I give up

[Chevyyeet]

Ph Buffer also effects alkalinity which is already high .

ph naturally fluctuates from day to night .
As c02 levels inside increase ( typically at night when doors are closed and everyone is home ) ph will decrease .
No light inducing photosynthesis also causes ph to drop .
to offset this fluctuation you can 1) run a air line from outside or leave a window cracked to allow fresh air .
Run a refuge and light on opposite schedule
But .. I will say I believe The main contributor to the issues is water quality , high alkalinity along with low nutrients .

So where do I start? I have never seen products that bring down alkalinity

 

[Rmckoy]

So where do I start? I have never seen products that bring down alkalinity

Acid .
or water changes with lower alkalinity salt mix .
Rodi water alone could help stabilize the alkalinity as it will remove the unwanted dissolved minerals
Just my 2 cents …. I’d first look into a rodi system and start doing small regular water changes over a period of time
See how that changes . But we know . That salt will mix close to the parameters listed in the packaging

 

[Chevyyeet]

Recognized issues are Use of tap water- dechlorinator is not magic juice and will not remove certain metals and compounds in water but reduce chlorine flourides. Coral will not fare well in low phosphate environment, but I suspect low phos readings as you should be seeing dinos or other substance and through feeding alone, some level unless tank too clean.
Can you provide a couple of pics under white lighting ?

Alk is getting to High level as is Mag but mag not yet at caution level. You cant set calcium for softies as you have a mixed reef and another challenge is that both LPS and SPS release toxins and there can be a chemical war and therefore you want to run high grade carbon or what I use ChemiPure to remove these toxins.
Take a good size water sample to a trusted LFS that does not use Api kits and see what readings they come up with and to compare with yours.

So I have never had a mixed tank actually, I have just tried different things because nothing has lasted more than a month. It’s sad I know but I wasn’t sure where else to go. The phosphates are so low because I just got done battling red slime and I was using SAR podcast advice and getting those phosphates down and nitrates a little up.

this is the tank 2 weeks ago during the red slime peak

 

[Rmckoy]

So I have never had a mixed tank actually, I have just tried different things because nothing has lasted more than a month. It’s sad I know but I wasn’t sure where else to go. The phosphates are so low because I just got done battling red slime and I was using SAR podcast advice and getting those phosphates down and nitrates a little up.

this is the tank 2 weeks ago during the red slime peak

Still has tons of potential .
once Matured
I would personally add more rocks but that’s just me .

 

[Tamberav]

I have been reefing for almost a year and after countless kinds of coral I can’t seem to get anything to live. I have had SPS, LPS, softies and everything in between. Nothing I do seems to work. I religiously check my parameters and have them as close as I can to the optimal parameters of whatever I was trying to grow. I have 4 fish and non of them are picking or causing issues, I don’t see any pests. So at this point I think I’m just gonna have to settle for fish only.

may tank is a 29g with a hang on the back filter unfortunately but I change the cartridge often so that I don’t have a bunch of nitrate growing in it.

I have an app that I input all my test info into so that it gives me a graph over a certain period of time.
My parameters are:
Nitrate: 5ppm
Phosphate: 0ppm
Calcium: 380-400 ppm(for softies)
Mag: 1400
Ammonia: 0
Ph: 8.1
Alkalinity: 11-12DKH

if y’all have any suggestions feel free. I honestly am just thinking about selling the tank because it makes me a little sad to think about all the time effort and money I have lost.

what test kit for po4?

if it is truly 0 or close, this is an issue... this issue is made WORSE by high alk which you have.

I would get a hannah test kit for po4 if you already don't use it. bring PO4 up to 0.08ish and I would also personally switch salts to bring alk down to 8-9ish.

Also what light do you use? This may also be a problem.

 

[Chevyyeet]

Recognized issues are Use of tap water- dechlorinator is not magic juice and will not remove certain metals and compounds in water but reduce chlorine flourides. Coral will not fare well in low phosphate environment, but I suspect low phos readings as you should be seeing dinos or other substance and through feeding alone, some level unless tank too clean.
Can you provide a couple of pics under white lighting ?

Alk is getting to High level as is Mag but mag not yet at caution level. You cant set calcium for softies as you have a mixed reef and another challenge is that both LPS and SPS release toxins and there can be a chemical war and therefore you want to run high grade carbon or what I use ChemiPure to remove these toxins.
Take a good size water sample to a trusted LFS that does not use Api kits and see what readings they come up with and to compare with yours.

