Need some tank help

O

oigimsar

Member
I am at a total loss and really tired of losing corals.

* Some corals are open and fine (Rock flower news, GSP, some zoas, gorgonian)
* Some corals alive but closed up (Jawbreakers and other shrooms)they have also stopped multiplying
* Some corals closed and dying (torches and Gonis)

Livestock - Pair of Small clowns, Randalls Goby, snails

Set up
Tank. IM Lagoon 25
Lights. Radio G4 Xr15 Running AB+ with extended sunrise/Sunset at 39%
Flow. Ecotech MP10 and small Aquamai
Filtration. Left to Right (1) Filter Floss. (2) Reactor - currently running Rowaphas (3) Desktop Skimmer. (4) Filter Floss

Parameters
Since I know its the first thing ill be asked, here are the Parameters. Cal, Mag and Alk are all on the lower ranges but they have been steady at these numbers

Calcium 390
Magnesium 1195
Alkalinity. 7.9
Phosphate .03

Water - I purchase my water at the same LFS I have used for years. This tank was thriving at one point. Ive tested my Top off water and saltwater and cant find a problem.

I have a leather coral that is not doing well. Ive wondered if that could be the problem.

Ive also wondered if the problem is my light settings. I was contemplating returning to T5's to help avoid user error on the spectrum issues

TIA for any help you can offer.
 
If the leather is stressed, it could be putting chemicals into the water that will affect other corals. I would do a decent water change, then run carbon to see if that helps.

Good luck!
 
I would consider the following
ICP test, to check for metals or something out of wack.
Checking Salinity from another source to verify if correct.
water change and carbon. Calcium and mag are at tad low but for softies you should be ok. do you dose any Iodine or trace elements?
What are your current nitrates?

I hope this helps
 
Thanks, guys.

I am going to just remove the leather and put it in isolation for now until it recovers.

Glad you asked about the ICP test. I mean to add this. I sent one in a few moths back. I will send in another this week. The last test showed high copper. I bought a Seachem copper test kit and monitored. It showed 0. I was told by several people not to worry about.

Nitrates were undetectable on an API test kit

I do not dose anything. Just water changes. I recently purchased "One" from Poly Lab to try and raise all three a bit but haven't started dosing.

I will remove the leather, check salinity, do a water change, add some carbon and send in the ICP test.
 
How often are you feeding the fish? If only once a day, feed several times a day, but small amounts. Don't be afraid of algae from overfeeding. I think a huge problem people have is starving their tanks and fish. Also, use ATI ICP, that way you can check your RO (top off) as well. Water change schedule? I would also test your source saltwater from the LFS. I would only use LFS water as a last resort, but that's just me. Buy an RO unit and make your own, you'll save money and know that you're producing perfect water.
Mag is low and having no NO3 and kinda low PO4 can cause issues, especially with softies. Use a skimmer and a small amount of carbon with softies, especially leathers and gorgs.
 
minus9 said:
How often are you feeding the fish? If only once a day, feed several times a day, but small amounts. Don't be afraid of algae from overfeeding. I think a huge problem people have is starving their tanks and fish. Also, use ATI ICP, that way you can check your RO (top off) as well. Water change schedule? I would also test your source saltwater from the LFS. I would only use LFS water as a last resort, but that's just me. Buy an RO unit and make your own, you'll save money and know that you're producing perfect water.
Mag is low and having no NO3 and kinda low PO4 can cause issues, especially with softies. Use a skimmer and a small amount of carbon with softies, especially leathers and gorgs.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I will try to get an RO unit set up. I found one but I need to get new filters for it. I have tested the LFS water but I'm still concerned it may be the problem.

I try to do about a 10% water change each week but it is often closer to 20% every two weeks.

I will split my feedings into smaller more regular amounts.
 
minus9 said:
How often are you feeding the fish? If only once a day, feed several times a day, but small amounts. Don't be afraid of algae from overfeeding. I think a huge problem people have is starving their tanks and fish. Also, use ATI ICP, that way you can check your RO (top off) as well. Water change schedule? I would also test your source saltwater from the LFS. I would only use LFS water as a last resort, but that's just me. Buy an RO unit and make your own, you'll save money and know that you're producing perfect water.
Mag is low and having no NO3 and kinda low PO4 can cause issues, especially with softies. Use a skimmer and a small amount of carbon with softies, especially leathers and gorgs.
Click to expand...

Great advice especially feeding and carbon. My goni kept receding till I started feeding it. Now everything is doing better. I had a huge toadstool just dissolve and nuke a tank years ago. Leathers=carbon ime.
 
My suggestions would probably start with clearing out the rear of the tank....looks like its the least visible area. Remove the filter floss and try a different type of filter material. I would suggest Chemical Clean being that its an AIO tank. Next would be the Nitrate levels...and going towards doing a water change with freshly made saltwater of your own - preferably a 5 gallon bucket with store bought drinking water and any salt mixture of your liking. Grab a MaxiJet or small pump to mix the water with..... Siphon out sandbed, small sections at a time... Try to run the system one day with lights coming on. Make note of your waterflow and dead spots of flow.... If needed, add more water flow to assist with the corals.

