Non of my coral look healthy but I can’t find out why?

[dwest]

I would stop gfo and look at the brown stuff on the sand and rocks under a microscope for possible dinos.

 

[Dinodanger]

How did you check the po4?

Did you check the Ph?

How many rock do you have? and what is the flow rate? sometime when you have a low flow the ph have variations and i think is a very important to check it.

Also if you are using rowa you will need be more careful with it

I checked ph with salifert test kit which is 8.15 and I don’t have lots of rock but it’s a decent amount I have in the back chamber lots of marine pure incase the rock wasn’t enough for bacteria but there is a lot of surface area for beneficial bacteria is that’s what ur hinting at and I’m careful with gfo I use a small bag and change it when needed as I don’t want to bottom out phosphates

 

[Dinodanger]

I think the 2 main culprit may be either too low nutrients or water stability issue.

Get a hanna ulr po4 checker as relying on the salifert is not accurate and you may actually have 0 po4. For me, I tend to keep my po4 around 0.03-0.1. When it bottoms out to 0, I see my corals start closing up. No need to dose any po4 for now if you just take your gfo offline which may be stripping your po4 out.

As for any tanks, water stability is key. Even though your parameters are good, the fluctuations may be a problem. Are you testing your parameters alk cal and mg weekly? Have they changed drastically over the past few weeks? Are you dosing?

As some ppl mentioned about your light settings, I don't think that is the reason. LPS can thrive in a whole range of par from 50-150+ and it is usually the water chemistry that's the main problem.

I test alk once or twice a week it stays between 9.1 and 9.3 I test mag and calcium every week or two but it never changes as I stay consistent with water changes and I don’t have enough coral to drain the elements since changing the lighting and move the torch coral it seems to of extended a lot better but I’m not sure if that’s down to the change in lighting spectrum/intensity or it’s brushed of the cyano on the polyps

 

[Luisreefmexico]

I checked ph with salifert test kit which is 8.15 and I don’t have lots of rock but it’s a decent amount I have in the back chamber lots of marine pure incase the rock wasn’t enough for bacteria but there is a lot of surface area for beneficial bacteria is that’s what ur hinting at and I’m careful with gfo I use a small bag and change it when needed as I don’t want to bottom out phosphates

Ok well and what about the kh? i read that you are in 9.1.
I dont know if you always had this kh but in personal when my kh is more than 8 the corals start to be stressed.
I read that if you have a tank with low nutrients you cant have a high alkalinity.
Maybe you could reduce your alkalinity to 7.5 that is more normal

 

[Belgian Anthias]

The tank was definitely cycled correctly I had a bad batch of salt which kept giving me ammonia I thought the same thing but after adding hundreds worth of bacteria it was still present bcus of all the water changes

Adding bacteria does not help much in cycling a tank. Most bacteria added, able to stay alive, will be heterotrophs needing a food source and will mineralize bio-waste, producing ammonium and phosphate while exporting the carbon present if able to grow. To bring in the carbon again you will need the brown stuff which will show in the first stage of cycling or and add a food source.
The batch of sea salt must have been heavily polluted with organics.
There is nothing wrong with having a lot of ammonia in a cycling tank, it is normal during the first 3 to 5 weeks, certainly if so-called " live rock " was added within the first 3 weeks.
Cycling a tank takes at least a month!!!. Conditioning a tank a lot more! You may add as many bacteria as you want, it will not help a thing. As explained, the first ammonia will rise and AOB will start to grow trying to follow the ammonia production and produce NO2. Even if it was possible to enter kilo's of NOB, they will not grow as they are ammonia sensitive and their bio-content will be used by heterotrophs to produce more ammonium etc.. Only when ammonium is not dominant any more NOB will grow and start to use up the produced NO2.
Nitrifiers grow slowly! One must be aware of the fact that to install a nitrifying biofilm one needs all kind of bacteria, which not all can be delivered in a bottle. It is always waiting for all bacteria needed will install themselves and will grow and find the balance needed. In a biofilm the bacteria need time to interconnect and work together forming a microbial community.

According to Peter Wilkens: After +-2 -3 weeks the ammonia production will be at its peak, enough AOB will be available to remove the ammonium peak after +- 5-6 weeks. Enough NOB to remove the nitrite peak after +-8-9 weeks. 0 ammonia and nitrite after 15 weeks.
(Wilkens, Peter. Niedere Tiere im tropischen Seewasseraquarium. 2. Aufl. Wuppertal-Elberfeld: Pfriem, page 63)

According to Ebling: Typical start-up properties to bring a new biological filter system to full capacity are that the ammonia concentration peaks at 14 days followed by a nitrite peak at 28 days and the nitrate accumulation begins after 21 days. Pre-seeding a biological filter with both ammonia and nitrite can accelerate this process. For safety, in a new system, a decrease in nitrite should be noted before fish is introduced as an indication that the biological filtration process in the filter is fully activated. (Ebling2006-7) ref: https://www.baharini.eu/baharini/doku.php?id=nl:makazi:het_water:filtratie:biofilter#het_biofilter

The above shows the difference between a Berlin system and a system with a Biofilter.

All this if the seawater contains enough nutrients and building materials to install the bio-diversity needed. Bacteria in a bottle may help to provide building materials. An expensive way to increase the bio-load.

All this if someone will NOT decide to mess up the ongoing processes during the time needed. Adding organic carbon will for sure mess up everything, even may have removed the previously installed autotrophic carrying capacity. Enough phosphate is needed to build up the bio-capacity. In a cycling tank and while conditioning it, a phosphate peak should be removed by growth.

It is very easy to make live cultures of AOB and NOB, it is not easy to keep them alive in a bottle. http://www.cryerfamily.eclipse.co.uk/BacteriaBottleParable.htm ref: https://www.baharini.eu/baharini/doku.php?id=nl:makazi:het_water:toevoegen_bacteriën