Bunch of generalized questions. Help please?

[elweshomayor]

Hey guys, I am not exactly "new" to the hobby. However I have been away from the hobby for a while and never really kept coral before other than toadstool once which grew to the size of 3 basketballs but died because light fixture broke.

To keep it short, I've had the tank for about 8 years, tried placing a coral here and there but for some reason I can't keep coral for the life of me. They keep melting away. (even a kenya tree).

My fish tank IS on the over stocked part of the spectrum and I do have Nitrate problems.(mind you my skimmer also stopped working a few months ago and I was away in college to fix or buy a new one).
The API nitrate test kit shows RED for me, but light orange for LFS. Idk who is doing it wrong.
The rest of the things, such as ammonia and nitrites say 0.
Ph 8.0
I do not have Calcium and the others. I figured with a few frags I didnt have to worry about running out or being low of those elements?


I am now doing 20-25% water changes every 2-4 weeks. Since Im still not quite living at home yet, but Im trying to reduce my nitrates.

My tank is a 150G tank, with a 55G sump/refugium. It was a ball of chaeto, some live rock and sand.
New skimmer (bought today) is the 200INT reef octopus.

Stock: Yellow tang, Sailfin tang, Foxface, Garibaldi, Porcupine puffer, 6 Chromis, 5 batfish, 1 flame angel and one saddle clown.
So yeah, Im pretty much done adding fish. May return the lonely saddle clown. -they are all healthy and doing well- I should mention that I have not seen the flame angel pick at any of the coral I have bought. He is rather new too, and the problem precedes the flame angel.

So with that said, any ideas as to why the coral I bought is not surviving?
I bought 5 frags (zoanthids) and they all melted away (disappeared). I also bought a frogspawn, which looks like its becoming smaller and I can see the tissue receding from the branch if i pay close attention. This indicates that its dying?
It was at mid level of my tank, but mom says it fell and instead of putting it back, she kinda left it in a spot in the sand where there is low-medium flow.

I will post a picture of my LED lights and you guys tell me if I should place it back up top? or if there is anything I can do to save it.

Also general comments please. There HAS to be something I am not seeing that could be the cause of me not being able to stock coral properly.

 

[jayball]

Have you ever medicated the tank? Also what does orange or red correspond to?


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[elweshomayor]

As you can see I do have some Cyano. I stirred the sand cleaning around so thats the bubbles i think.

 

[elweshomayor]

Have you ever medicated the tank? Also what does orange or red correspond to?


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LFS gets 40PPM orange color

I get 160+ PPM RED color

Never medicated the tank that I recall. At least nothing copper based. There was once a time I had ICH and I used this Reef safe compound thing, I forget the name. But it was labeled as reef safe. LFS also recommended it.

I've added Prime for sure.

 

[elweshomayor]

Light fixture.

 

[elweshomayor]

This is my sump. Its not very pretty as you can see. (need to change the sock lol).
Also, the water is kinda eating the wall.. any suggestions?

Since I've been away for college, the reactor has been turned off. So its just kinda there right now but not really doing anything.

 

[C.Eymann]

First thing that hit my mind, like Jayball mentioned was medication/possible contamination.
Assuming the wall that's getting ate away in the pic above, bits and pieces are surely falling into the sump. Also while you are away at college any kinda of cleaning go on near the tank or sump that you may not know about?
Do you light acclimate these corals carefully?

 

[elweshomayor]

First thing that hit my mind, like Jayball mentioned was medication/possible contamination.
Assuming the wall that's getting ate away in the pic above, bits and pieces are surely falling into the sump. Also while you are away at college any kinda of cleaning go on near the tank or sump that you may not know about?
Do you light acclimate these corals carefully?

There has been no cleaning. So other than pieces of cardboardish material nothing. Plus if there has been any to fall, it would be very minimal as most of the wall is still there and my fish are ok? Coral wasnt surviving even prior to the wall becoming like that as well.

I've never really done light acclimation, but I always put the coral at the bottom first? LFS has similar if not the same fixture as well.
The only thing thats not 'ok' that i can think of is the nitrates but I also put prime there and Im doing water changes to bring it down.
Are nitrates that toxic that they would kill coral that fast?

The lights should be enough right? I have the setting to 100% on the blue lights and about 40-45% on the whites. LFS said anywhere between 35-40 should be great but I kinda like the look of 45. I didnt think it would kill the coral?
When I had my T5HO things like Zoas would die too. Toadstool Thrived and Kenya tree was great but then the lights started messing up and thats why those died.
Things like brain coral, Frogspawns, SPS.. all die. Last theory was that maybe since the toadstool was huge, chemical warfare was too much for the other corals to handle. However, now that the 3 basket balls sized toadstool is basically gone (I saved it by cutting a piece and it seems its bouncing back) things should survive.
Old fixture or new fixture. I just dont get what im doing wrong. It's really frustrating because I just cant add coral :'(

 

[bundybear1981]

I do not have Calcium and the others. I figured with a few frags I didnt have to worry about running out or being low of those elements?

If you're wanting to keep corals you really need to know you alk, mag and calcium levels. These are the building blocks for corals to grow (and survive) so if they are out of balance to too low you'll have issues.
Also what is your salinity? You'll want to be around the 33~35ppt mark. I would recommend using a refractometer to measure it.

 

[formsix]

Do you have other inverts in the tank -- snails, hermit crabs, shrimp, etc?

 

[Bl@ckbird]

Yes, nitrates that high can kill corals fast.


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[elweshomayor]

If you're wanting to keep corals you really need to know you alk, mag and calcium levels. These are the building blocks for corals to grow (and survive) so if they are out of balance to too low you'll have issues.
Also what is your salinity? You'll want to be around the 33~35ppt mark. I would recommend using a refractometer to measure it.

At the moment I only have a Hydrometer, salinity is at 1.022

 

[elweshomayor]

Do you have other inverts in the tank -- snails, hermit crabs, shrimp, etc?

Not currently. My puffer would eat them all:hmm2:

 

[elweshomayor]

Not currently. My puffer would eat them all:hmm2:

I did have a few before. I couldnt get them off the tank so when I introduced the puffer he ate them.
But they were good and alive until they were gone lol

 

[CStrickland]

I'm guessing it's one of the tests you aren't doing. Maybe in combination with the nitrates and the wall to produce an environment that just isn't good enough.

Where are you getting the water from?

 

[elweshomayor]

I'm guessing it's one of the tests you aren't doing. Maybe in combination with the nitrates and the wall to produce an environment that just isn't good enough.

Where are you getting the water from?

Right now I am using an RODI system.

 

[homer1475]

At the moment I only have a Hydrometer, salinity is at 1.022

Along with the high nitrates and one of the other big 3 tests you aren't doing, this will also contribute to the demise of corals. While that number is fine for fish, corals prefer a slightly higher SG at 1.025 - 1.026. Also, get a refractometer. While a hydrometer isn't necessarily bad to use, you can get a pinpoint number with the refractometer.

 

[Lsufan]

You need to know what your alk, calcium & mag are at to start being able to narrow it down. As long as your not putting sps in your tank a lot of soft corals & even most Lps can handle pretty high nitrates. I had to break down my big tank so I had to put all the fish in my 40 breeder so it was way overstocked for about 4 months & I couldn't get my nitrate below 40 ppm & all my Lps were fine. But you really need to get a test for the big three & test your alk, calcium & mag. I use Red Sea & all three test come in a kit & I find it to be pretty accurate.