Shrimp is dead, corals seem to die

[Icryhard]

So I started out this hobby after having a freshwater for a long time.
For some reason, one of my shrimps died today, at least that's what I assume, he's somewhere hiding (I can see him) and he isn't moving. He hasn't come out for a day. The other one doesn't seem to be too keen about eating either. My corals for whatever reason don't seem to open up either. As a matter of fact, I think they're dying since they don't open up and kind of seem white-ish.

I did a 2/3 water change after moving them from a 180l to a 450l. I let the 2/3 of the osmosis water run for a couple of days with start-up bacteria in the 450 before adding the other 180 +/- to it. The values didn't go up or down too much, as a matter of fact: They became more stable and better.

What I have:

2 external filters with the standard paddings to filter, as the final tray (before it gets pumped back into the aquarium) I put in one silicate filtration and those plastic balls. In the other one I put sillicate filters and a lot of live stone. I have a protein skimmer as well.

I have 3 lights which I cycle as follow:
Dark deep blue for one hour, throughout the day I build this light up to lighter blue and eventually it becomes for a short period white, from there on out I start turning it down bit by bit to the eventual deep dark blue for one hour before I turn them off. I turn the lights on at 9 AM and do the cycle until 9 PM and then turn it off. In case anyone is wondering which light I use: https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/petpetr...ea-reefled-alternatief/9300000032550989/?s2a=

My values are (tested yesterday just before going to bed, which was around 11 pm):
pH: 8,0 (I did put in some baking soda yesterday to bring it up a bit)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrit: 0
Nitrate: 12,5 mg/l
kH: 13,4 (I am trying to let it gradually come back down... I know this is too high)
salinity: 1023
Calcium and magnesium haven't been tested yesterday, but I have like 5 relatively small corals, so I doubt this has anything to do with it. The last time I checked, which was a week ago, it was around the recommended values.
Phosphate: 0 (I supressed this due to dioatoms bloom in the 180). I am now trying to naturally come back up to 0,1
oxygen level seems to be between 4 and 6.
Temperature: 25 degrees (77 fahrenheit)

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Are there any fish in the tank? If so, how are they doing?
Can you post a picture of the tank/corals taken under white lights?
What brand of test kit are you using to test ammonia?
How are you testing dissolved oxygen? I would prefer to see 7 to 8 mg/l at that temperature.

Jay

 

[Icryhard]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Are there any fish in the tank? If so, how are they doing?
Can you post a picture of the tank/corals taken under white lights?
What brand of test kit are you using to test ammonia?
How are you testing dissolved oxygen? I would prefer to see 7 to 8 mg/l at that temperature.

Jay

Hey there Jay, just a quick moment. I will take pictures of it and update my reply to you. The fish seem to be just fine. The 2 nemos are swimming around very happy, the 2 gramma loreto seem to be doing fine as well and the other fish my dad bought, which seems to be some sort of algea eater is also happy. I will take a couple of pictures and update.
I am trying everything I can to crank up the oxygen levels, but for some reason I just can't get it up. Bubble stones, doing that thing with the surface of which I forgot the name of. I add one a week some special substance for the corals and once a week this substance which adds the required elements for the water. The black (but blurry) picture shows the in-aquarium skimmer which has limescale(?)
I use a test kit called "salifert" to test my water. It's a test kit which uses drops and then changes color.

 

[vetteguy53081]

1.023 salinity a little low for shrimp and better check calcium which work with alk and often if calcium is low, alk will be higher and shrimps need calcium for their skeletons.
If phos is zero, your coral if any have no nutrients and you should be seeing dino or will be which leads to question - what test kits you are using.
Your filters seem basic from description and designed for freshwater in which you may be lacking chemical and/or biological filtration.

 

[Icryhard]

1.023 salinity a little low for shrimp and better check calcium which work with alk and often if calcium is low, alk will be higher and shrimps need calcium for their skeletons.
If phos is zero, your coral if any have no nutrients and you should be seeing dino or will be which leads to question - what test kits you are using.
Your filters seem basic from description and designed for freshwater in which you may be lacking chemical and/or biological filtration.

I read that the salinity should be between 1020 and 1025 and since I have other fish as well I figured 1023 would be sufficient. The phosphate was turned to 0, because of my bad experience with the 180l brown algea which didn't reduce. It only increased and increased and I read that this could kill my corals as well, so I figured if I push that to 0 and use the filtration systems to reduce my silicate and then let the phosphate go back up slowly it would prevent an outbreak of the diatoms. Test kit is of salifert. How much would you recommend my calcium and magnesium to be to be able to keep fish, corals and some shrimps then? By now I am pretty much out of ideas and have no clue on what to do. The filters aren't a sump, that would be correct, but both have chemical and biological filtration implemented in their respective trays. Each have 3 trays. One to hold off rough stuff, second one to filter fine stuff, on top of it I threw the silicate reducer from colombo https://fritskuiper.nl/product/colombo-marine-silicate-ex/ and the third tray, the final tray before it goes back into the aquarium it's plastic balls which help manifestation of bacteria and those little stones/rocks which help manifestation. I have about 20 kg of live stone/rocks(?) in it and was planning on buying some more today, mostly for the 10% rule and for aesthetic reasons.

