Why aren't my Corals Thriving?

[Lindebrah]

Hello,

I'm fairly new to the hobby and cannot seem to keep corals alive; at best they just survive in my tank instead of thrive. The only coral I have been able to keep successfully is a toadstool, which is also the only coral I have ever owned that has grown. The corals I have that aren't thriving are mostly LPS. I have 4 hammers, 1 torch and 1 heliofungia plate. The heliofungia, torch and hammers were all big and extended in the store but when I put them in my tank they only stayed big and extended for a few days. The heliofungia has never fully extended as big as it was in the store. A lot of times the corals are only extended in the morning when the lights are ramping up. As the day progresses, they start to shrink. I'm not sure what is causing this as my nutrients and lighting seem fine.

Will list as much information as I can here.

Tank Specs

Dimensions: 72"x15.5"x15.5" (I got the tank made with custom dimensions so that I could have it on a second floor without being too heavy while having enough swimming room for a small tang or two)
Age: 7 months
Refugium: No
Skimmer: Yes
BioMedia: Siporax

Nutrients

Salinity: 35ppm* (Tested with refractometer)
NH3: 0ppm (Tested with Salifert)
N02: 0.1ppm (Tested with Fauna Marin)
NO3: 5ppm (Tested with Salifert)
PO4: 0.03ppm** (Tested with Fauna Marin)
KH: 9.5 dkH (Tested with Fauna Marin)
Ca: 460ppm (Tested with Fauna Marin)
Mag: 1300ppm (Tested with Fauna Marin)

* Salinity has been swinging for the past week or so from 35-38ppm. I am having problems with my ATO and a lot of times it won't be going off and salinity rises. I'm not sure if this is stressing out my corals.

** Something is consuming my phosphate and a lot of times if I'm not dosing it will be zero. My phosphate level seems to swing and I'm not sure if this is another potential thing stressing my corals.

Water & Salt

I use water from my RO/DI maker that has 0 TDS. I am using Fauna Marin salt mixed to 35ppm

Flow

Dual Maxspect FX330 Gyres

I'm not sure what settings are best for a tank like mine since it is such an unorthodox size. Currently I am running alternating gyre mode on one gyre and anti-synchronized on the other with 80% forward flow and 60% backwards flow alternating every 6 seconds. With this flow the torch moves a decent amount and the hammers just kind of wiggle a little.

Here is a video of the corals in typical flow: Coral Flow



Lighting

ReefBreeders Photon 48-V2+ x2

Lights run from 10:00am to 10:00pm

Time	Red	Green	Royal Blue	White	Cool Blue	Violet
10:00	2	4	15	5	15	10
11:00	4	6	25	10	25	15
12:00	10	10	35	15	35	30
13:00	10	10	35	15	35	30
14:00	10	10	35	15	35	30
15:00	10	10	35	15	35	30
16:00	10	10	35	15	35	30
17:00	10	10	35	15	35	30
18:00	10	10	35	15	35	30
19:00	10	10	35	15	35	30
20:00	4	6	25	10	25	15
21:00	2	4	15	5	15	10
22:00	0	0	8	0	2	2

Par: Tested with Apogee MQ-200

Although not pictured my hammers, torch and heliofungia are in the sand bed between 123-170 par.

Fish/Inverts

I took a gamble at the beginning of having the tank and added 4 fish without quarantining. I unfortunately lost them all so as of now the tank has zero fish. I have two cleaner shrimp, a sand shifting star, 4 emerald crabs, hermit crabs, trochus, astrea and nassarius snails. Having a lack of fish may be why my phosphate is constantly being consumed.

Conclusion

That is everything I can think of. I am happy to answer any questions that may be needed to solve this problem. It's been very frustrating because I feel like I've been doing everything right and don't have much luck. Thank you.

 

[Pistondog]

Those euphyllia want some nutrients. Try ghost feeding

 

[Doctorgori]

Try dropping the flow a lil until they expand. Euphilids like low flow (pardon the spelling)
...Also you dont want salinity swings, I wouldn’t panic but you will wanna straighten that out sooner than later
... prev poster is right, you might want to run phosphate around .5 assuming if algae stays in check

 

[Lindebrah]

Those euphyllia want some nutrients. Try ghost feeding

Anything in particular? Are pellets and frozen fine?

 

[Jekyl]

Firstly get your salinity to stop swinging. The wrong parameters will annoy as much as ones that swing. What ever advice you end up taking after this post runs it course only change 1 thing. If you change 6 different things it could go bad and you still won't know why. Plenty of people run with lower nutrients and higher flow. As long as the LPS aren't being directly blasted it's probably OK. I would do some research and find out what others have your lights set at. The intensity seems low to me.

 

[Lindebrah]

Try dropping the flow a lil until they expand. Euphilids like low flow (pardon the spelling)
...Also you dont want salinity swings, I wouldn’t panic but you will wanna straighten that out sooner than later
... prev poster is right, you might want to run phosphate around .5 assuming if algae stays in check

Alright I'll drop the flow and see if that helps. I think I've sorted out the salinity issue but I'll monitor it over these coming weeks. I'll try feeding more instead of dosing phos perhaps.

Did everything else look good to you like par?

 

[Lindebrah]

Firstly get your salinity to stop swinging. The wrong parameters will annoy as much as ones that swing. What ever advice you end up taking after this post runs it course only change 1 thing. If you change 6 different things it could go bad and you still won't know why. Plenty of people run with lower nutrients and higher flow. As long as the LPS aren't being directly blasted it's probably OK. I would do some research and find out what others have your lights set at. The intensity seems low to me.

I'll get on that. Should I go by intensity or by par? The intensity used to be much higher but obviously the par was higher so I turned the lights down to have lower par. My par used to look like this:

 

[Pistondog]

Anything in particular? Are pellets and frozen fine?

Yes, those are good, if that doesn't bump your po4, reef roids, which will.

 

[Jekyl]

I have my LPS right around 150-200. Again though, any changes do 1 at a time and wait 2 or 3 weeks. See how they respond. For lighting change it slowly if you find a different way to run them.

 

[Tcook]

I agree that you need to get your ATO working right. I have used many. The best, by far, is the Tunze 3155. I recommend you get one. Will save you a lot of headaches. I recommend you try to maintain your PO4 at .05-0.1. These LPS suck up a lot of PO4. Needed for atp, chomophores, proteins etc. If you have a healthfood/vitamin stor you can get a bottle of Calcium-EAP. 1 capsule into 500 ml RO and try 20-30 ml daily. Check your PO4 daily or every other. Your par level is fine for those corals.