Help me identify my problem(s)!

audacious1

audacious1

New member
My tank has been running for about 4 months & so far haven't had luck with lps and some soft coral. Every coral i place is good for like 3 days and then starts to show bad signs like shrinking. I am not going to buy coral until you guys help me find my problem.
Tank info:

-80 gal sumpless standard tank
-100 lbs live rock
-80 lbs live sand
-2 175 watt metal halides with 2 vho super actinics that are hanging about 7-8 inches off the water(i don't know if it's too much or too little light at that height)
-TLF 150 Phosban reactor using npx bioplastics as media
-HOB Octopus Bh-2000 skimmer
-2 koralias 1400 gph
-marineland c220 canister filter
-Digital Aquatics reef keeper lite controller

my parameters:

nitrate 25
phosphate 0.29ppm
alk 280ppm
sg 1.025
ammonia 0
calcium 425
mag 1330
ph 8.2

I have been fighting to keep my ph at 8.2.
i use seachem ph buffer and only helps for a day then my ph drops back to 7.9 and i think that's why my alk is soo high. please help me i really want corals. :worried: oh yeah and if it's my young tank thats the problem, I'm willing to let it mature. thank you!
 
Maturing, definitely a good idea first and foremost. That said I started with a dry tank (meaning no live sand/live rock) and cycled it with bacteria supplements to get it going faster.

The biggest thing I see right now is high nitrates. Alk I always measure in dkh. I think that's about 6.3dkh which is low, and I would certainly address that and raise it up with supplements, though doing some good water changes will lower the nitrates and bring the alk up as well too.

As for the PH, I honestly never worry about it. If my other parameters are straight I kinda care less where ph is at. It's normally 8.0 to 8.1 but I don't fight to keep it there.

There's tons of sticky threads in the various forums. The rest of your chemistry looks pretty solid overall
 
I would forget about trying to control the ph of the tank mostly because you won't be able to. As the tank matures so will the ph. It will stay at a more stable state around 8 or so. How do you acclimate your corals when you buy them? Tell me your exact steps of buying a coral and putting it into your tank.
 
dread240 said:
Maturing, definitely a good idea first and foremost. That said I started with a dry tank (meaning no live sand/live rock) and cycled it with bacteria supplements to get it going faster.

The biggest thing I see right now is high nitrates. Alk I always measure in dkh. I think that's about 6.3dkh which is low, and I would certainly address that and raise it up with supplements, though doing some good water changes will lower the nitrates and bring the alk up as well too.

As for the PH, I honestly never worry about it. If my other parameters are straight I kinda care less where ph is at. It's normally 8.0 to 8.1 but I don't fight to keep it there.

There's tons of sticky threads in the various forums. The rest of your chemistry looks pretty solid overall
Click to expand...

First of all, thank you for taking your time to reply.
I checked on saltyzoos alkalinity converter and it says it's 15 dkh. Is that high?
Also, I do a 15 gallon water change every 2 weeks. Is that ok or do you recommend more? I will try to get my nitrates on check and don't worry about the ph like you said and see how it goes. thank you so much
 
snupa said:
I would forget about trying to control the ph of the tank mostly because you won't be able to. As the tank matures so will the ph. It will stay at a more stable state around 8 or so. How do you acclimate your corals when you buy them? Tell me your exact steps of buying a coral and putting it into your tank.
Click to expand...

Yes you're very right I just can't control it as much as I try so I'm going with what you guys say and ignore the ph.

As for coral I turn off the lights when floating the bag which is for like 30 mins and grab it quickly without putting any of the water from the bag into the tank and just place it where I think it'll like. Do you recommend a better method? please let me know what im doing wrong. thanks :hmm5:
 
15dkh would be high yes, and could be a large contributing factor to your losses. I run my tank about 9dkh, sometimes in the upper 8's, crests into 10 here and there, however for the most part it is nice and stable.

You need to match your water slowly with the water the coral comes in.

I float the bag for 30 minutes, then pour it into a container. about every 5 minutes, I add some tank water to that container until it's full. Once full I pour half of it out, and then fill it back up with tank water. it doesn't need to be a large container, you just want to get the water to your tank levels slowly over time, and not shock it all at once.

I then personally add a cap full of revive coral cleaner and let it soak for 5-10 minutes, aerating it with an air pump, and then after that it finally goes into the tank.
 
