2 year old tank keeps withering away

[naglfar]

Hi everyone, I'm getting desperate so i wanted to make a thread to see if i can find some help.

I have a 50 gallon tank that has been set up for two years and all I can keep alive is fish! Here is a summary of my tank:

shallow 50 gallon with 20 gallon sump
250w phoenix halide and 12 3w cree royal blue LEDs
skimmer rated for my tank, neck cleaned weekly
auto top off, salinity is always dead on
vortech mp40
phosban reactor with rinsed GAC
RKL that turns fans on when over 79, like to keep it at 78
RODI, 0 tds
2-3" sand

Params are always stable and in check. I do 20% water changes weekly with red sea coral pro salt.

ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10
cal - 440
alk - 10 -11, salt batch is different sometimes with the coral pro
mag - 1300
phosphates - 0.03 estimated, test kit resolutions are terrible to read

As I said before, nothing stays alive for long. I originally tried LPS and tissue receded and euphyllia would drop heads etc. I attributed it to too much light and flow. Later after a bit I tried some SPS, monti caps and acros. After a month or so they would bleach from the tips and eventually die. this came as a surprise because the monti caps were exploding in growth from the start.

Now just recently Ive tried my hand at bubble tips (species tank). ive had them for about a year and now they are showing bad signs of shrinkage for the past 2 weeks. they were the size of dinner plates but now they are baseball sized and the "girth" of the tentacles shrunk as well. I feed them mixed seafood every 3-7 days that i store in my freezer. portions are generally small, the size of my pinky nail.

I seriously dont know what's going on. I dont have any type of algae other than coraline or any pests. no aiptasia or detritus or anything of that sort. My tank is clean and I run a tight ship. My fish are all reef safe and I take extra care in quarantine procedures. I'm seriously disgusted with how everything turned out - I work so hard towards a perfect environment and nothing to show for it.

The only thing I can think of is stray voltage, just bought a ground probe a second ago. If anyone has advice please shoot it my way.

 

[sminker]

Can u keep snails? Or other inverts?

 

[hollister]

My guess is you use the powerhead as a wave maker?

Do you have a lid on your tank?

How many fish in this 50 gallon ?

 

[naglfar]

Yes i can keep snails, hermits, pods, and shrimp alive just fine.

I have the mp40 on reef crest on the lowest flow setting (all the way down). It's about moderate flow overall.

I have a clear screen lid.

5 fish, overall low bioload.

 

[sminker]

You dont have any leathers by chance do you?

 

[naglfar]

No sminker, never had any in this tank. Thanks for trying to help me, i really appreciate it everyone.

One of my roses has been deflated for 3 days and they have never done it for that long.

Tried testing for stray voltage but i think the internal fuse on my multimeter is shot. either that or this houses grounds arent wired right.

I have a blue spot jawfish in the tank, been healthy for 2 years. they are supposedly a very delicate species and mine has been fine other than being a picky eater. Not sure how i can keep one long term but I failed at keeping indestructible hammer corals.

 

[fshaqrmman]

How old is the light bulb?

 

[naglfar]

The light bulb is about 4-5 months old. The led's are at 50% and were added recently when I had the bubble tips. ramped it up over the course of a few weeks.

Today my mission is to pull all electric devices from the sump and visually inspect the wires and casings. I use ehiem pumps and heater. a mini jet runs the carbon reactor so it may have a leak or something.

 

[naglfar]

I have a cleaner shrimp that was one of the first things added years ago. a few months ago i tried adding a second one and it died within a day. I tried adding a tuxedo urchin but it died in a few days as well.

im thinking this:

1. my tank is too clean for organisms other than fish to survive. (with my nitrates at 10 i dont think this is true)

2. mystery substance in tank or water that is detrimental. (stray voltage, incorrect phosphate reading)

3. lights too strong, coraline is only on underside of rocks, leds putting out more light than perceived

4. salt mix (red sea coral pro) is total crap. it's alk is really high, might be burning everything?

what do you guys think?

 

[heckhole]

My coral tolerates 10-11alk but it is never happy. My system does great with alk around 7-9.

250w halide? Is it high above your tank or is it close? Maybe it's too intense for a little 50g? The fact that you can keep fish and inverts alive but NO coral survives, from my experiences would tell me your light is just pounding your coral.

If it were my system I'd raise the light and pull all of your equipment and run powerheads & skimmer. Stick with water changes for a month or so and experiment with some hardy coral. If they thrive, you could start putting things back on the system and see if anything makes a change.

 

[tozzi]

What kind of halide is it? If its double ended u need a uv shield. Do a big water change?

 

[Iskandar]

Test for copper...

 

[brannock_16]

How old are your test kits?

I had a similar experience a while back but caught it in time. My kits were around 8 months old and I was getting ideal results from them (ca 440 dkh 9 etc.) but was losing corals.

My friend came over with new test kits and my water was in horrible shape (ca 620 alk 4.5 etc). He told me that it is very important to purchase new kits every 3 months to ensure proper readings.

I hope this helps and you can figure it out soon.

 

[naglfar]

My light is about 12" off the surface and has a uv shield on the pendant. I'm religious with my 20% water changes every week.

I never thought to test for copper, thanks for the idea. I'm hoping more people can chime in with suggestions so I can make a list of stuff to test for and start going down the list i guess.

also thanks for the input on the alkalinity level. 11 seems really high for salt but i really like the cal and mag levels of coral pro.

 

[naglfar]

Thanks brannock, I'm not too worried about the calcium and alkalinity levels as im only keeping anemones but what you say applies to nitrate and phosphate test kits too. I'm thinking about buying some new kits and you are very right.

So far the things i'm going to try:

Ground probe - in mail
copper test kit
new nitrate and phosphate test kit

If those bear no results I will possibly switch salt brands to see if anything changes.

I seriously do 20% water changes every week with 0 tds water. I've seen tanks that thrive with 10% tap water changes and no ATo to keep salinity stable? you'd think mine would be perfect!

any other ideas? thanks again for everyone's help i truly appreciate it. I'm at my wits end.

 

[fq600]

I'm using Red Sea Coral Pro also and having good results with that. Many are using that salt mix so I honestly don't see any issue there.

20% water change per week seems high to me. Maybe scale down on the water changes to 10%? I don't see why you are doing so much water change unless you have issue with keeping nutrient down.

Sorry to hear man. That sounds very frustrating... GL and I hope you can find the answer(s) t your questions soon!

 

[dava6711]

I've read reports where aquarists have struggled to keep certain kinds of inverts alive for any decent length of time, only to discover that a Nudibrach had been kept and died in the aquarium at an earlier date. When Nudibrachs' die the toxins they release are supposedly that strong that they can adversely affect an aquarium even after it's been emptied, scrubbed, drained, rinsed and finally restocked? Was your aquarium purchased second hand?

 

[naglfar]

hi dava that is crazy i never new that about nudibranchs. kinda crazy.

My tank was brand new/never used when purchased. I used the white dead rock from BRS called reef saver and seeded it with little bits of live rock and added copepods and amphipods and other micro fauna.

I cant really say if nudibranchs were ever present as some of them are super small but i can say that through daily observation i have never noticed anything pest like in my system.

I visually comb my rockwork for aiptasia and fireworms and never find anything. If i did see something unusual i would look it up.

The closest thing to a pest ive had was a few vermetid snails but an electric blue striped hermit crab ate them all like candy.

 

[naglfar]

Anyone have more ideas? I feel like im overlooking something or doing something wrong...

 

[sjwitt]

Test your iodine. I had a 55g years ago and had similar issues with coral. Started testing iodine and dosed to maintain .06 ... never dose without testing first though.