Coral emergency Help

[cmustang]

Hello. I am a beginner and need help with corals. I have a 20G waterbox for about 2 years with an AI Prime 16 and a Nero 5 on the back. A while ago decided to get corals and unfortunately did not make it; with those corals I introduced aptisia. It was a nightmare trying to get rid off the aptisia and algae. Finally, after several attempts was able to get it all. Now, I’m trying again. Got and anemone witch looks to be doing good. Had the anemone for over a month or two, so I went ahead and got some more corals and placed on the bottom.
1.Sanjay’s Grape Concord (lasted two weeks and bleached super quick)
2. Green Goblin Anacropora (same thing)
3. Megachrome Monti ( is bleaching/ almost all of it, not completely)
4. Awesome Favites( starting to get some spots)
5. Sparkly Green Flavia (starting looks like, can’t really tell).
6. Green stars polyps ( was doing great with the anemone, it’s been about 3 or 4 days completely closed)
7. Salty Torch (looks good but is not as open as it was at the beginning.)
8. Duncan (looks to be doing good).

Before getting the corals I decided to get RedSea dosing pumps 2, the Trace elements and the trace colors, following their recipe. Currently dosing since is not full of corals:
Calcium 0.6
Alk 1.7
Mag 0.2
Reef energy 2.5
Iodine, Potassium, iron, trace 0.2

Seems to be keeping the parameters to:
7/23/23 7/28/23
Cal 477 477
Alk 202 212
Mag 1400 1400 ish
Iron N/A .5
Iodine N/A .6
Potassium N/A 320

PH is 8.0 to 8.1
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nítrate between 5.0ppm and 10ppm

Water changes every week or so.

I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong. The only thing I can think about is the light. I am getting the new Parwise USB meter to check on the par etc.

Any suggestions? Help pls.

 

[yanssy14]

what temperature you keeping?

 

[cmustang]

For got to add the light settings

 

[cmustang]

what temperature you keeping?

Steady 78

 

[Cell]

You are running fairly high alk, around 11dkh if my conversion is correct. Are you blindly dosing or is this your target?

 

[cmustang]

I am just trying to follow the recipe from RedSea.
Salinity 34ppm
Cal. 450 ppm
Mag 1350ppm
Alk 11.5 dkh

For the Alk I am using the Hanna tester. Should I stop dosing Alk?

 

[cmustang]

You are running fairly high alk, around 11dkh if my conversion is correct. Are you blindly dosing or is this your target?

I was following this as well.

 

[cmustang]

I was following this as well.

Should I let it drop to 165ppm so it will be around 9 dkh

 

[Bribo12]

I can see multiple issues going on. Lots of what looks like gha which would tell me you have a nutrient imbalance issue. Also no need to dose anything right now. Nothing is growing so nothing is using it. Sometimes simple is the best way to go especially in small tanks.

I’d start by doing small water changes and trying to pull out as much algae as you can. Maybe 1-2 gallon water changes every other day or so.

 

[cmustang]

I can see multiple issues going on. Lots of what looks like gha which would tell me you have a nutrient imbalance issue. Also no need to dose anything right now. Nothing is growing so nothing is using it. Sometimes simple is the best way to go especially in small tanks.

I’d start by doing small water changes and trying to pull out as much algae as you can. Maybe 1-2 gallon water changes every other day or so.

Ok, I will stop the dosing all together and do a 2 gallon water change every other day. Thank you. I will post an update.

 

[cmustang]

I stopped all dosing and I did a 5G WC on Friday, another 5G today. Torch is getting smaller and smaller every day. Should I move it to a different part of the tank? Should I change my lights? Duncan and Anemone look great.

 

[nothing_fancy]

How are you mixing your salt water, where is your RO coming from, what is your salinity and do you match it per water change? I agree that you should stop dosing everything. I'd make sure mix is good with salt water and that your ATO is topping off with RO that is not compromised. After all that Id send a Test out to ATI or something similar, then report those results in this thread and somebody can definitely help you.

 

[cmustang]

I have a BRS 7 stage pro plus 150 GPD water saver RO/DI System where I get all my water from since I am in Arizona and out water hardiness is high. I am using the Red Sea salt, mixing to 34.5 to 35 with the Hanna marine salinity tester (calibrated every month) every water change. The ATO reservoir is filled with the RO water.
I did get the water tested on Jun 27. When I got the results I did a WC asap (5G) since PHOS were high to 2.5, following weeks (5G). I have been doing WC every week without fail.
I will do another 5G WC tomorrow Wednesday and get another test out. Also, I just received my PARwise so I would be able to check the lighting. As soon as I figure out how to use the PARwise and get some results, I will post a pic.
Thank you for your help.