where do my parameters leave me?

[reef tank 2.0]

I've had fish/coral in my tank for 6 months. Definitely still a new tank.
I have a hand full of frag size corals. Out of all my corals, my trumpet coral is on it's way out. Seemed to happen rather quickly.
he is not white but he is no longer fluffy, but more of a stone texture

I'm just a day or two away from my bi-weekly water change so I figured I'd see where my water parameters were at.
here are my test numbers, I'm showing what they were a day after my water change, and then two weeks after that (now)
I believe my parameters are pretty consistent, yes there are some changes, but I don't think they're too drastic. would you agree?

ALKALINITY - 7.7 / 7.3
CALCIUM - 460 / 445
PHOSPHATE - 0 / 0 (yes, I know, It needs to be brought up)
MAGNESIUM - 1270 / 1270
NITRATE - 8.6 / 11.7
PH - 8.2 / 8.2
SALINITY - 1.025

 

[Formulator]

I don’t see any red flags in your parameters that would make any corals unhappy. Not exactly where I run my tank, but still perfectly acceptable. I would look to flow and lighting, especially since it seems to be just one coral affected.

Oh, and get your phosphate up!

 

[reef tank 2.0]

That was my thought too.
the trumpet coral is on the sand where it gets around 100+ par. I have acans, and a brain coral all on the sand as well.

I have my lights running around 8 hours a day. Nothing is white/bleached out

 

[Formulator]

Any chance you have a sand sifting fish? I’ve had issues with some of the fleshier/puffier LPS getting irritated by blowing sand when placed directly in the sand bed. Killed a torch coral this way actually…

 

[reef tank 2.0]

No sand sifters.
I have some hermits but they never bother anything.

 

[Formulator]

It could actually be the phosphates. If they are truly zeroed out completely, corals can starve. The trumpet may just be more demanding and showing symptoms first. Is there a reason you have avoided addressing that issue? It seems like you are aware since you mentioned it in the OP.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Do you mean you only test every 2 weeks? How is the algae situation at 6 months? What size is the tank, what is your lighting and flow? Can we see pics of the candy cane coral and a tank pic?

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I've been feeding a little more trying to get the phosphates up, but I can't get them to budge.

I'm using salifert test kits. Not sure if I have a bad kit or not, but I doubt it. Since this is a new tank, I'm assuming it'll come in time.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I have backed off on testing my water. I used to do it every few days, but noticed my parameters wernt changing a whole lot. As you can see in the results in the OP. They are pretty consistent. So that's where the testing one every couple weeks comes in

I went through the ugly phase a while back. Since that disappeared, I haven't had any algae blooms/breakouts to speak of. Rocks are all algae free.

I'll turn off my blues to get some pictures

I have a single gyre. Had two, but it's too much flow for my tank. My tank is in my signature but is an 80g.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

on a side note, i have started getting what looks to be calcium deposits on the back glass. what causes that?

 

[reef tank 2.0]

oh, and my lights are Reefbreeder Photon 24-V2 Pro

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've been feeding a little more trying to get the phosphates up, but I can't get them to budget.

I'm using salifert test kits. Not sure if I have a bad kit or not, but I doubt it. Since this is a new tank, I'm assuming it'll come in time.

You might need to dose it. Its cheap and easy.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I've been feeding a little more trying to get the phosphates up, but I can't get them to budge.

I'm using salifert test kits. Not sure if I have a bad kit or not, but I doubt it. Since this is a new tank, I'm assuming it'll come in time.

New tanks do have a higher phosphate demand in addition you have the aragonite surface in the tank absorbing some phosphate, it may take some time to reach a equilibrium with just food.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

i've been hoping I wouldn't need to dose and that my RC's would keep my parameters where they need to be.
In my last tank i was dosing A LOT trying to get the ALK and Calcium levels up. It was obviously operator error cause something wasn't right. dosing and and dosing and nothing ever changed. nothing ever increased no matter how much i dosed. but that was the last tank. I dosed for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium. Haven't ever dosed for anything else.

I still have my BRS 2 part dosers, and everything in order to start that process up again. Hoping I wouldn't need to. Based off my parameters listed above, if I were to start dosing, I would assume I'd need to dose to get Alkalinity up. you can't dose to raise phosphates, right?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

you can't dose to raise phosphates, right?

Sure. Food grade sodium phosphate is cheap and easy to dose. The alk is fine at the moment.