Newer Tank Stability - Corals not happiest

[WRXgucci]

Got back into the hobby essentially over the winter. Trying to get tank stats at a decent spot slowly to not upset things further. Just want to kinda make sure I am on the right track or see suggestions moving forward.

Little background on the tank:
32 Biocube
Stock LED light
Biocube protein skimmer actually pulling some dark wet skimmate
Jecods MP10
5+yr dead, cured rock (soaked in water, dryed, multiple times, debated starting up a tank multiple times over the years)
caribsea live sand
nutrisea "live" water ( wanted to keep the setup as minimal as possible and got at decent price)

Fish: 2 clowns, gramma
Most of my cuc has died out over the past ~3 months (bought like 5ea of astrea and trochus) other than a turbo snail. I did dose a decent amount of copepods, and they are noticeable in the tank already.

I have almost had no issues with algae, other than a small spot of cyano in a low flow spot which Im kind of okay with if its helping remove nitrate/phosphates :D

I bought used hanna test kits to get me going, the first few tests had older reagents so i ordered replacements fairly quickly.

Bare with me on the formatting, but these are rough dates, and self notes

I definitly used too much gfo on my first go around. I didnt think I used much but the early april usage dropped the phosphate and alk way too fast. I slowly added some soda to bring the alk backup over ~ a week. Since the begining of May I have tried to let the tank settle as much as possible feeding fairly sparingly and switching to fritz rpm salt, since i didnt see the best reviews on the consistency with the nutrisea water. I dont know why my phosphates keep climbing with everything else fairly settled down. I havent posted water changes on here, but I try to do at least 10% biweekly to keep levels down. I have gradually added mostly some zoanthids, 2 hammers, and a frogspawn. I havent lost any corals yet, but I imagine the swings over the last few months are the main reason things arent super happy even if they are headed in the right direction. Curious thoughts moving forward. My plan is continue with water changes, and small amounts of gfo to keep bringing phosphate down. That appears to be my biggest "out of range" spec that I am testing for. Also debating doing an ICP test to verify my hanna tests are somewhat accurate.

 

[KrisReef]

Looks good by the numbers, for what they are worth. I wouldn't change course and I wouldn't worry about the "high" phosphate levels. If the corals are growing slowly, then with time the tank will settle in.

 

[slingfox]

Numbers also look okay to me. Phosphates are a little bit elevated but I wouldn’t go out of my way to bring them down. Keep doing what you’re doing and the tank will continue to mature. Eventually the uglies will come and throw your parameters out do whack. That is a part of the reefing journey.

 

[WRXgucci]

Thanks for the replies, reading my post back, I think I was a bit too eager to add any coral to the system.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the replies, reading my post back, I think I was a bit too eager to add any coral to the system.

That may be true, but I think it’s not really clear whether there really is a time effect of when to add corals, and if it is generally true, why.

 

[WRXgucci]

That may be true, but I think it’s not really clear whether there really is a time effect of when to add corals, and if it is generally true, why.

Yea, I meant moreso I should of got my levels a bit more in check and stable before pulling the trigger on any orders rather than putting them through the swings

 

[BryanM]

Are you dosing something for alk that would explain why your alk is moving that much?

 

[WRXgucci]

No, my only thought was I got a wierd batch of water that I didnt pretest. Thats why I transitioned to the RPM salt.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

No, my only thought was I got a wierd batch of water that I didnt pretest. Thats why I transitioned to the RPM salt.

That could that be the case? If you don't mix saltwater properly or have a "bad batch," it can throw your parameters off

 

[WRXgucci]

That could that be the case? If you don't mix saltwater properly or have a "bad batch," it can throw your parameters off

I was using the nutrisea premade water to get started. Was hoping to keep this little tank as simple as possible.

 

[BryanM]

I was using the nutrisea premade water to get started. Was hoping to keep this little tank as simple as possible.

I don't think it was the water, its just that you were still going to go through the uglies as the beneficial biome is largely in the rocks. Using natural seawater isn't a short cut for that unfortunately.

 

[schooncw]

I would never start a system without “real”, wet live rock. Add some now.