Long journey here and I'm stumped

[Creggers]

Hello R2R,

My tank has been up and running over a year now and I've battled through a lot of issues - from equipment issues, to Aptasia, to a heavy metal contamination. I successfully beat all of those back via various methods and now I do feel like the tanks in a place where I can start introducing coral.

I picked up a wide array of corals of different classifications, and I still lose a lot of coral. It seems the only corals i've found success with are Blastos, Zoanthids, and Montis.

I have a trident tracking my levels and keeping my alk/calc/mg in a steady 15% levels and I tested my NO3 and PO4 yesterday.

Alk 9.5
Calc 450
Mag 1600
PO4 0
NO3 20

My lighting is handled by two Kessel ap9x running the BRS recommended settings for 8 hours a day.

For flow I have two Neptune wav pumps peaking out at 85% and one 2k icecap gyre

Things I know i'll eventually need are a better gyre but other than that I don't think there's any reason for the acro pieces i bought to melt the way they did.

My chato grows, my fish are happy, I constantly have to scrape coraline off the glass, I have a healthy and robust clean up crew... the only thing I've committed to change is to change out my filter socks to try to beat my NO3 down.

What else am I missing?

 

[saltyfins]

Hello R2R,

My tank has been up and running over a year now and I've battled through a lot of issues - from equipment issues, to Aptasia, to a heavy metal contamination. I successfully beat all of those back via various methods and now I do feel like the tanks in a place where I can start introducing coral.

I picked up a wide array of corals of different classifications, and I still lose a lot of coral. It seems the only corals i've found success with are Blastos, Zoanthids, and Montis.

I have a trident tracking my levels and keeping my alk/calc/mg in a steady 15% levels and I tested my NO3 and PO4 yesterday.

Alk 9.5
Calc 450
Mag 1600
PO4 0
NO3 20

My lighting is handled by two Kessel ap9x running the BRS recommended settings for 8 hours a day.

For flow I have two Neptune wav pumps peaking out at 85% and one 2k icecap gyre

Things I know i'll eventually need are a better gyre but other than that I don't think there's any reason for the acro pieces i bought to melt the way they did.

My chato grows, my fish are happy, I constantly have to scrape coraline off the glass, I have a healthy and robust clean up crew... the only thing I've committed to change is to change out my filter socks to try to beat my NO3 down.

What else am I missing?

Your alk is really high... You have No po4...

 

[Uncle99]

Phosphate can’t be zero.
If that’s accurate, nothing is getting fed.
Plus you can trigger pest algae.
Feed your system, bump that to .1ppm.
A one time pod add, and a weekly dose of live phyto.
A high MG like that can slow some inverts.
1300-1400ppm is enough.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Yeah, definitely raise phosphate...alk is fine imo...what corals are you trying to keep?

 

[BrokenReefer]

What is your salinity?

PO4 should be rechecked, 0.00 is a problem; Mg is high but that’s not going to hinder keeping corals thriving.

 

[Creggers]

Yeah, definitely raise phosphate...alk is fine imo...what corals are you trying to keep?

I'd like to keep a true mixed reef and i set my rockwork up with that in mind. I want acros, montis, torches, hammers, blastos, chalice, and some zoas throught the tank too.

What is your salinity?

PO4 should be rechecked, 0.00 is a problem; Mg is high but that’s not going to hinder keeping corals thriving.

My salinity is at 34 and kept stable via ATO.

I just rechecked (with a new kit) and it's still pegged at 0

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Can we see a tank pic? I don't see any red flags in your description, so some visual clue's might help

What intensity is the light? Do you know the par level?

 

[BrokenReefer]

I'd like to keep a true mixed reef and i set my rockwork up with that in mind. I want acros, montis, torches, hammers, blastos, chalice, and some zoas throught the tank too.


My salinity is at 34 and kept stable via ATO.

I just rechecked (with a new kit) and it's still pegged at 0

Increase the phosphate to 0.01-0.1; any range over 0 basically. Feed heavy, if you’re carbon dosing stop that for a bit, if you’re running GFO definitely stop that, add a phosphate solution.

 

[Terry Le]

I would raise PO4

 

[Creggers]

Can we see a tank pic? I don't see any red flags in your description, so some visual clue's might help

What intensity is the light? Do you know the par level?

My par levels range from 300 on the high areas of the rock to ~75 at the low parts

Here's some photos. It's been about a week since I scrubbed the glass so please excuse it, it looks way worse in these photos I promise:

 

[PharmrJohn]

Yes to raising PO4. No to your ALK being too high. It's just fine. I'll be keeping my ALK around 11 or 12 when I launch. Back in the olden days I kept it between 15 and 18. But those were different times and standards were different.

 

[PocketGoose]

you mentioned heavy metal contamination, can you elaborate on this? Did you verify the contaminant was eradicated via icp?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello R2R,

My tank has been up and running over a year now and I've battled through a lot of issues - from equipment issues, to Aptasia, to a heavy metal contamination. I successfully beat all of those back via various methods and now I do feel like the tanks in a place where I can start introducing coral.

I picked up a wide array of corals of different classifications, and I still lose a lot of coral. It seems the only corals i've found success with are Blastos, Zoanthids, and Montis.

I have a trident tracking my levels and keeping my alk/calc/mg in a steady 15% levels and I tested my NO3 and PO4 yesterday.

Alk 9.5
Calc 450
Mag 1600
PO4 0
NO3 20

My lighting is handled by two Kessel ap9x running the BRS recommended settings for 8 hours a day.

For flow I have two Neptune wav pumps peaking out at 85% and one 2k icecap gyre

Things I know i'll eventually need are a better gyre but other than that I don't think there's any reason for the acro pieces i bought to melt the way they did.

My chato grows, my fish are happy, I constantly have to scrape coraline off the glass, I have a healthy and robust clean up crew... the only thing I've committed to change is to change out my filter socks to try to beat my NO3 down.

What else am I missing?

I have neptune wav and at above 30& its blasting my tank which is 400g/ 10ft long. 85%?
Feeding alone should increased and have increased Po4 - How are you testing phos?

 

[Creggers]

you mentioned heavy metal contamination, can you elaborate on this? Did you verify the contaminant was eradicated via icp?

Verified through ICP I’m at 0 now. Test came back clear and that’s why I waited this long to stock corals.

The contamination came from a shelf that I’ve removed. A part of my maintenance is changing out my copisorb when I do water changes and I’m tempted to remove it all together when I’m finally out of it.

I have neptune wav and at above 30& its blasting my tank which is 400g/ 10ft long. 85%?
Feeding alone should increased and have increased Po4 - How are you testing phos?

The wav’s are on my back wall and pointed in an X. They’re from the first batch when they got released so they’re old.