Something is up with my tank! HELP!

[DaFlava]

Someone HELP!!!

So short issue is something is up with my tank causing issues. My tank is about a year old now, I'll try to give plenty of details on my setup. Ultimately I've seen a major increase in Algae than normal and looks like NItrates have sky rocketed (Probably the major issue but idk whats up). Believe the Nitrates are causing me to lose coral and few cleanup crew, fish haven't seen any issues. Had a hair Algae pop up along with few sorta bright red dust spots here and there on rocks but nothing in the sand.

Waterbox Marine X 90.3
Nyos Quantum 120 Protein Skimmer
Ecotech vectra s2 Pump
Two Ecotech MP40s
Two AI Prime 16HD Reef
CaribSea Life Rock and Arag Alive Fiji Pink Sand.

-Lighting Schedule Ramp up 10AM-1PM 0% to 50% UV, 5% V, 50% RY, 50% B, 5% W until 7:30PM and Ramp down to 0% by 9PM. *Two AI Prime 16HD Reef
-Water Change Schedule - Typically 10% every week to 15-20% every two weeks.
-Feeding Schedule - 1x day full cube or 2x day half cube (Hikari Bio-Pure Mysis Shrimp) will defrost in cup with tank water then feed.
-Regular sock cleaning and replacements when needed and skimmer cup cleaned every 1-2 weeks.

My readings today are below with notes for what test kits I used, typically all have stayed the same throughout the year however last month or so Nitrates have skyrocketed, i just started testing Phosphates so idk what those really have been.
-------------------
Temp - 78 avg
Salinity - 1.025 (Refracto, Hanna, Milwaukee)
PH - 8.0 (API, Hanna)
Ammonia - 0 (API)
Nitrite - 0 (API)
Nitrate - 31 (API, Hanna) *Definitely still high
Alkalinity - 172ppm
Phosphate - 0.12ppm (Hanna) *Think this is high?
Calcium - 505ppm (Hanna

My API test for Nitrates never showed anything high but LFS used a Hanna tester and it was at 68 sat and Phosphates were a little high so they recommended water changes of course and some Chemi-pure elite phosphate removal bags . I did (20g change), 55 sun, 51 wed, 46 thur, 43 fri, 45 sat, 47 / 36 sun (15g change), 37 tue, 39 wed (10g water change), 31 thur *Today's reading.

This is what I'm seeing, rocks getting coated with Algae that end up growing hair and few spots here and there red dust as I'd call it.

Skimmer indeed working, this is probably only a few days or maybe a week old at most.

Before and after (Within about a month) Poor corals....

This is my tank today, sand is clean no issues there.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Are you spot-feeding your coral, or just broadcasting through the entire tank?

I'd cut down on the light. A three-hour ramp-up isn't necessary, and your corals don't require SPS-type lighting.

How long have you had your tank? If it's relatively new -- in the range of six months to a year -- I'd say that you just have to let your tank mature. In the meantime, you can add lots of undemanding softies, such as mushrooms and nepthea leathers, and a frag or two of Grube's gorgonian, to add colour and movement to the aquarium. Grube's gorgonian grows like a weed, is incredibly hardy, and quite beautiful, and will make anyone feel like an advanced aquarist.

 

[DaFlava]

Coral per say isn't my problem other than I've lost one or two recently and seeing little decline on the current ones I have. The coral I have didn't really require spot feeding from my understanding although I occasionally I would spot feed them some reef roids.

I can cut down on the light ramp up but just seems odd this issue just started happening in the last month so I'd be surprised if it was lighting but anything could be a factor not helping. The tank is about 12 months old now but as I mentioned only issues in the last month. Previous months before everything was looking great, I feel like adding any coral they'd just start having issues as the Algae and this red dust seems to be becoming a problem.

 

[davidcalgary29]

This has come up quite a lot recently, and I've experienced it at as well: long-term coral decline after an initial period of success. I had a thriving acro colony in my Evo 13.5 that bleached and withered overnight after thriving for about six months. My nitrates were a little high, but I maintained good params with biweekly water changes and a protein skimmer. The tank then went through a very rough period. Each "fail" probably has a different cause, even though they all look very similar, and that makes it difficult to diagnose a common cause.

I used to poo-poo the idea of tank "maturity", but I do now agree that achieving a stable biome is the key to long-term coral health. A lot of corals seem to do well right up until the point that they really don't, and then tend to collapse in a spectacular fashion, and probably because they've exhausted what limited nutrients they've managed to store and have nothing left on which to draw. I gave up the fight a couple of months ago trying to keep trumpet corals -- of all things -- alive, and now just go for the proven successes in my tanks, such as the Grube's gorgs, softies, and hardy SPS like porites and stylocoeniella. I'll add the occasional frag in the future to determine viability as my tanks mature, but I'm okay with keeping to softies at the moment.