Help my reef is melting away!

[Jcmccord]

Well as the title says my reef is slowly looking worse and worse. Let me tell you a bit about it... I bought the 24g Aquapod a little over a year ago from a guy who had it for 8 years. I used all his rock, sand, and water when I put it up. I bought some dry rock called perlite from a landscaping place (not the greatest of ideas I've ever had, but I did lots of research on using it) to have a bit more rock. The tank had looked great for the first 8 months. Then the bulb on my light fixture started to go out (70w MH), so I purchased a new bulb. Long story short the guy told me it was a 150w fixture when it was a 70w so i ordered the wrong bulb. I then purchased a 150w fixture with a 2mth old 14k bulb. I acclimated the corals using egg crate and slowly moving the light down for the first month. Since the new fixture(3 mths ago) my anemones have not stopped moving. My corals don't come out and are about dead! Excluding my kenya tree that could grow in sewer water. I had a phosphate issue so i changed out my sand, half at a time hoping this would help. I have tested my water and had 3 LFS test it also. They claim everything is great. I do weekly water changed of 5g. I'm running a HOB protein skimmer and carbon. I just don't know what else to do to save the tank. Any ideas?
Water test results from today:
Alk-7dKH or 125.3ppm KH
Phosphates-.25
Nitrates-0
Calcium- 500-520
PH-8.1
Salinity-1.026

Live stock:
4 Toadstools
2 RBT anemones
Zoas
yellow and green polyps
frogspawn (2 heads)
multiple mushrooms
4 types of GSP
1 duncan
1 Acan
clevalaria
2 maroon goldline clowns
1 watchman goby
1 coral banded shrimp

 

[SPotter]

how long do you have your lights on for?

Two issues I see....light is probably too big for that tank and your phosphates are too high. Ideal phosphate range is .03 to .08 (this will be debated by some) and anything over .10 is considered not good for corals. The elevated phosphates are probably coming from your 8yr old sand bed and that rock your bought.

 

[Jcmccord]

I leave the lights on for 9 hours and I had recently just changed out my sand bed half at a time because I also thought this was the issue. I have seen many people use a 150w MH for their tanks and they looks great! Would going from a 12k bulb to a 14k bulb also cause an issue? And if the rock was the issue wouldn't it of shown up shortly after I put it in the tank?

 

[tsdpurdue]

IMO I would lower the phosphates. Try and raise Alk to 8-9. Lower salinity to 1.023-1.025

 

[Bigcefa]

Agree phosphates are uber high, also try some carbon if you haven't already incase there is chemical warfare.

 

[Jcmccord]

I think I am going to work on lowering the phosphates or atleast going in to the LFS to get a more accurate test. I am running a bag with carbon, GFO, and resin in it. O and tsdpurdue you go to purdue?

 

[SPotter]

150w mh are great lights but it doesnt mean that they will be the right light for every tank because dimensions will be different as well as the needs of the corals in the tank are different. I would cut back on the photoperiod to 7 hrs. 9hrs of mh is a lot of light for your corals. Frogspawn, duncans and acans dont like intense light and thats part of the reason why they arent opening up. I will almost guarantee you that if you reduce your lighting that they will slowly begin to improve over time.

Rocks dont always release phosphates as soon as they enter the water. In some cases you can go for a few months before they release. Do you know what the rocks are composed of? Also, how much gfo are you running and when was the last time your changed it? With po4 levels that high you will exhaust gfo pretty quickly.

 

[saltyair]

+1 on the light being too much - start by decreasing the light cycle - do you have actinic lighting?
Add gfo to your hob filter - be sure to rinse it ;-)

 

[tsdpurdue]

No. Just root for them in sports

 

[Jcmccord]

I just put a new bag in the tank. I am also worried about the UV shield on the light fixture. I read that the coral life fixture doesn't have a UV shield just a splash guard and that they use coral life bulbs in them because the bulb has a UV shield in the glass. The rocks I got (perlite) I read are mostly composed of glass. I am tempted to get rid of my 150w MH fixture and go back to a 70w or some LEDs....

 

[SPotter]

I just put a new bag in the tank. I am also worried about the UV shield on the light fixture. I read that the coral life fixture doesn't have a UV shield just a splash guard and that they use coral life bulbs in them because the bulb has a UV shield in the glass. The rocks I got (perlite) I read are mostly composed of glass. I am tempted to get rid of my 150w MH fixture and go back to a 70w or some LEDs....

is it a single bulb or double end bulb? single end bulbs dont require the uv filter. You can use the 150w but just cut back on the lighting and definitely work on getting rid of the po4. The thing about po4 is you have to identify the source of the high level because if you just keep on attacking it with mechanical filtration and water changes it will just continue to come back. The rock that came with the tank....do you know what kind of rock that is?

 

[Jcmccord]

It is a double ended bulb.