Can't figure out what exactly is wrong with my tank

[damsels are not mean]

I don't buy the phosphate reason. Phosphate at 0.3 doesn't cause tissue recession. In fact, I don't know that I have ever seen a tank that was killed or harmed by high phosphate. I am not convinced phosphate really matters at all unless it's 0 or you have a sterile tank that grows tons of algae because the algae has no competitors or predators in it. I know of some beautiful mixed or sps dominant tanks with phosphate numbers above 1 and weed-tier acro growth.

What is the freshwater source? RO/DI or tapwater? Is there something that could be leaching into your tank (maybe something that is corroding in your sump? Maybe a pump's magnet has been compromised?) If you are seeing corals die back there is certainly something else at work here other than a test kit result that isn't approved by the reef forums. Does the tissue recession happen to all corals? Have you tried moving them? Could it be simply too much light/not enough flow?

 

[pomoev]

the measurement artificial, par does not always grow coral sometimes it cooks it. lots of ways for those to not be accurate, from one device to another, to testing conditions themselves. That is a lot of par for softies, thats good SPS par, and you have mainly fish in your tank. Turn that crap down.

I asked you a question trying to help you, I didnt ask for par numbers, I asked for intensity. Fk your stubborn and just like me, and you wont learn unless its the hard way. Better hope those numbers are wrong, cause thats too much light.

I have similar lights, and I had issues and problems like you for years, until I turned my lights down, and growth took off and the tank went from looking just like yours to a green full tanks of coral in 6 months. I swear to you 6 months ago I had that same algae only one inch deep everywhere.

I have ocean revives, they are similar colors and spread out like reefbreeders, and at 60 and 80% I had major issues like you are experiencing.

When i turned my lights down to 8% blue channel and 1% white, growth took off. when I say that I mean took off, like crazy good growth.

Par meters are great for SPS tanks, not so much for LPS, and I grow branching hammers professionally. Thats after buying 5 heads 30 years ago, and growing a few thousands heads since then off my first five.

I have had many tank crashes for separate reasons, high mag, dirty water, and lights to bright. It all can be cured by water changes and turning lights way the f down.

Now I feel Christmas spirit in this thread!

 

[Lavey29]

I appreciate your willingness to help.
My point is, there are probably hundreds if not thousands of threads on this forum alone about the right levels of nitrates/phosphates/their ratios etc. There are successful tanks with nitrates as low as 0.5ppm as well as in the twenties and maybe higher. And that's why a bare statement like "Nitrate should be 5 to 10 for coral nutrition" without a supporting argument why this certain tank will benefit from having nitrates in the exact 5-10 range and not in the 1-2 range doesn't sound compelling, I'm sorry.

Absolutely, you are correct and each tank is unique. Some flourish with low numbers. Some with mid level and some flourish with what would be perceived as ver elevated numbers. Is your tank currently flourishing? I think you answered that with your original post. When my nitrates were low, my corals struggled and even BJD set in. I got my nitrates and phosphate up and the whole tank came alive and started flourishing with growth and coraline. Obviously your tank is not flourishing like you hope it would and you are doing a systematic analysis to try and determine the root cause. Phosphate is easy to remedy for slight elevation level but that alone will most likely do nothing to resolve your situation. The general consensus is LPS prefer slightly dirty water which means nitrates. My coral vendor has 100k's of dollars worth of corals and he was the one who said keep nitrate at 10 and he was correct for my tank. May or May not be correct for yours but your present course is not correct either. Good luck, I wish you find your solution for success.

 

[outhouse]

Now I feel Christmas spirit in this thread!

I spent a lot of time explaining to you in great detail possibilities. And exactly how-to correct your jacked up tank. You could have answered the one question I asked.

 

[pomoev]

I spent a lot of time explaining to you in great detail possibilities. And exactly how-to correct your jacked up tank. You could have answered the one question I asked.

I can start arguing with every other sentence you wrote, but I have more interesting things to do on my day off.
The fact that my tank currently is not looking great due to my admitted negligence in the previous many months doesn't mean I have no common sense and you need to lecture me about how I know nothing about the basics.

One point I still take seriously: just cranked down blues from 60% to 45% and whites from 15% to 10%. Appreciate your time.

 

[outhouse]

I can start arguing with every other sentence you wrote, but I have more interesting things to do on my day off.
The fact that my tank currently is not looking great due to my admitted negligence in the previous many months doesn't mean I have no common sense and you need to lecture me about how I know nothing about the basics.

One point I still take seriously: just cranked down blues from 60% to 45% and whites from 15% to 10%. Appreciate your time.

Wish you the best. It should help, if not it's still plenty of light and you can always raise it back up.

 

[pomoev]

I don't buy the phosphate reason. Phosphate at 0.3 doesn't cause tissue recession. In fact, I don't know that I have ever seen a tank that was killed or harmed by high phosphate. I am not convinced phosphate really matters at all unless it's 0 or you have a sterile tank that grows tons of algae because the algae has no competitors or predators in it. I know of some beautiful mixed or sps dominant tanks with phosphate numbers above 1 and weed-tier acro growth.

What is the freshwater source? RO/DI or tapwater? Is there something that could be leaching into your tank (maybe something that is corroding in your sump? Maybe a pump's magnet has been compromised?) If you are seeing corals die back there is certainly something else at work here other than a test kit result that isn't approved by the reef forums. Does the tissue recession happen to all corals? Have you tried moving them? Could it be simply too much light/not enough flow?

These are the ICP test results. A few elements were marked yellow in the tank water results, but I think that is fixed by now, since I do water changes more regularly. I also replaced all the filtering cartridges since that time, so now ro/di should be better.

The overall coral reaction is inconsistent. All softies are doing well, I have two blastomussa frags that have grown over the last months, the euphyllias seem to have suffered before, but are either stagnating or slowly recovering now.
The algae are slowly degrading.
Now if we rule out the low pH and high phosphates as root causes, the light hypothesis should be checked. I already cranked down the light intensity by 1/3. I will bring some more frags from the other tank, proceed with water changes and see how it goes.
Thanks.

 

[outhouse]

I do this professionally, and dont want others making my mistake. I'd still change out 70g of water and hit it with fluconazole then vibrant

 

[damsels are not mean]

These are the ICP test results. A few elements were marked yellow in the tank water results, but I think that is fixed by now, since I do water changes more regularly. I also replaced all the filtering cartridges since that time, so now ro/di should be better.

The overall coral reaction is inconsistent. All softies are doing well, I have two blastomussa frags that have grown over the last months, the euphyllias seem to have suffered before, but are either stagnating or slowly recovering now.
The algae are slowly degrading.
Now if we rule out the low pH and high phosphates as root causes, the light hypothesis should be checked. I already cranked down the light intensity by 1/3. I will bring some more frags from the other tank, proceed with water changes and see how it goes.
Thanks.

Depends on type of softies but most of the common softies actually handle high light well. There are chunks of reef shelf around some islands that you'd expect to be nothing but acros but are instead full of leathers and toadstools. Literally a few feet deep and not even a snorkel necessary to see them.

LPS tends to be more finicky with high light. I suspect this is the issue moreso than phosphate...