I don't understand

Timmo760

Timmo760

Water dist. Tech
So I don't know what I'm doing wrong. All the corals I get except the few zoos I have seem to just wither away. I have a few birds nest, hammer, candy canes, milli, and one other spa not sure of the name maybe a branching monti of some sort.
Water perams
Sg 1.026
Alk 9dkh
Ca 425ppm
Mag 1400ppm
Po4 2ppm
No3 0ppm
45 gal total water

My sps slowly bleach then strat to loose flesh and just go down hill. Growth on everything has stopped. Even a couple shrooms I got have bleached and are getting smaller. I just did a 10 gallon water change. I'm just not sure what I'm doing wrong. I start the corals low in the tank. I even put my light on acclimation which it's down 50% power and slowly over 6 weeks will climb to max set output. I have a dower and an ato. My parameters stay pretty stable so I'm not sure what is going on.

I feed coral frenzy and cobalt coral food. Started adding aminos and phyto so we will see if that helps. And tips or point out something I'm doing wrong will be greatly appreciated.
 
To much light, and I would do large water change.


Stop feeding and adding aminos and phyto tank is bot stable enough.


Tank must be new?
 
Sorry yes a typo. Nitrates at 2 and phosphates at 0. Once I get the coral it takes about a week to turn mostly white and then another week to start receding or loosing flesh. Tank is about 9 months old. So don’t feed coral? For how long? I just had a spike in alk and it’s amost back down to normal. Last night it was still at 10 dkh. I dimmed the light a little more so I hope that helps. Thanks for the input. It’s been frustrating
 
PO4 is way too high, and NO3 is too low. Need some balance of nutrients for the tank.

Edit: Seems we posted at the same time. So, nutrient levels seem ok. Balance is also key. An alk spike indicates that there is not balance. Why do you need to dose? My tank has a decent amount of different corals in it and I still haven't had to dose yet.
 
My tank was consuming a ton of alk and some calcium for a while so I got a doser to keep perimeters more stable instead of dosing once or twice a day. I thought it was part of why the corals have been getting stressed and bleaching
 
How long has this tank been up and running?

You could always send off a triton test just to make sure nothing funky is going on outside of what you are testing with your test kits, and making sure your test kits are fairly accurate.
 
At 9 months the tank is not new.
If you are absolutely sure your water is perfect, then as stated above, turn your lights down in intensity. You do not post a temp.....so.....not sure your missing this parameter which is most often the source of many problems.
Feeding? Most corals are photosynthetic so they get most of their food from light.....so feeding becomes more of a nice to have....although most people I have worked with feed way to much. You describe bleaching....so turn down the light
 
Ok sounds good. Thank you. My water usually stays between 78 and 79 F. Ya I’ve turned down my lights a little more just to see how everything reacts hopefully that’s what’s going on.
 
So coral are already starting to look a lot happier. Candy cane is inflated so much during the day and tentacle extension after lights out is insane. I have never seen my hammer extend tentacles so much during the day and birds nest is starting to color up too. Thank you for the help!!
 
Great news!
If corals are not inflated most of the time it's either
Light, water, or being bugged!
Thanks for keeping us updated.
 
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