My SPS are dying, no clue why!

[ReeferMadness80G]

I used to be pretty active on here, years ago. Excited to see if some of the OG's are still around. Firstly, thank you for your help in figuring this out!

My Tank is a 29 Gal JBJ Cube with Eshopps Nano Cube Refugium Sump Roughly 33-35 gallons overall.

Parameters are pretty stable (I will provide an apex picture)

Salinity 35ppt
Temp 78
Alk-8.3
Cal-420 range
Mag-1300 ranger
No3- between 5-10ppm it usually hovers around 7ppm Id say.
Po4- usually bounces around between .02-.05
Salt- Fritz RPM
Lighting- Radion xr15 G4 Blue

I took a pretty significant break from reefing, but years ago I was pretty successful growing SPS in a smaller nano tank and several farm style raceway tanks.

However with this tank, I have had issues growing SPS for as long as I have had it. The tank was a running used tank when I bought it and it was packed to the brim with corals, mostly lps and zoas and whatnot, nothing real special but the guy kept it simple for many years and it became very stable and established. I purchased the tank and successfully moved it to my house and ran the tank for several months with no changes and no new corals.
Within the last 8 months I made several modifications over time and added new corals and removed rock etc. Changes are as follows over the course of many months.

Added Neptune Apex and DOS and Trident
Removed Hood and added radion
Added a bunch of sps, occasionally one wouldn't make it, not unusual.
There was some invasive corals that I needed to get rid of because they were spreading and didn't play well with others. Clove polyps and some purple carpeting style coral I forgot the name of was attached to most of the rock.
In preparation I would remove some of the rock a little at a time as well as some of the sandbed. Just a little bit at a time through water changes. I knew I would need to replace the live rock and I had my eyes on some of that reef rock that WWC sells that is man made and stackable with the rod down the middle, so I would take live rock and sand out of the tank and place it into a container I had running with the new rock for probably 3 months before I moved.
Moving day was December last year, The move went great and shortly after I moved everything over to the new place, I took out the rest of the rock that I wanted to and replaced it with the man made reef rock I got from WWC which I was told would not leach anything.

I love the look of the tank and everything appears to thrive in its new home EXCEPT for SPS, I lost most of it, which I contributed to the move and the placement of new rock, I know sps is finicky and the smallest changes can have a bad outcome for them. The only piece I have maintained was a giant WD colony I purchased and colored up. Somehow it has weathered the storm but NOW seems to be declining with other pieces.

I recently did an ICP test and I will post those results, but I don't see anything wrong with the Tank analysis or the RO water analysis.

I do weekly 5 gallon water changes and I feed the 3 fish I have once a day with frozen Mysis. Occasionally I will feed reef roids also.
I am dosing Reef Code A and B for ALK and Cal
I'd like to think my husbandry is pretty good as I work from home about 5 feet away from my tank.

My No3 was pretty high (maybe 12-15ppm) which I thought maybe the rock could be causing somehow, but I did several water changes back to back and was able to get that under control, since then it stays around 5-10ppm and one time I even had to dose KnO3 to bring it back up.

It does not appear to be pests but hell, I have no idea at this point.

MY QUESTION IS
Why are my sps failing? Obviously that is a hard question to answer, but after contacting some friends at Top Shelf Aquatics and asking for help and they really had none to offer, I knew my best chance at figuring this out would be to bring it here.
Hopefully I am not leaving anything out, feel free to ask any question you have!

I will also be posting pics of the corals and tank later, feel free to ask for me to include anything you may be wondering.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Pics

 

[ocncheffy]

This looks similar to what happened with my system, with the same nutrients. I resolved it by dropping alk to 7-7.5dkh. Couldn't explain why my system hated an alkalinity of 8 or higher.

 

[happyhourhero]

Your phosphate could be bottoming out I try to run mine around .10 to give some padding on the test margin of error.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

This was before the move, corals we’re doing fine.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

This looks similar to what happened with my system, with the same nutrients. I resolved it by dropping alk to 7-7.5dkh. Couldn't explain why my system hated an alkalinity of 8 or higher.

What made you think to drop it?

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Your phosphate could be bottoming out I try to run mine around .10 to give some padding on the test margin of error.

What’s a good way to increase it without increasing no3? Feeding more? What is your No3 at?

 

[happyhourhero]

What’s a good way to increase it without increasing no3? Feeding more? What is your No3 at?

My now isn’t a great example because I just upgraded but I generally shoot for 10 - 20 nitrates. The only thing that scares me is 0. I dose NeoPhos and NeoNitro as needed for each.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

My now isn’t a great example because I just upgraded but I generally shoot for 10 - 20 nitrates. The only thing that scares me is 0. I dose NeoPhos and NeoNitro as needed for each.

I agree, I went through a period when I first started keeping sps, back when No3 was thought to be best at 0. I started dosing kno3 and had amazing results and have sworn by it ever since!

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Any other ideas? is the reef squad still a thing?

 

[Auto-pilot]

I'm not sure what's wrong but I would start by making sure your phosphate is good and 15 ppm for nitrate is not bad IMO. My Nitrate is currently at 25ppm. Maybe dose something like acro power or some kind of amino acid to see if that will help turn things around. I dose aminos and trace elements and I swear it helped my acropora corals to grow

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

I'm not sure what's wrong but I would start by making sure your phosphate is good and 15 ppm for nitrate is not bad IMO. Many dose something like acro power or some kind of amino acid to see if that will help turn things around

Thanks for the input, I do dose acropower every few days, sometimes I miss days. I am going to try keeping my nutrients a little higher than I normally would. So maybe around No3-15-20 ppm and Po4- .08-.10 ... I guess I will start there unless anyone else cares to take a stab at it.