 

[Icryhard]

So I started out this hobby after having a freshwater for a long time.
For some reason, one of my shrimps died today, at least that's what I assume, he's somewhere hiding (I can see him) and he isn't moving. He hasn't come out for a day. The other one doesn't seem to be too keen about eating either. My corals for whatever reason don't seem to open up either. As a matter of fact, I think they're dying since they don't open up and kind of seem white-ish.

I did a 2/3 water change after moving them from a 180l to a 450l. I let the 2/3 of the osmosis water run for a couple of days with start-up bacteria in the 450 before adding the other 180 +/- to it. The values didn't go up or down too much, as a matter of fact: They became more stable and better.

What I have:

2 external filters with the standard paddings to filter, as the final tray (before it gets pumped back into the aquarium) I put in one silicate filtration and those plastic balls. In the other one I put sillicate filters and a lot of live stone. I have a protein skimmer as well.

I have 3 lights which I cycle as follow:
Dark deep blue for one hour, throughout the day I build this light up to lighter blue and eventually it becomes for a short period white, from there on out I start turning it down bit by bit to the eventual deep dark blue for one hour before I turn them off. I turn the lights on at 9 AM and do the cycle until 9 PM and then turn it off. In case anyone is wondering which light I use: https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/p/petpetr...ea-reefled-alternatief/9300000032550989/?s2a=

My values are (tested yesterday just before going to bed, which was around 11 pm):
pH: 8,0 (I did put in some baking soda yesterday to bring it up a bit)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrit: 0
Nitrate: 12,5 mg/l
kH: 13,4 (I am trying to let it gradually come back down... I know this is too high)
salinity: 1023
Calcium and magnesium haven't been tested yesterday, but I have like 5 relatively small corals, so I doubt this has anything to do with it. The last time I checked, which was a week ago, it was around the recommended values.
Phosphate: 0 (I supressed this due to dioatoms bloom in the 180). I am now trying to naturally come back up to 0,1
oxygen level seems to be between 4 and 6.
Temperature: 25 degrees (77 fahrenheit)

Magnesium: 1380
Calcium: 440

 

[vetteguy53081]

I read that the salinity should be between 1020 and 1025 and since I have other fish as well I figured 1023 would be sufficient. The phosphate was turned to 0, because of my bad experience with the 180l brown algea which didn't reduce. It only increased and increased and I read that this could kill my corals as well, so I figured if I push that to 0 and use the filtration systems to reduce my silicate and then let the phosphate go back up slowly it would prevent an outbreak of the diatoms. Test kit is of salifert. How much would you recommend my calcium and magnesium to be to be able to keep fish, corals and some shrimps then? By now I am pretty much out of ideas and have no clue on what to do. The filters aren't a sump, that would be correct, but both have chemical and biological filtration implemented in their respective trays. Each have 3 trays. One to hold off rough stuff, second one to filter fine stuff, on top of it I threw the silicate reducer from colombo https://fritskuiper.nl/product/colombo-marine-silicate-ex/ and the third tray, the final tray before it goes back into the aquarium it's plastic balls which help manifestation of bacteria and those little stones/rocks which help manifestation. I have about 20 kg of live stone/rocks(?) in it and was planning on buying some more today, mostly for the 10% rule and for aesthetic reasons.

Alk- 7.9-11 dkh
CA 400 - 440
Mag 1300-1350
Salinity 1.024-1.025
ammonia <.025
nitrate 10-15
temp 77-79

 

[Icryhard]

Alk- 7.9-11 dkh
CA 400 - 440
Mag 1300-1350
Salinity 1.024-1.025
ammonia <.025
nitrate 10-15
temp 77-79

My CA and Mag are 440 and 1380 in respective order.
So basically everything seems to be slightly off compared to what you have. salinity is 1023, alk is 13,4 and phosphate is 0 (reduced it on biological basis so my silicate remover wouldn't bind to it). So now comes the rather stupid question I guess: I've read that excessive food pushes phospate back up, would it be wise to do such thing? I added pictures by the way... in case you're interested in knowing the state my aquarium is in and the corals as well.

 

[vetteguy53081]

My CA and Mag are 440 and 1380 in respective order.
So basically everything seems to be slightly off compared to what you have. salinity is 1023, alk is 13,4 and phosphate is 0 (reduced it on biological basis so my silicate remover wouldn't bind to it). So now comes the rather stupid question I guess: I've read that excessive food pushes phospate back up, would it be wise to do such thing? I added pictures by the way... in case you're interested in knowing the state my aquarium is in and the corals as well.

I would not overfeed and cause other levels to suffer but lengthen time you do water changes as well as feeding coral reef roids will increase phos.

 

[Icryhard]

I would not overfeed and cause other levels to suffer but lengthen time you do water changes as well as feeding coral reef roids will increase phos.

So no overfeeding, feed reef roids. I put this substance in my aquarium once a week (https://www.oceanartstore.nl/products/reef-elixir) to keep all the elements at proper levels and feed the fish/corals the elements they need. I use the standard 0,5 ml per 100 liter. I also give them ab+ once a week. Both on sunday in the evening when the light is dark blue (https://www.coralandfishstore.nl/vi...re-dieren/red-sea-reef-energy-plus-ab-1l.html). Do you recommend to keep it up, or to lower the dosages when adding the reef roid ? How often would you recommend me to feed reef roid? and would you recommend me to try and lower/higher the values I now have, which are slightly off compared to the values you mentioned?

I am very much sorry for the newb questions. I am kind of giving up. Everything I read and I try to do seems to NOT have the desired effect to ensure the health of my fish and corals.