Why can’t I keep/grow coral? What am I doing wrong?

[newyorkmets15]

That’s correct, I do not see an elevated metal issue. Some may be low and could possibly benefit from dosing.

That company should get the Nobel Prize for devising a method so precise that they can claim to know phosphate to 16 significant figures. lol

You have any recommendations for trace elements? I haven’t dosed any yet and would like to know a good one to use. Also, what’s with this high iodine. It’s like 4.8 ppm!! What would cause that? I read that nori is high in iodine and I do feed a sizeable amount daily but I don’t think it would have that much of an impact. What could it be? Do I slow increase salinity to 35 ppm or keep it stable at 34 where it sits now

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You have any recommendations for trace elements? I haven’t dosed any yet and would like to know a good one to use. Also, what’s with this high iodine. It’s like 4.8 ppm!! What would cause that? I read that nori is high in iodine and I do feed a sizeable amount daily but I don’t think it would have that much of an impact. What could it be? Do I slow increase salinity to 35 ppm or keep it stable at 34 where it sits now

There’s no perfect answer, but a mix such as Tropic Marin A and K is a good start.

 

[newyorkmets15]

There’s no perfect answer, but a mix such as Tropic Marin A and K is a good start.

What about iodine and salinity?

 

[Dom]

I need help from the community before I start ripping out my hair. This is my first reef tank and I’ve struggled with trying to keep corals alive and the ones that do stay alive don’t get any growth. I have tried many things to improve conditions and water quality for my corals and I’m at the point where I’m questioning everything. Major concern here is that I’ve had these problems since day one no matter what I try to do to stabilize the environment. There must be something I’m missing that I’ve been doing/not doing since day one

Tank:
-40 gallon breeder with 29 gallon sump
Started Sept 1 2022 with 60 pounds of dry rock and 40 pounds of live sand
-BRS 300lb titanium heater with InkBird controller
- Sicce Syncra silent 3.0 (3rd lowest setting)
- 2 Current USA eflux 1050 wave pump (20% with 3 second frequency, 10% with 7 second frequency)
- 2 AI PRIME 16Hd (light schedule will be shown in pictures)
-monitor pH and temp with apex jr
-monitor alk cal and mag with trident
- i run both carbon and GFO In media bags
- Both saltwater and freshwater for top off come from LFS

History:
-Started using GFO to reduce nutrients to the tank
-Changed lights from current usa ic pro 36-48” to 2 ai primes
-added CO2 scrubber to increase pH
-have tried spot and broadcast feeding (contingent on phosphate and nitrate readings) using many different types of foods
-just added tunze nano ato to attempt to stabilize salinity yesterday

Corals and casualties:
-Can’t keep acans alive. They last a few weeks
-gonis will not open up ever but alive
-hammers start open and extended then slowly shrink and retract and always seem to succumb to Polyp bailout
-frogspawn was open and looked happy and then polyp bailout
-Alveopora are always open and extended but no growth
-zoas always open and extended but no growth
-gsp always open and extended but no growth
-torches at the moment are my only thing that’s happy but 2 days ago I had one die on me over the course of 24ish hours slowly die starting on one side and moving across until there was nothing left
-button scoly seems happy as can be. Don’t see any issues there

Things in question:
-Lighting too strong or too weak
-flow too strong or too weak
-temp swings (considering switching from -300 w heater to 100 w heater to address drastic changes in temp) will show daily temperature fluctuations in pictures
-in an attempt to reduce salinity changes from adding a days worth of top off water at once I added the ATO
-Toxins that continue to get into the water (I’m sending out at icp test to find out) I have a metal mesh lid on the tank and I am concerned about rust

Parameters/pictures:

I do not have a salinity probe but I check every 2-3 days using the Hanna salinity checker. Reading is usually between 33.5-34.5 ppm but I can’t see fluctuations within that. Hopefully top off will stabilize it. All other parameters will be shown in pictures

Any information I forgot to include, I will add it if requested. To all who take the time to help me solve this problem, I thank you in advance!

First, I want to say thank you for providing such a detailed post. I wish you would have provided your most recent water test results. I'd bet that your nitrates are low.

While there are a lot of possibilities, I lean toward the belief that your water is too clean. As has already been suggested, eliminate GFO.

Please provide your most recent water test numbers.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What about iodine and salinity?

I think the 4.7 ppm iodine shown is test error unless you massively over dosed it.

What about salinity?

 

[newyorkmets15]

I think the 4.7 ppm iodine shown is test error unless you massively over dosed it.

What about salinity?

It’s 34 ppm. Should I increase it?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It’s 34 ppm. Should I increase it?

I assume that means 34 ppt which is fine. I’d up it a bit, but nothing is suffering at 34 ppt.

 

[newyorkmets15]

@crannon @Dburr1014 @exnisstech @XtraKargo @Roatan Reef So I went to my LFS and got fresh saltwater and here are the results. Salinity is concerning. The salt they use is pictured at the bottom.

Salinity 32.3 (Hanna)
Temp 79.0 (Hanna)
Phosphate 0.00 (Hanna)
Nitrate 0.0 (Hanna)
Calcium 397 (trident)
Magnesium 1233 (trident)
Alkalinity 8.15 (trident)

 

[newyorkmets15]

I assume that means 34 ppt which is fine. I’d up it a bit, but nothing is suffering at 34 ppt.

Cool. I appreciate you answering all my questions!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The salinity is a bit low, but you can just let it concentrate by evaporation in your aquarium, which will also boost the other parameters.

 

[XtraKargo]

@crannon @Dburr1014 @exnisstech @XtraKargo @Roatan Reef So I went to my LFS and got fresh saltwater and here are the results. Salinity is concerning. The salt they use is pictured at the bottom.

Salinity 32.3 (Hanna)
Temp 79.0 (Hanna)
Phosphate 0.00 (Hanna)
Nitrate 0.0 (Hanna)
Calcium 397 (trident)
Magnesium 1233 (trident)
Alkalinity 8.15 (trident)

I had used this for the first year on my tank with no issues. I will say I mixed it myself to 35 on the Salinity, but it sounds like Randy got you a solution to that. I think you're on the right track!