Need some help please

Coralfuture

New member
Hello there I have a few issues I am trying to resolve in my tank, its been up for 4 months this coming tuesday so its not that old... I have already experienced fish tank crash corals got hurt but none of the corals died.... Ok so now there is a bit of back story to this tank that I love. I have it currently stocked with 2 torch gobies, 3 chromic, 1 sail fin tang, 2 zebra gobies, 1 diamond sand sifting goby and 2 clowns. I recently had a flame angel and a powder brown tank die shortly after adding them to the tank. I had my wife feed the tangs a small piece of algae and she may have followed the directions on the bag and added an extra inch so 4in of dried algae turned into 8-9 in wet and WAY too much for them. I noticed the next day that it was on a zoa I have in the tank and that said zoa had released some good ole toxin goo which I basted away and followed with water change. That was the DAY that the 2 fish died....that day was last week...the flame angel I got out however the tang I looked EVERYWHERE and couldn't find the body and I noticed him missing pretty quick as he is one of the biggest fish if not the largest.

So anyways, while I do care about the fish I actually love my corals much more. The way my wife describes it is Corals, fish, me, kids, work, iPhone, cat, corals.
I will learn how to post pics and submit asap but for now. My water

Ph 7.8
Salinity 1.025-1.026 between the ATO pump on and off
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate >5ppm
Alk 10.5dkh
Calc 440ppm
Mag 1290ppm

Just tested this tonight and this is pre water change which I do on rotation 1 week then 1 1/2 week I do 40gal water changes on my 75gal tank and 30 gal sump (sump is about 1/2 filled) I have a protein skimmer, refugium in sump, carbon and bio pellets(just added 3 days ago) as well as a algae scrapper.

I have 2 corals in particular that I am desperately trying to save. The rest of my corals are THRIVING. I have 5 different Acans I have 2 Galaxy corals, 4 Birdsnest type acro, I have 2 monti cups(green) and 1 starburst monti cap(1 Im worried about) 2 frogspawn branching(1 octopus 1 reg slight variations in color) I have 4 different zoa colony I have a monti digita(orange, the #1 concern coral), duncan, and a few more. Happy to report there is 0 aptasia in the tank and no coral killers that I know of. I buy from fellow hobbyists in my area and a few of the stores I trust b/c I watch them dip their new corals and Q/T their new fish. So that is not to say my tank is perfect because at the end of the day I have no clue what I'm doing other than TONS of research and reading about all sorts of issues I have been running into. Oh and for the lighting I have 2 AI Primes.

The 2 corals I am having issues with are the starburst and the monti digits. The starburst has not shown its beautiful yellow polyps for about 2 weeks I feel like. The rock it is glued to had to be taken out of the water to catch the 1st flame angel I purchased who was eating my corals. The rock was out of the water for about 10min then placed back where I had it haven't seen polyps since but do see the yellow of them retracted when the blue lights come on.

Next is the monti digita this one I am lost on did GREAT the first few weeks and then the powder brown tang died(I still cannot find his body praying the 70+ clean up crew members did) and it started bleaching from the bottom up fast at first then much slower. It REALLy confuses me because all day the polyps are out and extended with the top tips having a whitish tips which I thought meant growth.

So now those are my issues and goodness do I need help I am reading everything I can to save these guys. Do I frag the monti digita and cut off the bleach? Please help me here. I WILL have pics tomorrow when the lights come on.

Thank you all and welcome to my reef/issues???
 
1. imo, alk is a bit on the high side. if you want to run your system at very low nutrient levels, it's better to maintain low alkalinity especially for the sps corals.

2. i personally don't think zoa's toxin is causing the problem since you're running carbon.

3. i'm not being a "tang police" here but 75g is too small for a sailfin tang and a powder brown tang if you plan to keep them long term. i don't think a little bit of overfeeding killed the powder brown tang either. i'd like to suggest to quarantine future fish purchases.

4. i'd also check for monti eating nudis.

5. don't forget to test the phosphates as well.

just my .02. good luck :)
 
Thank you and yeah I plan to keep the tang long term have a 96x36x30 tank on order from custom aquariums but I won't have it till May of next year
 
Yes to pyithar's suggestions:
ALK is too high; feeding is most likely not your problem; 7 fish including a large tang is too much for a 75 gallon, even with the best of nutrient export.
I'd also suggest that 4 months may be too young a tank for montis....
What sort of lighting are you running?
 
Not the best tank pics but gives us an idea tell me if you all may need any other info. Also thank you all for your suggestions and advice and experience!
 
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Not sure if it's fixed or not but I did 2 40% water changes over the last few days and now everything seems happier....hopefully not temporarily...didn't see any nudis or their eggs anywhere thanks again everyone
 
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