Hello everyone at r2r, i have had absolutely no luck with corals over my tanks 3 year lifespan, i first added a ton of lps and a few sps and soft coral all from small frags a year or 2 ago and they all died except the mushrooms and leather so I stopped trying corals for a while until recently (about 6 months ago) i got a single head favia again to try to see if it would survive.
It is still alive but has receded alot of tissue that has seemed to turn red/purple where it has receded the same way all of my corals have died by slowly losing tissue. I dont believe the red/purple is coraline since i barely have any in the tank.
I do have a large amount of small vermatid snails and about a million limpets, im not sure if they are contributing to the decline of every skeletal coral i have tried to keep or if it is my water parameters. Any advice on how to not kill my corals would be highly appreciated as i am planning on getting more corals from a local reefer in 2 days for a good price to try again and really dont want to kill them all yet again. i unfortunately have killed about 15.5 frags so far and am getting pretty discouraged about the hobby being completely honest.
My water parameters are 55 gallon tank (around 40 actual water volume) cal-360, dkh-7, nitrate-40ppm, phosphate- under .25 if i had to guess maybe .1. temp-80, ph-low peaks at like 7.9, lighting-currently 2 asta-20 16w leds ran at full power for around 5 hours, blues for like 4 hours but i dont have it on a timer right now and have just been adjusting by hand so it isnt a perfect schedule. i do have a more powerful light but i took it off a while back. I have been recommeded to do a icp test by a couple people but havent really had an extra $75 to waste unless it will forsure help fix my problems.
Here is a photo of the favia that i currently have that has been receding away slowly. I have also been feeding it every couple days over the last week since i moved it off the sand but feel like i am damaging it more as both my pipettes got chewed by the dog so im stuck trying to use a turkey bastor while fighting away a fish and i always bump its tissue hard everytime and when i finally get some in its mouth the fish bites its mouth too. I dont know wether or not to keep trying to feed or if i am killing it by trying.
I have been trying to get my calcium and alk up without any success and trying to get my nitrate and phosphate down carbon dosing but still havent reached my tanks level of carbon.
I apologize for the long message and highly appreciate anyone who reads it all and tries to help. Thanks.
It is still alive but has receded alot of tissue that has seemed to turn red/purple where it has receded the same way all of my corals have died by slowly losing tissue. I dont believe the red/purple is coraline since i barely have any in the tank.
I do have a large amount of small vermatid snails and about a million limpets, im not sure if they are contributing to the decline of every skeletal coral i have tried to keep or if it is my water parameters. Any advice on how to not kill my corals would be highly appreciated as i am planning on getting more corals from a local reefer in 2 days for a good price to try again and really dont want to kill them all yet again. i unfortunately have killed about 15.5 frags so far and am getting pretty discouraged about the hobby being completely honest.
My water parameters are 55 gallon tank (around 40 actual water volume) cal-360, dkh-7, nitrate-40ppm, phosphate- under .25 if i had to guess maybe .1. temp-80, ph-low peaks at like 7.9, lighting-currently 2 asta-20 16w leds ran at full power for around 5 hours, blues for like 4 hours but i dont have it on a timer right now and have just been adjusting by hand so it isnt a perfect schedule. i do have a more powerful light but i took it off a while back. I have been recommeded to do a icp test by a couple people but havent really had an extra $75 to waste unless it will forsure help fix my problems.
Here is a photo of the favia that i currently have that has been receding away slowly. I have also been feeding it every couple days over the last week since i moved it off the sand but feel like i am damaging it more as both my pipettes got chewed by the dog so im stuck trying to use a turkey bastor while fighting away a fish and i always bump its tissue hard everytime and when i finally get some in its mouth the fish bites its mouth too. I dont know wether or not to keep trying to feed or if i am killing it by trying.
I have been trying to get my calcium and alk up without any success and trying to get my nitrate and phosphate down carbon dosing but still havent reached my tanks level of carbon.
I apologize for the long message and highly appreciate anyone who reads it all and tries to help. Thanks.
