearer picture of them.

Yes that includes the returns. I'm actually going to purchase the jebaos, I wasn't sure which one or how many to get though. Currently I'm just using 2 of the crappy aqueon ones that push around 1400 an hour if I had to guess, they're a couple years old so I don't remember exact numbers.

Katrina71 · Apr 23, 2018

Just curious if you feed frozen or pellets?

Thefishguy · Apr 23, 2018

A mixture of both. Pellets are NLS and frozen is usually mysis or brine and rods. For the coral food I use reef chilli. I also rinse the frozen with RODI water

Thefishguy · Apr 23, 2018

Also how much flow should I look to be getting? 50x would be around 9k is that where I want? Would that be measured running the powerheads at max or would that just be what I aim for 2 pumps to hit and if it goes lower when not at full power that's okay?

Im confused on weather to get a powerhead or a gyre style since my tank is 6' I read gyres can be better, but most power head's have a gyre mode now? This can get confusing...

ExoticAquaticsVa · Apr 23, 2018

Tale a breather man. Try to be consistent and not make drastic changes constantly. Direct flow blasting corals will cause them to close up on you, lack of flow with the power heads you’ve got in there is unlikely, you should run them to distribute flow randomly at about 30-70%. If you crank anything to 100 for perpetual use, you won’t get the same life expectancy on the equipment.

Is the salinity stable? 1.023-1.026

Don’t overthink it. Sometimes doing less is more beneficial.

Thefishguy · Apr 23, 2018

Everything has been pretty consistent with the tank. I only add corals when the ones I have end up dying. I've been wanting to change the powerheads since day one but kept pushing it off. I'd like to get the control of powerheads with a controller rather then these aqueons that have 1 setting, plug in and it goes. Thats why I'm not sure if I should go with jebaos or maybe a icecap? There's so many options and I really don't know much about flow.

I keep salinity as stable as possible at 1.026, I'm in need of an ato system but I'm making other changes before that. For now I'll just deal with adding a gallon or 2 every couple days. With a 180 I don't think a gallon or 2 makes a difference on salinity.

homer1475 · Apr 24, 2018

High alk with high lighting and low nutrients. Drop your alk to around 7 and see what happens. Sounds like a ULN system for which the Alk is usually dropped to around 7. The thinking is with high alk and low nutrients is skeleton grows, but not soft tissue.

I personally would be increasing feeding to get nitrates and phophates up a bit. Don't rinse the frozen, your rinsing the needed PO4 down the drain. I know this goes against everything you have read about using frozen, but in your system you need the nutrients your washing down thedrain.

recess62 · Apr 24, 2018

What are you using for your water supply? You might want to consider a triton water test. Maybe your water has something in it???????

I agree with homer1475. Don’t rinse your frozen. Like he said your are washing the phosphate down the drain. In he future if your have high phosphate issues then you may want to consider restarting the rinse but as of now looks like your corals need food

vetteguy53081 · Apr 24, 2018

Have three local persons with similar concern. Two of them had too low salinity as their Gages were not calibrated and giving False readings. Get a second opinion with a water sample to your Local fish store. Have them test it and any other parameters of concern. the other was metal(s) from the hose clamps and semi rusted impeller in his return pump.

Thefishguy · Apr 28, 2018

Hey all sorry for the late reply I got sick this week so everything was placed on the back burner.

So I took a water sample to my LFS and everything came out the same as what I had tested. I am taking another sample to a different store tomorrow for a 3rd check to be safe. I do have a feeling the algae could be eating all the nitrates and that could be giving a false reading of 0 nitrates. I also turned my light down to 60% and noticed a difference, but things were still dying back, so I lowered to 40% tonight and will see how that helps.

2 more questions, one of the corals I'm having trouble with is a candy cane. The, I believe they are called polyps on these also, are hard. Arnt they suppose to be soft? Does this mean they are already to far gone to save? :/

Question 2 is, as I was doing a water change, a small almost cloud of something red appeared in a few spots in the tank? I wish I could of gotten a photo but it dissolved rather quickly. It was like it just appeared out of thin air, I guess water haha, I have no idea what could of caused it to show up in multiple places over the tank. Has anyone ever seen or even heard of this?