I've recently converted my 60 gallon Oceanic fish only tank to a reef tank. However it used to be a freshwater tank with a pump that had a brass fitting. It was a salt fish only for about 8 months. It holds inverts just fine and has no copper or heavy metals on any type of test, however corals hate it. I had a UV sterilizer in a 900 gph pond pump from lowes in my sump, but I recently took the UV out. I've got 80 lbs. of beautiful rock a 2.5 inch sand base but neither seem to be super live like my other tanks. The micro algae grows good on my rocks and the fish are happy. Everything is in check except for my nitrate at 80 ppm and my ammonia at 0.25 ppm. Im hitting it hard with RODI water changes and hoping for the best. It has T5 HOs enough to support the softies Ive put in it but no luck. Looking for advice.:headwallblue:
Corals dont like tank?
- Thread starter amaylish
- Start date
hmmmm
hmmmm
I mean literally everything is good you name it and no I do not use skimmers. Never have and all my other reefs are perfect but not saying it is a possibility. I'm worried I fried my bacteria bed with that UV sterilizer on crack from Lowes. And like I said I'm on the water changes. Small Blue Hippo 3.5 " Coral Beauty 3" two green chromis one electric blue damsel 15 crabs a few snails
hmmmm
I mean literally everything is good you name it and no I do not use skimmers. Never have and all my other reefs are perfect but not saying it is a possibility. I'm worried I fried my bacteria bed with that UV sterilizer on crack from Lowes. And like I said I'm on the water changes. Small Blue Hippo 3.5 " Coral Beauty 3" two green chromis one electric blue damsel 15 crabs a few snails
Daniel Reef
New member
Shouldn't he have 0 ammonia instead of 0.25ppm? Does this mean his tank was cycling?
jamesbaur13
Apsiring Alhcohlolic
I'm thinking the tank could use more flow.
900gph isn't that much. With head pressure and it could be something like 600-700gph. Which doesn't seem like enough for softies.
I'm thinking a couple small powerheads might do the trick, but I'm new... I'd wait for another to chime in.
900gph isn't that much. With head pressure and it could be something like 600-700gph. Which doesn't seem like enough for softies.
I'm thinking a couple small powerheads might do the trick, but I'm new... I'd wait for another to chime in.
badguitarist
New member
first off, that ammonia should be at zero, checking it with another test kit would be a smart idea. I would find the source of the ammonia and go from there. a few other water perameters you dont mention. what is your salinity, ph and temperature at? when you say enought t-5 HO for softies that is kinda vague. how many bulbs do you have, how many watts, how old are the bulbs, is there a glass cover that could be dirty and blocking light, how far away are corals from the light source? Could you describe the process of corals dyeing or what they are doing that isn't healthy, and what corals they are/were. these are all questions that could give a lot of clues as to what is going on.
NaH2Ofreak
Premium Member
Definitely good questions to be answered badguitarist. I also would like to know about the source water. Is it RO/DI, tap or ????
Dennis
Dennis
falconut
New member
I personnally wouldn't add any more corals until you can get the Amm down to 0 and the Nitrates down alot. I believe both of them can directly lead to corals dying. Aggressive water changes using RO water will probably be required. Not sure why it still has Amm after 8 months, though.
The ammonia is surely present and believe it is from excess detritus on the bottom. My salinity was a little bit high at 1.028 and i have brought it down to 1.025 slowly. The pH is at 8.2 and the temp is at 80. The lights are 36" 4 lamp lunar light 2 10K 2 Actnic, and a T8 36" Actnic totaling 150 Watts. There is plenty of light at the bottom of the tank and none of the corals are under excessive light and similar to tanks they have come from being mine. The only corals I have lost were a branching hammer and an Elegance and they kind of slowly melted or fell apart. I have a couple of mushrooms in that survive but that is about it. I also have a frogspawn in there and it has about seven heads that come out and go back in randomly in periods of 30 minutes or so. And yes I am using RO/DI water with good cartridges.
SecretiveFish
Member
My best guess is the ammonia and the high nitrates are what killed your corals. Also, how old are your 10Ks? Is they are older than 1 year, they will probably need replaced.
As far as the frog spawn opening and closing, it is probably doing this in response to the ammonia/nitrates and/or the coral beauty nipping it. Act fast to save it.
Do everything you can to get your nitrates under 20ppm even lower is better, run some carbon just in case to get out any toxic substances, and determine if your coral beauty is nipping corals. We had one the did that, had because he went back to the LFS. Poor toadstool leather could never open because of him.
As far as the frog spawn opening and closing, it is probably doing this in response to the ammonia/nitrates and/or the coral beauty nipping it. Act fast to save it.
Do everything you can to get your nitrates under 20ppm even lower is better, run some carbon just in case to get out any toxic substances, and determine if your coral beauty is nipping corals. We had one the did that, had because he went back to the LFS. Poor toadstool leather could never open because of him.
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badguitarist
New member
What are you using to test Salinity? swinging arm hydrometers are notorious for being off and even refractometers can be very innacurate if not calibrated frequently (I calibrate mine before every time I use it.) First off I would say that between all these seemingly "small" problems, ammonia, nitrate and High salinity, it was probably just too much for the corals. any one of those problems could kill a coral by itself, so adding all 3 together is a recipe for disaster. another thing to consider, you had said you lost an elegance and a hammer coral. Elegance corals can be some of the trickiest to keep and often suffer from excessive stress and handling during shipping. While the genus euphillia (hammer and frogspawn corals) can be very hardy when put into a healthy tank with the right conditions for them, they also suffer greatly from shipping stress. they are also very prone to infection or otherwise generally breaking down and dying in a tank not set up to their needs. I would stay away from fresh imports on this genus. I hope this helps answer some questions. Once you get your chemistry where it should be, you may consider starting with some leather corals, like Sarcophyton, sinularia, etc. and once you have mastered them move on to some of the more difficult corals. Mushrooms are another great coral to start with
