Please Help I think my corals all of them are struggling/starving mixed reef

[knoxmandan]

Hi R2R! I have a 1 yr old 80 gallon deep blue shallow rimless tank with large hob refugium and 30 gallon sump and I am dosing BRS 2 part cal/alk and running bio pellets and skimming around the clock. Ive been reading on R2R and i see all the problems people are having with (ULNS) systems and loosing color and receding and Ive noticed some of my sps are loosing color but still growing just white sticks and I can see the tentacles but no color on the new growth. Ive been feeding heavy and i have roughly 15 fish and 3 pistol shrimp 2 cleaner shrimp and a fire shrimp along with roughly 100 hermits/snails.
water test results:
no3- 0.00 red sea
p04-0.00 hanna
alk 9.13 hanna
cal: 450 red sea
mag: 1380 red sea
What should i do? What am i doing wrong? Ive also been dealing with what looks like cyano growing on my rocks and my zoas are not growing and receding also. i have dosed flurish nitrogen in the past when i first started the tank but i didnt have 20 peices of sps at that time and i dont want to kill any of them please help.

 

[DarkSky]

Get your NO3 to 5ppm and PO4 to 0.03ppm.

 

[Broadfield]

Get your NO3 to 5ppm and PO4 to 0.03ppm.

^^THIS^^ is also my sweet spot! My PO4 can get up to 0.1 ppm without too much issue, but I like to keep it right around .03 - .05 ppm.

 

[knoxmandan]

Thanks for the reply but please explain how i am to achieve that tried excessive feeding adding more fish should i turn off the bio pellets?

 

[DarkSky]

^^THIS^^ is also my sweet spot! My PO4 can get up to 0.1 ppm without too much issue, but I like to keep it right around .03 - .05 ppm.

I've pushed my PO4 levels up to 0.5ppm (yes, 0.5ppm) in order to chase away dinos. I didn't get too much green algae doing so, and my SPS didn't seem to mind. I did have a few tiny spots of cyano show up though.

 

[knoxmandan]

Im not running a gfo or carbon. Im just not sure how to bring these up other than shutting down the bio pellet reactor

 

[DarkSky]

Thanks for the reply but please explain how i am to achieve that tried excessive feeding adding more fish should i turn off the bio pellets?

You can try turning off the bio pellets, just be aware that you can't turn them back on without possibly nuking your tank if you've let everything die inside.

You could also try dosing some NO3 (dosing stump remover - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GVYXKC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and PO4 (phosphate - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008BRBVZW/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

Do some searching on the forums to find dosing instructions. You can nuke your tank if you go overboard. Start dosing in small quantities and test between each dose until you've reached your targets.

 

[Broadfield]

Thanks for the reply but please explain how i am to achieve that tried excessive feeding adding more fish should i turn off the bio pellets?

I had great success with bio pellets for over a year and thought I was king reefer. Then I upped my lighting from average PAR LED to higher PAR MH/T5 combo. My tank took a turn for the worse. My nutrient level did not match the intensity of my lighting and flow. Then my bio pellets kicked into overdrive and stripped the tank of nutrients. I decided to give the bio pellets the boot and I have never looked back! I had promising results literally within 24 hours of turning off the pellets.

 

[infamous]

Without clear pictures its hard to imagine what your tank looks like. Please post pictures of your filtration as well.

Dont shut off the biopellet reactor suddenly.

What is your pH?
What kind of salt are you using.
What kind of foods are you feeding.
Whats your pH swing?

Your tank might be low on oxygen.

I would do multiple water changes, add large amount of carbon and reduce the amount of biopellets slowly over a week.

Things should return to normal.

If you can, run a hose from outside to the skimmer's air intake.

Hope this helps.

 

[reeferfoxx]

Seachem phosphorus can help up your po4 in addition to the nitrogen for nitrates.. If your "cyano" looks brown, it may not be cyano. With such low nutrients, I wouldn't perform any water changes. You need nutrients in the water column. When your day lights come on, try and get a picture of the algae growth. That will help identify your issue and get you back on the right track.

 

[knoxmandan]

I had great success with bio pellets for over a year and thought I was king reefer. Then I upped my lighting from average PAR LED to higher PAR MH/T5 combo. My tank took a turn for the worse. My nutrient level did not match the intensity of my lighting and flow. Then my bio pellets kicked into overdrive and stripped the tank of nutrients. I decided to give the bio pellets the boot and I have never looked back! I had promising results literally within 24 hours of turning off the pellets.

I just switch from 2 kessil a360we's to a new 36" Reefbright 250w fixture with the XHO leds about 4 months ago the bio pellets have been on for about 6 months i added them when i couldnt get the nitrates to drop below 50-60 ppm and my po4 was around 0.5. So do you think the led lighting may have had a effect on my systems nutrients and now with the mh lighting the the bactiera is able to do its job better mabey?

 

[knoxmandan]

Without clear pictures its hard to imagine what your tank looks like. Please post pictures of your filtration as well.

Dont shut off the biopellet reactor suddenly.

What is your pH?
What kind of salt are you using.
What kind of foods are you feeding.
Whats your pH swing?

Your tank might be low on oxygen.

I would do multiple water changes, add large amount of carbon and reduce the amount of biopellets slowly over a week.

Things should return to normal.

If you can, run a hose from outside to the skimmer's air intake.

Hope this helps.

 

[knoxmandan]

I run a co2 scrubber

 

[knoxmandan]

Im using red sea coral pro salt with weekly 15 gal water changes
I feed 2 cubes hykari brine shrimp and myisis shrimp and a 2x4 sheet of seaweed every day, lrs reef frenzy, reef roids and reef chilli, algea barn phyto one of each every other day. PH swing is 8.0-8.3

 

[knoxmandan]

Seachem phosphorus can help up your po4 in addition to the nitrogen for nitrates.. If your "cyano" looks brown, it may not be cyano. With such low nutrients, I wouldn't perform any water changes. You need nutrients in the water column. When your day lights come on, try and get a picture of the algae growth. That will help identify your issue and get you back on the right track.

not sure if its cyano but it is red i suck it out with the hose when im doing water changes it comes of the rock easily.

 

[reeferfoxx]

not sure if its cyano but it is red i suck it out with the hose when im doing water changes it comes of the rock easily.

If it is cyano, then you may not have a po4 issue. That would mean its more of a nitrate issue.

 

[knoxmandan]

If it is cyano, then you may not have a po4 issue. That would mean its more of a nitrate issue.

I have 0 po4 and 0 nitrates. is the 0 nitrates causing the the cyano? it not terible but there are a few spots i cant get rid of and i read that cyano is also caused by 0 nitrates.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I have 0 po4 and 0 nitrates. is the 0 nitrates causing the the cyano? it not terible but there are a few spots i cant get rid of and i read that cyano is also caused by 0 nitrates.

Cyano feeds on available po4, so it has to be in the system. Without no3, your corals won't help out compete the cyano. Actually a couple weeks ago I ran a little test. I have seachem matrix in my filtration. It's another form of nitrate reduction. What I found was, the lack of nitrates with the availability of po4 resulted in zero alkalinity drop for nearly 4 days. I started dosing no3 and within a day, alkalinity and calcium consumption resumed.

 

[OREGONIC]

You could try pulling half or 3/4 the biopellets out, always easy to add again.

 

[knoxmandan]

You could try pulling half or 3/4 the biopellets out, always easy to add again.

I was considering pulling a 1/4 of the bio pellets out then in a week testing again and then pulling another 1/4 out and see if that helps