Ready to give up :(

[90's reefer]

It may be to little light, imo.
If it was my system I would add another 16hd.
I run 2 16hd on my 18" nano cube, 3 on my 45 frag. All at same intensity. 45 is 12" deep and has a frogspawn thats 6 years old looking good at my settings.
These setting give excellent color and growth.

 

[lucyretz]

I know most will say disregard ORP but 193 seems low for a 5 month old tank. I noticed when my ORP dipped to 180 due to lack of aeration my fish were at the top gasping for air. Something else might be going on here.

surface agitation. it’s been a battle with having so much euphyllia but i just realized why my gyre was too strong. i forgot to put the darn fish guards back on. just replaced and put it back

 

[90's reefer]

This is strictly just my opinion. 5 months is a new tank, it takes a good year - 2 years for them settle in. Also, LPS prefer more nutrients than sps. Don't starve them by trying to get your numbers to near zero. Have you tried feeding them with something like reef chili, reef roids, or Red Sea energy plus?

Really depends on setup and persons skill level.
Im a big fan of feed the fish not the corals. I do feed my anemone and scoly.
Check my nano thread. Day one to today at 7 months. It can be done.
Thread '18" AIO Nano Cube Stag System' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/18-aio-nano-cube-stag-system.883090/

 

[tweeter]

Have you checked your salinity?

 

[robo_reef]

Just tossing one more idea out in the lighting area. I have had previous experience with some torches where it would deflate in the afternoon due to what it perceived to be sudden light spectrum changes (I tone down whites in the afternoon for a more blue viewing experience). We are not talking shorter tentacles - completely deflated tentacles.

Your lighting profile looks "fancy" with a lot of transitions (the sawtooth pattern). Try setting something similar to an AB+ and keep it constant (verify PAR is appropriate, of course). See if that makes a difference.

 

[lucyretz]

It may be to little light, imo.
If it was my system I would add another 16hd.
I run 2 16hd on my 18" nano cube, 3 on my 45 frag. All at same intensity. 45 is 12" deep and has a frogspawn thats 6 years old looking good at my settings.
These setting give excellent color and growth.
View attachment 2800459
View attachment 2800460

You know what i’m glad you pointed this out, because i’m not getting bleaching but they aren’t as vibrant either. another prime is definitely something i’m going to order even just for better spread

 

[lucyretz]

This is strictly just my opinion. 5 months is a new tank, it takes a good year - 2 years for them settle in. Also, LPS prefer more nutrients than sps. Don't starve them by trying to get your numbers to near zero. Have you tried feeding them with something like reef chili, reef roids, or Red Sea energy plus?

We are feeding phyto, ab+. roids every now and then. i feed frozen to the fish, as well as a variety of reef nutrition pods etc. i’m definitely not trying to keep nutrients low, the opposite as i continually find myself dosing neophos to keep phosphate from bottoming out nitrate is 13 currently.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

What salt mix are you using? any change in salt brand ?

 

[lucyretz]

Have you checked your salinity?

Yes, 1.025 both on apex and on my freshly calibrated hanna meter

 

[lucyretz]

What salt mix are you using? any change in salt brand ?

we are using fauna marin pro, but did a 5g water change with the LFS premixed saltwater 2 nights ago. IO reef crystals. couldn’t make our own because a pipe burst here. Corals we’re ***** before that tho.

 

[lucyretz]

we are using fauna marin pro, but did a 5g water change with the LFS premixed saltwater 2 nights ago. IO reef crystals. couldn’t make our own because a pipe burst here. Corals we’re ***** before that tho.

ticked off. apologies. r2r doesn’t like the p word

 

[Jedi1199]

Didn't I see someone mention lighting in a previous post?

Oh yeah.. that was me in post 17... hmmmm?

 

[helmsreef]

Have you checked your alk, ca, and mag with different testers and compared?

 

[firechild]

I'd be concerned about pH sitting below 8.0

 

[lucyretz]

Didn't I see someone mention lighting in a previous post?

Oh yeah.. that was me in post 17... hmmmm?

yes and that’s my fault for being an ask-hole. i am just sourcing a neptune par monitor and i will update with numbers and a big fat you were right

 

[lucyretz]

Updating everyone:
-we purchased a co2 scrubber (placed on last night, so far good steady PH)
-we purchased a par meter (will map and post results tonight)
-we are carefully dosing phosphate to keep it away from 0.00
-we replaced carbon

as of yesterday we did see a small but positive change in polyp extension. hopefully we continue to go in the right direction!

 

[Jrain904]

5 months is young. You will probably run into more problems along the way to maturity. Nothing good happens fast in the hobby. Just take things slowly and keep things consistent. Good luck.

 

[lucyretz]

UPDATE!
Par is the major issue. even at full power most corals we’re only getting a maximum of 40 par. we purchased 2 radion xr30 blues and used the par meter to adjust the intensity of the schedule just right.

Hopefully we have this train back on track!

 

[robo_reef]

Nice, glad you figured it out! I think it makes sense - even in my 35 gallon I was running the AI Prime 16 at 100% and melting the lens. You have a much bigger setup and I think the Radion is the right move.

 

[lucyretz]

Just an update for anyone following along or possibly viewing in the future, we did lose a total of 5 colonies but the rest have bounced back almost 100% since switching to the Radions.