Time to start over? Ask BRSTV, thought I'd ask my friends here, as well.

[chefjpaul]

If had the opposite experience. I started with Dry rock. I dont purposely add 'gunk or ocean dirt' becasue I dont have access to it. That said - I tended when starting to add MORE coral than less - which quickly increased the biodiversity of the tank. IMHO (and its heresy I know) - some of the delay/problems with tanks etc - relate to this extremely slow pace. Like putting 1 small frag in 150 gallon tank. That just to me gives lots of surface area for algae etc to take hold. Now - I also have a fair bit of experience - and keep my parameters very stable - so that also plays a role....

Its interesting what I dont understand is how some many people are successful keeping their tanks with extremely low nutrients - and adding no extra stuff - and others who do well putting a bunch of stuff in - both sides swear by their methods - but they are polar opposites. I have a feeling it relates to the type of coral being kept in each

Definitely agree with this.

I do add a lot of coral at once as well.
I believe bacteria is a key component to dry rock, the rest comes in time anyway.
I had just started to sterilized on my last tank and got a dino outbreak. Beat it out quickly by adding life and coral.

I also feed heavy fwiw.

 

[BeejReef]

My question to the OP is "What have you done differently with this tank than all of your previously successful builds."

Clearly not lacking for experience, husbandry, or knowledge BUT something is different.

Maybe a commonly discussed factor like dry v live rock. Maybe they don't "make rock like they used to," but outside the box too... like where in your house is the tank. Near furnace vents or returns? Closer or further from fresh air? Radon in the basement? Neighbor has a new rose bush?

 

[dvybiral]

Hmmn .....

You don’t specifically say, but I assume you are using a competent RODI system for your source water. That you are able to keep softies suggests that whatever the issue, it likely not something there that shouldn’t be there. Even though your WQ levels look fine, there may be something missing. I track my success with SPS/LPS to the point where I began using a CaRx. Perhaps that’s worth trying before breaking down the tank.

What's CaRx?

 

[pasquale petrovia]

First off your too old for reefing. LOL. I have been in salt water for 34 years and reef tanks for 20 and just started a 225 gallon a year and a half ago with all the goodies. Kalk reactor, calcium reactor and using my old 14- 39 watt t5 ati bulb hood and I am struggling with SPS. I cant get coraline to grow and sps growing slowly. PH seems low and ALK low also because Reef crystals usually mixes up at 11+DKH for me. I used some 20 year old Tonga, sulewesi, and Vanuatu rock I had stored for a few years. My parameters are all pretty stable, but no coraline growth and seeded it a few times. I would check source water and slow down water changes and drip Kalk to stabilize PH. See if your coraline grows in. Good Luck fellow old guy.

 

[Ferrell]

I’ll preface this by saying this is my first reef tank but I kept fish for many years. My Reef has been up for about two years now, started with dry rock, and just now beginning to figure it out and see some sps growth.
my issues:
1. T5 and not knowing par. Four bulb t5 with the prescribed to C+ into blue plus bulbs. Looked at chart data from other reefers and assumed I had enough par. I only ran the lights for 6 to 7 hours per day and was barely getting enough power to keep softies alive. Once I switched to 4T5 bulbs +2 LEDs and began running My lights for 10 hours I begin to see some changes. Ultimately too weak of lights for too short of a time. Maybe you should add time to your lights? When I got my LEDs I was afraid of burning the corals because I didn’t know how weak or powerful they were and it’s taken me three months and two Parmiter borrowing to get the lights where they need to be. I’m going to leave it this way for a couple of months and see what it does. JustPut my test corals in last Saturday.
2. I started off dosing with Kalkwasser and when it would no longer keep up I reduced the kalk Volume and added the BRS two part to supplement the kalk. The kalk helps keep my pH between 8.2 and 8.4 daily. Without that I would be in the sevens. I think I ultimately dose about a gallon of Kalk over the course of a week and supplement with the two part (about 20 ml/day).
3. I also went from a 20% water change every other week to a 10% water change every week and it seem to help. Plus the smaller water changes quicker and easier to manage and less chance for fluctuations in parameters.

I know these are things from a unseasoned reefer but thought I would throw it out for your consideration. Hope you get things squared away. Good luck

 

[Oldreefer44]

Experienced a similar situation. Suggest:
Raise PH which seemed to be a big part of it in my case. Montis improved drastically once it was consistently over 7.8.
Stop reacting to everything - fix one thing at a time. Will be hard to find core issue if trying to fix many things at once.
I would also remove the Paly's. Some can be very, very toxic and it seems like something is building up in your water.

 

[Heart of Dixie]

I started a new tank several years ago using nothing but pukani dry rock. The rock was cured for 5 months while the po4 leached out and I had the same problem that you are having. I purchased 18 pounds of Garf Grunge to add bacteria to the system after reading an article by Mike Paletta as he
experienced the same situation with one of his tanks.

 

[Greybeard]

Reboot proceeding... details over at my build thread.