Need help and insight.

[Zephryn1001]

Will start with tank history. I started this tank august 1, 2017 and let the tank cycle for almost 2 full months and did a 30% water change. Then in October after testing and confirming the tank had cycled I added 2 cromis and waited for another small cycle. That happened and then every other week added more fish. Since the water 30% water Change I started the triton method and all water parameters have been dead on accept for 2 and they have not budged the entire time. They are Calcium which has been between 370 - 390 the entire time and the other is Magnesium which runs between 950 - 1000 and never budges from that area. My nitrates are not readable on the red sea test kits and phosphates are a constant 0.04-0.08 . My DKH is between 8.5 - 9.0. Salinity is always 1.025. No ammonia. Ph is constant at 8.0. Also the Light is a SBReeflight with par at water level 350 and 10 inches down 250 par. Also Flow in my IM40 is the return 500gph + a Icecap gyre 3k running 40%.

For some reason which I think might be the mag and Ca levels I can not keep even the hardiest of SPS corals. Put a red monticap in the tank right in the 250 par area (tested with a seneye par meter) and in under a week it bleaches and dies. Then I tried another pricillapora cause I got it free for spending $ at a LFS and put it in the area that tested 300 par. I in about a week started to die so I removed it and took it to the LFS to try to bring back.

Now my question Will the low Magnesium cause this coral die off? Or could it be the low Calcium that causes the die off. Or could it be a combination of both? Or is it something else? I am at a loss and want to figure it out and correct the problem before I get another coral. Any and all help is appreciated.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I went through everything you just mentioned so I can totally feel your frustration. In my case I would say it was not the fact my tank was not mature enough (while this obviously may have played a percentage), but instead it was the low nutrients and too high lighting. I took a monti cap frag that was growing under a fellow hobbyist frag rack and put it in 200+ PAR. It faded and started bleaching so I cut it up in multiple pieces, said a pray and threw em in the back. 1 loan survivor is now growing very fast in 150 PAR.. Nutrients are still low but since the tank is mature I know there is much more nutrients present its just becoming consumed faster than the test can read. I also was running my radions at 100% on all channels for 5 hours per day and now reduced to 60% on AB+ which about 40% overall. CA and ALK consumption has actually gone up after lowering the light so definately reduce your photoperid or intensity, throw in some acropower, reduce your skimmer line lower the the cup line and wait a few months for results.

Also, Not sure how you can have such low MG levels, what salt mix has that low of MG since mine is now 1500 because of a new salt mix I started using to match ALK at the same time increased my MG from 1400-1500 over multiple waterchanges.(fritz), I would definately try to get you Parameters in a more balanced way to match your nutrient and lighting levels. a good range is ALK 8DKH, CA 420-440 and MG 1300-1400.

Only thing I have experienced fading and consider the most critical for sps health (excluding Temp, salinity, and flow which is obvious and should be stable from day 1 or day 1000) = Lighting, Nutrients, and ALK. You have more play room with MG and CA but if the others are stable and match you should be fine.