Losing Corals . . . Is my action to fix correct?

GrampsReef · Jan 20, 2022

My corals and anemone are not doing well. After a lot of research and talking with two reef stores I think it is a lack of nutrition since my Nitrates remain at zero. By the way, my remaining fish are thriving.

My plan is to keep my water moving (it was not sufficient before), turn off my protein skimmer, and increase feeding of my fish and corals to build up the Nitrates in my tank. I have been feeding the LPS corals with Reef Roids and the SPS Brine Shrimp but that did not help. I will continue to feed them once a week as before.

As of today my Acan and Zoas are either dead or almost dead (closed with minor color), 4 SPS corals are surviving but not happy, my Rose Bulb anemone has moved to a hole in the rock and retracted.

History and detailed tank info if interested

I had a self inflicted crisis from December 18 through late December. I rearranged my live rock causing ammonia to go up and had a cloudy tank for a while. The ammonia was at .25ppm from December 18th to December 23rd. The tank had a white particulate cloud into the first week of January (picture below). This is when things went bad.

I had Cyanobacteria until a few days ago. It started to go away after I added a second wave maker (AI Nero 3). The increased water movement has been slowly getting rid of it, which is what my research indicated would happen.

My water has been clear since the first week of January. Most of the water parameters have been where they should be since December 23rd:

Ammonia has been at zero.
Nitrite has been at zero.
Nitrates have been at zero. I tried to use doses of NeoNitro to raise it with no success after 3 daily doses so I stopped using it. One reef store told me to use it and another told me to stop.
Phosphates steady at .25ppm
Calcium ranges from 380ppm to 420ppm but mostly at 400ppm
Magnesium was at 1050 on Jan 5th. A water change raised it to 1350ppm and it has been between 1240 and 1350 since then. I've checked 6 times with last test of 1290 today and 1320 yesterday.
Salinity is running from 1.025 to 1.026.
My PH has always been around 8 to 8.2 until today when it tested at 7.8.
Carbonate Hardness has been stead at 179ppm.

I found out that my thermometer has been wrong since I set my tank up. My water temperature has been at 75 deg F when I thought it was at 78. I fixed it on January 14th and it is now at 78. Since everything was fined before I doubt that is it.

Tank and maintenance Information:

Tank set-up on October 23, 2021
55 gallon tank
80 lbs live rock
40 lbs sand
Added a Reef Octopus 1000 HOB skimmer during the first week of January and have been running it constantly since then.
HOB Marineland Penguin 350 BIO-Wheel Power Filter
Sicce Voyager Nano Stream Pump (530 GPH) end close to the back since early January
AI Nero 3 wave pump (added on Jan 10th) set constant at 1327 GPH other end close to the front. Trying to eliminate dead zones.
I conduct a 10% water change each week. I use Red Sea Salt.
I top off my tank with RO fresh water each day.

Lighting:

2 AI Hydra 32's set to the following for 6 hours and 20 minutes a day. Ramp up starting 2 hours before. Ramp down 1 hour and 50 minutes. Zero after that.
- UV 87%
- Violet 87%
- Royal 86%
- Blue 87%
- Green 11%
- Deep Red 14%
- Moonlight 0%
- Cool White 12%

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Jan 20, 2022

From looking at your rocks in the pics. You have nutrients. Not detectable maybe but they are their and in use.
Id leave the skimmer on. Toss the penguin and get another of the skimmer even.
You can do some small wcs maybe periodically but looks and sounds good to me...
Wait a bit and see. Hths
D

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Jan 20, 2022

What fish do you have? I like to broadcast feed the tank and not target feed individual animals
D

fishguy242 · Jan 20, 2022

hi, my first thought would be ,rinse and run some carbon.
2nd ,many may disagree, start that skimmer back up, dump cup back into tank, corals love it ,
will help bring nitrates up,once every 4-5 days ,monitor nitrates.

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Jan 20, 2022

Great suggestions
D

Sean Clark · Jan 20, 2022

fishguy242 said:
hi, my first thought would be ,rinse and run some carbon.
2nd ,many may disagree, start that skimmer back up, dump cup back into tank, corals love it ,
will help bring nitrates up,once every 4-5 days ,monitor nitrates.

And to think people pay for this.... myself included. Great tip here.