I'm also confused as to how you still have 25ppm nitrates and are also running bio pellets. What is your flow like through the reactor? The pellets should be very gently tumbling with a slow constant flow going through them. If you have it too fast the water pushes out before the bacteria can use up the nitrates and phosphates, and too slow they clump up and get a film over them which also reduces their effectiveness.

I run the BRS bio pellets with mine and even if I don't change my water for 2 months in my 75 my nitrates stay at 0 and I get minimal algae growth
 
dread240 said:
I'm also confused as to how you still have 25ppm nitrates and are also running bio pellets. What is your flow like through the reactor? The pellets should be very gently tumbling with a slow constant flow going through them. If you have it too fast the water pushes out before the bacteria can use up the nitrates and phosphates, and too slow they clump up and get a film over them which also reduces their effectiveness.

I run the BRS bio pellets with mine and even if I don't change my water for 2 months in my 75 my nitrates stay at 0 and I get minimal algae growth
Click to expand...

Ohh! I have my reactor on full blast like literally all the way and they're tumbling like crazy it gets film on top and sometimes clogs up my lfs guy said that they have to be tumbling really fast.. lol that's why it's not helping probably. and thank you for the coral acclimiation i will do that as soon as i fix my problem. i also wanted to ask, the store i buy my coral from keeps theirs with t5s and i have metal halides, how do you recommend that i do it so i won't shock them? thank you guys soo much really helpful
 
Just start them on the sandbed.

As for the clumping of the bio pellets, mine eventually get like that and I just open up the reactor and break them apart a lil bit.
 
ok so water change water change water change till all your levels go back to normal.. 5 gallons a day 15 gallons every two weeks.. once everything is back to normal ignore the ph.. not important right now and with all the water changes it will find its spot... also you didnt say anything about the temperature..... my biggest mistakes 10 years ago... ignoring temperature number one.. number two nutrient build up... doesnt happen as often anymore seeing as people have learned and dont use as much floss..number three and most peoples number one... using to many addatives in the water... or using two many filters.. water changes will work better then any filter ever invented... i would start with some star polyps and mushrooms.. they are great water quality monitors if they are not all open all the way something is wrong..only my two cents... seriously though dont worry so much about the ph.. unless you are having a lot of coraline algae growth there is no reason to add anything the water changes will do it.. i do water changes once a week 5 gallons to every 75 and once a month at 15 gallons... i feed heavy but with this regiment i also dont need to add any additives.. i tried that route once and found it was cheaper and more affective to do water changes.. till you get alot of corals in there growing..
 
more good info from monkeyman :)

The flow in that reactor looks ok. Watch your nitrate levels and all over the next few weeks, if they don't come down much, slow the flow up a bit more. If they tumble too much they kind of grind up against each other, and it doesn't give the bacteria a chance to work on the nutrients in it.

Just want to reiterate, stop worrying about the ph and stop throwing chemicals at it. The tank will come into it's own. Only reason you should need buffers is when you start getting into a heavier load with lots of corals/fish. Do water changes for the time being to bring the alkalinity back down some.
 
monkeyman -- temperature is 78 at night and 79.5 with the lights on. let me know if i should change it. and i will def. do water changes. i have the water ready and will start tomorrow. im throwing the ph out for now and will just ignore it.

dread240 -- thanks and btw how often do you replace the bio pellets?
 
oh crap really? wow didnt know that. you've been so much help thank you for teaching us beginners stuff we should know about im sure people in my situation will appreciate your time. ill post an update in a few weeks hopefully with good results! :)
 
A refugium could help you with the nitrate problems also. Since you're running a sumpless setup I assume you have room on the back wall of the tank for additional equipment. Look into a hang on back refugium and that could help keep your nitrates/ammonia in check.

Is your tank getting enough flow from your powerheads? If there are deadzones in the tank then that could be the root of the nitrate/phosphate problem. Are you experiencing any algae outbreaks? Do you use RO/DI water?
 
matt frizz ---
hi, yeah i've looked into buying a hob refugium but i've heard that you need a really large one or else you're just throwing your money away. how true is that?

i have 2 koralias 1400 gph one pointing up to the surface and one pointing to the front of the glass. the corals that i currentlly have move strongly and my fish seem to fight the flow. do i need another powerhead? the only algae i have right now is the normal one that develops on the tank glass which is like dust. really easy to remove. my water is crystal clear. also, i've had the brs 5 stage rodi unit for about 3 months and my tds reads at 003ppm. is it time to change the media that goes inside the rodi unit?
 
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