coral deterioration, starving or high phosphates?

[Mr.Fishtank]

Thanks, I'll give that a try!

One reason I have them so close, is because went with the wide angle 120 degree leds instead of the 90 but it cant hurt to back off the light a little

Always better to have brown corals then pale/bleached ones. I think that even with the 120 degree optics you should still get 200-250 par with the light raised up to 6-8 inches. Give it like a month and see. After a months time if they are looking brown then start dropping the fixture down about a 1/2 inch every month and you will find the sweet spot. It seems like a long time but you must go slow with leds.

 

[MakomekTVN]

I have the same issue with the sps on my 25g running oversize skimmer and LED and I'm pretty much nail it now. First you need to lower you light intensity and raise your fixture higher. Next you need to shut down your skimmer , oversize skimmer on a very small water volume will keep your water too clean no matter how much you feed. You need a hanna Po4 if you want to grow sps, start feeding your fishes on the heavy side and check the Po4 until it show around 0.03-0.10 then keep it there. Within 2-4 weeks you notice the sps color is coming back thats when you start ramping up your light slowly, moderate to strong lighting with very low nutrient tank will kill your corals, My radion g3 is at 20% intensity at 11" above the water. Like other poster said without Po4 tester you not going nowhere with sps. If you want a skimmer to give more oxygen to the water just get some cheap undersize one. I used to have one thats rated heavy bioload for 65g with 5 fishes feeding 3-4 time a day and my Po4 never had a chance to register. IMO oversize skimmer is bad for nano tank.

 

[20 gallon]

I have the same issue with the sps on my 25g running oversize skimmer and LED and I'm pretty much nail it now. First you need to lower you light intensity and raise your fixture higher. Next you need to shut down your skimmer , oversize skimmer on a very small water volume will keep your water too clean no matter how much you feed. You need a hanna Po4 if you want to grow sps, start feeding your fishes on the heavy side and check the Po4 until it show around 0.03-0.10 then keep it there. Within 2-4 weeks you notice the sps color is coming back thats when you start ramping up your light slowly, moderate to strong lighting with very low nutrient tank will kill your corals, My radion g3 is at 20% intensity at 11" above the water. Like other poster said without Po4 tester you not going nowhere with sps. If you want a skimmer to give more oxygen to the water just get some cheap undersize one. I used to have one thats rated heavy bioload for 65g with 5 fishes feeding 3-4 time a day and my Po4 never had a chance to register. IMO oversize skimmer is bad for nano tank.

do you have any pictures of your setup, im curious how others run their nano systems

Im gonna try lowering the light intensity and feeding heavy but dont wanna take down the skimmer quite yet