What could be wrong with my tank health?

[balajeek15]

Question, what am i missing and why my corals are diminishing or dying over time

- spiderman favia lost all color and disappearing
- bi-color hammer shrunk and never opened (i had seen opened few days when i got back in Nov)
- I have at least 10 varieties of Polyps and some of them lessening counts instead of multiplying
- Bird nest and other acropora gone within weeks (I know i should not got that early, but took risk)
- last few days my green leather coral seen shrinked most of the time, it use to be expanded and wavy all the time in the past
- green star ploys, in shrinked state since i moved to top of the tank from bottom.​

my fear is that i will start loose other corals that are okay now

other corals looks good so far are

- Orange Ricordea
- many polyps
- Green hammer coral
- Flou green touch
- Sponge bob favia
- Emerala green Palythaa Grandis​

I setup a 90gal exactly a year ago and I did take care of everything i am aware, I do read lot of forums specially many here in R2R to improve my knowledge or trying to resolve a situation on my tank.

FYI: 3 months later after setup i had velvet disease and lost all 8 fishes in matter of days becaz of lack of QT importance, but went thru a fallow period of 4 months before adding any more fish.

My Setup:
- Red Sea Reefer 90gal
- Sicce 3.0 return pump
- Phospan reactor with Phospan media
- Sump with refugium setup with Kessil sump light H80 Floral
- Bubble magus curve 5 skimmer (getting good skim - full every week)
- Cobalt heater
- Two Kessil A360WE lights

Monitoring with Neptune Apex controllers
- DOS B-Ionic Ca/Alk buffer 20ml each daily
- WAV (left and right of the tank)
- ATO setup with direct connection to RO/DI

Feedings:
- Variety of flakes or pellets once a day for fishes
- Reef-Roids once a week (target feeding)
- brine shrimp in weekends instead of regular fake/pellet

Stock:
- bought a lot of corals at WWC sale in Nov 2018
- Two months ago introduced Coral Beauty and Neon Damsel (1.5" and 1") after QT/CP 29days
- Tow weeks ago introduced two blood orange clownfish after QT/CP 29days
- Flame angel and Foxface are in QT now (started just few days ago)

Water Parameters:
- Temp 78 steady (+/- 0.5)
- Salt 35ppt
- Ph 8.0
- ORP 450 range
- Ammonio=0, Nitrate=0, Phos=0, Ca=500, Alk=8.4, Mg=1600+
- Light (start 10am gradually and increase to 70% by 11am, then gradual decrease to 15% at 10pm) and off

One thing to note is I took no water change route and rather filter/condition and dos to keep water in the parameters fish and corals like.

I wanted to be successful and i am trying to be my best. Please give feedback to help thrive my tank.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Phosphate is zero? What about nitrates? How is your macro algae in your refugium doing?

Also, are you doing ICP testing since you aren’t doing water changes? How are you handling trace elements?

If it were me, I’d take the phosban reactor offline for a while. You don’t want a high reading of phosphate or nitrates, but you do want some...just enough that it’s detectable.

 

[Softhammer]

Just do water changes. Much easier than killing corals.

 

[Mjrenz]

I agree with the others above, your water is too clean and your magnesium is way too high

 

[homer1475]

Your literally starving your corals, even though your feeding them.

0 nitrates and 0 phosphates are not a good thing, and will set you up for some serious algae issues down the road. Cyano and Dino's love all 0's FYI.

 

[ScottR]

Phosphates and nitrates are zero??? How is that possible with those feedings and livestock? What test kits are you using? I think if most people here tried as hard as they could to reach zero, they couldn’t.

 

[CindyKz]

I also question only 2 Kessil A360s over 90 gal doesn't seem like enough for SPS

 

[balajeek15]

ah! I am not aware zero readings is not good, Yes Phosphate and Nitrates is zero. I had Chateo algae 6 months ago introduced but I saw nothing today, guess no food for chateo and died i believe.

How can I add trace elements? Is this like another dosing I can do ?
I was thinking about ICP testing becaz i never done that.

I shut off the value for Phosban reactor. What level of Phosphate and Nitrate is okay and how can i get it to up?

Phosphate is zero? What about nitrates? How is your macro algae in your refugium doing?

Also, are you doing ICP testing since you aren’t doing water changes? How are you handling trace elements?

If it were me, I’d take the phosban reactor offline for a while. You don’t want a high reading of phosphate or nitrates, but you do want some...just enough that it’s detectable.

 

[balajeek15]

In the beginning i had very very log Mg and I started adding 10ml/day dosing for 2 months then i found that the Salifert test kit i got it form ebay is the culprit and now switched to Red Sea, whats the normal Mg level and anything i can do to lower it?
Thanks.

I agree with the others above, your water is too clean and your magnesium is way too high

 

[balajeek15]

When you say starving corals do you mean becaz of zero nitrates and phospates? what can i do to increase it and how much? more feeding?

Your literally starving your corals, even though your feeding them.

0 nitrates and 0 phosphates are not a good thing, and will set you up for some serious algae issues down the road. Cyano and Dino's love all 0's FYI.

 

[Mjrenz]

In the beginning i had very very log Mg and I started adding 10ml/day dosing for 2 months then i found that the Salifert test kit i got it form ebay is the culprit and now switched to Red Sea, whats the normal Mg level and anything i can do to lower it?
Thanks.

