Corals starting to die

[Phillyd1990]

Ive recently started my tank its 3 months old. 55 gal Tank is 4' long 12" wide and 20" deep. I added coral about two weeks ago. They were doing great at first even better than at the lfs but have recently taken a turn. My frogspawn wont extend at all. I have a big zoa colony that doesnt really open. My toadstool used to extend its polyps but now stays shrivled. My xenia also used to extend much more but now looks very short. My parameters are:

PH: 8.0
Amm:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:10
Calcium:420
Alk:11

Tests all done using api drop kits.

Livestock:
1: powder brown tang
1: yellow tang
2: clown
1:domino damsel


Lighting: using fluval 48" marine and reef led(not 2.0 but plenty of daylight) supplementing with reef bright led strip full actinic 48".

Eshopps sump using micron bad with chaeto in refugium.

Tunze comline doc skimmer 9004

Marine land 350 bio wheel filter

Crushed coral substrate but i vac it when i do WC

I recently changed up my feeding schedule for my fish as i was over feeding. I feed every other day now with mysis shrimp and brine shrimp half a cube each. I used to do a cube of both every day.
Ive been doing 15% wc but now switching to 20%.

I have one hydor powerhead 450 but ordered a 600 hydor to add and its on the way. My return is a rio 1700. If i forgot anything please let me know.

 

[Phillyd1990]

Here are some before and after pics.

 

[reef lover]

Alk is pretty high...and I gotta say that's a lot of tang for a 55...

 

[Phillyd1990]

I realized that after i added the powder but i dont plan on adding any more fish than what i already have, just coral.

 

[reef lover]

Try lowering ur alk slowly..let it come down on its own..to 8_9 and see if that perks things up....

 

[Lovemycj7]

Couple of comments

Alk high with low nutrients can be hard. I keep alk around 8 in a mixed reef. When things don't look right water change is usually a good solution. What are you dosing? Salt brand? How often water change?

And your tangs are going to outgrow your tank. It's not how many fish it's what they need to be healthy

Did you say you are feeding every other day? Long term that is unhealthy. Your tang naturally wants to graze all day. Most people clip nori so it can do that. Personally I feed 3 times a day and have a sheet of nori hanging. Try looking into nutrient export methods to control nutrients. Not feeding your fish is harmful to them. Hope that helps.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Try lowering ur alk slowly..let it come down on its own..to 8_9 and see if that perks things up....

+1 and avoid PH buffers like the plague.

Couple of comments

Alk high with low nutrients can be hard. I keep alk around 8 in a mixed reef. When things don't look right water change is usually a good solution. What are you dosing? Salt brand? How often water change?

And your tangs are going to outgrow your tank. It's not how many fish it's what they need to be healthy

Did you say you are feeding every other day? Long term that is unhealthy. Your tang naturally wants to graze all day. Most people clip nori so it can do that. Personally I feed 3 times a day and have a sheet of nori hanging. Try looking into nutrient export methods to control nutrients. Not feeding your fish is harmful to them. Hope that helps.

+1, feed healthfully.

 

[Phillyd1990]

Ill continue to feed the way i was before then. Ill just spilt it to two smaller feedings a day to make sure it gets eaten. Ive been dosing with b iconic calcium and alk. Although i havnt used the alk yet because its always been high. Ive done 4 15-20% water changes the past 2 weeks including one today. ive been using instant ocean salt. I test the the replacement water to make sure salinity, ph, and water temp is all the same.

 

[nervousmonkey]

In terms of the corals, I would add that IME, high alk, low to no nutrients and softies do not go well together. You need a higher nitrate concentration for those corals. They need the NO3 and PO4 to grow tissue, which is probably why you are seeing them retract; they have nothing with which to grow. You can use Seachem Nitrogen to bring that level up, and there is a formula for how to calculate the amount of nitrate you are adding so you can test for it. Let me know if you need more info on the formula or how to add it. There are other ways, but for a beginner, Seachem is easy, just dose it and go.

 

[Phillyd1990]

Okay sounds good. Ill give that a try!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

was the crushed coral and a lot of the rock dry when you put it in or live?

 

[Phillyd1990]

It was all dry. I used the carib sea rock.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It was all dry. I used the carib sea rock.

yea, that and the IO are giving you a higher alk. I would skip some water changes. The tank will use the alk and the nutrints will increase naturally.

you haven't noticed snail death have you?

 

[Phillyd1990]

Actually yes i had turbo snails in there but they didnt do so well. Could that be due to lack if nutrients?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Actually yes i had turbo snails in there but they didnt do so well. Could that be due to lack if nutrients?

not 100% sure, in your case. Snails do die from starvation in a young tank with no algaes. In my transfer a few years a go I used 30% live sand from my old tank and the rest dry. I waited 30 days and added the snails, they basically got burned by the buffering of the sand. They only would stay on the good live rocks I used.

 

[Phillyd1990]

The reason i put them in in the first place was to clean the algae from my rocks. My tank would build up with algae every time i cleaned it. It was brown algae and now its all green.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The reason i put them in in the first place was to clean the algae from my rocks. My tank would build up with algae every time i cleaned it. It was brown algae and now its all green.

yea you did the right thing. new tanks are just tricky. Theres a lot of variables and a lot of weird Info out there. I added a huge amount of dry sand as was told it was fine to do.

I think your ok. skip some water changes. feed well, spot feed the corals when their open. Im not 100% convinced you have enough light but that a total guess.
if you have any bottled bacteria Id use a little bit daily.

 

[Phillyd1990]

Ok sounds good ill give it a try. As far as light goes i could always add another reef brite les strip. Would another actinic be ok or should i do 50/50 white and actinic?

 

[AcroNem]

I'm going to agree with the above, and I'm also going to ask that you test for phosphate, with a reliable test kit. API isn't the most accurate way. Those dry rocks (I've used caribsea rubble and it leached for a very long time) usually leach a lot of phosphate after they're added. I also think you may not have enough light. If you're adding another strip I'd choose a 50/50.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ok sounds good ill give it a try. As far as light goes i could always add another reef brite les strip. Would another actinic be ok or should i do 50/50 white and actinic?

I would probably not do anything yet really. I do agree the WB would be a better choice insted of the B only, but again just a guess as I dont know how much its putting out.

I do have to disagree a bit on Po4, or my whole tank would be dead. But def test it. on API its knda some or none or a lot. If you have some its prob ok(.25 error) but if you have a lot it will say a lot.