Frustrated. Need opinions. Talk me off the cliff :)

[beesnreefs]

I appreciate you if you stick with me on this...want to be sure you have all the info.

Started a 225g mixed reef 4 months ago. Tried really hard to "do things right". OceanDirect live sand, some live sand and rock from AquaBiomics, marco rock scape. Quarantined fish from reputable QT vendors. No lighting for the first 6 weeks followed by slow ramp up over 2 months. I introduced healthy LPS first, then 15 SPS frags I'd been holding for a few months in another system.

Over the past 3 weeks it seems things have gone to heck and I'm struggling personally about it all. Here are the issues I'm having:

• A couple tiny patches of what appears to be red cyano. (FWIW, only in a low flow spot in the tank)
• What looks like chrysophytes, although I do not have a microscope to confirm.
• In the last month or so, after being able to go days without cleaning the glass, I can't go more than 24 hours now
• A white-tailed bristletooth tang I've had for 2 years (in my other system) suddenly developed black ich a month after moving to the new tank. (I'm getting PraziPro tomorrow and will treat the entire tank)
• A big royal gramma I've had for 2 years suddenly decided to die today
• 2 weeks ago, my torches and gonis started acting angry (FWIW, all my SPS and other LPS like trachy, acantho, scoly, etc are absolutely fine)

Here's what everything looks like so far - first part of vid you'll see the chrysophytes, then some happy corals, then the ticked off torches and gonis:

Now, I will say this....nitrates bottomed out on me a few weeks ago. At that point I increased dosing of aminos and feeding of fish to no avail so last week I started dosing NeoNitro. Current parameters are:

Alk = 7.7
Calc = 410
Mag = 1350
Phosphate = 0.04
Nitrate = 0.5
pH = 8.3

Here's what else I've been doing:

• I've added several jars of pods in the last 2 months and can see both copepods and amphipods in the tank and sump
• Dose phyto daily (AlgaeBarn Ocean Magik, 30 mL a day) since the lights went on and pods were first introduced
• Dose Aquaforest Power Elixr daily (12-15 mL) for aminos/vitamins
• Did the Aquabiomics in-tank cipro treatment for the torches just in case. I saw no change.
• Weekly 8-10% water changes since the tank started up.
• Cut down on skimming. Was 24/7, no runs 16 hours a day.
• I ordered some live rock from Tampa Bay Live Rocks but they won't be here for a couple of weeks.

I'm certain I'm missing things and am 100% open to questions. Part of me thinks, this is just part of the first year in a tank's life and I just need to be patient....but man it's hard watching some of those corals struggle, and I see some beautiful tanks out there without a lick of the brown nastiness I have on my rock and sand and get discouraged.

Please help me regain some hope

What do you think R2R community?

 

[jsker]

Part of me thinks, this is just part of the first year in a tank's life and I just need to be patient

After 7 years I am still going through the same thing. You said it, reefing takes a great deal of patience. Your tank is always constant cycling when we make change to our systems. It took me a year to get my nutrient to settle down.

I have had a couple of crashes and I had major crash about two years ago. I set out how to learn how to fix the crash and learn a great deal.

One of the best pieces of advice I got a while back is “make a change, wait two week to see what happens, make another change and wait another 2 weeks”. I us my build thread to document my changes to refer back too.

My question is what type of light are you using?

 

[davidcalgary29]

I think that you need to give yourself a pat on the back for keeping a complex ecosystem alive in a glass box. Most tanks are never going to be awarded any type of prize -- let alone those up for four months -- but it's difficult to accept that when you're just bombarded, day after day, with snaps of picture-perfect tanks on every social media platform. I think your plans are solid and you're doing just fine.

 

[LiverockRocks]

Hiya, happened across your thread and see you’ve placed an order with us. Think you have Rubble coming.

Couple thoughts after seeing your tank: there is so much potential there and good things happening, try not to be discouraged. Your tank is young and still maturing, it’ll take a turn for the better.
Like a puppy, a tank isn’t truly mature until it reaches 2 years and older, lol.
Try not to make drastic changes or quick changes to the system in terms of dosing or additives, it will bite back down the road.