 

[Auto-pilot]

Thanks for the input, I do dose acropower every few days, sometimes I miss days. I am going to try keeping my nutrients a little higher than I normally would. So maybe around No3-15-20 ppm and Po4- .08-.10 ... I guess I will start there unless anyone else cares to take a stab at it.

Hmm you don't nessasaraly have to change your nitrates I just noticed you thought 15 was high and I just I would share where I run mine at. Your light settings didn't get messed up in the move?? Maybe your flow in your tank changed??? One time I had a light mess up and it would turn on at 4am. I was having horrible results with my sps and didn't realize for a month because it was normally on before I woke up. Maybe it's a bacteria thing I just read something about how important bacteria stability is in the reef tank. I had a 20 gallon I was trying grow sps in and it didn't work out, I 100% think it was a bacteria thing as I tested everything and never found a problem. Moved everything to my big tank and Boom everything started recovering. I feel your frustrations dude! I hope you can figure it out. In the meantime maybe you can find someone to babysit your expensive acropora corals until you find your problems.

 

[minus9]

I honestly wouldn't worry about nitrate at all, as long as you have a measurement, you're fine. But the margin for error in phosphate/phosphorus test kits would mean PO4 is low or near zero, which would be the reason for the decline in the health of the corals. Simply put, your corals are starving. I don't see a source of food for the corals (fish poo), so you're going to have to find a way to "feed" your corals. Again, nitrate isn't a problem, so I would focus of ways of slowly increasing phosphorus to your animals. I also would reduce your lighting intensity a little until you can provide some food for your animals.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Hmm you don't nessasaraly have to change your nitrates I just noticed you thought 15 was high and I just I would share where I run mine at. Your light settings didn't get messed up in the move?? Maybe your flow in your tank changed??? One time I had a light mess up and it would turn on at 4am. I was having horrible results with my sps and didn't realize for a month because it was normally on before I woke up. Maybe it's a bacteria thing I just read something about how important bacteria stability is in the reef tank. I had a 20 gallon I was trying grow sps in and it didn't work out, I 100% think it was a bacteria thing as I tested everything and never found a problem. Moved everything to my big tank and Boom everything started recovering. I feel your frustrations dude! I hope you can figure it out. In the meantime maybe you can find someone to babysit your expensive acropora corals until you find your problems.

Thanks man! I have lost most of them already, just trying to see if anyone on here has any ideas that I haven't thought about yet. I don't think its a lighting thing, I get up regularly at night because I'm in my 30's lol and I never see it on. I did just change out all the wavemakers because I thought maybe it was a flow thing also. I wish I could get a bigger tank, but its just not the right time for that. If I can't figure it out soon I am afraid I will just be breaking it down.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

I honestly wouldn't worry about nitrate at all, as long as you have a measurement, you're fine. But the margin for error in phosphate/phosphorus test kits would mean PO4 is low or near zero, which would be the reason for the decline in the health of the corals. Simply put, your corals are starving. I don't see a source of food for the corals (fish poo), so you're going to have to find a way to "feed" your corals. Again, nitrate isn't a problem, so I would focus of ways of slowly increasing phosphorus to your animals. I also would reduce your lighting intensity a little until you can provide some food for your animals.

Thanks for the tip, did I forget to mention I have 3 fish and I feed daily. Should I feed multiple times per day? I know the fish are usually begging anyways.

 

[minus9]

Thanks for the tip, did I forget to mention I have 3 fish and I feed daily. Should I feed multiple times per day? I know the fish are usually begging anyways.

I'm a huge fan of small frequent feedings throughout the day (if you can?), whether it be auto feeder or by hand. Fish poo is one of the greatest coral foods out there, so adding more fish or feeding (responsibly) is the key to happy and healthy corals (and fish). Just think about how fish eat on the reef, either grazing all day on algae, etc or food comes to them in the form of zooplankton, etc...or for some, actively hunting for food. For fish that depend on food coming to them, you have to be the zooplankton and feed throughout the day. The feeding method of only feeding once a day is severely outdated or for larger predatory fish. Most people freak out over nutrients thinking that controlling them is equal to controlling algae, which is completely wrong and will most likely lead to unhealthy, starving corals. Algae control should be export and herbivores, not low nutrients.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

I'm a huge fan of small frequent feedings throughout the day (if you can?), whether it be auto feeder or by hand. Fish poo is one of the greatest coral foods out there, so adding more fish or feeding (responsibly) is the key to happy and healthy corals (and fish). Just think about how fish eat on the reef, either grazing all day on algae, etc or food comes to them in the form of zooplankton, etc...or for some, actively hunting for food. For fish that depend on food coming to them, you have to be the zooplankton and feed throughout the day. The feeding method of only feeding once a day is severely outdated or for larger predatory fish. Most people freak out over nutrients thinking that controlling them is equal to controlling algae, which is completely wrong and will most likely lead to unhealthy, starving corals. Algae control should be export and herbivores, not low nutrients.

Well said! Thank you! I will try this and see how it works!

 

[Troylee]

Do you run any carbon? Could be chemical ware fare in that little tank with the nems and softies…