Please help my mediocre reef tank

[firedancer414]

Hi,

My name is Brian and I have a mediocre reef tank. Generally, everything I put inside the tank is slowly dying, the only things that have been growing are a few of the zoa colonies. Acans have been especially unhappy. Ricordia seem to be doing better. Elegance coral has been in there for 3 months and doing well. Frog spawn and neon branching hammers both had polyp bailout in the last few weeks. I'd really really appreciate your eyes on this to help me, I'm still very new to the hobby having never had significant coral growth in a tank.

My leading hypotheses as to why:
1) Low nutrients and everything is starving.
2) Too high light levels.
3) Hermit crabs, shrimp, coral beauty / wrasse being mean to corals
4) Too small of a clean up crew (?)

Equipment:

Tank has been running for about 1.5 years.

• Red Sea Reefer 170 (40 gallons total volume)

Typical day - I like to think that I have very good stability. I did some cleaning hence the ORP drop to 321 today.

• Livestock:
  2 clowns
  2 diamond goby
  1 midas blenny
  1 bicolor blenny
  1 melanarus wrasse
  1 coral beauty
  3x hermit crab (orange + blue electric, Halloween)
• 2x shrimp (1 skunk / cleaner, 1 fire/blood shrimp)
  Lots of snails - although many of them may be dead?
• Flow: 2 MP10s, mounted on the back, generally running at 90-100%

• Filtration:
  
  • Bio: Sand, live rock
  • Skimmer: Tunze DC 9004 (it doesn't seem to pull a ton?)
  • Refugium: Chaeto (with good growth) powered by a Kessil H380. Currently runs from 8pm - 7am.
  • Water Changes: Extremely rarely (I run Triton)
  • Carbon Reactor: Running BRS Premium ROX 0.8, change it roughly every 2-4 weeks.
  • I've always tested extremely low PO4 and NO4
    • At the same time, when I've overfed (using the Eheim feeder, which always feeds too much), I've just come back to a GHA outbreak. I've also gotten significant cyano blooms from this that takes weeks to clear.
    • I clean the glass at a reasonable interval (every ~2-3 days). There's definitely this whitish very small algae that forms on the rocks and the back.
• Light: AI Hydra 26

• Dosing: GHL 2.1, dosing 4 part Triton
  • Generally, my chemistry has been very stable (KH [Hanna] + Ca [Red Sea] + Mg [Red Sea]). For some reason, my Ca + Mg levels that I test have systematically been 10% lower than ICP testing that I do roughly quarterly with Triton. I sent in another ICP test this weekend.

Last ICP test in June - https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/aquarium/auswertung-b/icp-oes/53810/
Iodine was 0 and Potassium were low. Not sure what to think about the Boron + Strontium recommendations I didn't address it.

Examples of the rocks - some small amounts of coraline algae, some of the whitish film

My sump with chaeto growth

Sad acan with concerned midas blenny

 

[Phyber]

I wish you luck in your search for answers...the only thing I would suggest is more water changes... I know about Triton, as well as the theories against them, but I feel consistent water changes are a key to long term success.

Start with smaller, frequent changes and work up.

 

[happyhourhero]

If I was running the show I would stop running carbon and keep an eye on the coral beauty as it could be picking at the lps. Maybe feed more to get your nutrients up and dial back your lights a bit. Your tank is wayyy more technologically advanced than mine so it’s tough to know what to suggest.

 

[Rjukan]

I had a thread on RC called My Photos of Mediocrity lol, so your thread piqued my interest.

From the sound of it you're probably really close to the answer you're looking for. I think your hypothesis list is reasonable, especially 1-3.

My acans looked just like that one until I removed them from the tank that had a peppermint shrimp in it, and I started target feeding. Within a couple days they put weight on and started looking much better. In 3 on this list you mention shrimp, but in the stock list you don't mention any shrimp. Do you have any in the tank?

What's your feeding schedule like?

 

[sureal00]

I believe coral beauty and the blennies sometimes pick at lps.You may want feed some reef roids or coral frenzy and see if that helps your corals

 

[dwest]

I would do 10% weekly water changes and cut down chaeto lighting duration in half.

 

[firedancer414]

Thanks so much for the feedback all. A few more details:

1. The Coral beauty - I've never observed it picking at the corals
2. The GHL doses 0.8ml of each core element around 2-3am (spaced every 15 min)
3. I used to just keep feeding a pellet a few at a time, basically none of it would reach the bottom of the tank, until they stop eating. My new strategy since I think everything is starving is to meter the food - 3 pinches of pellet + 1 scoop of BRS reef chili and to be very deliberate about the amount of food. I always feed between 5-7pm, once a day.

 

[Naturalreef]

whenever things are starting to go south, I do a couple of water changes and then I test daily till I have things under control again. I would start testing your nutrient levels so you can get a ballpark of where you are at. It sounds like your nutrients have been on a roller coaster making your coral unhappy. Coral don’t like sudden drops in nutrients. Low nutrients with high light will bleach/kill your coral. What is your Alk/calcium levels at? are you seeing alk consumption hence the dosing?

