Tank is slowly dying, how do I get back on track?

[tstor]

Hi all!

My tank (20g cube max Nano) has been up for 10 months now (10 months is short, but I got the rock from a 6 year established tank), and up until the last month looked great. Over the last month, everything has started to slowly decline. Polyp extension is down on all corals, not too much growth, and a couple on their way to fully dying. I'm trying to get things back on track but not sure what the problem might be. Stocking hasn't changed in the last 3 months, and levels look ok (see below).

I've started doing weekly water changes (used to be 30% monthly), changed the carbon and purigen, and turned the skimmer to a more wet skimmate. Other than that, I don't really know what the problem could be or how to start diagnosing.

Cal: 400
Alk: 9.0
Copper: 0
Nitrate: 10 ppm
Phosphate: 0.05 (Salifert kit, a little hard to tell, somewhere between 0.03 and 0.1)
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77.5

Stocking is:
2 clownfish - 8 months

Duncan coral, was growing well but now has poor PE
Xenia - even the xenia has bad PE
2 BTA's that are growing well.
Bling Bling cyphestria frag - Honestly this one never took off/looked healthy, now is on the verge of death.
GSP - growing like GSP does
Frogspawn - poor PE
Hammer - Poor PE on one hammer, some tissue recession on the other
Photosynthetic Gorg - looking ok
Aleviopora - Almost no PE, havent seen it open up fully in a couple of weeks.
2 almost dead monti frags

Purple pincushion urchin
A bunch of snails

 

[NoohpyT]

Are your parameters stable? that's the most important thing to a successful tank

 

[KrisReef]

Hmmm,
Tear open the pumps and look for leaking magnets or rusty parts that you remove and replace if you can.

Sump? Any place where gunk or funk can accumulate needs to be jazzed up. Funk will kill the soul of a reef tank.

You said "recession" on the lps. So, presumably not melting. If melting look up Ciprofloxan treaments on here and start that immediately, asap, now.

And your lighting, is it fading?

I need to do a couple of water changes myself, and I will look and remediate any of these kinds of issues that I uncover.

Water Supply. Do you make your own water (RODI) for top off and Salt Mix for wc? Something in the system is wrong, bad water supply, magnet rotting ( check any pump or frag rack holder magnets too) or bacterial infection is making things unhappy. Add (change out) Charcoal filtration with fresh.

Post a picture, say a prayer, hope I guessed correctly, helpfully?

 

[tstor]

Are your parameters stable? that's the most important thing to a successful tank

Mostly, alk dipped from 10.5 to 9 over a 2 week vacation. Other then that stable.

I thought it was better to take the all dip rather than try to explain to my neighbor how to dose my all for reef. Too much potential for error.

 

[tstor]

Hmmm,
Tear open the pumps and look for leaking magnets or rusty parts that you remove and replace if you can.

Good thought! That will go on tomorrow's list

Sump? Any place where gunk or funk can accumulate needs to be jazzed up. Funk will kill the soul of a reef tank.

This might be it. Its an AIO, and I haven't done a sump deep clean since I got it.

You said "recession" on the lps. So, presumably not melting. If melting look up Ciprofloxan treaments on here and start that immediately, asap, now.

No, not melting, dying over the course of a month or so.

And your lighting, is it fading?

Bought the tank used, there's a good possibility.

I need to do a couple of water changes myself, and I will look and remediate any of these kinds of issues that I uncover.

Water Supply. Do you make your own water (RODI) for top off and Salt Mix for wc? Something in the system is wrong, bad water supply, magnet rotting ( check any pump or frag rack holder magnets too) or bacterial infection is making things unhappy. Add (change out) Charcoal filtration with fresh.
Post a picture, say a prayer, hope I guessed correctly, helpfully?

That I did test, good resin, 0 tds,

 

[tstor]

Some photos of the problem corals:

The cyphestria is a little misleading, as it's been slowly dying since I got it 3 months ago. It just never really took off.

 

[KrisReef]

Careful not to stir up the sump gunk and have it blow back into the DT. Episodic sump stirring can kill a tank in some circumstances. GL

 

[ryanjohn1]

That’s a good bit of algae in there. How’s your clean up crew?