A range of 1200 to 1400 is usually safe, closer to 1400 is better. The magnesium will slowly drop on its own and you can also lower it with water changes. Just don't try to change your water parameters too quickly

 

[balajeek15]

and that too i run max 70%, i always worried the light is too much, but since SPS is all gone and i got some soft corals left, should i still increase the light %, Is there a chart that say how much light is needed so i can place them according and invest in getting the light measuring tool to my neptune system.
Thanks.

I also question only 2 Kessil A360s over 90 gal doesn't seem like enough for SPS

 

[balajeek15]

Yes, not sure why all of you guys surprised, I thought I am doing good job keeping them in zero until i posted this.
I use test kits from RedSea for Nitrate, Ca, Mg, Ammonia and Hanna for Phospate and Alk.

Phosphates and nitrates are zero??? How is that possible with those feedings and livestock? What test kits are you using? I think if most people here tried as hard as they could to reach zero, they couldn’t.

 

[BeejReef]

In the beginning i had very very log Mg and I started adding 10ml/day dosing for 2 months then i found that the Salifert test kit i got it form ebay is the culprit and now switched to Red Sea, whats the normal Mg level and anything i can do to lower it?
Thanks.

You've got a pretty fancy setup and you seem to like dosing pumps. No issue there. That's cool. Still, magnesium is the kind of thing you really don't need to dose automatically. You can easily test it every week or two, pour out the correct dosage to correct up to 1400'sh, and just pour it into the DT in a higher flow area.

What I've read is that mag will lower itself in time. 1600 is uncomfortably high, but probably not an emergency.

 

[balajeek15]

You've got a pretty fancy setup and you seem to like dosing pumps. No issue there. That's cool. Still, magnesium is the kind of thing you really don't need to dose automatically. You can easily test it every week or two, pour out the correct dosage to correct up to 1400'sh, and just pour it into the DT in a higher flow area.

What I've read is that mag will lower itself in time. 1600 is uncomfortably high, but probably not an emergency.

My wife always complain i spend too much time caring for this tank, with the new setup i started a year ago i wanted to automate as much possible and spend that time sit in front of the tank and enjoy. thats one main reason to skip water changes.

 

[ngoodermuth]

ah! I am not aware zero readings is not good, Yes Phosphate and Nitrates is zero. I had Chateo algae 6 months ago introduced but I saw nothing today, guess no food for chateo and died i believe.

How can I add trace elements? Is this like another dosing I can do ?
I was thinking about ICP testing becaz i never done that.

I shut off the value for Phosban reactor. What level of Phosphate and Nitrate is okay and how can i get it to up?

I try to keep my nitrates around 5, and phosphate around .02-.05... for an SPS tank. If you’re keeping LPS and softies, they can even be a bit higher.

Best way to raise phosphate is to stop the reactor and feed your fish a little more. Don’t go crazy and dump a ton in so that you get an algae outbreak...but just add a little more than you are feeding now.

Nitrates come from fish waste, so more fish = more nitrates. If you don’t want any more fish, nitrates can be dosed... but as a fish person I’d rather go that way

I handle trace elements by doing regular water changes. I do weekly to bi-weekly water changes to keep things stable in my own tank.

You can dose, but then you would want to do regular ICP testing to make sure you aren’t getting a surplus of one element and a shortage of another.

I think it’s much more simple to just let my salt mix do the work for me there, but I know there are others here who run no water-change systems. Maybe someone will chime in with a suggested dosing schedule for trace elements or other things beyond 2-part, that water changes would usually replenish.

 

[BeejReef]

My wife always complain i spend too much time caring for this tank, with the new setup i started a year ago i wanted to automate as much possible and spend that time sit in front of the tank and enjoy. thats one main reason to skip water changes.

To each his own Got to keep that tank/family balance. There was an active post on here last week where a guy's girlfriend poisoned his tank

I've seen some people use a DOS pump to do auto water changes. You and the wife can sip wine and taste cheese while the pump and the apex do the dirty work!

 

[balajeek15]

I try to keep my nitrates around 5, and phosphate around .02-.05... for an SPS tank. If you’re keeping LPS and softies, they can even be a bit higher.

Best way to raise phosphate is to stop the reactor and feed your fish a little more. Don’t go crazy and dump a ton in so that you get an algae outbreak...but just add a little more than you are feeding now.

Nitrates come from fish waste, so more fish = more nitrates. If you don’t want any more fish, nitrates can be dosed... but as a fish person I’d rather go that way

I handle trace elements by doing regular water changes. I do weekly to bi-weekly water changes to keep things stable in my own tank.

You can dose, but then you would want to do regular ICP testing to make sure you aren’t getting a surplus of one element and a shortage of another.

I think it’s much more simple to just let my salt mix do the work for me there, but I know there are others here who run no water-change systems. Maybe someone will chime in with a suggested dosing schedule for trace elements or other things beyond 2-part, that water changes would usually replenish.

Thanks, i will increase the food a bit and fish is always hungry in my tank anyway. Adding more fishes is in process, currently Flame Angel and Foxface in QT.

 

[balajeek15]

Another question, carbon reactor and bio-media reactor was in my plan to add and i even purchased the reactors while ago, should i add them now or wait? carbon can eliminate any toxic if present.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Another question, carbon reactor and bio-media reactor was in my plan to add and i even purchased the reactors while ago, should i add them now or wait? carbon can eliminate any toxic if present.

Those are fine to run, though be careful with the carbon. If it breaks downs, it can cause HLLE in fish.