Unhappy corals

[melanie11]

Hey, I'm to a point of desperation and need some advice. I've had the tank for a year, slowly adding new corals and fish. At this point still not much in the tank. Everything was happy until a few weeks ago and i can't figure out what is wrong. Nitrates are a little high 16-32ppm, but this is nothing new. I have been struggling with the problem for a year and they are actually lower now than 6 months ago. Ammonia and nitrites are 0, phosphates are between .08 and .16ppm, salinity is 1.025, calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, temp and pH are within suggested limits! I am to a point of giving up. Any suggestions would be helpful, please! And when I say they are unhappy they are just not opening up like they should. One of my goniaporia is dying off but the other is just unhappy. I just don't get it!
Thanks in advance

 

[Icefire]

pics?

 

[IndyMatt]

What fish do you have?

Having the correct stats but getting the stable is even more important. Has there been any large swings in Alk, PH, or even salinity? These could be caused by water changes as well.

 

[rmgaspar]

Hello,

I would say with those values of phosphate and NO3 corals will not be happy unless you give a huge amount of light for them to process those nutrients.

Don't forget that you have an error range which means that the values can actually be higher ...

All the best,
Rui

 

[markalot]

calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, temp and pH are within suggested limits!

Alk is one of the most important numbers for health of SPS and it needs to be steady. Calcium and Mag can be ok within suggested limits but Alk not only should be in range but also as steady as you can keep it.

So has Alk been steady?

 

[melanie11]

I have a yellow tang, a pair of white clowns, a mandarin and a bicolour angelfish. The Mg was low and I supplemented to bring it up. It did increase more than I calculated (20ppm rather than 10ppm) alkalinity, temp, pH, etc has been steady!
I know the NO3 is high,but that too has been steady (I have been struggling with it for the whole year) but, we had a lot of the red slimy algae growing so we turned down the lights...do you think that could be it????