 

[KrisReef]

Those aiptasia need to be eliminated also. I gotta go do my own cleaning, thanks for the remind!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Some photos of the problem corals:

View attachment 3031847View attachment 3031848View attachment 3031850View attachment 3031852View attachment 3031854View attachment 3031855View attachment 3031857View attachment 3031859View attachment 3031861

I see recession opposed to dying and while your numbers seem good, I see patches of algae and bryopsis which usually benefit from elevated nitrate and phosphate- What test kits are you using?
These all have relation with light and low- Both should be moderate.
Are you using RO water or tap water from the faucet?
Is tank at or near a window?

 

[tstor]

That’s a good bit of algae in there. How’s your clean up crew?

Good, the urchin had stripped the tank bare, so I started feeding him Nori. Now that the algae is back I'll let him graze again.

 

[tstor]

Those aiptasia need to be eliminated also. I gotta go do my own cleaning, thanks for the remind!

That is a problem I have let get out of hand...

 

[ryanjohn1]

What’s your lighting
Have you changed intensity maybe

 

[tstor]

I see recession opposed to dying and while your numbers seem good, I see patches of algae and bryopsis which usually benefit from elevated nitrate and phosphate- What test kits are you using?
These all have relation with light and low- Both should be moderate.
Are you using RO water or tap water from the faucet?
Is tank at or near a window?

I'm using salifert for nitrate and phos, but red sea for alk and Cal.

RO water, not near a window.

Here's my lighting profile: the light is a REEFLED 50

 

[tstor]

What’s your lighting
Have you changed intensity maybe

It's a REEFLED 50, at ~40%, haven't changed it in months.

 

[vetteguy53081]

It's a REEFLED 50, at ~40%, haven't changed it in months.

light seems ok. Perhaps drop white slightly

 

[tstor]

light seems ok. Perhaps drop white slightly

For the algae or for the corals?

 

[AC indochinese]

Hi all!

My tank (20g cube max Nano) has been up for 10 months now (10 months is short, but I got the rock from a 6 year established tank), and up until the last month looked great. Over the last month, everything has started to slowly decline. Polyp extension is down on all corals, not too much growth, and a couple on their way to fully dying. I'm trying to get things back on track but not sure what the problem might be. Stocking hasn't changed in the last 3 months, and levels look ok (see below).

I've started doing weekly water changes (used to be 30% monthly), changed the carbon and purigen, and turned the skimmer to a more wet skimmate. Other than that, I don't really know what the problem could be or how to start diagnosing.

Cal: 400
Alk: 9.0
Copper: 0
Nitrate: 10 ppm
Phosphate: 0.05 (Salifert kit, a little hard to tell, somewhere between 0.03 and 0.1)
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77.5

Stocking is:
2 clownfish - 8 months

Duncan coral, was growing well but now has poor PE
Xenia - even the xenia has bad PE
2 BTA's that are growing well.
Bling Bling cyphestria frag - Honestly this one never took off/looked healthy, now is on the verge of death.
GSP - growing like GSP does
Frogspawn - poor PE
Hammer - Poor PE on one hammer, some tissue recession on the other
Photosynthetic Gorg - looking ok
Aleviopora - Almost no PE, havent seen it open up fully in a couple of weeks.
2 almost dead monti frags

Purple pincushion urchin
A bunch of snails

I would suggest checking for rusting metal parts on your equipment, might be the cause

 

[vetteguy53081]

For the algae or for the corals?

both but I forgot to address algae-
This is one of the more challenging of algae due to need of its complete removal. Removal is best accomplished by taking the rock out of tank and placing in a container of tank water. Then you will want to pull as much as you can by hand and discard. With a dental pick or small crochet needle, pull the roots off the rock. YOU MUST GET EVERY ROOT OR IT WILL SIMPLY RETURN !!
After you are done return rock to tank and reduce white light intensity and even hours of white light and add the following cleaners which will help with control. These guys will consume bryopsis but not as fast as bryopsis can grow - They will never keep up.
Pin cushion urchin, Chiton snails, pitho crabs, and larger astrea snails

This procedure is not as bad or time consuming as it seems. Assure phosphate levels do not become elevated which helps feed this algae

 

[tstor]

light seems ok. Perhaps drop white slightly

Do the corals look like their suffering from too much or too little light?