I have been in the hobby for a while now. Have had my ups and downs like most people and have always come here for help. I feel that the collective members in this group have the aquarist best interest at heart and are generally willing to provide some insight feedback on most issue involving our hobby and I really appreciate that. So my issues, I cannot grow coral. I sustain life for the most part, but never do I ever see any kind of growth. I have been going back and forth with wanting to try something new since the old is not working,I have looked into the new 4part Red Sea Foundations Program, I am looking at TM All for Reef, but I get freaked out on change. So basically, I sustain the life until the coral succumbs to its death. This is typically the life in my tank. Never any noticeable advancement in the coral for any given time. I did a reboot of my system about 2 years ago, put the new apex A2 system on the tank, new Trident, new Radion G6's Pros and an Avast marine Kalk Stirrer and Pax Bellum N18 Macro Reactor. A friend said it would be the easiest to maintain and have a thriving tank. Well, this has been further from the truth. I think I was having issues with the Trident, because I was trusting it too much. I wasn't chancing numbers, but trends, and if things were stable I was ok with it. Still nothing grows.
Now I find myself in a position where I have a tank full of mixed corals and quite frankly, I am about to just give up the hobby and move on. (this would make my wife very happy). I do not want to give up. I have been a lover of all thing's ocean, and it breaks my heart when I cannot provide the care these animals need when I am trying my hardest to do so. There is really something wrong with this tank, and nobody can seem to be able to help me. My local reefers are not able to figure it out, I am here because I cannot figure it out. I am losing all hope and getting very frustrated. I know it isn't the easiest of hobby's to be in, a lot of time, care and money goes into this hobby to try and give the inhabitants of our reefs everything they need. But there is something seriously wrong with my tank.
So on to my problem. A about a month ago I was given some advice, that wasn't something I understood. So, my calcium in my tank was well over 550, maybe even close to 600, but my alkalinity was 9. I couldn't bring my calcium down at all. I had stopped running the Kalk in the system, and just put a doser on dosing B-Ionic Part B (alkalinity) and Magnesium. Calcium levels never dropped. We are talking a month without dosing any kalk in the system. So, it was suggested that I increase my alk to above 10-11 to bring the system into balance with regards to the elements in the tank. I do not know if this hurt the system, but I did try and there was no change. So, I have stopped this process all together and have just left the system alone, not dosing anything at all and letting the numbers fall on their own and see where they end up. Currently after a month, my levels according to both the Trident and the Hanna Checks are Alk 9.81, Cal 496, and Mag 1594. (yes, I know mag is high I do not know how it got up there, but that is what the trident is reading and salifert is off the scale). This is where my questions are coming. These numbers have been in this range for about a week. No change, at all. This is confusing to me. If the corals were taking up these elements there would be a steady decrease in these numbers daily, and I am just not seeing it. Corals are starting to die, and things to my knowledge are just unexplainable. Hanna Checks out with what the Trident says so the numbers have been at least verified. So, what could be the problem? I need help, I am tired of getting corals that I like, and just watching them wither up and die over a month. I really believe there is something going on in this tank that I am not experienced enough to understand. I will break down the tank, equipment, schedules, everything, and hopefully together we can bring this tank around and thriving and not just a holding area for corals to come to die....(Trust me that is how I feel sometimes).
Tank Parameters. (30 gallon water change was performed this past weekend)
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 77
PH-7.8 at night 8 during the day (there is a C02 Scrubber on the Skimmer) Trying to raise PH. Tank sits in a sunroom with an open door and probably is in the best place for fresh air.
P04 - .07
N03 - 10
Alk 9.81
Cal - 496
Mag- 1594
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Tank and Equipment
80 gallons with Fuji 20 Sump 48"x24"x16" about 50lbs of live rock in the system.
