Coral Keep dying, Help

[alanbates12]

Well just for starters I"m new to this and my tank is only 4 months old. Learning a lot and want to learn more. I've only bought a few pieces of coral and had several given to me when I"ve purchased things. I know my water quality has not been the best but I have got that underway with a RODI setup. For the past two weeks I"ve done big water changes trying to get the nitrates and phosphates to zero. Just trying to find out if I"m on the right tract,so here is the question. Why are my corals dying...... I may be answering my own question but thats what I'd like to here for you guys. So long story short I started having a green algae breakout. It was cured by changing my light cycle. Now I'm running the Actinic / Blue 8 hrs, 10,000K Lamps 2 hrs. And the LED's 12hrs. I've done 2 30% water changes over the past week. Also I've added a new sump, http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/proflex-sump.htm and I"ve got a picture of it on my home page. Anyway I thought I was moving in the right direction till this morning my frogspawn kicked the bucket... ugggg. My current parameters are , PH-8.4, Temp- 78, Ammonia 0.0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 20, Phosphate 0.5, MG 1500, KH/Alk 11.5/4.11, Ca 480. So this is my plan... Continue to do water changes every 4/5 days of 30%. Also I've got about 20 bioballs I've carried over from my old sump and I'm taking out 2 at a time with each water change. And only feed once a day, small amount. So I'm hoping this will lower my nitrates to zero and my phosphates to zero. And not buying any corals till I see zero on my phosphates and nitrates. Do you think this is what killed my frogspawn? And am I own the right path..... Also I"m considering the Dual BRS GFO and Carbon Reactor. I've got some carbon bags in my sump thinking this will help clear the water, and it does look good. Also I"m trying to get the Coralline algae to grow. I've got rock in my tank with it and I bought some stuff from www.ipsf.com to help but I don't think Its had a good change to kick start.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Sounds like things are suitable for what you want to keep, got the right lighting, good parameters (frogspawn should have no problems in 20ppm nitrate and .5 phosphate) the only thing that I can come up with is the salinity (you didn't post but if it's out of range they won’t survive), amount of flow (too much/too little) and the acclimation process, maybe you introduced them to the tank too quickly. These are just speculation but maybe a good starting point.

Oh and another thing to look at is temperature swing, make sure that the coldest and the warmest temp don't vary by more than 3 degrees. (Ideally we want it to be constant but sometimes that's impossible to do)

 

[NoIdeaWhatToDo]

I think your tank is just too young for corals. Sounds like you are moving in the right direction though. Others are more qualified to comment on this, but you might be changing too much water. Eventually, if you do add coral again you'll probably want to increase your 10K lights from 2 hrs though.

 

[kichimark]

Also I"m considering the Dual BRS GFO and Carbon Reactor. I've got some carbon bags in my sump thinking this will help clear the water, and it does look good.

First off, you are ahead of many people in this hobby by being into this only 4 months. Now I also have the same BRS reactor and I love it. It is built very well and I have reduced my PO4 to zero over a couple weeks. Do you have a skimmer? If not look into one for your system. IMO do not worry too much about getting 0 nitrates. I have mine at 5ppm and I have SPS/LPS/SOFTIES thriving. But it would be better if it was lowered a tad. The most important thing is stability. Also what is the specific gravity of the water?

 

[alanbates12]

The SG is 1.025 Salinity is 33. I did not acclimate the corals just put them in the tank. I was wondering if the 10k only being on for 1 or 2 hrs a day would hurt. I wanted to leave them like that till I got the nitrates and phsophates down. Did not want to feed the algae and have my tank turning green.

 

[alanbates12]

Oh and the reason for the big water changes is to try to lower my nitrates and Phosphates.

 

[strike2867]

Except for the absence of light, I can't see that you've described anything that should keep you from keeping corals. I agree with not increasing the lights to keep Nitrates down, I'm somewhat in the same boat. I'm holding off on increasing my MH's from 5.5 hours to 7 until I get below 5 nitrates. But 2 hours seems like way too low. I don't want to pull a number out of my ***, but I've seen people start at 6 and fluctuate from there based on results.

 

[SushiGirl]

Acclimation is important.

 

[kichimark]

Acclimation is important.

I agree with sushigirl (oh man i love sushi haha). You can definitely lose coral if not done properly or at all.

 

[Sk8r]

Main thing is that phosphate/nitrate. Get rid of that and life will be much easier.

 

[cdeboard]

In short.. stop doing so much. The massive water changes, adding this, removing that, etc etc etc is causing more stress. In saltwater, sometimes its good to do one thing.. then just wait and see what happens. I would increase your daylight lighting. Your RO/DI should help with the phosphates. Keep up with the water changes just do much smaller changes. Not 30%.. do maybe 5-10% weekly. And wait. Keep it constant. Dont do big changes in lighting, flow, or anything.

 

[Raptorv205]

+1 with
SushiGirl!! acclimation is very important. you acclimate for temp, salinity and other perimeters maybe slightly different from 1 tank to another!! Sorry to here about your frogspawn !

 

[alanbates12]

So what I'm gathering is try to get the nitrates and Phosphates down, the only way I know to do that is the big water changes, and when it's stable increase my light cycle. If that is stable then try the coral thing again and acclimate them like I do fish, ie drip acclimation...