Would love some help with mixed reef.

[Colin Rose]

Hey all. I used to have a 40g breeder mixed reef about 20 years ago, and it was pretty awesome. I had an overflow box with a 20g sump filled with cheato and a protein skimmer. I was 18, never checked any parameters aside from temp and salinity, and everything in that tank did quite well: SPS, LPS, softies. I broke the tank down in a move and never had an aquarium again... until about three months ago.

Fast forward 20 years and I figured with advancements in the hobby it would be a cakewalk to setup a new mixed reef. I have a number of frags, inverts, and fish. I am having inconsistent success, and would greatly appreciate and feedback or suggestions.

Tank:
20 Cube AIO - Replaced the sponge filter with a filter sock. Replaced carbon and other media with a ball of chaeto and a small red submersible LED. The LED stays on 24hrs, and the chaeto ball rotates in the flow. Last section is the return pump. The main display has 20lbs of dry "live" rock, and about 2 inches of "live" sand. I have an ATO that keeps the salinity consistent. I live in a temperate climate, and try to keep the window open to maintain pH. The temperature mostly remains within a 2 degree F range.

Lighting:
Nicrew NavaReef 135W - This is set to an "AB+" sepctrum for about 4 hours, then mostly blue fo 4 hours, with an hour ramp up and an hour ramp down. In two main phases the intensity on the violet and blue is about 40%. The fixure sits about 5 inches from the water surface.

Flow:
The return pump, plus two Jeabo SLW 10s. I have the SLW's set to about 50% power, and they are on the "waverwaker" setting. Based on the movement I can see, I think flow is adequate.

Maintenance Routine:
Every 7 days I complete a 5 gallon water change (I figure thats about 30% of the actual water volume in my system). Just before the water change I clean the glass and blow off and sand/detritus from the rockwork (although there isn't much, due to the powerheads). During the water change I "dust off" the filter sock and chaeto with old tank water. New water is mixed with Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, which I mix/heat for 24 hours before going into the tank. I do not dose anything, because calcium and magnesium seem to be within suitable ranges. I know this may change as the coral grow and start to take up more nutrients, but this doesn't seem to be necessary yet. I only use RO water for all water changes/top off.

Vertebrate Livestock:
2 Clowns
2 Blue Chromis
1 Starry Blenny

Invertebrate Non-Coral Livestock:
2 shrimp
1 clam
~15 various reef snails

Current Parameters:
Salinity - 35 ppm
Temperature - ~78F
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - 5 ppm
Calcium - 480 ppm
KH - 8.5
Magnesium - Don't test
pH - Don't test

Problem:
The fish and non-coral inverts all seem to be thriving. The shrimp have molted a couple times each and seem to be well. The clam seems to be opening up fully and looks good. As far as I can tell I have not lost any of the snails. However, none of the coral seem to be thriving. Some coral is doing OK, but I can tell they are not fully extended. Other coral are not doing well at all. The maddening this is there seems to be no consistent pattern to what is doing well and what isn't. Examples below. Note: the extension percentages below are based on what the frags originally looked like when I purchase them (all in person), past experience, photos/video online.

• A torch coral seems to be doing fairly well (although still at about 80% extension), while a hammer and frogspawn seem to remain at about 10% extention.
• 5 different types of zoas - 2 never open more than 50%, 2 open fully, and 1 never opens at all.
• 1 duncan frag that seems to extend fully
• 2 ricordea muchrooms - 1 seems to extend about 80%, the other about 20%
• 1 alveopora that extends about 5%
• 1 favia and 1 acan that seem to be doing quite well
• Pipe Organ colony that seems to thriving
• 1 monitopora frag high up in the water column that, inexplicably, seems to be doing very well

I suppose I could chalk my failures up to new tank syndrome or some other undiagnosable thing that will resolve itself over time, but I was really looking forward mostly to the waving movement of the LPS, and those seem to be doing the worst overall. I know that when testable parameters seem to be in line, the issue is most likely either lighting or flow. However I don't know whether to increase/decrease either, and I'm not sure which to start with. I've seen videos online saying the first thing to try is to reduce lighting or reduce flow. Others say most tanks dont have enough flow. I'm pretty sure my flow is fine, but I'm not so sure about lighting. My next step, left to my own devices, is to rent a PAR meter.

Sorry for the long post, and thank you for your time. Please let me know if there's any other detail I can provide.

 

[_chiefxr33f]

that is ALOT of light for that little tank, definitely raise the fixture.

 

[tbrown]

Different corals require different flow. Torches need more flow than hammers and octos/frogs/frammers.

Zoas, some like light, some don't.

Montis like light and flow.

Duncan's like medium flow and medium light but can do well in higher flows as well.

Acans (actually likely Micromussa?) don't like a ton of light and medium flow.

Favias can be in high or low light and heavy or low flow depending on the particular Favia.

I would say there's a possibility with a newish tank running chaeto you could be over stripping nitrates and phosphates potentially if there's decent growth and that's what feeds most of the corals listed that seem to be struggling.

 

[Colin Rose]

that is ALOT of light for that little tank, definitely raise the fixture.

Noted. Thank you. I wanted to get this fixture to increase the spread and reduce hot spots, and I figured dialing down the intensity would be enough.

 

[Colin Rose]

Different corals require different flow. Torches need more flow than hammers and octos/frogs/frammers.

Zoas, some like light, some don't.

Montis like light and flow.

Duncan's like medium flow and medium light but can do well in higher flows as well.

Acans (actually likely Micromussa?) don't like a ton of light and medium flow.

Favias can be in high or low light and heavy or low flow depending on the particular Favia.

I would say there's a possibility with a newish tank running chaeto you could be over stripping nitrates and phosphates potentially if there's decent growth and that's what feeds most of the corals listed that seem to be struggling.

Thank you. Some things to think about and play around with.

 

[tbrown]

Thank you. Some things to think about and play around with.

I agree with raising the light - mine tend to sit 8"-10" off the water surface in most of my tanks, but I also see that you're running it at 40% which isn't a ton overkill but is still probably more light than necessary on a 20.

 

[tbrown]

With that said, I'm running 2 130 watt and a 90 watt over my 70. I run at 85% on the 130s and 40% on the 90.

I don't do a lot of things "right" though. :face-with-tears-of-joy:

 

[Colin Rose]

With that said, I'm running 2 130 watt and a 90 watt over my 70. I run at 85% on the 130s and 40% on the 90.

I don't do a lot of things "right" though. :face-with-tears-of-joy:

Well, if you have success then I'd say that's "right."

Thanks again for the input. I'll let you know what I try and what results I get.