2 Radion XR15's G6 Pro's, 1 AI Prime HD between them and 4 Led Light Bars Blue/UV (Schedule is Victors from WWC, thought it would be easier to mimic a similar tank)
Neptune Apex 2 with Trident and DOS (alk and Mag)
Avast Kalk Stirrer (Currently not running)
Pax Bellum N18 Macro Reactor (No room for a refugium in the tank)
Maxspect Gyre XF330 on each side of tank running a SPS mode Preset)
ATO with 10-gallon Reservoir
Small Media reactor that I run Carbon or GFO in as needed.
Inhabitants
Mixed Reef with just corals that I like, SPS (various types Mostly acros of some type), LPS( Blasto, Torch, hammer, Frogspawn, galaxia), Mushrooms, zoanthids, Bubble Tip Nem for the Clowns, Rock Nem garden.
1 Sailfin tang,
1 Blue Regal Tang
1 Tomini Tang
2 Clown fish
4 Pajama Cardinals
1 Banggai Cardinal
1 Mandarin Dragonet
1 Yellow Coris Wrasse
1 Goby of some type
1 Pistol Shrimp
2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
4 Peppermint shrimp
I Feed homemade frozen food once a day and a TDR Pellet food on automatic feeder once a day. Just enough for the fish to eat. I do not typically spot feed the corals, once a week I may put some reef roids in the frozen food and broadcast feed this in the tank. Once in a while I will added a few ML's of Coral Amino's but I do not have that on a schedule, just when I think about it, I will add it to my food mix and add it to the tank. I have tried to give you as much as I possibly could to try and figure out what we need to do to reverse this tank and get it into thriving mode before I go crazy and just throw in the towel. Here is a video of the tank from about a month ago. As it is it looks ok. Just no growth. I am happy to have a discussion, open my mind to things I may not be thinking of. I will try anything at this point. I know All for Reef is not the norm, but I am considering it for just ease of use, but I do not want to start it until my numbers come down. I would monitor the dosage by Alk only and I know I would have to make adjustments to either alk or calcium depending on test. I am good with that, at least the tank would be getting mostly what it needs and could be better off than where I am at. Of course, my other option, which I know Randy would probably say is the better choice is to go B-Ionic Part A and B and just dose Mag as needed. I do not care which road leads me to success as long as I get to some kind of success. Thanks for listening, thanks for any advice, Thanks for being such a great group in general. Leaving with an open mind and heart, with hopes I can figure out what is going on with this tank.
Now I find myself in a position where I have a tank full of mixed corals and quite frankly, I am about to just give up the hobby and move on. (this would make my wife very happy). I do not want to give up. I have been a lover of all thing's ocean, and it breaks my heart when I cannot provide the care these animals need when I am trying my hardest to do so. There is really something wrong with this tank, and nobody can seem to be able to help me. My local reefers are not able to figure it out, I am here because I cannot figure it out. I am losing all hope and getting very frustrated. I know it isn't the easiest of hobby's to be in, a lot of time, care and money goes into this hobby to try and give the inhabitants of our reefs everything they need. But there is something seriously wrong with my tank.
So on to my problem. A about a month ago I was given some advice, that wasn't something I understood. So, my calcium in my tank was well over 550, maybe even close to 600, but my alkalinity was 9. I couldn't bring my calcium down at all. I had stopped running the Kalk in the system, and just put a doser on dosing B-Ionic Part B (alkalinity) and Magnesium. Calcium levels never dropped. We are talking a month without dosing any kalk in the system. So, it was suggested that I increase my alk to above 10-11 to bring the system into balance with regards to the elements in the tank. I do not know if this hurt the system, but I did try and there was no change. So, I have stopped this process all together and have just left the system alone, not dosing anything at all and letting the numbers fall on their own and see where they end up. Currently after a month, my levels according to both the Trident and the Hanna Checks are Alk 9.81, Cal 496, and Mag 1594. (yes, I know mag is high I do not know how it got up there, but that is what the trident is reading and salifert is off the scale). This is where my questions are coming. These numbers have been in this range for about a week. No change, at all. This is confusing to me. If the corals were taking up these elements there would be a steady decrease in these numbers daily, and I am just not seeing it. Corals are starting to die, and things to my knowledge are just unexplainable. Hanna Checks out with what the Trident says so the numbers have been at least verified. So, what could be the problem? I need help, I am tired of getting corals that I like, and just watching them wither up and die over a month. I really believe there is something going on in this tank that I am not experienced enough to understand. I will break down the tank, equipment, schedules, everything, and hopefully together we can bring this tank around and thriving and not just a holding area for corals to come to die....(Trust me that is how I feel sometimes).
