Help, Tank may be crashing?

[Ryancalz]

Hello everyone,

I have been in the hobby for a couple of months now. I have a 10 gallon tank with matrix bio filtration, carbon, phosphate, nitrate, and poly filters. My parameters are as follows,

Ph-7.9
Ammonia-0.2
Nitrate-13
Kh-9.6
Phophates-0.1
Calcium-427
Mg-1267
Salinity-1.025

Everything in my tank has been unhappy for quotes some time now. All of my lps is shriveled back, my mushrooms aren’t expanding, my zoas barely open. Does anyone know what could be the issue?

I’m going to have the par in my tank read next week but my corals were fine with the lights for at least a whole month. Thank you all and let me know if you would like some more information about the tank

 

[reefing102]

Welcome to RC!

I’m not seeing any immediate issues with parameters. Generally most cycled tanks in my experience read minimal to no ammonia though. Has anything died off recently? Besides adding livestock, have you changed anything? Lighting schedule, light type, dosing additives?

Did you add any bottled bacteria when you started?

@Timfish @kharmaguru @griss @jason2459 @wvned and anyone else. Thoughts?

 

[griss]

pH is a tad low and Nitrates are a tad high, IMO. I'm also wondering if anything has recently changed/died?

 

[Pacman562]

Temperature?

 

[wvned]

You need more flow in the tank. What kind of lights set how.
Water parameters are 1/3, flow is 1/3 and lighting is 1/3.
You need them all.

What kind of water are you using. Some dechlorinators make some ammonia test read false positive.

 

[Ryancalz]

Welcome to RC!

I’m not seeing any immediate issues with parameters. Generally most cycled tanks in my experience read minimal to no ammonia though. Has anything died off recently? Besides adding livestock, have you changed anything? Lighting schedule, light type, dosing additives?

Did you add any bottled bacteria when you started?

@Timfish @kharmaguru @griss @jason2459 @wvned and anyone else. Thoughts?

I’ve lost a couple of corals and a goby went missing a couple months ago. It did spike my ammonia earlier last week but I dropped the ammonia down to this level with a few water changes.

My magnesium was low a couple weeks ago so I dosed some magnesium. I raised it by 200 in one go. I now know that was way too much and won’t don’t it again, but it honestly had no affect on my corals. They were looking bad before the mg and they look about the same now. Since that initial dose of mg, my lps and Monti aren’t pulling anymore out of the water so I haven’t dosed anything since then.

 

[griss]

How are you testing your salinity?

 

[Ryancalz]

Temperature?

I have the tank at 78 degrees

 

[Ryancalz]

How are you testing your salinity?

I use an atc refractometer

 

[griss]

I use an atc refractometer

Have you calibrated it? I had some issues a while back and it turned out I had not calibrated my refractometer is a while and it was off. What I thought was 1.025 was actually much lower. Just throwing out ideas...we're brainstorming here to try to help.

 

[Ryancalz]

You need more flow in the tank. What kind of lights set how.
Water parameters are 1/3, flow is 1/3 and lighting is 1/3.
You need them all.

What kind of water are you using. Some dechlorinators make some ammonia test read false positive.

I use RO water from Natural Grocers. For my lights I have a Maxspec R420R Razor nano that I ramp up for a couple hours and then leave them at about 75% power for 8 hours and then ramp them down for 2 hours. I recently changed the light cycle to be 8 hours total in case I was giving the lps too much light.

 

[Ryancalz]

Have you calibrated it? I had some issues a while back and it turned out I had not calibrated my refractometer is a while and it was off. What I thought was 1.025 was actually much lower. Just throwing out ideas...we're brainstorming here to try to help.

I have calibrated it. I also just had all my parameters checked at my lfs today and those values are what you all see in the original post.

I really appreciate all of the help. I am happy to help brainstorm with you guys and will answer any questions you throw my way

 

[griss]

I have calibrated it. I also just had all my parameters checked at my lfs today and those values are what you all see in the original post.

I really appreciate all of the help. I am happy to help brainstorm with you guys and will answer any questions you throw my way

Smart move double checking your test results with those of a LFS

 

[Ryancalz]

You need more flow in the tank. What kind of lights set how.
Water parameters are 1/3, flow is 1/3 and lighting is 1/3.
You need them all.

What kind of water are you using. Some dechlorinators make some ammonia test read false positive.

For my flow I have aqua-top max flow pump that I run on max flow. Would you recommend something else for my tank?

 

[Ryancalz]

Also, I got everything second hand. So none of my hardware is new. I replaced my heater but besides that, the light and pump are used. All my filters, sand, salt, and biomedia are new.

 

[wvned]

For my flow I have aqua-top max flow pump that I run on max flow. Would you recommend something else for my tank?

I am not familiar with that pump and I haven't had a small tank in a long time. Maybe someone else will answer. I do not think you can push enough water through the small hole I can see in the pic to get enough flow for good coral growth.
I could be wrong. Just ask my wife.

 

[reefing102]

I agree, you may need additional flow from another wave maker. SPS like monties like higher flow. LPS more in the medium flow range.

Also have you checked any submerged wiring to see if any is exposed and possibly leaching anything?

Or perhaps the heater is leaching something? I know Cobalt heaters tend to have issues.

Maybe also check to make sure nothing is rusting? I don’t know about Matrix, but I believe marine pure blocks have a small history of leaching metals. Perhaps order and ICP test to test for things we generally don’t test?

Just spitballing here

 

[mellotang]

I would lower the intensity on the light form 75% to 40% and see if the corals respond in a positive way over the next few days

LED at 75% intensity, no matter how many hours you’re running it, is intense for a LPS 10 gallon

That’s a lot of light

 

[Ryancalz]

I agree, you may need additional flow from another wave maker. SPS like monties like higher flow. LPS more in the medium flow range.

Also have you checked any submerged wiring to see if any is exposed and possibly leaching anything?

Or perhaps the heater is leaching something? I know Cobalt heaters tend to have issues.

Maybe also check to make sure nothing is rusting? I don’t know about Matrix, but I believe marine pure blocks have a small history of leaching metals. Perhaps order and ICP test to test for things we generally don’t test?

Just spitballing here

I did in fact order an ICP test a few days ago. It should get here by Friday and then I can send it out. If that checks out and my lights are okay then I really have no idea what the issue could be. I will look into getting a more powerful pump for my tank

 

[Ryancalz]

I would lower the intensity on the light form 75% to 40% and see if the corals reaping in a positive way over the next few days

LED at 75% intensity no matter how many hours you’re running it is intense for a LPS 10 gallon

That’s a lot of light

I will try it out. The only thing that has stopped me from doing that so far is my zoas and other softies are constantly begging for more light