You might increase the size of water changes to 20% for awhile, vacuum the sand bed, refresh the clean up crew, go easy on Elixer, let the skimmer run, try to keep parameters stable with slow changes to dosing as needed... do you have a sump with refugium or cryptic zone?

To conclude, it’s going to get better, your on the right track!

 

[HomebroodExotics]

It's not really that bad IMO man. I think it's an easy fix. I would Just stop dosing aminos and phyto and let it work itself out. I think you are over feeding the aminos and fueling dinos and all kinds of nasties. Let the tank stabilize, it's going to take a while.

 

[beesnreefs]

After 7 years I am still going through the same thing. You said it, reefing takes a great deal of patience. Your tank is always constant cycling when we make change to our systems. It took me a year to get my nutrient to settle down.

I have had a couple of crashes and I had major crash about two years ago. I set out how to learn how to fix the crash and learn a great deal.

One of the best pieces of advice I got a while back is “make a change, wait two week to see what happens, make another change and wait another 2 weeks”. I us my build thread to document my changes to refer back too.

My question is what type of light are you using?

That’s for piping in. I appreciate the perspective

I run three ATI Stratons. Just mapped PAR a couple of weeks ago. Torch island is getting about 150, SPS are in the 250 range, and most of the corals on the sand are hitting around 100. Lights ramp up in blue from 6 - 9:30 am then shift to full spectrum. At peak from 9:30 - 4:30 then ramp down again in blue from 4:30 - 6:30 pm

 

[beesnreefs]

Hiya, happened across your thread and see you’ve placed an order with us. Think you have Rubble coming.

Couple thoughts after seeing your tank: there is so much potential there and good things happening, try not to be discouraged. Your tank is young and still maturing, it’ll take a turn for the better.
Like a puppy, a tank isn’t truly mature until it reaches 2 years and older, lol.
Try not to make drastic changes or quick changes to the system in terms of dosing or additives, it will bite back down the road.

You might increase the size of water changes to 20% for awhile, vacuum the sand bed, refresh the clean up crew, go easy on Elixer, let the skimmer run, try to keep parameters stable with slow changes to dosing as needed... do you have a sump with refugium or cryptic zone?

To conclude, it’s going to get better, your on the right track!

Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I really appreciate it, @LiverockRocks

To answer your question, I do not run a refugium. I do, however, have a small pile of Marco rock in the sump. A couple of months ago I soaked the rock overnight in PNS ProBio substrate sauce and then placed it in the sump. That area of the sump has a moderate population of pineapple sponges growing there as well as copepods and amphipods.

My concern with reducing the Elixr dosing and increasing water change percentage is that I already have ultra-low nutrients. I’m worried I’m starving the torches and gonis which is why they are so unhappy (those corals refusing to extend polyps coincides with my nutrients bottoming out). What do you think?

 

[maroun.c]

As me tinned believe tank is still young and not much beyond cycle. I say make larger water changes 1-2 times per month vs smaller weekly changes as that cleans thing up a bit more IMO.
An ICP might help u better understand how things are going and maybe to correct few elements that are way out of range at least.
I'd double check the nitrates reading as with all u mentioned and how tank is looking I'd believe po4 and no3 would be on the high side.
Decrease ur lights to allow corals to better acclimated and go up gradually after u ve added many more corals ....

 

[beesnreefs]

As me tinned believe tank is still young and not much beyond cycle. I say make larger water changes 1-2 times per month vs smaller weekly changes as that cleans thing up a bit more IMO.
An ICP might help u better understand how things are going and maybe to correct few elements that are way out of range at least.
I'd double check the nitrates reading as with all u mentioned and how tank is looking I'd believe po4 and no3 would be on the high side.
Decrease ur lights to allow corals to better acclimated and go up gradually after u ve added many more corals ....

Thanks for adding your thoughts. Really appreciate it.

I sent an ICP test to Triton last week. Hoping to have results this week. Partially because I want to confirm my home test results, partially to see if I’m off on any trace elements, and partially to see if I have any toxins in the system.

I have been testing nitrates daily, phosphates and alk every 2-3 days with a Hanna checker. I test calcium and magnesium every 3-5 days lately with Salifert kits.