Near total failure, but not ready to give up yet!

[wowser]

I have been going down a steady path of destruction and am tired of killing my reef inhabitants and flushing $ down the drain. I've gotten so much advice and don't know where to go from here but will not do another thing until I get my Nitrates to 0. I have a feeling that's the main problem.

Can any reef experts help me?
:worried:

Here's my story. Three months ago I bought a used BC14 off craigslist that was missing an actinic. The tank was well established it seemed. Lots of coraline everywhere, but had a bad algae bloom. Had LR, LS, 4 hermits, 2 turbos, 1 small clownfish, a few sad frags. When I discovered the missing lamp I decided to just buy a new BC8 and transfer most of it over (the reason I got the 8 was it fit under the counter in my kitchen, where the 14 did not). Did water changes, cleaned rocks with toothbrush, added Purigen and then Chempure Elite. Tank was looking pretty good. Started stocking tank: leather coral, cleaner shrimp, torch coral, a few zoas, a purple nudibranch (learned the hard way on that), and a nice hammer (over a few weeks). The tank was humming along for about two months. I fed brine shrimp every other day; about a pinky nail chip, rinsed and dropped in with net. Put some cheato in CH2 with a sub light.

Had a few days were tank got to 82-83 degrees. Otherwise all seemed fine. Then my torch retracted and then the hammer. Zoas were closing and I lost the turbo snails in a week. The torch finally died and I did a lot of water changes. Was told to vac the sand (which I now know was a mistake). Constant Nitrates of 20-30. Lots of detritus and every time I did something in the tank, I stirred up a dust storm. Lost the shrimp, then a small frogspawn. Did 2 gallon water changes every other day for a week. Then more. Then more. Feed just 5-6 tiny pellets every other day now. Nothing waisted. Nitrates now are at 10 (or 5, is it me or does 5 and 10 look exact on the API card?). One LFS said my temps were too high. Said I should be at 78 and never 80. He was sure that was the problem.

Glass is clean. Sand is clean. Back chamber relatively clean. Water is crystal clear until I mess with things. Wondering if my rocks have the bacteria needed to filter? What if previous owner never did a proper cycle?

Here's what's in the tank now:
1 large star polyp; not happy
2 small bunches of zoas; not happy
1 frogspawn head; not happy
a few pollyps; not happy
3 small leathers; very happy
1 med acan; very happy
1 med clove bunch; very happy
1 plate fungi coral; okay happy


1 small clownfish (tough guy, had since day 1)
1 small firefish (hardly comes out of his bolthole, may not make it since he doesn't come out to feed)
4 red claw hermits (had since day 1)
2 cerths
3 tiny snails (forget name, about the size of a large pea)
1 narcis snail

Filtration: Filter floss on egg crate; chaeto with sub light. Took out Purigen (recharging it now) and chemipure elite. They just seemed to trap a lot of detritus and didn't seem to help. Upgraded 606 pump and Nano Korilla power head.

Testing: API Reef Master an Salt Water test kits. Refractometer (tested with RO), Digital thermo tested at LFS for accuracy.

Water: RO from drinking RO system in our house. Tests fine.

I am trying to do the right things. I read everything I can online. I have learned to NOT trust the LFS. Mostly bad advice from the 5 I've been to. But I am DETERMINED to make this thing thrive. I keep seeing BEAUTIFUL BC8s fully stocked with 2-3 fish, tons of corals on Youtube. One guy even has the stock filtration and lights and has a magnificent established tank. Yet others say I have too much stuff, etc. How can these guys do it? I will do whatever it takes as long as everything lives! i understand smaller tanks = harder. I ordered LEDs for a hood upgrade. I wish I could get a bigger tank but there's no room where I want the tank. Otherwise I'd go topless, do the refuge tank, etc.

I know I am rambling. If you've read this far, thanks for looking. Here are my current parameters. If anyone sees anything wrong, please let me know. I don't want to lose any more corals.

NIT 0
NITRATE 10
AMONIA 0
Phos .10
PH 7.8
Kh 9
CAL 520++

SAL 10.25
TEMP 78-80

 

[noobtothereef]

how is your calcium 520+ if you dont dose anything? If you havent dosed anything and your calcium is that high from the salt mix, then your alk is way to high also, better check the salinity again, if thats not it, you have some sort of chemical in the tank since all your ammonia, nitrite and nitrates are all fine, with only 8 gallons of water it will only take a very small amount of something to make everything sick and unhappy, like hand lotions, hair spray, hair gel, air fresheners............ and mt tank runs at 80 at night and 82 in the day and everything is as happy as can be......... theres plenty of tanks that run 84+degrees around, 90% of reefs are above 88 degrees in the world.......your lfs needs to take some classes or at least read up on some stuff, and second most people i know there tanks run at about 5-10ppm of nitrates and have beautifull healthy tanks.

 

[aulepe]

Looks like your parameters are now okay, but your prior nitrates may have contributed to the decline of a fragile coral which can then cause a downward spiral in such a small system. Also, some corals such as leathers secrete chemicals which can be detrimental in such a small system if you don't have adequate skimming, waste removal.
I agree that the temp alone for a day or two shouldn't do it, unless you had a wide gyration, for example, from a constant in the 76-77 range suddenly to 83. I've run my aquarium around 80-81 in summers without problems.
How are your flows? Many of the corals you mentioned doing poorly need moderate flow and can dwindle without it.
Hope things work out...

 

[sunfishh]

Aulepe kind of hit on what I was going to say. Leather corals secrete chemicals that other corals don't like. I would recommend doing 3 or 4 1 gallon water changes a week.