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:
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:
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.
- 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%