I’m getting desperate! I cannot pinpoint my issue

[150 Gallon Reef]

I NEED HELP TERRIBLY! I have been losing coral slowly for the past month with no answers in sight.
Some corals look fine and others lose tissue and die slowly or quickly. The sps start dying from the tips down. The remaining sps are dull in color and look terrible. I’m losing war coral, acans, chalices, sps, plates, and my pectinia. My torches, hammers, one plate and large toadstool are doing fine so far.

My tank is 10 months old and was cycled using real Aussie live rock. I’m running reef breeders lights, skimmer which works great, refugium, and triton 4 part dosing method. I see no pests. My testing levels have been stable for the past 2 months without having to do any water changes with the triton dosing. My levels are as followed:
Mag: 1350 Red Sea
Alk: 8.1 DKH Red Sea
Cal: 435 Red Sea
Nitrate- 8 Red Sea
Po4- .04 Red Sea
PH- 8.2 probe

I also just got my results back from my ICP test and I cannot find an answer. I will post a link to my ICP test. I am this close from sellingtt the remaining corals and starting from over with them. I don’t know what else could be causing these issues. I am losing the most basic corals which is making this tank seem like such a failure. Please help! Maybe I’m missing something.


ICP TEST LINK: https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/234192

 

[Lavey29]

Tank looks dark. What are your par numbers?

 

[braaap]

Iodine and potassium. Buy some ME Coral iodine. Dose 3 drops a day. Measure your potassium and get it in line. Guarantee in 2-3 weeks you’ll see a change.

Your ICP shows them on the lower end. I was having the same issues as you. Soon as I brought them up everything started flourishing.

 

[JonoH]

What lights are you running, and what % are they at?
It does look dark in the pics.

Have you checked with a PAR meter?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Agree with above requests for info on the light, low light is my first thought as well.

 

[150 Gallon Reef]

so my lighting looks dark in the pictures just for photo purposes. I use reef breeder photons and slowly ramp them up throughout the day. They max out at 100 percent blues, 30 percent ent white, and 10 percent red/green/UV for 2 hours. I’ve been running the same light schedule for a while now. I can get a hold of a par meter to confirm the lighting intensity.

 

[150 Gallon Reef]

Iodine and potassium. Buy some ME Coral iodine. Dose 3 drops a day. Measure your potassium and get it in line. Guarantee in 2-3 weeks you’ll see a change.

Your ICP shows them on the lower end. I was having the same issues as you. Soon as I brought them up everything started flourishing.

Okay, will order now. Will this take care of my potassium issue as well? Or do I need to order a potassium additive? What is strange is that I dose potassium nitrate daily in order to bring my nitrate levels up.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Okay, will order now. Will this take care of my potassium issue as well? Or do I need to order a potassium additive? What is strange is that I dose potassium nitrate daily in order to bring my nitrate levels up.

Potassium is exactly where it should be. It is not low and should not be added.

Iodine may or may not be useful (it was not for me) but it’s a fine thing to dose since it is low and may be useful.

 

[150 Gallon Reef]

Potassium is exactly where it should be. It is not low and should not be added.

Iodine may or may not be useful (it was not for me) but it’s a fine thing to dose since it is low and may be useful.

Are there any other trace elements that you can see are low? A few people on a Facebook page I’m in, said some of my trace elements were low or non existent.

 

[braaap]

Potassium is exactly where it should be. It is not low and should not be added.

Iodine may or may not be useful (it was not for me) but it’s a fine thing to dose since it is low and may be useful.

Potassium according to his ICP is on the low end at 399. Accounting for margin of error it could be outside of ideal ranges.

I keep mine around 420. Saw instant success when I got it above 400.

 

[braaap]

Okay, will order now. Will this take care of my potassium issue as well? Or do I need to order a potassium additive? What is strange is that I dose potassium nitrate daily in order to bring my nitrate levels up.

I also use the ME Coral potassium. And I test potassium with the salifert kit.