Tank Parameters. (30 gallon water change was performed this past weekend)
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 77
PH-7.8 at night 8 during the day (there is a C02 Scrubber on the Skimmer) Trying to raise PH. Tank sits in a sunroom with an open door and probably is in the best place for fresh air.
P04 - .07
N03 - 10
Alk 9.81
Cal - 496
Mag- 1594
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Tank and Equipment
80 gallons with Fuji 20 Sump 48"x24"x16" about 50lbs of live rock in the system.
2 Radion XR15's G6 Pro's, 1 AI Prime HD between them and 4 Led Light Bars Blue/UV (Schedule is Victors from WWC, thought it would be easier to mimic a similar tank)
Neptune Apex 2 with Trident and DOS (alk and Mag)
Avast Kalk Stirrer (Currently not running)
Pax Bellum N18 Macro Reactor (No room for a refugium in the tank)
Maxspect Gyre XF330 on each side of tank running a SPS mode Preset)
ATO with 10-gallon Reservoir
Small Media reactor that I run Carbon or GFO in as needed.
Inhabitants
Mixed Reef with just corals that I like, SPS (various types Mostly acros of some type), LPS( Blasto, Torch, hammer, Frogspawn, galaxia), Mushrooms, zoanthids, Bubble Tip Nem for the Clowns, Rock Nem garden.
1 Sailfin tang,
1 Blue Regal Tang
1 Tomini Tang
2 Clown fish
4 Pajama Cardinals
1 Banggai Cardinal
1 Mandarin Dragonet
1 Yellow Coris Wrasse
1 Goby of some type
1 Pistol Shrimp
2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
4 Peppermint shrimp
I Feed homemade frozen food once a day and a TDR Pellet food on automatic feeder once a day. Just enough for the fish to eat. I do not typically spot feed the corals, once a week I may put some reef roids in the frozen food and broadcast feed this in the tank. Once in a while I will added a few ML's of Coral Amino's but I do not have that on a schedule, just when I think about it, I will add it to my food mix and add it to the tank. I have tried to give you as much as I possibly could to try and figure out what we need to do to reverse this tank and get it into thriving mode before I go crazy and just throw in the towel. Here is a video of the tank from about a month ago. As it is it looks ok. Just no growth. I am happy to have a discussion, open my mind to things I may not be thinking of. I will try anything at this point. I know All for Reef is not the norm, but I am considering it for just ease of use, but I do not want to start it until my numbers come down. I would monitor the dosage by Alk only and I know I would have to make adjustments to either alk or calcium depending on test. I am good with that, at least the tank would be getting mostly what it needs and could be better off than where I am at. Of course, my other option, which I know Randy would probably say is the better choice is to go B-Ionic Part A and B and just dose Mag as needed. I do not care which road leads me to success as long as I get to some kind of success. Thanks for listening, thanks for any advice, Thanks for being such a great group in general. Leaving with an open mind and heart, with hopes I can figure out what is going on with this tank.
this is why I am reaching out. Supermans look unhealthy as well. This is after a 30 gallon water change.. That is one thing I did not mention, we did change salts to Nyos Pure salt. The parameters were more inline with how I try to run my tank, and with the ICP test verification I thought I would give it a shot. Yes I tested the water after mixing and the numbers matched exactly with what was reported on the bag of salt...
