Struggling to keep corals alive

[Mandarin the first]

Hey everyone,
Im having trouble keeping corals alive/healthy and after advice or theories on why this may be.
A quick history;
-Current tank (50 gal) was set up as a 25 gal cube and corals seemed to be doing well in that tank (Zoas, torch and hammer).
-Swapped to new tank and bought a bunch of frags (sps/lps), corals were doing fine for a while and even getting some growth but then the tank got a big dino problem
-Eliminated the Dinos with dosing nutrients, running carbon, a 3 day blackout and green killing machine UV
-All sps and most lps got STN
-Has been about 5 months since getting rid of the Dino’s, tried a Millie and acro frag + new hammer- all did great for about a week then a short power outage dropped the temp about 2 degrees F and the acro RTN, Millie is experiencing STN atm and hammer hasn’t opened up properly since.

Last tests (Hanna, AF and red sea kits)
Salinity 1.025
Alk 7.6 dkh
Cal 490 ppm
Mag 1310 ppm
Phos 0.01 ppm
Nitrates 0ppm

Lights are 2x NooPsyche 60w that have been adjusted with apogee par meter (top of aqua scape around 350-400 par, Sand around 150-200 par)

Dosing with dosing pump to maintain alk (very stable) calcium is elevated so just replaced via water changes.

My thoughts:
-Trying to feed heavy with frozen mysis and dry pellets to keep nutrients up as they are obviously low but tank gets bad GHA so I’m assuming there are still available nutrients for the corals? I manually scrub the algae off once a week
-I’ve read the green killing machine units can get rusty internals but no snails in my tank have died (cleaner shrimp did die randomly about 3 months ago) and had been about 5 months since it was removed from tank.
-The sand I ordered was supposed to be aragonite but it turned up labelled as crushed marble, I did a quick search and it is apparently used a lot in Australia but is the sand potentially leaching aluminium or other metals?

All fish are doing great, coralline algae is growing well

I’m considering getting an ICP test done soon to see if there is any problems with rust or metals

Thanks for any help!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

People have a misconception about 'feeding heavy', people think it means drop larger portions of food into the tank, but that doesn't work. The stomach size is what it is, it can't eat more than it can hold, that means all the extra food added to the tank just rots and increases dissolved organics, which feeds algae.

Feeding heavy means feed more often, feed 4-5-6-7 times a day, but never more than the fish can eat. Fish poop is good for corals, rotting food is good for growing algae.

What is the proof that corals eat fish poop?

What is the proof that corals eat fish poop?. Many mention this "fact" but Ji have not seen any indication. My scopascpoops like firefighter airplain but corals do not response

www.reef2reef.com

 

[BetteMidler]

I can't help you on the struggle with the Corals, but I'm curious if you are using a present or custom profile on the Noo-Psyche lights? My assumption is that you have the K7 mini lights?

 

[Mandarin the first]

People have a misconception about 'feeding heavy', people think it means drop larger portions of food into the tank, but that doesn't work. The stomach size is what it is, it can't eat more than it can hold, that means all the extra food added to the tank just rots and increases dissolved organics, which feeds algae.

Feeding heavy means feed more often, feed 4-5-6-7 times a day, but never more than the fish can eat. Fish poop is good for corals, rotting food is good for growing algae.

What is the proof that corals eat fish poop?

What is the proof that corals eat fish poop?. Many mention this "fact" but Ji have not seen any indication. My scopascpoops like firefighter airplain but corals do not response

www.reef2reef.com

I’ll look into getting an auto feeder and perhaps some more fish?

 

[Mandarin the first]

I can't help you on the struggle with the Corals, but I'm curious if you are using a present or custom profile on the Noo-Psyche lights? My assumption is that you have the K7 mini lights?

Yes that’s correct they are the k7 mini.
Running custom spectrum but par was tested with apogee meter

 

[apeshot]

I like the idea of an ICP test just to help you know if there is something catastrophic. Knowing that will be a relief in itself. If it’s not something crazy from the ICP, then you can start to focus on what likely is going on. The obvious answer seems to be the balance of the algae and the zero or low nutrients available in the water for coral growth.

 

[Uncle99]

You have no nitrates and virtually no phosphate so organics in the water are not available for uptake by corals, thus, they starve.

Bump N to 5-10pm and phosphate to .1ppm and ensure they stay stable, ie, not rising or falling week over week.

 

[Mandarin the first]

You have no nitrates and virtually no phosphate so organics in the water are not available for uptake by corals, thus, they starve.

Bump N to 5-10pm and phosphate to .1ppm and ensure they stay stable, ie, not rising or falling week over week.

I’ll try dosing them up, should I do it slowly or all at once?

 

[Jasonak]

Always slowly. Couple PPM a day.
I would try and get your ALK between 8-9

 

[Doctorgori]

Fish poop is good for corals, rotting food is good for growing algae.

I have a strong suspicion this is likewise true…

I’ve heard nitrogen is nitrogen, but there has to be at least a small “trophic” difference in the energy level between uneaten food and poop minus whatever energy the fish extracted

yeah I also dont think uneaten food and poop are exact he same either

 

[Oldreefer44]

You have no nitrates and virtually no phosphate so organics in the water are not available for uptake by corals, thus, they starve.

Bump N to 5-10pm and phosphate to .1ppm and ensure they stay stable, ie, not rising or falling week over week.

Agree with above but first make sure test results are accurate either by ICP, LFS or another brand test kits. Not easy to have 0 NO3 and .01 PO4.

 

[apeshot]

Agree with above but first make sure test results are accurate either by ICP, LFS or another brand test kits. Not easy to have 0 NO3 and .01 PO4.

I think this is a pretty good observation. Maybe you have one of those at 0, but both is difficult without real intention and know how.