Just can't get it right...

EuroGTI

New member
How does the saying go? Sometimes Two heads are better then 1??...

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Im not new to reefing at all, but my lastest tank has sure been one heck of a journey.

Here's the specs and important info. I'm going to try and be as detailed as possible.

Tank: 70 gallon tank and 40 gallon sump. The tank is 36x24x18. The tank was established March 2014

Lighting: 8 bulb dimmable sunpower. The 2 center bulbs have been removed and replaced with full spectrum leds. I'm currently only running blues and a very low amount of white to add a little shimmer. The Blues are are 50% of the output and whites at 15%.
I run 4 blue+ and 2 coral+
Leds are on for 12 hours, 6 of those hours is only blues. The 6 t5 bulbs are on for 7 hours. Light is about 8 inche's off the water. No par meter so I don't really have any par info.

Filtration: JNS Sk2 skimmer, filter socks that are changed 2 times a week, carbon and gfo.

Flow: Two Tunze 6095 with controller, Jebao 3000dc return

Salt: Tropic Marin

Livestock: Tomini Tang, Sunburst Anthia, Royal Gramma, Pink Margin Fairy Wrasse, a lonely blue chromis, and a yellowtail Tamarin Wrasse

Feeding: I feed 2 times a day. A sprinkle of pellets in the morning, and something frozen at night. Mysis, reef frenzy, ect.
I also feed some type of coral food between 1-2 times a week. Nutricell, reefchilli, sps max, ect.

Dosing: Esv 2 part. I also dose a little acropower now and then. Also dose kz sponge power 2 times a week.

Parameters: as of today
Alk 9.2
Calcium 410
Mg 1500 (was dosing tech-m for a bryopsis outbreak.
Nitrate 0 (salifert)
Po4 0.00-0.04 (this is with my hanna..I did 5 test and got .04 twice and 0.00 the other 3 times)

I think that pretty much gives you all the tank background, now onto the problems.

This tank has had a couple ups and downs. I started it as a zeovit tank, but it just didn't work for me. I went back to keeping it simple with gfo, carbon, and a big skimmer. Things looked better for a couple months, but now they are back on the decline.

Some corals in my tank are 100% colored and growing OK. Not amazing growth, but they are growing and colored up. Some other coral just looks horrible. I have a handful of corals that are browned out and have very thin looking tissue. Some have also started to loose a little tissue at the base, slowly, but I can see it. They still have ok PE. I'm worried they will just continue to decline.

I also just battled a nasty bryopsis outbreak. It's 100% gone now, but I did have to raise my mg with tech-m to do it. I've been algea free for a week or 2, but corals weren't looking that great before the tech-m treatment. I'm confused as why I had such a bad outbreak. My Po4 was always reading very low and from one day to another the tank broke out. Every inch of rock was covered in it. I have no other algae in the tank.

I really can't put my finger on what's wrong with the tank. The thinning tissue leads me to believe low nutrients, but how did I break out in bryopsis then? Could not enough light thin the tissue, too much light? I feel like it can't be too much light, I haven't seen any bleaching. My corals that aren't doing well are actually brown. I also have zoas and Lps on the sand bed that are looking good and not bleached at all. I run carbon 24/7 so it can't be any metal or anything like that. At this point I'm just super lost and pretty bummed out. Just when I thought things were getting better, this happens. If anyone has any ideas, that would be great. Thanks for reading this super long post!!
 
Here's what I would do...

1.) Drop the alkalinity to around 8, if your nutrients being too low are part of the issue, alk this high will just make things worse

2.) Feed a little more

3.) Only run GAC for a couple days every month or two

4.) Cut back on GFO use, maybe run it one or two weeks out of the month

5.) Examine your corals carefully for any type of "bugs" running around on the skin of your sps that have "thin" looking skin. Red bugs aren't the only pod-like pest.

Good luck!
 
Here's what I would do...

1.) Drop the alkalinity to around 8, if your nutrients being too low are part of the issue, alk this high will just make things worse

2.) Feed a little more

3.) Only run GAC for a couple days every month or two

4.) Cut back on GFO use, maybe run it one or two weeks out of the month

5.) Examine your corals carefully for any type of "bugs" running around on the skin of your sps that have "thin" looking skin. Red bugs aren't the only pod-like pest.

Good luck!

Exactly what I would do.

With respect to PO4; get a better test kit; I recommend the Elos High Resolution PO4 test kit. And then run GFO to keep PO4 around 0.03-0.06ppm mark.

Either you are stripping the nutrients or there are pests. :(

Lastly; double check the specific gravity...ensure it is not out of range.
 
Glad I found this thread! Our tank setups and issues are very similar. I too have zero nitrate, 0.04 phosphate, and a bryopsis outbreak that I am battling.

The corals I am having thinning/browning or paling issues with are millis and birdsnest. Which types of sps are giving you trouble?
 
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