First reef tank, extreme tank downturn. No idea what to do. Appreciate help!

[Reef Psychology]

I know my parameters are not okay based on coral response. But if I google reef tank parameters, I get if I look at BRS, liveaquaria, and reefkeeping. Which is a big source of confusion!

Salinty 1.023-1.027
Temp 76-82 F
ph 7.8-8.5
Nitrate 1-10 ppm
Phos 0-0.03 ppm
Ca 350-450 ppm
Alk 8-12
Mg 1200-1500 ppm

If I look at red sea mixed reef parameters recommendations Its even more confusing because it contradicts what users are saying here but fits into BRS recommended ranges.

Sorry I don't mean to argue what is right. I literally don't even know. I'm like okay so my parameters are in the recommended ranges but its a harmful environment for corals. And now apparently there is combo action going on, like if nutrients are low, need to go lower alk? And then apparently 0.1 pmm phosphate is not good and causing algae but red sea recommends really high phosphate.

And I'm like something is not right, what should I actually be targeting. And how do I safely make adjustments. Or is there something SUPER wrong and need to do X action now.

Are any of my parameters good? Or everything needs to change?

You're going to get a lot of answers here on what levels should be. The most critical level is 'stability'. I say leave your levels where they are (if I read correctly - there are a ton of numbers in this thread) because the more you change the more stress you're going to put on your tank. Right now, IMO, you need to be able to hold your tank to a line. As long as it's within 'acceptable' for most tanks you're golden RIGHT NOW. In a few weeks to a month sure, lower your raise this and lower that.

I may have missed it, but do you have an auto top-off on there? That's probably the #1 way to keep things level.

 

[liddojunior]

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone that chimed in!! I followed some of the advice given without changing too many things. The algae and dino are all but gone.

And corals stopped dying off and basically half of my corals are starting to open up.
Unfortunately half of my remaining zoas did die, all of them are still closed but most of them are finally starting to slowly peak some color. There were big loses but I think the remaining corals can make a comeback!

Things I did:
1. Switched Saltwater source. Different LFS with premix saltwater. To acclimate, did a series of very small water changes every day for a week. Ca:410 kH: 9.0 Mg:1400
2. Slowly lowered the temperature of the tank to 25C ± 0.5
3. Salinity raised to 1.025 with no further fluctuations.
4. Dosed nitrates and phosphates.
5. Add a turbo snail and another pair of blue legged hermit crab. I think the turbo snail is mostly responsible for the algae being gone. Its a monster, I didnt know they were that big.
6. Used the poly filter pad. It would turned black within the day. The first square turned black literally within an hour. I was changing a small square daily for a week pressing it against the overflow intake to force all water contact. Now I don't change daily anymore, it stopped turning black, and now just stays a light tan for days.
7. Lowered photoperiod from 12 to 10 hrs

Overall many changes here could have resulted in the required changes. But I do think as everyone said just changing the parameters slowly and then making sure its stable I think was key! Now the real challenge is making sure I can keep the parameters stable for the long term.

 

[AIRDADDY]

Smaller saltwater aquariums are advanced level reef keeping. It’s like getting a pilot’s license and jumping into 747, it can be done but you’ll have your hands full and need a lot of luck to pull it off as a newbie. Corals need stability and a 10 gallon can swing more in a couple of hours than a large aquarium can swing in a week. It’s good that you’re here asking the right questions and sharing your struggle, just stick with it and learn from your mistakes.

 

[TraydersAnonymous]

My local fish stores sell Seapora salt water but it isn't & their to water. But to my knowledge it is not deionized. That's the most popular water to be bought here where I'm at. But you live close to the ocean so I don't know. I bought an ROdi buddie. It's small and portable as long as you have decent water pressure it's probably 100 usd.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

My heater is set to 78 but it goes up to 80 probably because the pumps and light.

For salinity that the parameter I feel most worried about changing, I could let it evaporate slowly to get it to 1.026.

For Alk, not sure how to change this. I don’t dose it and I’ve done water changes. Was expecting it to drop but it always seems to be around 10. The saltwater I buy seems to be around that much.