Maybe these things won’t fix your issues. But I’d put money on it they will. Your levels are on the low end. Get them up slightly and I bet you see changes.

 

[Koty]

Do you dose any carbon? if not you should, even though your phosphate and nitrates are where they should be. That is for the sake of feeding the microbiome of your tank

 

[Koty]

Potassium according to his ICP is on the low end at 399. Accounting for margin of error it could be outside of ideal ranges.

I keep mine around 420. Saw instant success when I got it above 400.

My 2 cents: we all draw conclusions from "experiments" that lack controls. Increasing K from 400 to 420 has little or no significance.

 

[rtparty]

If it were my tank, I’d start with multiple water changes to see if things turn around after each water change. There are a ton of things no test kit will ever tell us.

 

[icedgxe]

It may be some sort of contamination as well. You can try running a poly-pad and see if it picks anything up. Also test for stray voltage, look for any rusting magnets, etc. These may not be an issue, but it doesn’t hurt to rule them out.

 

[Kooma]

If it were my tank, I’d start with multiple water changes to see if things turn around after each water change. There are a ton of things no test kit will ever tell us.

It may be some sort of contamination as well. You can try running a poly-pad and see if it picks anything up. Also test for stray voltage, look for any rusting magnets, etc. These may not be an issue, but it doesn’t hurt to rule them out.

These.

I would also add some activated carbon to soak up anything that might be hurting the corals. change it every 2 days.

 

[ReefCheef]

so my lighting looks dark in the pictures just for photo purposes. I use reef breeder photons and slowly ramp them up throughout the day. They max out at 100 percent blues, 30 percent ent white, and 10 percent red/green/UV for 2 hours. I’ve been running the same light schedule for a while now. I can get a hold of a par meter to confirm the lighting intensity.

That sounds like a very low lighting schedule for SPS. Photon's are ok but they're more considered budget lights, so to only have them on for 2 hrs at peak intensity is probably light starving acros.

Also, 10 months is too young of a tank to have acros, regardless of what any YouTube video or forum post says. Your tank still has major swings, and those alone are enough to kill acros. Is it possible to keep acros at 10 months? Maybe. Is it likely? heck no.

 

[Kooma]

2 Hours peak, bump that up to 6-7 hours. 12-13 hours total light.

Id go off to 100% in 30 min, run 100% for 6 hours, drop to 80% for 6 hours, then ramp down to off in 30 min.

for the 100% cycle run full blues, 20% whites, no green reds cyan.
for the 80%, turn off the white and drop blues to 80%

World wide corals did a video on this, i recommend looking into it. This may blast your LPS and softies, see how they do after a few weeks. When you make a light change, dont touch it for atleast a month after unless you see bleaching.

 

[Pro-Reef Co.]

I’m betting it’s some kind of water contamination—either airborne from cleaning products or something like lotion, body wash, soap, etc.

You mentioned your test levels have been stable for two months without water changes thanks to Triton dosing, but something is clearly affecting your livestock and it’s not showing up in the parameters you've shared.

Begin doing weekly 15–20% water changes and watch for any improvements. Double-check your salinity while you're at it. Seriously—do the water changes. They're not just for managing nutrient levels, but also for removing contaminants we can’t easily test for.

Also, this might sound crazy… but inspect every piece of gear in your tank for any signs of rust. Trust me—I learned the hard way. :crying-face:

Happy Reefing!

 

[rtparty]

That sounds like a very low lighting schedule for SPS. Photon's are ok but they're more considered budget lights, so to only have them on for 2 hrs at peak intensity is probably light starving acros.

Also, 10 months is too young of a tank to have acros, regardless of what any YouTube video or forum post says. Your tank still has major swings, and those alone are enough to kill acros. Is it possible to keep acros at 10 months? Maybe. Is it likely? heck no.

Photons are used by some of the best acro keepers out there. They are hardly budget lights

You can have acros way earlier than 10 months. That is completely false