New reefer(sort of) with some concerns

[ReeferBH89]

Hey everyone,

So I've been in this hobby for almost 2 years, I started with a nano 15 gal in September 2022 and upgraded to a redsea 250 (54 Gal) in December 2023.

Fish seem to hate my new tank and I can't find any possible reason why. I went from 8 fish down to a chromie, a blue damsel and a lawn blenny and they're doing perfectly fine.

A bristletooth tang died for no reason suddenly its on the sandbed gasping for air. Two clowns died without any signs of sickness or anything and a six line wrasse decided to jump while I was doing the usual tank maintenance with the led off.

The cuc are doing so well I got snails, hermits, cleaner shrimp and a boxer shrimp(he's on my suspected list).

My corals are a some hardy softies (gsp, zoas, florida mushroom, xenia) the weird thing is I don't see any sign of growth on all of them despite my Parameters which I will mention below.

I also have a green slime bali coral with a bleached skeleton yet the top polyps exposed to my lighting are green yet the ones on the rest of the body are brownish.

I have to redsea led 90s my current program is at 50% for 10 hours at 50% blue intensity with only 15% white, a redsea gyre at 70% and a redsea skimmer. I removed the carbon and only keeping ceramic plates in my sump for now and a single filter sock.

I also used redsea Skeletal Elements abc+ based on research and reading over the past couple of weeks (40 grams once a week into the sump)
My Parameters are by using salifert

Salinity 1.026
Temp always around 78f
Nitrates 5.0
Calcium 460
Alk 10.9
Mag 1290
Ph 8.3
Phosphate 0.25 (used reefroids two days ago)


Also I found a coral that I can't identify which I'm attaching a pic for.

So my question or enquiry is, what am I doing wrong.. Corals are all doing fine but no growth yet.. Fish also raised a question mark, and what advice you might have for me

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

if parameters are fine and corals doing well but not growing, my first thought is always low light. My 40 gallon has a MH lights and 2 gyres going, so don't be afraid to turn up the lights and the flow. If light and flow are inadequate, then reef roids and abc+ and any other additive won't help. But a par meter will answer this question for sure.

The fish dying sounds like a disease thing. Or perhaps from stocking too quickly.... Is there enough rock work in your tank for fish to hide?

 

[ReeferBH89]

if parameters are fine and corals doing well but not growing, my first thought is always low light. My 40 gallon has a MH lights and 2 gyres going, so don't be afraid to turn up the lights and the flow. If light and flow are inadequate, then reef roids and abc+ and any other additive won't help. But a par meter will answer this question for sure.

The fish dying sounds like a disease thing. Or perhaps from stocking too quickly.... Is there enough rock work in your tank for fish to hide?

I might Increase the intensity up back to 65% and increase the flow rate of my gyre for a start since I'm only running on one for now.

I think that's the issue with the fish, not enough rock work especially that if I had a disease there won't be some fish alive and normal. I think the issue is more of aggressive fish for now

 

[Razorbacks]

You said one fish died "gasping for air". You could have low oxygen levels. I didn't hear a protein skimmer mentioned above. If you don't have one I would add one not for nutrient removal but for the oxygenation. I had unexplained die off in my current tank that was solved first with an emergency air stone then permanently by adding a HOB protein skimmer.

 

[ReeferBH89]

You said one fish died "gasping for air". You could have low oxygen levels. I didn't hear a protein skimmer mentioned above. If you don't have one I would add one not for nutrient removal but for the oxygenation. I had unexplained die off in my current tank that was solved first with an emergency air stone then permanently by adding a HOB protein skimmer.

Oh I do have one in the sump, sometimes I feel it's too big for my bioload haha.

I always keep it running for oxygenation even on my low bioload