Need some help with corals new to the hobby

[AJnanoreef]

So I’m new to the hobby less than a year have a 26 gallon nano I’ll add a photo I have 3 fish 6 line wrasse 2 clowns and maybe 8 snails had a tiny shrimp about half a inch long it died did a water change and corals didn’t look good before all that.

I have done tests and I’ll add photos
Nitrate is .05 between 0 and 1 with nyos nitrate test
Salinity 1.026 with a Milwaukee tester
Magnesium 1320ppm with aquaforest test pro kit
Nitrite 0ppm api
Ammonia .25 it’s normally zero I did have a shrimp dieand I got it out within 8 hours Hanna and api did 2 tests because it’s normally zero on my Hanna
alkalinity 9.1 Hanna
Phosphate .01 Hanna
Calcium 430 redsea calcium pro test
Temp 77 I run here because sometimes when I get home it will be 78.5 or lower live in California gets hot here in the valley

my corals over the last few days even before the shrimp died don’t look like they normally do
I used redsea reef energy AB+
dose calcium magnesium and alkalinity with Red Sea products and trace colors from redsea ABCD
Using there recommendation from the box on amounts

my tank looks clean fish seem happy just my corals seem to be hurting. And fish what I have seen don’t even go around them.

I could not get the shrimp to eat and it was a new add it only lasted about 4 days came quarantined. But never really moved around grabbed my rock and maybe moved 4 inches in 4 days and died. And it’s been about 1 week since this happened and did a 25% water change that same day.

I have Galaxy Pods from algae barn and using ocean magic the copepods are thriving it seems I can seem them everywhere

I’ll also show a photo of my light schedule that has not changed and corals used to look good and healthy. It seems from my research everything should be good but I get we are trying to re-create nature in a tiny tank and I’m also a newbie so is there something else that could be causing this or is this normal for corals to do this. Not sure what’s happening and I could use some help from someone that knows what they are doing.

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Don’t worry about nitrite unless sky high
Red Sea AB can elevate phosphate and salinity bring down to 1.025
Any changes in salt mix or lighting?
Current light schedule seems okay

 

[TokenReefer]

Thread 'I just got my first Coral and I had a few questions.' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i-just-got-my-first-coral-and-i-had-a-few-questions.940851/
This is a post from a person with a similar issue and age tank. Probably worth a read. Tanks pretty crisp for coral so may need time to acclimate at this point

 

[TokenReefer]

I'm no expert but there's a whole microbiome that your shooting for that doesn't necessarily show up via test kits (except perhaps Edna test) that will only come with time

 

[AJnanoreef]

Don’t worry about nitrite unless sky high
Red Sea AB can elevate phosphate and salinity bring down to 1.025
Any changes in salt mix or lighting?
Current light schedule seems okay

same salt mix redsea salt same bucket from the start.
lighting i have not changed. the corals were doing good since i have got them only last 2 weeks have been like this for a short time during the day they come about half out not fully extended the corals are a pink gonipora and firecracker or something clove polyp its green and orange with the white light for the phot its hard to see. but clove poly was the first coral to start looking rough then the gonipora followed 2 days later. i guess im going to do a water change and see what happens the only thing different in my numbers from my tests is the ammonia i did add a auto feeder and trying to get that adjusted maybe its getting to much food but from my tests seems okay.

 

[AJnanoreef]

Thread 'I just got my first Coral and I had a few questions.' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i-just-got-my-first-coral-and-i-had-a-few-questions.940851/
This is a post from a person with a similar issue and age tank. Probably worth a read. Tanks pretty crisp for coral so may need time to acclimate at this point

thanks ill check it out.

 

[vetteguy53081]

same salt mix redsea salt same bucket from the start.
lighting i have not changed. the corals were doing good since i have got them only last 2 weeks have been like this for a short time during the day they come about half out not fully extended the corals are a pink gonipora and firecracker or something clove polyp its green and orange with the white light for the phot its hard to see. but clove poly was the first coral to start looking rough then the gonipora followed 2 days later. i guess im going to do a water change and see what happens the only thing different in my numbers from my tests is the ammonia i did add a auto feeder and trying to get that adjusted maybe its getting to much food but from my tests seems okay.

Goniopora is very picky and Clove needs a small level of nitrate and phosphate

 

[AJnanoreef]

I'm no expert but there's a whole microbiome that your shooting for that doesn't necessarily show up via test kits (except perhaps Edna test) that will only come with time

me either im banging my head on the wall with it. i think im going to do a 25% water change and see how it goes. im a little worried i just joined the coral club with WWC and have some corals coming in a few days my first delivery from them and my corals i got LPS zoanthids and soft corals on my want list for now since the tank is new per there advice. so trying to figure out why my corals went from looking healthy to doing this.

 

[DIFish]

Were nitrate levels higher when your corals looked better? My firework polyps look worse when nitrates fall to 0. The Zoas you have on the way will also probably want a little higher Nitrate. The rest of the parameters look normal to me. Do you have any idea what sort of par levels you are running?

 

[AJnanoreef]

Were nitrate levels higher when your corals looked better? My firework polyps look worse when nitrates fall to 0. The Zoas you have on the way will also probably want a little higher Nitrate. The rest of the parameters look normal to me. Do you have any idea what sort of par levels you are running?

par levels no i dont have that test yet it is the redsea ReefLED50 comes with the max Nano tank. and maybe my nitrates are low thats a good point not sure how to raise them i guess feed more? maybe more reef energy plus? or just more fish food or more fishes ? and to tell you the truth when things were looking good i didnt test i should so i can see what they like. so ill take that as something ill do for now on when things look really nice do a test and see what they like instead of testing only when things look bad.

 

[AJnanoreef]

Goniopora is very picky and Clove needs a small level of nitrate and phosphate

thanks ill try to get my nitrates maybe around 5 but my only question now is how to raise my nitrates more fishes more food both ? or maybe more reef energy plus ?

 

[TokenReefer]

One thing I hear over and over again from experienced reefers with great tanks is stability. Whatever you level out at can vary but get there and remain stable. Don't make constant tweaks... Imo. It can be gd hard I know

 

[vetteguy53081]

thanks ill try to get my nitrates maybe around 5 but my only question now is how to raise my nitrates more fishes more food both ? or maybe more reef energy plus ?

Feeding - not over feeding will bring it up

 

[moosevandyke]

I’m not an expert but have

I'm no expert but there's a whole microbiome that your shooting for that doesn't necessarily show up via test kits (except perhaps Edna test) that will only come with time

This needs to be said more I am about 1 year into a 300 gallon mixed reef. I haven’t changed anything significant and as my tank aged corals are really getting happy. Stability as well is very underrated. Chasing numbers has always made things worse.

 

[moosevandyke]

One thing I hear over and over again from experienced reefers with great tanks is stability. Whatever you level out at can vary but get there and remain stable. Don't make constant tweaks... Imo. It can be gd hard I know

Yes!