I’m stumped. My corals aren’t doing great.

[gishandfish]

Let's break this all down by the numbers.

Ph 8.0, good.

Ammonia and nitrite 0, good.

Nitrate 2ppm sometimes 0. Okay, don't get hung up to much on the 0 yet. Just keep feeding.

Phosphate 0, bad, get this up. 0.05 to 0.1

Alk 10 DKh. It's okay but not in a low nutrients, especially with zero phosphates zero nitrates.

Calcium 410, good

Salanity 1.0245 okay, but don't go lower.

Water temp 78 to 81, with leds. I'm a little baffled why the swing with less. You say you have a powerhead on the right? Move it to the left side and vary the intensities of you are able. What brand is it?

You getting your own rodi unit, great! 8ppm from the lfs is bad.

Do you have fish? I don't see any, list them.

You think you have dinos? Post a close up of this algae in white lighting. Never mind, I see it. 3rd Pic you posted looks like it.
Can you get your hands on a microscope? This will confirm dinos and what type.

This is why low nutrients and high alk are bad. Dinos.

You may feed a lot more or dose nitrate/phosphate. Easier to feed more.

Stop doing water changes if this is dinos.

Stop dosing everything! For now.

The fish I have in the 55 gallon tank (40 tank 15 sump) are :
2 clown fish
1 Foxface (4 inches )
1 blue eyed tang
1 starry blenny
1 diamond goby
1 cleaner shrimp
6 hermits, Mexican
2 Nassarius snails
2 star snails

So I took out about 50 percent of the rock and dip the rock in a diluted peroxide water solution . I scrubbed the algae off the rocks. I got in the tank with a toothbrush I scrubbed about 80 percent of the algae on the rocks. There was a rock in the back that prevented me from cleaning the blue acrylic the last 2 months but by removing some of the rocks to scrub the area I was able to remove this long algae on the acrylic . I noticed some white calcium deposits on the back acylric .. would that be the beginnings of coralline ? Also I had a hard lesson in the beginning of using too much white light and not enough blue light. Would you recommend ever temporarily cutting down lighting to see how that affects the algae growth? Also what kind of algae is the stuff in the picture (it’s more brown than green and about a half inch in length ) ?

 

[dbroncos]

7 to 8 for low nutrients.
This will slow the growth, slow the metabolism if you will.

you know what they say about opinions.

so alk of 8-12 is actually an ideal range in a home reef aquarium. so for low nutrient what are you proposing?

 

[Dburr1014]

dbroncos said:
so alk of 8-12 is actually an ideal range in a home reef aquarium. so for low nutrient what are you proposing?

Yes I know what they say about opinions, do you?

I'm not sure you can really say there is an ideal for any home aquarium for any parameter.
Every tank is different.
But I can say, I see threads time and time again, high alk(greater than 8dkh) and low nutrients and why do I have dinos.

 

[gishandfish]

dbroncos said:
so alk of 8-12 is actually an ideal range in a home reef aquarium. so for low nutrient what are you proposing?

Yes I know what they say about opinions, do you?

I'm not sure you can really say there is an ideal for any home aquarium for any parameter.
Every tank is different.
But I can say, I see threads time and time again, high alk(greater than 8dkh) and low nutrients and why do I have dinos.

When do tanks usually leave the low nutrient phase ? At what month approximately? Im thinking I’m going to dose to increase the phosphate and nitrates to move the needle up.
Also I’m now running my skimmer 24 hours a day and ran the skimmers air inlet to outside the house so the tank can get fresh air. My house is pretty airtight and spray foamed. Maybe this will help bump up the 8.0 ph .

 

[Dburr1014]

When do tanks usually leave the low nutrient phase ? At what month approximately? Im thinking I’m going to dose to increase the phosphate and nitrates to move the needle up.
Also I’m now running my skimmer 24 hours a day and ran the skimmers air inlet to outside the house so the tank can get fresh air. My house is pretty airtight and spray foamed. Maybe this will help bump up the 8.0 ph .

There is not a time phase.
Dose phosphate until it's stable. Nitrates are always moving around in relation to phosphates. This is why I said it's easier to feed more.
I will say this, you are better off to get a reading of phosphates before nitrates.

Skimmer airline to outside is a good thing to do.

 

[gishandfish]

There is not a time phase.
Dose phosphate until it's stable. Nitrates are always moving around in relation to phosphates. This is why I said it's easier to feed more.
I will say this, you are better off to get a reading of phosphates before nitrates.

Skimmer airline to outside is a good thing to do.

So after reading hours of articles on Dino’s, today is day one of a blackout on the tank. At some point I’ll continue scrubbing the rocks with a toothbrush. I ordered a fan today to begin evaporative cooling on the water surface, to get the temperature down to a consistent 77 instead of 81 high each day. I’m going to the lfs for neophos.
what level do you like to see phosphate and nitrate at when treating for Dino’s ? Do you recommend reintroducing granulated carbon back into the sump ? I took it out 2 days ago.

 

[Dburr1014]

So after reading hours of articles on Dino’s, today is day one of a blackout on the tank. At some point I’ll continue scrubbing the rocks with a toothbrush. I ordered a fan today to begin evaporative cooling on the water surface, to get the temperature down to a consistent 77 instead of 81 high each day. I’m going to the lfs for neophos.
what level do you like to see phosphate and nitrate at when treating for Dino’s ? Do you recommend reintroducing granulated carbon back into the sump ? I took it out 2 days ago.

1) I hope you removed as many dinos as you could before blackout.

2) po4, no3 at least po4 0.1ish and no3 10ish. No set number, you just want to make sure you have them and won't dip back to zero at any time.

3) carbon will help soak up the toxin as dinos die off.

4) have you thought about h2o2 dosing and using a uv?
H2o2 gets them to move into the water column and the uv then can zap them.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Corals are gonna grow when their environment has been stable for a while. Pick a target alk and stay near it.

Nothing good happens fast for coral - they usually have a delayed trailing reaction to changes weeks ago. Once you get stuff stabilized, you should see growth. Try not to focus so much on a specific number bad so much as keeping it as close to the numbers you always have. But I agree that you really don't need to aim for 10 dKh with so few corals. You don't need to add anything; just wait for them to naturally reduce.

 

[gishandfish]

1) I hope you removed as many dinos as you could before blackout.

2) po4, no3 at least po4 0.1ish and no3 10ish. No set number, you just want to make sure you have them and won't dip back to zero at any time.

3) carbon will help soak up the toxin as dinos die off.

4) have you thought about h2o2 dosing and using a uv?
H2o2 gets them to move into the water column and the uv then can zap them.

This am I just dosed peroxide 5ml for my 55 gallon. And I have a uv sterilizer that’s been in the tank for over a month now when the tank water first started getting cloudy.
Also I was just shining a light in the sump and the last phase where the return pump is I noticed a lot of white specs swimming around in the water( maybe 100 in a 4x4x4”
Area.

 

[MnFish1]

This is correct. Without nitrates and phosphates, your coral are starving.

I am not sure that the nitrate and PO4 tell the whole story. There should not be such a change in the corals 24 hours after purchase, right?. There are a couple things - the instability of the temperature though not huge, can be playing a role. Additionally the higher than usual alkalinity may require more flow, and different light levels. I do not know the quality of your light but have you checked your PAR? Your water should have 0 TDS not 8ppm) - and depending on what that 8 ppm is, it could be a problem (for example a metal, etc)

I agree that having 0 nitrate and 0 PO4 long-medium term can cause issues - which as @Spare time mentioned should be able to be fixed with feeding your fish (and/or more fish)