The light I use is Kessil A80. The wavemaker I have is set to clash into the power head flow. It’s a 10 gallon so just have the one power head that intersects the return flow.



Says in post. Set up early this year and late summer and fall was time frame of corals. Once a month I would add about a handful of frags.



I’ll increase mag slowly in that case. I’ll keep dosing phyto.

Suggest you purchase an Inkbird controller to maintain same temperature and prevent heater failure.

 

[liddojunior]

Suggest you purchase an Inkbird controller to maintain same temperature and prevent heater failure.

Ohh I didn’t know about this, it looks cheap and reasonable. I’ll look into that for future purchase!

 

[liddojunior]

It’s times like these that you have to be very methodical and not panic, changing things too rapidly and without knowing what the cause is can create a cascade of issues.

Unplug and examine your heater very carefully for cracks or a short. Use something like Poly pads to deal with impurities/chemicals in the water. Check your RODI. Buy another small batch of salt to eliminate the possibility of contamination. Did you use any cleaners near the aquarium? Check the rear chambers for dead stuff or for anything that might have fallen back there. Setup a QT tank of 5-10 gallons with a cheap in tank filter and Stability bacteria just in case you have to move the animals. Leave the lights off for 24 hours to see what happens to the algae.

Dude I honestly think you made the best suggestion. I’m now confident the poly filter pads rescued the tank.

So final update. I finally found my long lost stainless steel tongs. For the longest I couldn’t find them and thought I misplaced them somewhere. I found a very rusty slimy pair of tongs in the return chamber. And it coincides with my last coral purchase, Euphillya that died first.

I think I had heavy metal poisoning that of course no amount of water changes were solving when the source was in the return chamber. And the poly filter pad did the job. And to top it off the Dino’s disappeared after starting to use the pads. Dino bloom was most likely a result of the heavy metal levels along with the low nutrients.

 

[Reef Psychology]

Dude I honestly think you made the best suggestion. I’m now confident the poly filter pads rescued the tank.

So final update. I finally found my long lost stainless steel tongs. For the longest I couldn’t find them and thought I misplaced them somewhere. I found a very rusty slimy pair of tongs in the return chamber. And it coincides with my last coral purchase, Euphillya that died first.

I think I had heavy metal poisoning that of course no amount of water changes were solving when the source was in the return chamber. And the poly filter pad did the job. And to top it off the Dino’s disappeared after starting to use the pads. Dino bloom was most likely a result of the heavy metal levels along with the low nutrients.

It has all happened to my tanks lol. Wise person once said it’s better to know 1000 to fail than the 1 way it worked.

I’m glad you found the issue! Sometimes we don’t get that in this hobby. Reef on dude.

 

[dpfriedman]

I know my parameters are not okay based on coral response. But if I google reef tank parameters, I get if I look at BRS, liveaquaria, and reefkeeping. Which is a big source of confusion!

Salinty 1.023-1.027
Temp 76-82 F
ph 7.8-8.5
Nitrate 1-10 ppm
Phos 0-0.03 ppm
Ca 350-450 ppm
Alk 8-12
Mg 1200-1500 ppm

If I look at red sea mixed reef parameters recommendations Its even more confusing because it contradicts what users are saying here but fits into BRS recommended ranges.

Sorry I don't mean to argue what is right. I literally don't even know. I'm like okay so my parameters are in the recommended ranges but its a harmful environment for corals. And now apparently there is combo action going on, like if nutrients are low, need to go lower alk? And then apparently 0.1 pmm phosphate is not good and causing algae but red sea recommends really high phosphate.

And I'm like something is not right, what should I actually be targeting. And how do I safely make adjustments. Or is there something SUPER wrong and need to do X action now.

Are any of my parameters good? Or everything needs to change?

Here are my suggestion as targets but don’t chase the dragon, just get close…
All 8.5
Ca 425-440
Mg 1350
Sg 1.025
Temp 78
Ph 8.2
Nitrates 5-15
Pho .08-1.0
Weekly 10% water changes
Good luck