Got all the gear and did all the research but its not enough

[MoH]

Hello Reef2Reef community.

Today I would like to introduce you to my main tank and myself in this hobby. I have done tons of research and have been in this hobby now for almost 7 years. Below is my Red Sea Reefer 250, it is my dream tank. I planned and built this tank and it has been running now for about 2 years. As you can see I have invested in a lot of gear and did tons of research to try keeping corals. I do regular water changes have a quarantine system and a separate frag tank. But regardless of all the money invested into this thing and time spent researching I fail to keep my corals happy and thriving. I have lost many corals over the years.... I just simply can not figure out why I fail so hard with keeping corals when I feel like I know enough about them to be a freaking marine biologist. The execution of this tank is flawed somewhere and I need help identifying where that is. I would love some feedback from you experts out there. I regularly test my tanks and all the basics so please give me usable feedback... I would really like to know what your success stories are and what you would do to turn this tank around.

Some thoughts I had were to up my flow
I need to figure out why I cant maintain good constant alk levels with such small amounts of coral
why does ca stay so high in this tank

another note - When I add corals to this tank they do really well for about a month even show some growth and encrust but then they go downhill fast

 

[MoH]

Here are the images

 

[MoH]

Trident testing results below

 

[Travis Wagner]

I had a similar issue with my trident- the calcium was always elevated and I couldn’t get it in check. After a couple months I decided to calibrate it with the included solution and now everything is much more accurate.

 

[MoH]

I had a similar issue with my trident- the calcium was always elevated and I couldn’t get it in check. After a couple months I decided to calibrate it with the included solution and now everything is much more accurate.

Hi Travis- So I figured that was the problem and I did end up recalibrating this trident and it still shows high. You think I should run that calibration again? It was my understanding that calibrating the trident was only going to make a small adjustment and that for the most part it was very accurate

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

Hello Reef2Reef community.

Today I would like to introduce you to my main tank and myself in this hobby. I have done tons of research and have been in this hobby now for almost 7 years. Below is my Red Sea Reefer 250, it is my dream tank. I planned and built this tank and it has been running now for about 2 years. As you can see I have invested in a lot of gear and did tons of research to try keeping corals. I do regular water changes have a quarantine system and a separate frag tank. But regardless of all the money invested into this thing and time spent researching I fail to keep my corals happy and thriving. I have lost many corals over the years.... I just simply can not figure out why I fail so hard with keeping corals when I feel like I know enough about them to be a freaking marine biologist. The execution of this tank is flawed somewhere and I need help identifying where that is. I would love some feedback from you experts out there. I regularly test my tanks and all the basics so please give me usable feedback... I would really like to know what your success stories are and what you would do to turn this tank around.

Some thoughts I had were to up my flow
I need to figure out why I cant maintain good constant alk levels with such small amounts of coral
why does ca stay so high in this tank

another note - When I add corals to this tank they do really well for about a month even show some growth and encrust but then they go downhill fast

What is your normal bioload?

 

[ahiggins]

36.3 is pretty high for salinity. If the chart on the left correlates your evaporation and top off, that’s a pretty high fluctuation rate.

 

[MoH]

What is your normal bioload?

I have a Yellow Tang, 2 clowns. 1 Cleaner shrimp, 1 Dimond Goby, several snails and an urchin. I feed very light 4-5 times a week sometimes less. PE flakes and Pellets for the tang I add nori maybe every other week for like 20 min then pull it out.

 

[MoH]

36.3 is pretty high for salinity. If the chart on the left correlates your evaporation and top off, that’s a pretty high fluctuation rate.

This is a good observation - Salinity for the most part is very stable in this tank. The last couple of days we are dealing with a major Heat Wave so it is not the best example of the norm in this image from today. I also mainly go off my Hannah salinity checker vs the conductivity prob on the apex.

 

[Travis Wagner]

Hi Travis- So I figured that was the problem and I did end up recalibrating this trident and it still shows high. You think I should run that calibration again? It was my understanding that calibrating the trident was only going to make a small adjustment and that for the most part it was very accurate

When you calibrated it did you position the solution bottle at about the height of the sample line‘s in-tank placement? I was convinced that was what made the difference for me, that’s just my assumption.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

What else do you use to test with besides Apex? You should cross check Cal/Alk/Mag/Salinity and also test for Nitrate & Phosphate. Let’s get some legit numbers and we can help you from there. If those numbers are correct, that might be your issue.

 

[Shawn_epicurious]

I have a Yellow Tang, 2 clowns. 1 Cleaner shrimp, 1 Dimond Goby, several snails and an urchin. I feed very light 4-5 times a week sometimes less. PE flakes and Pellets for the tang I add nori maybe every other week for like 20 min then pull it out.

I am going to wait and let the real experts weigh in.... following this.

it doesn’t look like you have anything in your tank using Ca?

 

[Nick Steele]

Just a few thoughts.


1) Your alk seems really low. Which salt are you using and what are the parameters of a new batch of saltwater.

2) Probably not a big deal but I would want to keep a more stable temp. I see a heat wave is that way?

 

[lazlodawg]

Hmmm... Couple of ideas to throw out there- Salinity should be more consistent with a tank that size. When you do a water change, do the parameters match?
What / how much are you dosing Alk / Calcium / Magnesium?
What lights and what intensity/schedule?
Do the corals slowly fade or is it tissue loss or both?

 

[MoH]

What else do you use to test with besides Apex? You should cross check Cal/Alk/Mag/Salinity and also test for Nitrate & Phosphate. Let’s get some legit numbers and we can help you from there. If those numbers are correct, that might be your issue.

I test cal/alk with hannah instruments checker I do not test mag with anything else anymore. I test nitrate with red sea but to be honest it has been many weeks since I have tested nitrates they always seem to be in the 5-20 range. Phosphate I test with Hannah also.

 

[MoH]

When you calibrated it did you position the solution bottle at about the height of the sample line‘s in-tank placement? I was convinced that was what made the difference for me, that’s just my assumption.

I am going to try that and recalibrate it but from what I remember it takes like an hour or so to run that calibration so ill keep you posted on how that goes

 

[MoH]

Hmmm... Couple of ideas to throw out there- Salinity should be more consistent with a tank that size. When you do a water change, do the parameters match?
What / how much are you dosing Alk / Calcium / Magnesium?
What lights and what intensity/schedule?
Do the corals slowly fade or is it tissue loss or both?

Good questions

Water change with Brightwell always - 5 to 10 gal weekly
Only dosing alk right now 10ml a day that is the PH spike you see on the chart
2 radion xr15 g4 on the tank lighting schedule is a super low ab+ if only the dang reef link would connect I can send you the screen shot lol
Corals do really well for about a month then they start slowly looking really sad before they RIP

 

[MoH]

Just a few thoughts.


1) Your alk seems really low. Which salt are you using and what are the parameters of a new batch of saltwater.

2) Probably not a big deal but I would want to keep a more stable temp. I see a heat wave is that way?

Yeah last couple of days here in town have been 100 plus days (not normal for where I live)

 

[MoH]

So based on the feedback so far I think I need to provide more information. Here is my next steps

Recalibrate the trident
Run ca/alk test with Hannah
Run a nitrate test
Run a phosphate test

Should I stop dosing alk for now? maybe the trident is just wrong

 

[MoH]

so here are the results of salinity check

Looks like the conductivity probe on apex is trippin out

Refractometer reading about 1.025
Hannah salinity checker 1.024