help with nano reef

[ARGYGANG]

hello fellow reefers im having issues with my nano reef and im not sure whats causing them im thinking it could be a mix of things so ill start from the beginning. the tank is a 10 gallon reef with two 2 inch clownfish and a 2 inch coral beauty (shes growing out so she is not a snack for my bigger fish in my bigger tank) the equipment i am using is a aqueon hob filter a sicce 360 gph wave maker a breeder box (the fluval ones that hang on the outside im using it to add water volume) a nicrew 50 watt running at 50% blues for 8 hours a day with 30 minutes of ramp up and ramp down and im also using a green killing machine uv sterilizer. the corals in my tank are a neon green toadstool, fire work cloves, waving hand anthelia,pulsing xenia, two different kinds of gsp, a florida recordia, a green and purple hairy, two different kinds of zoas and two different kinds of gorgonian. my issue is my green hairy has almost melted away and my green toadstool will not open at all everything else is doing awesome zoas are growing like weeds so is xenia and gsp. my feeding schedule is three times a day only as much as the fish can eat of cobalt aquatics marine omni flakes. tank parameters are as follows ammonia zero nitrite zero nitrate zero (probably in the .1-.9 range im using a liquid test by serra for everything but magnesium) calcium is 520 and magnesium is 1450, ph is a 8.1 and phosphate is at .03 and salinity of 1.026. i keep my tank at 76.3 that does not swing very much at all and hardly ever. i do water changes once every two weeks about a gallon and a half. my coral beauty had never been seen harrasing coral or anything of that nature ive had her since she was only a bit bigger than a thumb nail. the inverts i keep are two hermits and a cherry shrimp. my lfs told me to feed more and do less tank maintance because my tank was to clean but in doing that my leather opens a bit more but now my yellow gsp will not open up nothing has changed except one additional feeding per day (thats why i feed 3x a day now) and im doing slightly less water per water change. im really just slightly confused as to whats happening im aware my calc and mag are slightly to high but im wondering if a large % water change of 50% or so would do my tank some good to drop those levels down a decent amount and alot closer to safe/normal levels. attached are some tank pics. the pictures really dont do it any good but i figured i would add them just incase. you can kind of see the ghm melting and things like that

 

[ARGYGANG]

this is my leather coral you can barely see it but normally its polyps are 10x longer than this and its body is normally twice as big like a pom pom or something of that nature its much smaller than usual and its been like this for over a month and some change. also forgot to add i dont have a alk test kit.

 

[face]

low nitrate? get it up to like 20ppm

 

[ARGYGANG]

low nitrate? get it up to like 20ppm

I’ve been trying for a while I’m going to stop doing water changes all together for a few months and see what changes. It’s been really quite a challenge because I don’t know what else I can do to add nitrates besides feed more or add more fish and I’m trying to avoid anymore fish since the tank is already “over stocked”

 

[face]

I’ve been trying for a while I’m going to stop doing water changes all together for a few months and see what changes. It’s been really quite a challenge because I don’t know what else I can do to add nitrates besides feed more or add more fish and I’m trying to avoid anymore fish since the tank is already “over stocked”

Ya its the easiest just dump fish food in. doesnt matter if they eat it.

 

[GatorGreg]

Is your water as cloudy as those pics make it look? Or is your glass that dirty. If your water is that cloudy that’s not good.

 

[ARGYGANG]

Is your water as cloudy as those pics make it look? Or is your glass that dirty. If your water is that cloudy that’s not good.

Water is crystal clear just have coralin stains on the glass.

 

[Nano_Man]

If you don’t want to feed your fish too much or add any more fish . You could dose to bring it up to the level you want . Just a thought if nitrate is low

 

[ARGYGANG]

If you don’t want to feed your fish too much or add any more fish . You could dose to bring it up to the level you want . Just a thought if nitrate is low

Added a tail spot and a gramma I was gonna add to another tank, any other ideas on small fish I could add? Also would flakes or frozen food make nitrates go up more?

 

[Nano_Man]

Added a tail spot and a gramma I was gonna add to another tank, any other ideas on small fish I could add? Also would flakes or frozen food make nitrates go up more?

What is your phosphate level at the moment
If you have just added fish see how your nitrate goes. Feed as normal flake / frozen ect your normal routine
If you’re phosphate isn’t sky high you could slow down on water changes and see if nitrate improves .

 

[ARGYGANG]

What is your phosphate level at the moment
If you have just added fish see how your nitrate goes. Feed as normal flake / frozen ect your normal routine
If you’re phosphate isn’t sky high you could slow down on water changes and see if nitrate improves .

phosphate is.03 as of now. im gonna go ahead and get a pj and bangaii in qt i want them anyways but if nitrate does not improve ill add them (reef beauties sells small fish but good fish so they will be fine in a 10 gallon for a while)