So I have never had a mixed tank actually, I have just tried different things because nothing has lasted more than a month. It’s sad I know but I wasn’t sure where else to go. The phosphates are so low because I just got done battling red slime and I was using SAR podcast advice and getting those phosphates down and nitrates a little up

this is the tank 2 weeks ago during the peak of the slime

 

[vetteguy53081]

So I have never had a mixed tank actually, I have just tried different things because nothing has lasted more than a month. It’s sad I know but I wasn’t sure where else to go. The phosphates are so low because I just got done battling red slime and I was using SAR podcast advice and getting those phosphates down and nitrates a little up.

this is the tank 2 weeks ago during the red slime peak

Cyano likely from Tap water and looks awefully new. How old is tank ?
Also- your biggest issue with coral may be under-filtration. From what I see, you are running a hang on power filter which is mechanical filtration and missing chemical and biological filtration. At minimum, you want to add a hang on skimmer such as IceCap K1-50 or K1-100 unit which works A-1
Add live rock also and a Biowheel filter to make this possibly work. RThere is inadequate circulation for coral and with Tap water- I see what is happening here now and from reflection of light on water- the light also insufficient for many coral

 

[Rmckoy]

Piece of advice :
Stop dosing .. let the system mature and preform water changes to gradually change out the high tds tap water

this hobby can be tricky and frustrating . .
when trying to correct any issue . Try only one thing at a time and give it time to notice if there are any changes .
throwing too much at once you will never know what fixed the issue or what made it worse

 

[Allenh427]

The red slime is cyanobacteria which would mean your phosphates are more than likely too high. There's probably tons of advice you could follow in this thread, but I wouldn't make too many changes at once because it gets hard to track what actually is helping. The first thing you need to change, for sure, is to start using RODI water instead of tap water.

 

[Chevyyeet]

Recognized issues are Use of tap water- dechlorinator is not magic juice and will not remove certain metals and compounds in water but reduce chlorine flourides. Coral will not fare well in low phosphate environment, but I suspect low phos readings as you should be seeing dinos or other substance and through feeding alone, some level unless tank too clean.
Can you provide a couple of pics under white lighting ?

Alk is getting to High level as is Mag but mag not yet at caution level. You cant set calcium for softies as you have a mixed reef and another challenge is that both LPS and SPS release toxins and there can be a chemical war and therefore you want to run high grade carbon or what I use ChemiPure to remove these toxins.
Take a good size water sample to a trusted LFS that does not use Api kits and see what readings they come up with and to compare with yours.

Cyano likely from Tap water and looks awefully new. How old is tank ?
Also- your biggest issue with coral may be under-filtration. From what I see, you are running a hang on power filter which is mechanical filtration and missing chemical and biological filtration. At minimum, you want to add a hang on skimmer such as IceCap K1-50 or K1-100 unit which works A-1
Add live rock also and a Biowheel filter to make this possibly work. RThere is inadequate circulation for coral and with Tap water- I see what is happening here now and from reflection of light on water- the light also insufficient for many coral

This is the light

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is the light

Unfortunately good for fish and inverts, not coral

 

[Chevyyeet]

This is the light

It’s the optibright from Aqueon

 

[Chevyyeet]

Unfortunately good for fish and inverts, not coral

Yeah I had a very nice Radeon but like I said earlier I had an accident and it broke. Unfortunately circumstances don’t allow for me to afford a new one

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yeah I had a very nice Radeon but like I said earlier I had an accident and it broke. Unfortunately circumstances don’t allow for me to afford a new one

I would personally fix some of the issues now recognized and stick with fish and perfect lighting and filtration and water movement before adding corals. Nothing wrong with fish only tank as there are many on the site

 

[Chevyyeet]

Yeah I had a very nice Radeon but like I said earlier I had an accident and it broke. Unfortunately circumstances don’t allow for me to afford a new one

I saved for well into a year so that I could get the right light. I’m still mad at myself but what more can you do I guess.

 

[Chevyyeet]

I would personally fix some of the issues now recognized and stick with fish and perfect lighting and filtration and water movement before adding corals. Nothing wrong with fish only tank as there are many on the site

That’s probably what I’ll do. Thanks for all y’all’s help.

 

[Chevyyeet]

I would personally fix some of the issues now recognized and stick with fish and perfect lighting and filtration and water movement before adding corals. Nothing wrong with fish only tank as there are many on the site

On the subject of fish, I’m getting hair algae now. What do I do fish wise to combat it?

 

[vetteguy53081]

On the subject of fish, I’m getting hair algae now. What do I do fish wise to combat it?

Remove as much as you can by hand, reduce hours of white light as your strip is bright and add some snails (But Acclimate them well) such as:
Turbo grazer
astrea
cerith
nassarius

Also abut 8 carribean blue leg hermits. I see you have urchin already.

Phosphates contribute to algae as does inorganics due to lack of filtration,

 

[brandon429]

There is a reason that reading the sampled opinions of mixed reefers who aren’t in your home, and then taking a guess at best practices from the group that you then implement is a bad strategy



that’s exactly what brought you to writing the title of the thread, all the prep we get to set up a reef tank comes from that practice.

you should do opposite. Pick one person. Work with them exclusively either in chat or here live for eight weeks. If they don’t have your nano fixed in eight weeks, move to another party. As much as you might be tempted to try best seeming practices from offers, or based on the readings you took from non digital test kits, don’t

make one person external solely responsible for fixing your tank in eight weeks and if they can’t, their nano reef fixin ain’t no good.

 

[brandon429]

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