Blastos / Acans just surviving...not thriving.

[Jimbo662]

Over the last couple of years I've not been having any luck with blastos and acans. The first couple of tanks I had they all were so big they looked like they were going to explode. They stay shrunken down close to the skeleton.
The tank is now over 3 yrs old.
Parameters
Phos - .22 (with socks and rollers it stayed between .1 - .15)
Nitrate - 5.5
Alk - 8.72
Cal - 392
Mag - 1350
Par - 90-100 where they're sitting
Flow - Octo Pulse 2 on each end pointing toward the surface so it's not too much flow.
I've also got a frogspawn, 8 gonis, torch, candy cane, duncan, 2 chalices and 3 fungias. One of the fungia's started retracting several weeks ago but not sure it's related to the blastos and acans.
I did an ICP test a couple of weeks ago. Iodine, Lithium, Strontium and Florid were on the lower end but everything else was good.
I've tried filter socks, fleece rollers and no mechanical media at all which is what I'm currently trying. The tank is a WB Frag 105 and I do appx 17g water changes every couple of weeks. I'm using AF Reef Salt and dosing AF Component 1+, 2+, 3+.
Any ideas on what else may cause this?

 

[liddojunior]

White lights?

Tried running carbon?

phos seems very high, like the goal should be at or less than 0.1

 

[liddojunior]

Do you have critters that will annoy them? Hermit crabs can be really annoying to blasto and acans. They can learn to poke inside their mouths for food

How’s your RO? Maybe need new RO membranes. Check the ppm on your RO

 

[Jimbo662]

I've got a pair of Kessil A360x's running at 10% white.
Haven't tried carbon.
I'll be doing a water change this weekend and may end up putting the fleece rollers back in.
I have 2 hermits that I've never seen anywhere near them.
RO is 0ppm as of about two weeks ago. I replaced the membranes maybe a year or so ago..

 

[Razorbacks]

Par - 90-100 where they're sitting

These are both very low light loving corals (assuming the acan you mean is acan lord). Try moving them to lower light. My blastos thrive in less than 70 par. Can also check out Tidal Gardens video on them.

 

[Jimbo662]

These are both very low light loving corals (assuming the acan you mean is acan lord). Try moving them to lower light. My blastos thrive in less than 70 par. Can also check out Tidal Gardens video on them.

I did lower the lights several days ago. Working to get the phosphates back down and trying to figure out how to keep them down. I put the two fleece rollers back in two weeks ago, feed one rectangle shaped frozen each day. I've got 3 wrasses, 6 cardinals, firefish, clown, file fish and yellow diamond goby.

I've got RO eSsence S-130 skimmer in the sump. Been thinking about switching with my Regal 150INT from my old tank to see if it'll pull more junk out. We'll see if any of this makes a difference.

 

[Jimbo662]

Well...no changes since the last post. I also bought a zoa frag two weeks ago. It opened for one day and has stayed closed since then. Tested Sunday, phos was .12 and nitrate was 5.6. Anybody got any other ideas? One thing I've wondered is if I've got too much bio media. I've got 16 of the eshopps bio lux blocks. I've had them in my tanks the last 4-5 yrs.

Here's a video I took 2 weeks ago.