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

[newyorkmets15]

Post a pic of the tank.

It’s in the thread. Go up a view posts

 

[dwest]

Haha I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m at the barber. I didn’t do anything to intervene. I have a skimmer running and good amount of Cheato. Yes added ATO yesterday so we will see what that does to help. Pictures aren’t great but I tried my best

Nice tank. It looks like you might like to go fishing also (I think I see a spinning reel in the pics). Me too.

 

[newyorkmets15]

@dwest Thanks! And yeah. I got about 7 more up there lol fish tanks, fishing, boating. I don’t know why I choose the expensive hobbies

 

[CK00020]

You could try black or white egg crate also, sold at Home Depot. It’s saved my wrasses weekly.

 

[newyorkmets15]

You could try black or white egg crate also, sold at Home Depot. It’s saved my wrasses weekly.

crap man! I have a piece sitting here. Duhh. Thanks lol

 

[BartMan]

I'd get Nitrates up to 20+ and PO4 up to .1 and stabilize there for awhile

 

[newyorkmets15]

I'd get Nitrates up to 20+ and PO4 up to .1 and stabilize there for awhile

What’s the best way to dose nitrates?

 

[ccole]

Yes. No anemones but no issues with fish whatever. I hope I’m not jinxing myself with that statement. With snails there appears to be some die off but I think that’s normal to a degree. Correct me if I’m wrong but I have a lot of snails of various types and overall they are all doing well

I think it’s a good sign you’re keeping snails. If it was a leaching heavy metal issue I would think they would also be doing poorly.

Anecdotal evidence only, but my tank does the best between .1-.2 phosphates. I don’t dose GFO until my tank gets above .2 and I only bring it down to around .1-.15. My tanks (one SPS/clam tank and one LPS heavy tank) both fluctuate by about 3 degrees per day and I’ve never noticed an issue.

I used to have an AI prime on an 30 gallon at about 50% use and when I used a par meter, they were hardly putting off any light where my corals were. I’ll recheck your tank and lighting schedule in a minute, but it’s definitely possible your corals is not getting enough par.

 

[newyorkmets15]

I think it’s a good sign you’re keeping snails. If it was a leaching heavy metal issue I would think they would also be doing poorly.

Anecdotal evidence only, but my tank does the best between .1-.2 phosphates. I don’t dose GFO until my tank gets above .2 and I only bring it down to around .1-.15. My tanks (one SPS/clam tank and one LPS heavy tank) both fluctuate by about 3 degrees per day and I’ve never noticed an issue.

I used to have an AI prime on an 30 gallon at about 50% use and when I used a par meter, they were hardly putting off any light where my corals were. I’ll recheck your tank and lighting schedule in a minute, but it’s definitely possible your corals is not getting enough par.

Yeah I mean from what it looks like the snails are fine. Moving the rocks, coming out of the sand at night, eggs everywhere. And just to clarify the lights are at 75% Intensity. I reduced it 25%. They are not running at 25%

 

[workhz]

What’s the best way to dose nitrates?

Dunno about best but I use neonitrate. Seems to work well enough and is easy. There’s likely multiple others.

 

[BartMan]

What’s the best way to dose nitrates?

I'd pull the carbon and GFO and feed the tank.

 

[Roatan Reef]

Probably high Fe. But unsure really. Post your numbers when you get them and tag Randy Holmes Farley.

I really do think this is solvable. Water changes, time, and a little real live rock would be good too. Even just a bit of rubble if you can find some. I’d feed the fish well but not add other stuff.

I might also replace the GFO bag with a bag of cuprisorb. Especially if you are pretty sure rust has been falling into the tank.

The frame with BRS is aluminum and not really a concern.

You can keep Carbon and GFO...In MHO
...I Would definitely get a hold of Tampa Bay Saltwater Live Rock and add a nice piece to your tank, then also add about 10 to 20lbs of live sand/crushed coral from them. The Live Rock helped my tank tremendously, and the Live sand has been an absolute game changer.


I also use Reef Crystals Salt in my 40B...which was another game changer!

Trust me...I went through issues for almost 8 months...but now we are Gucci! I also dose Magnesium, Red Sea ABCD Colors, and also use Seachem Calcium additives. Doing water changes once every 2 weeks now...started at 20% every week, now doing 10 to 5% every 2 weeks.

I run a Cannister Filter also.

What salt are you using? Are you dosing??

 

[Roatan Reef]

Duplicate

 

[Roatan Reef]

I mean, most corals asleep. But you can see.

 

[Salty_Northerner]

I think the phose swings and getting close to zero. Ide remove gfo at this point.

That is exactly what I was thinking, I threw a bag of that chemi pure Elite in my tank when my nutrients were getting up there. I don't know why but my corals did not like it one bit whatsoever. Took it out and a couple days later everything was much much happier. My nutrients were actually great and now I'm dealing with an absolute zero on my phosphate. Checked it a few times with the ulr phosphorus Hannah checker and it's been reading zero for a few days. Corals seem to be okay but my montipora is feeling the effects and you can definitely see it's not happy whatsoever.

 

[Hats_]

I would agree with the low amount of light, i used to have a 40 gallon with 2 primes at brs ab+ 100% setting, then upgraded to 3 primes at ab+ 100% setting and then corals started taking off. Par was around 300 on the rocks and 150 to 200 on the sand

 

[newyorkmets15]

You can keep Carbon and GFO...In MHO
...I Would definitely get a hold of Tampa Bay Saltwater Live Rock and add a nice piece to your tank, then also add about 10 to 20lbs of live sand/crushed coral from them. The Live Rock helped my tank tremendously, and the Live sand has been an absolute game changer.


I also use Reef Crystals Salt in my 40B...which was another game changer!

Trust me...I went through issues for almost 8 months...but now we are Gucci! I also dose Magnesium, Red Sea ABCD Colors, and also use Seachem Calcium additives. Doing water changes once every 2 weeks now...started at 20% every week, now doing 10 to 5% every 2 weeks.

I run a Cannister Filter also.

What salt are you using? Are you dosing??

Water both salt and fresh for top off come from my LFS. I do not mix my own. Dosing cal and alk. I dose alk using sea chem marine buffer. I haven’t had a need to dose magnesium yet at least according to my testing using trident and either salifert or AF (can’t remember off top of my head)

 

[newyorkmets15]

I would agree with the low amount of light, i used to have a 40 gallon with 2 primes at brs ab+ 100% setting, then upgraded to 3 primes at ab+ 100% setting and then corals started taking off. Par was around 300 on the rocks and 150 to 200 on the sand

If you look at my tank pictures you can see my coral placement. I was concerned about my torches getting that high amount of par. I have no sps

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What’s the best way to dose nitrates?

My recommendation for nitrate is 2-10 ppm. IMO, your values are fine. If you want more availability of N, you can feed more or dose ammonia, nitrate, or amoni acids.

 

[newyorkmets15]

My recommendation for nitrate is 2-10 ppm. IMO, your values are fine. If you want more availability of N, you can feed more or dose ammonia, nitrate, or amoni acids.

My phosphate rises much easier then my nitrate and they should be somewhat cohesive correct? If I was to dose something to raise nitrate, I would want it to impact nitrate more then phosphate. Based on my original post and what you see in the thread, do you have any ideas? I will be sending out an icp test and I will tag you in that. I did remove GFO last night per the advice I received from many reefers so far