corals can't survive

[reef kid96]

In my 90 gallon rr tank I have always had issues with keeping corals for a sustained period of time. I purchased the tank off of a local guy 6 months ago and it came with the tank, a 55 gallon sump, a swc 160, about 120 lbs of live rock, 80lbs of live sand, a crappy light, and a purple tang. Since getting the tank six months ago I have added and changed around a few things. I replace the crappy light with a guisseman infinity light fixture that is currently hanging 12" of the tank, a mp10, and a koralia 3. Livestock wise I have added 2 clowns, 1 cardinal, 2 hovens wrasses, 1 flame angel, foxface lo, and 1 pacific candy basslet. For filtration I run carbon, rowaphos, a refugium filled with cheato, and biocubes. Now back to the main subject I will go to my lfs get a wonder coral bring it hoe have it look awesome then within the next 4 months It dies and I am fed up with it. Some of the closer ones to death right now are my wellsophylia which I purchased about 3 months ago and now the skeleton is showing a good half inch all the way around, and a metor shower cyphastrea(which i herd was indestructible) that I have had for about 1 week now there is no pe and the outside of the coral is starting to die:headwally:. Can you please help. I am sick of this Sh*t.
dkh; 7.6 (salifert)
Cal; 450 (salifert)
Mag; 1350 (salifert)
Nitrates; 30(which is very weird because I tested yesterday and it was 5, API)
phos; .1 (hanna)

Any help is appreciated
Andrew

 

[acabgd]

You should give more precise info about your light, what bulbs, wattage. Also phosphates at 0.1 is pretty high and I'm sure you already know nitrates at 30 is also way too much for coral.

 

[Votts]

Did you ask the guy if he ever used copper in his system or cupramine? That could be a issue if he did cause it could have leeched into the silicone and stuff. Other than that you need to give more details about params and also the lighting because you coukd be baking them slowly too.

 

[staindsoul]

Did you ask the guy if he ever used copper in his system or cupramine? That could be a issue if he did cause it could have leeched into the silicone and stuff. Other than that you need to give more details about params and also the lighting because you coukd be baking them slowly too.

Agree with a used system, get your Lfs to do a copper test on your water. So you can rule that out.

Have you seen that flame angel go after any coral? Angel fish are a "with caution" reef fish.

Retest your nitrates, sounds like you just had a bad test to go from 5 to 30 in a day.

Do you dose calcium and alkalinity to maintain stable levels? And 7.6 dkh is a little low. Try to maintain 8-12 dkh.

How long is your light period?

What is your ph?

 

[Votts]

also check your iodine levels because a lot of people think they dont need to dose iodinie and thats a big factor

 

[reef kid96]

You should give more precise info about your light, what bulbs, wattage. Also phosphates at 0.1 is pretty high and I'm sure you already know nitrates at 30 is also way too much for coral.

With the light it runs 2 ati blue plus and 2 ati actinic from 1:00pm - 10:00pm
And 2 phoenix 14k 250 watt HQi bulbs from 2:30pm - 9:00pm
I have been battling phosphates for quite a while and I haven't been able to get it bellow .08 and in the ways of nitrates I'm not sure what caused it to spike but I will do a large water change to try to get the nitrates down.

 

[reef kid96]

Did you ask the guy if he ever used copper in his system or cupramine? That could be a issue if he did cause it could have leeched into the silicone and stuff. Other than that you need to give more details about params and also the lighting because you coukd be baking them slowly too.

I had the ability to go see this tank when It had corals in it before he upgraded, and he had soft and hard corals. So I don't think its copper but I will get a test done next time I go to my lfs.

 

[reef kid96]

Agree with a used system, get your Lfs to do a copper test on your water. So you can rule that out.

Have you seen that flame angel go after any coral? Angel fish are a "with caution" reef fish.

Retest your nitrates, sounds like you just had a bad test to go from 5 to 30 in a day.

Do you dose calcium and alkalinity to maintain stable levels? And 7.6 dkh is a little low. Try to maintain 8-12 dkh.

How long is your light period?

What is your ph?

The angel had been a model citizen for the month I had him, he has never gone after coral.
I retested nitrates this morning and it is at 15 now
For alk and cal I just set up dosers yesterday to keep then stable and I will try to slowly raise the dkh too 10
ph is stable at 8.2

 

[reef kid96]

also check your iodine levels because a lot of people think they dont need to dose iodinie and thats a big factor

I dose b-ionic. I thought that it had iodine in one of the 2 part solutions.

 

[footballdude2k3]

Might be something as simple as the flow, that seems kinda weak for a tank that big, I used an MP20 in a 40b

 

[betamed]

flow should not be an issue for those corals. what is your SG. how are you testing it. where do you get water for top off and water changes