 

[Jekyl]

I'm not familiar with the hydra lighting but it seems way too high to me. I started with Chinese black boxes running at 80%blue and 30% white. When I switched to Kessil I had them at 65% intensity and coral was browning within a week. I now run them at 45% and everything is better. To be honest I thought about lowering it more.If I read your chart right then you have them at 100%. Maybe drop the intensity down to 60 or so for a couple weeks and see what happens. What ever you decide on only change 1 thing at a time and allow 2 or 3 weeks before noting the results.

 

[firedancer414]

I had a thread on RC called My Photos of Mediocrity lol, so your thread piqued my interest.

From the sound of it you're probably really close to the answer you're looking for. I think your hypothesis list is reasonable, especially 1-3.

My acans looked just like that one until I removed them from the tank that had a peppermint shrimp in it, and I started target feeding. Within a couple days they put weight on and started looking much better. In 3 on this list you mention shrimp, but in the stock list you don't mention any shrimp. Do you have any in the tank?

What's your feeding schedule like?

Ah yes - sorry I have 1 skunk / cleaner shrimp and one fire shrimp, sorry. No peppermint.

I had an emerald crab in the tank until a few months ago, I put it in the sump. It was definitely annoying the coral.

 

[Jekyl]

Also I only have them at peak intensity for 4 hours

 

[Jekyl]

I don't want the lights flashing on my tank to get pics of every setting but this is mine over about a 10 hour period

 

[Reefcowboy]

Brian
Your tank is not mediocre. You seem to have done a good studying and have acquired great equipment. Great job.
I think your suspicion could be correct about the lightning being a bit too intense with nutrients so low.
The lower the nutrients, lighting period needs to be slowly ramped/reduced as corals can starve. Acans and larger polyps aren't usually happy in low nutrient tanks.
What is your nitrate ppm?

Also your RODI system, is it on point?
I personally dont trust ICP tests, have witnessed some results vary between labs for same water.

 

[firedancer414]

OK - this is all super helpful info. I think we're centering in on a diagnosis + plan - lower lights, increase feeding. I'm going to go test my nutrient levels right now, although I'm ~99% sure that they will both test at zero.

I will probably hang on to the coral beauty for now, but if I don't see success with fixing the above will change tacks.

I get my RODI from a trusted LFS - I haven't asked to see the TDS #s but I do trust their water, they're a really great shop.

I definitely get that water changes are an option, but I have some specific maintenance goals for the tank to minimize water changes, and am pretty committed to Triton.

I get that there are definitely worse reef tanks out there but I have literally killed a few thousand $ worth of coral in a tiny tank and am really frustrated that I'm not seeing the success I would hope. I chalked it up to new tank syndrome for a long time but at this point there is clearly something that I'm doing wrong.

 

[Jekyl]

If your levels are right then water changes won't help. Especially if your concern is low nutrients. Plenty of success stories from people who notice better growth after turning down their skimmers. I feed twice a day when possible and always a variety of frozen real food. I also feed heavy. I may change my water once a month if lucky and usually out of boredom not from an issue. I also have an emerald crab and originally thought it was eating an anemone I had in my tank. Turns out he just knew better than I did when the anemone was on it's way out. My guess would be an overkill on lighting. If you Google your specific light and schedule you'll find plenty of forum posts with other people discussing their personal settings and what works. Best of luck

 

[firedancer414]

If your levels are right then water changes won't help. Especially if your concern is low nutrients. Plenty of success stories from people who notice better growth after turning down their skimmers. I feed twice a day when possible and always a variety of frozen real food. I also feed heavy. I may change my water once a month if lucky and usually out of boredom not from an issue. I also have an emerald crab and originally thought it was eating an anemone I had in my tank. Turns out he just knew better than I did when the anemone was on it's way out. My guess would be an overkill on lighting. If you Google your specific light and schedule you'll find plenty of forum posts with other people discussing their personal settings and what works. Best of luck

Totally agreed. Definitely can see after some Googling that my lights are at peak intensity for ~twice as long as most people have (8 hrs -> 4 hrs). Will reduce significantly and carefully measure how much I'm feeding and gradually increase, testing nutrients along the way

THANK YOU!!!

 

[Jekyl]

Don't change feeding too. Start with lights. Give it 3 weeks and reevaluate.

 

[firedancer414]

Don't change feeding too. Start with lights. Give it 3 weeks and reevaluate.

OK!

 

[firedancer414]

Ahh - I'm feeling really optimistic after literally months of watching my tank slowly waste away. thank you again, really excited to report back in a few weeks.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Ahh - I'm feeling really optimistic after literally months of watching my tank slowly waste away. thank you again, really excited to report back in a few weeks.

Please if possible, buy a TDS tester(pen). It will cost you around $30 and everytime you get rodi water, test it just to be sure.
I'm very curious to see the tds from your supplier. I think you will be surprised.
A tds of 5,6 can reflect on coral health in a short time. A LFS sells and uses 100s of gallons and keeping track/replace membranes isnt easy or done as often as needed at times

Look at it as insurance being water source is key for your corals