Desperate :(

[WhiteTang]

Hi everyone!

I will try to make this story as short as possible.

It has been almost 2 years now that I have a 16g IM tank.
This was my first tank and after many mistakes, thankfully not very serious mistakes I got a hold of ot and learned a lot.

After a restart I did 6 months ago, because I was battling algae due to neglect. I was sure I was on the right track. After all I have a lot more knowledge now. Also I had finally invested in a dosing pump and have been keeping my levels of Ca, Mg & KH stable. I am doing the Aquaforest balling method.
Since my restart I have been ultra diligent with my 20% water changes every week. I also clean the back chambers where all the filtration system is, so no gunk is accumulating and rotting, driving my nitrates up.

I had a 5ppm nitrate reading and a 0.03 Phosphate reading. Both by Salifert test kits. Nitrates are down to 2,5ppm after 40% water change.

3 weeks ago I started dosing vodka to drive even lower the nitrates and phosphates.
Phosphates are unreadable right now and my front glass goes without cleaning until my next water change. (by day 7 I get a liiiiitle brownish rusty film on the glass, but hardly noticeable).

My params stay constant:

Ca: 420
Mg: 1300
dKH: 6,5-7

The above 3 I test with Elos test kits but I have also cross checked with Red Sea test kits.

Based on the above I should be able to keep whatever coral I desire. Right? I wish!
I still have few corals though. Mostly because EVERYTHING shrivels and dies in my tank!

I have had a euphyllia which was doing GREAT the first year I had it. From 1 head it is now 10 heads. Since my stable params and diligent water changes, low nutrients etc it has closed up and opens only a tiny little bit.

My other coral, a trachyphylia would open up and shape shift like crazy the days I didn't know what I was doing and my paras would swing up and down like a roller coaster.

The only coral that is still doing fine is a purple gorgonia with tan polyps. To this day is opens and grows. Albeit slow.

I had a single poly zoanthid that became 13 when I had the params out of control. Now the looks smaller an colourless than ever!

A few SPS frags I bought died within days in my tank. Despite the pristine water and stable params.

I am really heartbroken and desperate. I have been focusing so much and spending so much time (and money) on my little tank and I don't know why I can get the corals to grow!

Based on what i have read here in RC as well as other websites I have the ideal parameters to keep the hardest of corals. Im talking about SPS.
And yet. Now that I have achieved the desired levels I find it more than ever difficult to keep anything alive.

Only the poor fish are still alive. I say poor because in an effort to keep the water clean with low nitrates and phosphates, the fish get to eat every other day.
Btw, I only feed as much the will eat. There is almost NEVER wasted food in the tank rotting.

Do you have any idea WHAT MIGHT be wrong? Am I missing something? Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[RayAllen3422]

What's your lighting like?

 

[WhiteTang]

What's your lighting like?

Sorry I forgot about the lightning.
I am using a Giesemann Pulzar HO (high output) 28W.
I have burned a couple SPS and faded a few LPS until I found out I should run the light at 50%. It is quite strong for my tank!

The LED is full spectrum with sunset, sunrise and all. I even use cloud simulation to keep the inhabitants happy and shrivelled..

 

[Sk8r]

A lot, actually, and I mean that in a kind way. You're trying to run the ocean in a teacup and you've got 3 different classes of coral that don't get along well and that have particular lighting and calcium requirements, one of which (zoa) conducts chemical warfare, and you're dosing vodka, which is much more aggressive on the small scale than, say, vinegar. You need massive water changes, ditch the extraordinary 'methods' of this and that, which are sort of an imari patchwork in this very tiny tank. Size is your unavoidable problem: with size goes 'scale' and the fact that reduction isn't always precise. Your alkalinity is way low (8.3 is a good reading) which means the corals and fish are in too acid water---I"m not chemist enough to say what that low alk might do to dissolving of other elements, but it's not a good situation and is going to irritate tissues.

THere's a sticky with a red arrow up top. I know you're two years into this and are beyond some of the basics, but keep reading and underscore the parts that may apply.

Right now I'd advocate a 30% water change, followed in 2 days with another 20%; and two days after that another 20%, while ceasing all dosing except alkalinity buffer. Test the parameters every two days. And run a bag of washed carbon. I hope that will help.

 

[heathlindner25]

I'm guessing the low alk, and Alk swings in general. Test alkalinity twice a week for the next few months and keep it stable.

 

[Bpb]

Also hasn't been mentioned but 0.03 ppm po4 and 2.5 ppm no3 don't need to go any lower at all. If you force them lower all you're doing is making it much harder to keep anything alive. The whole idea of needing zero no3 and po4 is dated and comes from a time when filtration methods simply weren't capable of controlling them. The people who run those numbers down to zero are dosing and testing for a lot of trace elements very carefully to find tune their colors.

 

[CStrickland]

I don't really understand why some balling methods, and low nutrient vodka dosers, run such low alk. But even within those methods 6.5 dkh is low-end. I agree that you can bring it up slowly.

Also, some of your coral (as well as the fish) like to eat. I think you're overdoing it with the nutrient reduction. As said, less is not always better.

Do you have the coral placed correctly for flow? Sps like a like, but too much can tear an lps against its own skeleton if it's getting really whipped around.

Besides having the lights set right, it may help to acclimate new frags more slowly. If your lights are better than the ones they are used to, it's super important to transition them slowly.

I agree carbon will help if anything is releasing toxic compounds, also watch out that they aren't stinging each other if the corals are close to each other.

 

[WhiteTang]

I'm guessing the low alk, and Alk swings in general. Test alkalinity twice a week for the next few months and keep it stable.

Hi, thanks for the reply.
I don't have any real big swings because I'm using a doser pump.
Biggest swing for Alk would be 0,5 dKH I a period of a week.
Ca is always somewhere between 410-430 and Mg stays constant at 1300.

I check Ca and Alk every other day. And Mg once or twice a week.