Spare time · Jan 20, 2022

If you were dosing neo nitro and not seeing your numbers go up, that means you need to keep dosing as your tank is demanding it. Also, I am assuming you are using api phosphate kit? 0.25ppm is considered very high for phosphate, and I am betting your actual phosphate number is below that. I would invest in a better phosphate test kit.

Spare time · Jan 20, 2022

It sorta looks like dinos in the tank, which is typically a sign of 0.00 ish phosphate.

Sean Clark · Jan 20, 2022

Spare time said:
It sorta looks like dinos in the tank, which is typically a sign of 0.00 ish phosphate.

0.00 ish... give or take.

TnFishwater98 · Jan 20, 2022

Sean Clark said:
And to think people pay for this.... myself included. Great tip here.

Recycling at its finest….?

GrampsReef · Jan 20, 2022

monkeyCmonkeyDo said:
From looking at your rocks in the pics. You have nutrients. Not detectable maybe but they are their and in use.
Id leave the skimmer on. Toss the penguin and get another of the skimmer even.
You can do some small wcs maybe periodically but looks and sounds good to me...
Wait a bit and see. Hths
D

Can skimmers take the place of a filter?

GrampsReef · Jan 20, 2022

monkeyCmonkeyDo said:
What fish do you have? I like to broadcast feed the tank and not target feed individual animals
D

I have a Flame Angle, Fox Face, two Clowns, and a Royal Gramma. I did have a Blue Tang but it died after the Ammonia spike and cloudy water period. I tried to introduce two Damsels but the Royal Gramma killed them in the first few days. I'm thinking about getting more fish but I'm not sure now is a good time.

GrampsReef · Jan 20, 2022

fishguy242 said:
hi, my first thought would be ,rinse and run some carbon.
2nd ,many may disagree, start that skimmer back up, dump cup back into tank, corals love it ,
will help bring nitrates up,once every 4-5 days ,monitor nitrates.

I'm embarrassed to ask, but how do you run carbon?

GrampsReef · Jan 20, 2022

Spare time said:
If you were dosing neo nitro and not seeing your numbers go up, that means you need to keep dosing as your tank is demanding it. Also, I am assuming you are using api phosphate kit? 0.25ppm is considered very high for phosphate, and I am betting your actual phosphate number is below that. I would invest in a better phosphate test kit.

What do you think about the Hanna kit?

Tonycass12 · Jan 20, 2022

As others have said turn your skimmer back on. Your tank isint 4 months old you are still going through the uglies. Adding corals this early IMO will leave you stressed out, your going to see high mortality rate until everything in your tank gets more stable. Sps tend to never do well in a tank this young and ive made the same mistake. Sps didn't start doing well until my tank was running for 8 months. my indicators that things were going well enough was-
- pods everywhere in the tank day and night, I mean the sand looks like its moving there are so many.
-coralline algae, many will debate this but one of the best signs that your ready will be coralline. It will cover everything and make it much harder for algae to take hold on your rocks.

You need to work on your algae issues right now and take things a little more slowly.

Personally I would stop worrying about your nutrients until you get the algae under control. The reason you can't get your numbers up is because your feeding all the algae and prolonging the uglies.

Keep at it! The older your tank gets the easier this stuff gets.

Jekyl · Jan 20, 2022

Couple things to help this situation along. Some white light tank shots. A couple close ups of any algae you're dealing with and a full tank shot. Other thing is accurate testing. I use salifert and have never had a complaint. If unavailable have your LFS test the water.

fishguy242 · Jan 20, 2022

GrampsReef said:
I'm embarrassed to ask, but how do you run carbon?

rinse dust off with rodi water, add to area where will get good water flow through it .
reactor is ideal.

Jekyl · Jan 20, 2022

I use the same skimmer on my 90 and love it. I also use a HoB filter. Main reason is for the surface cleaner but also to add things like carbon / chemipure. Before making more changes though get some accurate measurements.

GrampsReef · Jan 20, 2022

Jekyl said:
Couple things to help this situation along. Some white light tank shots. A couple close ups of any algae you're dealing with and a full tank shot. Other thing is accurate testing. I use salifert and have never had a complaint. If unavailable have your LFS test the water.

I usually keep the white light down at 12%. I increased it to take these shots. I think I'll keep it higher since it show more of what is on my rocks. Thanks for asking for the white light shots. Here they are.