Need Some Help

[azkass]

okay, so I set up my new 180 gal about two weeks ago. I used the LR from my 75 gal. along with a bunch of base rock that was in a sump in my garage for about 4 months. My sump has a fuge with a bunch of LR rubble and cheato also. I used new sand(Aragalive) and all new water in the new tank. I let the tank run with just the LR and tested every few days for ammonia/nitrite. I also added Microbacter per the instructions. After a week with ammonia/nitrite at 0 I added my fish and some of my coral. Fish are: large blue hippo, large malenaris wrasse, med. copperband, med. fox face, flame angel and large lyretail anthia. Everything was doing fine after adding. The second week I added the corals from my 30 gal and the fish that were in there. Two small wrasses and a pair of small clowns. Everything was looking good but as the days progressed, the euphilia started closing up and my acanthophilia and welso look stressed. Clams are doing fine, all fish and inverts are doing well and some zoas have completely closed up. My tank perameters are:

SG 1.025
calcium 450
KH 11.5
magnesium 1400
nitrate 1-2ppm
phosphate not dedectable

I have been adding kalk to the top off water which is fed by the ATO. I'm not running any media currently, skimmer and mechanical media. Lights are LED and have been keeping the whites at around 10-15 percent for about 4-5 hours a day with full blues. Is this just "new tank syndrome" or since it's so new it's still going thru it's break in? Corals came from a higher nutrient system to a low nutrient system? Just looking for other opinions.

Thanks and sorry for the lengthy commentary

 

[m-six hundred]

I think its just too clean of a tank.

 

[bambam918]

+1^

Also know as new tank syndrome. I did something similar to you and had similar results. Everything should pull through. Just keep a close eye. Some of my corals looked dead but have turned around

 

[azkass]

That was my take as well. That the tank is too clean and just needs to run its course and find its balance.

 

[zibba]

How stressed are you talking? Like shriveled up or receding tissue? If it's just shriveled up, I'd say let them acclimate a bit more. It's not unusual for my trachys and acanthos to increase and decrease in size on a weekly (or even daily) basis.

Euphyllias are generally pretty sensitive anyway so there's always a risk when transferring them to a new system. They can die from alk changes too.

What was the alk in the system you had the euphyllia/trachy/acantho in before? In my opinion, 11.5 is pretty high and could cause them to react negatively if the corals weren't accustomed to it. I'd suggest, as I'm sure others would too, to keep your alk around 8-9 dKH.

I have been adding kalk to the top off water which is fed by the ATO.

Did you measure your daily calcium/alk uptake before bringing kalk online? Seems to me that your coral bioload is pretty low and the kalk is unnecessary at this point. Kalk is good for other reasons though (pH and phosphate regulation, etc.), as I'm sure you're aware.

I'm not running any media currently, skimmer and mechanical media.

So, no skimmer? I'm not from the "buy the biggest skimmer you can" camp, but it seems that with your fish load, a skimmer would be beneficial. I don't think it's necessarily the cause of your issues, but it does lead me to believe that you're not running a system that's "too clean."

 

[evolved]

Agree somewhat with the "too clean" comments, but there's something working in conjunction with that:

In my opinion, 11.5 is pretty high and could cause them to react negatively if the corals weren't accustomed to it. I'd suggest, as I'm sure others would too, to keep your alk around 8-9 dKH.

Very much agree. Bring that Alk down.
There's a bit of a balance with nutrients and Alk levels. The higher your nutrients, the easier you can get away with higher Alk levels. But at the low level of nutrients you're currently at, I tend to think Alk at 11.5 is easily burning things. I'd target ~8.

Did you measure your daily calcium/alk uptake before bringing kalk online? Seems to me that your coral bioload is pretty low and the kalk is unnecessary at this point. Kalk is good for other reasons though (pH and phosphate regulation, etc.), as I'm sure you're aware.

This also jumped out at me; do you really need kalk right now? It may just be contributing to your problems, and raising Alk too high.

 

[azkass]

I have always kept my KH between 11-12. The corals seem to do better and from talking to others, it seems like a good level to be at. I will lower to 10 as you make a good point.

I too was wondering if the kalk was needed in a new system and have been testing just to make sure all is stable. I've only been dosing the kalk at half the recommended dosage. I've been dosing one tablespoon per three gal. which is pretty light.

And I meant that I have only been using a skimmer and mechanical. Nothing else chemical wise.

Thanks again