Do you have a protein skimmer for the tank? If not, a good HOB skimmer would definitely worth adding to the system. sorry you mentioned a desktop skimmer. Any photos?

Try adding one drop of Lugol's Solution for the leather coral. Hopefully, my information was helpful. Good luck and definitely keep us all posted in the outcome.


- Larry
 
wishntoboutside said:
I would consider the following
ICP test, to check for metals or something out of wack.
Checking Salinity from another source to verify if correct.
water change and carbon. Calcium and mag are at tad low but for softies you should be ok. do you dose any Iodine or trace elements?
What are your current nitrates?

I hope this helps
Click to expand...

Richard,
This is the first that I've heard about these test. I'm about 80% sure it's my tap water. I'm going for round 3 right now. Will they test RO/DI water?
 
golfish said:
Richard,
This is the first that I've heard about these test. I'm about 80% sure it's my tap water. I'm going for round 3 right now. Will they test RO/DI water?
Click to expand...

The ATI ICP also test your rodi water. There are two tubes to fill up with tank water and one tube to fill up for rodi water for testing.
 
Update:

Thanks for the replies. Things look prety much the same. Most corals still closed. Looks like I have the beginning of a red algae outbreak. Here is what I have done so far.

* Small Water change (doing another one tonight) - I will check the back chambers and change out filter material tonight as well.
* Changed out filter floss
* Removed large leather coral
* moved to more smaller feedings
* Changed Rowaphas out for Carbon
* Checked Salinity (1.024)

[MENTION=12520]Waterman[/MENTION] - I am running a skimmer and it seems to be working well. I am running it a bit on the "dry" side

I am really grateful for the help and will keep you updated.
 
I would slowly raise your salinity to NSW levels, 35ppt (1.026). You barely have nutrients, which is why your corals are not looking good. Before we started to do all of this testing, we used our eyes to see what was going on in our tanks, observation is your biggest friend here. Your Rowaphos was stripping everything out and creating a "desert" for your corals. I would look into using Tropic Marin's All for reef as your 2 part/elements additions, it's what I'll be using on my 25g lagoon when I set it up. I think using a little bit of carbon is good and you really don't need anything more than this, just change it out every couple of weeks (use 3 or 4 tablespoons, that's all). Use your water changes to clean out your (siphon out) back chamber and any detritus in the display. Keep it simple and you'll notice a turn around shortly. Don't get stuck on numbers when it comes to nutrients, this is the quickest way to destroy a tank, use your eyes to see how your corals look. Once they return to their natural colors and fullness, then you can take a sample of the water see where everything is sitting. Don't freak out over numbers, just make note of it and move on. Moving your salinity back to normal (1.026) will give you accurate readings on your test kits, otherwise, you're just wasting time. All test kits were designed to work at normal/natural sea levels. Going above or below throws everything off, to a degree.
 
[MENTION=310552]minus9[/MENTION]

Thanks for the input. I started running Rowaphas because I was getting bad algae outbreaks. I switched to the small amount of carbon so hoping that makes a difference.

I will get the salinity up and then run the tests. That makes sense.
 
You can run still run the rowaphos, but just feed more to get your nutrients up a little. Its sort of counter productive but when you don't have any fish that eat algae, elevated nutrients become more of an issue in smaller tanks. Might be a good idea to up your clean up crew.

Controlling your source water should be your first step. RODI units are not that expensive. I would just buy one that already has the filters included. I don't think its worth it to buy a used one without filters, unless its a smokin deal.

Most water from the LFS is going to be lower salinity in order to off set the cost. Most are also not concerned with TDS for the same reason.
 
[MENTION=207066]BeanMachine[/MENTION]

Thanks, Cody. I am setting the RODI unit up as soon as I can.

I have a decent clean up crew but it was time for a refresher from reefcleaners so that is on the way

Some of this is a bit counterintuitive to me. I assumed my nitrates and phosphates were low because I was fighting constant algae outbreaks. It made sense to me that the algae was using them up. It never occurred to me that the issue was my water being too clean.

I even purchased an algae scrubber to start running on it. I haven’t set it up at this point, at least until I get the other things figure out but I was thinking I needed to clean my system up not “dirty” it up a bit.
 
How's it going! Been a while since we met up in Pasadena.

I went through something similar recently with my SPS where they were not doing well. I updated my lights and suddenly there was not enough nutrient for the SPS to handle the stronger lighting. While you're dealing with LPS/Softies concept is the same. Make sure there's a balance between amount of lighting/nutrient/trace elements so the corals are absorbing at maximum. Maybe try moving some of your corals lower/higher to see what happens. Keep salinity around 1.026 and do some major water changes. Good luck!
 
[MENTION=12258]isseym328[/MENTION]

Hey, James. It has been a while.

The lighting issue is still a question mark for me. I mentioned it in my initial post. I’ve seen too many examples of successful tanks with the radions to blame the lights but I also know that user error is more likely. I have moved corals around without impact. The jawbreaker mushrooms and torches are the most interesting because they were both thriving at some point in the location they are in.
 
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