Having a lot of trouble with setup, any help/suggestions would be appreciated!

Surferboy1500 · May 22, 2021

Hi - First off, sorry in advance for the lengthy message, I don’t really have a simple problem here and I want to try to provide as much information as possible but I'll do as succinct as I can. I’m looking for any suggestions to what else could be wrong in my setup.

I setup my 180G peninsula style tank I setup a year ago (May 2020). I used the zeovit method to cycle the tank with a negative space aquascape (NSA) with new marco rocks. I moved about 40-50 lbs of the rock from my other tank in as well around mid-May. New sand and let cycle a until July before moving my corals and fish. I continue the zeovit method and have been religious the entire time about dosing regimen and ensuring the right water volume through the reactor. Filtration using bubble king skimmer and zeovit. Lighint 5x radion G5 pros, set with AB+ setup @ 80% intensity. Flow produced through two mp60s (40-60%) and two icecap gyre 4K (80-100%). Return vetra m2 @ 80%.

In July, I moved all the fish/corals (mixed reef but mostly SPS) and went through a small mini-cycle which I didn't notice ammonia in daily testing but did get algae breakouts that I already went through at the setup. I got that under control after tweaking a couple things and after some time, probably 3-4 weeks.

My tank has been incredibly stable for everything I could test and I'm using a trident to test MG/CA/Alk but I continue to see little/no growth and high die off of any corals I put in (some STN/some RTN). Its incredibly perplexing and frustrating.

Alkalinity has barely moved more than between 7.6-7.9. I had a half a day I wasn't dosing that dropped alk to 7.1 2 months ago, but I slowly got it back up after a week or so through the extra dosing trident does automatically.
Magnesium1330-1370 for MG
Calcium 435-465
Nitrates are dosed and I maintain 2.5 ppm (tested twice a week to ensure I'm not causing imbalance with dosing).
Phosphates range a little high at .05-.08 (tested at least weekly but twice a week when at .08).
34ppt salinity (was nearer 33-33.5ppt when I did the ICP test and have been slowly getting this up by using 35.5ppt new water).
Phosphate tested regularly and found between 400-420 (one drop is ~20ppm) Also tested with ICP test, results below.
I’ve also tested nitrites/ammonia randomly when I see something bad happening but always register 0.
pH 8-8.25
Temp 78-79

I do a 10% water change weekly. Mixed in a mixing station and I get temperature same as tank before starting. I’ve tested the water a few times before putting in and nothing was noticed that was super off from the above parameters (except for 0 phosphates/nitrates in new water).

I do have a sergeant major fish that kicks sand around the tank daily. While he does this, it does get a little cloudy but its usually not significant and never had an issue in my old tank.

I’ve checked for stray voltage.

My ICP results are (I took out any expected zeros where it tested zero):

That's all I can think of right now. Let me know if anyone can think of any ideas. I’m running out of patience as I just lost several long time corals I’ve had that do well in my biocube (and in the previous tank).

Let me know if anyone can think of any ideas. I’m running out of patience as I just lost several long time corals I’ve had that do well in my biocube (and in the previous tank).

gentlefish · May 22, 2021

You did a lot of research and put a lot of thoughts into this, and on first glance I can’t find anything wrong though I like nitrates a bit higher. And yes pictures may help. Is this an SPS specific problem? If so, are there concerns re pests, inclusive on a bacterial level? Are all your corals qtd and dipped? What happens if you move an affected coral in a different tank?

stephj03 · May 23, 2021

How many fish do you have, what do you feed them and how often?

Surferboy1500 · May 23, 2021

Fish List:
Purple tang
Yellow tang
Blue tang
Melanarus wrasse
Sergeant major
Fire shrimp
Engineering goby
Biota captive-bred seals cardinalfish x 3
Clownfish x 2
Pajama cardinals x 4
Royal gramma
Fire fish
Princess Anthias x 3
Blue streak cleaner wrasse
Blue green chromis

New corals are dipped in coral Rx but Fed daily TDO medium pellets through Neptune AFS one time a day and then frozen food every other day and one 3”x3” nori daily. Pellets probably making PO3 higher but as mentioned, it doesn’t go past .08.

The problem is more pronounced on my SPS but I’ve also lost some of my LPS. Had a huge colony of kryptonite candy cane 50 heads die back a lot and a huge 12x6 chalice that bit the dust. Also lost my torch and my clam has been unhappy for a week now that I’ve had for multiple years no problems. Nothing is really thriving. For a year, I don’t see any real growth. For some stuff that has had some growth, more like what I’d see in a couple months vs almost a year. Several corals got tip burn (not really sure how and was testing manually all at the time, can only assume my lighting was too high, which somehow got to 100% in the app) and those have not recovered even after 4-6 months. Pictures to follow.

Surferboy1500 · May 23, 2021

all Dead:

Monti half dead:

Struggling clam:

Couple before and after (can see little growth and die off):

most recent coral to die, this thing has been in my tanks 1.5 years:

More slow die off:

I have so many more but trying to dig through my pics. Lost colonies that were thriving previously. Tried to backfill but I lost 30+ frags/small colonies over the past 4-6 months.

my only other tank running right now is my biocube and I’m battling green hair algae there so I don’t want to put any sticks there. I did move a couple Montis there and they colored back up more than in my main tank. I can get more/better pics if you have specific things you want to see. Coralline all over rocks.

gentlefish · May 23, 2021

So sad to see, but it makes me more stumped than before. Gather things work better in the other tank, so no coral pest. Lots of coraline. I saw the ICP. No withstanding have you tried absorption of “whatever” …carbon? Can the “whatever” be killed with Uv? Can you quantify PAR readings? Is the other tank also low nutrient zeovit?

stephj03 · May 24, 2021

Besides coralline, do you have much algae in the display? How often do you have to clean the glass? That doesn't seem like a lot of feeds for a 180g Zeo rig to me.

This feels like a nutrient throughput thing but Ill be honest, I don't know Zeo well. I would maybe start with the clam if it can be easily removed. Order some phyto or other fine food (oyster feast etc) and put the clam in a bucket with that food mixed in fairly rich.

If the clam improves after a few wks if doing this 1-2x/wk for an hour or 2 you may just be too lean on nutrients even though your residuals test out fine. Residuals are not the same as available nutrients IMO. If that pans out, it may be as simple as feeding more, which you could also try (go to 3 AFS feeds/dy?)

Alternatively you could turn your lights down further. If you are nutrient throughput limited, less light may be better balanced to the amount of growth your nutrient throughput can support.

Surferboy1500 · May 24, 2021

Clean the glass twice weekly. I don't have a ton of other algae in the tank since the algae bloom I had last year with the exception that I do see some algae growth on those corals that had tip burn. Sometimes after I do zeovit AA or coral vitalizer, I will have a little higher algae growth on glass or on sandbed but its usually temporary. I just ordered oyster feast so should be here in a couple days and will try out the suggestion Stephj03 suggested.

I should also mention, my current uptake is 50mL/daily for calcium and alk dosing. Back when I moved the corals, the first two months were nearer 100mL/day and then it fell off but 70-80 was normal back in old tank (so I'm seeing less uptake of nutrients/less growth.