What’s wrong with my tank?

[umutcancamci]

Hello everyone,

I started cycling 15th of May and dosed AF bio s for 15 days. Now I continue with pro bio S and NP pro. I put 2 clown fish 5 days ago. 3 days ago I put 4 Zoa, 1 gold hammer 1 star polip, and 1 candy cane. I acclimated them. After that day, zoas keep opening and closing often, the hammer opened up completely but the candy and star polip never opened. Today, I saw hammer is closed and all the zoas are nearly closed. I took a test: Ca: 430 mg:1260 salinity: 1.025 phosphate: 0.03 nitrate: 40 kh: 10.6. After seeing the level of nitrate, I did a water change for 25%. After the change, water parameters remains the same but nitrate dropped to 25 and phosphate dropped to 0. However, all my corals are closed for 2 hours and I don’t know why.
My tank size: 35*30*30cm with a 11cm back-sump
Lightning: fluval nano 3
I have no wave pump, Just make use of the power of eheim 600 head pump.
Ps: Resun sk300 protein skimmer
Is this because of:
1) Nitrate level
2) Kh level
3) not using a wave pump
4) not using adequate lighting

 

[Bucs20fan]

Im going to be honest with you, It seems like your tank is still cycling. Its pretty early to be adding corals not even a month in, not that it cant be done but that seems to be your issue.

I see your test results, did you do an ammonia test? Ammonia is going to be the biggest killer here.

Most if not all corals are going to require supplemental flow. All require different things. I would research each type of coral before you buy it to make sure you can accommodate its needs.

 

[bstodds15]

Im going to be honest with you, It seems like your tank is still cycling. Its pretty early to be adding corals not even a month in, not that it cant be done but that seems to be your issue.

I see your test results, did you do an ammonia test? Ammonia is going to be the biggest killer here.

Most if not all corals are going to require supplemental flow. All require different things. I would research each type of coral before you buy it to make sure you can accommodate its needs.

Agreed - Tank has only been cycling for 3 weeks, so a little soon to be adding corals.. Highly recommend taking a breath and letting the tank get its bearings.

If you don't have an ammonia test kit, pick one up and start checking it.

Hopefully nothing dies off on you.

 

[Cell]

New tank, insufficient light, insufficient flow are all culprits.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Almost all corals are photosynthetic, a proper light is going to be necessary going forward. There are many affordable options for a tank that size.

 

[Jekyl]

The majority of your issue is the age of your tank. Ideally you should wait months before adding coral. Easier ones can be added after a month or 2, LPS can be a pain in my experience and should wait 3 or 4 before trying. Even then, that's just keeping them alive. For me coral didn't really thrive until after my ugly phase. Which wrapped up around month 8 or 9. For now I'd check into better lighting, getting a cheap wavemaker (you don't want spots with no flow), get nitrate to 5 to 10 and keep it stable. Once you accomplish those things just keep things stable. Get accustomed to parameter swings and dealing with algae before adding more coral. Avoid quick fix products in the process.

 

[dthom]

It get's really exciting to get a new tank, but taking it slow is really, really important.
If I were you I would not buy anymore livestock for the tank. Leave things be and let the tank stabalize.
As you said Nitrate and KH are off. Need to slowly get those taken care of. You will get there

 

[umutcancamci]

Im going to be honest with you, It seems like your tank is still cycling. Its pretty early to be adding corals not even a month in, not that it cant be done but that seems to be your issue.

I see your test results, did you do an ammonia test? Ammonia is going to be the biggest killer here.

Most if not all corals are going to require supplemental flow. All require different things. I would research each type of coral before you buy it to make sure you can accommodate its needs.

I did an Ammonia test today, and the result is 0. I have not done a test for nitrite, but I will do it soon.

Agreed - Tank has only been cycling for 3 weeks, so a little soon to be adding corals.. Highly recommend taking a breath and letting the tank get its bearings.

If you don't have an ammonia test kit, pick one up and start checking it.

Hopefully nothing dies off on you.

Hammer is getting worse day by day. I'm still struggling to find the cause.

 

[SlugSnorter]

I did an Ammonia test today, and the result is 0. I have not done a test for nitrite, but I will do it soon.


Hammer is getting worse day by day. I'm still struggling to find the cause.

improper lighting, flow and tank is far too young. Corals need older, more mature tanks. Not much you can do to save those corals IMO

also 0. what?

 

[Bucs20fan]

As stated earlier, you need time to establish a balance in your tank. Sometimes corals just die due to a non mature tank. Also your nitrates are pretty low and most corals need between 5-15 ppm nitrate to thrive.

Also as stated above you need some flow. Almost none of the commonly available corals will grow without flow. Hammers especially. Corals rely on flow to bring them nutrients, which you already barely have any of in the tank.

I would chock this up to one of the many hard lessons we all learn in this hobby. Almost all of them can be avoided by not doing anything too fast. In your case filling the tank with corals. This is a very slow burn hobby. Lots of research lots of planning, nothing fast.

If you started the tank on the 15th of may, your cycle is indeed still going and you havent even gotten the uglies yet. You shouldnt look at adding corals for another 3-5 months if you want my advice.