parameter help

[LuckyReefer]

Really don’t know what’s been up with my tank as some of my corals just aren’t doing so well and i’m also losing some, i’ve been chasing my phosphates and nitrates which i’ve finally learned how to keep them stable now im just trying to figure out what’s going on with my ph and akalinity. my zoas are barely opening, my plate coral is one foot out the door and so is my blasto and now my goni doesn’t open which since i’ve had it barely opened a bit and i don’t know why? I make my own water using a brs 6 stage rodi system and i use fritz salt at 1.025. I test pretty often with the hanna 9 in one tester and my parameters currently are sitting at

alkalinity: 11.5
phosphates: 0.09
nitrates: 2.0
pH: 7.7
calcium: 574
magnesium: 1430

my alkalinity is slowly coming down as i’ve seen it as high as 19 i’m not sure how it ever got that high as i’m not really sure how you can get it go down unless it’s done naturally, so i’m the right track. i haven’t been able to test nitrates since i didn’t have reagents until today so i can imagine it needs to be sitting around 10-14 so i fed a little more then usual to help raise that. My tank doesn’t eat up both nutrients like some tanks do even though i run gfo/carbon through a reactor and also chaeto which seems to never grow in my sump. I was dosing nopox for some time and since then i’ve weened my tank off of it. My calcium was low as 330 so i dosed 10ml of api calcium and it jumped pretty fast surprisingly and too high. My tanks only 5 months old and i don’t dose anything crazy other than trace elements ever wc and stress zyme. For the time being when my phosphates were sitting around .90 and nitrates were unknown so my water changes were probably around 30% maybe more which i can assume is way too much but now i just do around a 20% every week or when i notice my nutrients get too high.

my tank is a 35 gal cube, tank mates consist of 1 maroon clown 1 bullet hole clown 1 flamehawk fish 1 mandrian goby 1 midas blenny 1 six line wrasse


corals are mostly softs, lps and euhphyllia

CUC: 2 conchs 5-10 blue legged hermits snails maybe 5 or so 1 emerald crab

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Hope others can give you good advise.

My only comment is don't take it personally, and don't change too much, just learn from it. I would suggest to just continue maintenance and husbandry. The tank is still very new, you are still learning..... You won't be able to keep everything happy at this stage, but what can't survive now maybe will be able to survive later on. Just my 2 cents, good luck.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

My only thoughts here:

-How are you measuring salinity?

-Can you double check your parameters with a different test kit?

-What are your tank dimensions, and what lighting are you using? (If you know the PAR your corals are getting, that would be helpful).

-What are you using for flow in the tank?

 

[LuckyReefer]

i was using the hanna salinity tester, but after having two now that have broke on me i just use a swing arm to measure my salinity. The only other test kits i own are api and some salifret but i use the hannah marine master photometer that tests for pretty much everything and it’s pretty accurate.

my tank is a 24x24 35 gal cube i’ve been using an ai prime 16hd since i started up my tank and just got another from a family member and added it as well, my light settings are only at 30% uv on a pennywise dead light setting, not sure if i should raise the uv or keep at as it is as i’m afraid of burning corals.

for flow i’m using two tunze 6015, i also have an ai orbit 4 that i need to send back to get a replacement however im not sure if it’ll be overkill

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

my tank is a 24x24 35 gal cube i’ve been using an ai prime 16hd since i started up my tank and just got another from a family member and added it as well, my light settings are only at 30% uv on a pennywise dead light setting, not sure if i should raise the uv or keep at as it is as i’m afraid of burning corals.

How high off the water are the lights?