mythicalman22
New member
So Ive had a reef tank setup for over 15 years, not so much a reef tank because I can never keep coral alive, any corals, not even softies. Anenomes are about the only thing that live. Ive tried about 10 zoas, all open when bought and then after acclimation they all close and lose size color and eventually die. I had luck with mushrooms in the past but lately they wont even grow, same symptoms, they begin to shrink and lose color. Its really breaking my heart. I do not want to keep buying coral and killing it. When I first started my tank I had success with softies and back then I only had ho cf. My lighting it now 2 x 175 mh 12000k and a 50/50 108 watt led. I have a 42 gallon hex tank with a ten gallon sump. I also keep a cf on my sump in actinic. My water conditions are a little off as of right now because I recently had a huge hair algae issue, I used peroxide to kill it off but it is growing back now that I have stopped dosing it. My question is why does everything I put in there die? Could it be the quality of my mh bulbs? they are only a month old but are just cheap bulbs. If it is the cheap bulbs that would be great, I would just buy better ones. I just don't see how there can be a huge difference. I have adequate flow in tank with 2 powerheads and my return pump is 750gph. Whats weird is that my nitrites are super high, this tank is only about 3 years old but all my substrate and live rock is over ten years old. Nitrates were also high. calcium was also crazy high. phosphates non existent. I have two tomato clowns and a lawnmower blenny, 30 blue leg hermits, 30 snails all healthy, I have 4 rock anenomes, one long tentacle all doing great. all other coral for 10 plus years has died and usually quick. Had frogspawn 2 months ago and died within a week. This really bothers me because it doesn't make much sense. your help would be greatly appreciated