what am i doing wrong?

[mos90]

i have had my 28gal tank running for about 9 months. i also have a 15g fuge/sump with cheato.

for about 4 months not ive been battling stn on my sps's with no improvement.

here is a list of equiptment running.

bio-pellet reactor w/ 100ml of pellets(started after stn)
aqua c remora and tunze 9002 skimmer.
ato with kalk topoff.
bubblemagus doser for 2 part.
150w phoenix mh with actinic suppliment. run for 5 hours and 10 hours.
2 mp10's on nutrient transport set at 60%
sump flows about 300gph.
brs phos reactor.
carbon changed every 3 weeks.

when i had the calcium reactor 2 months ago, i did have a problem keeping alk stable but it has been rock solid since i switched to 2 part and kalk.

here are my water parameters.

alk -8.5dkh always stays close within .2 within a week period
phos- .02
nitrate-2
calcium-410
mag-1350
ph 8.2-8.35
temp 77-79

ive been doing about 10% wc every 3 weeks. with i/o reef cystals. i was using d-d salt for a short period, maybe a mistake.

ive tried lower alk, higher alk, more flow, less flow, amino acid dosing, plankton feeding, trace elements. nothing seemed to help. randy told me to stop dosing everything.

i know there is no definate answer to this problem but im very frustrated. im thinking everything looks good but obviously i must be missing something.

the stn is starting at the base, then hair algae grows on them and i have to frag them. seems to keep repeating even after i frag and dip. only 1 of my monti's seem to be doing good for some reason.

another thought. the tank it definately overstocked. i plan to thin it out and move all my sps corals to my 125 that is currently cycling. maybe there is some sort of chemical battle between my leathers(finger and toadstool) and my sps's. i know people keep leathers and sps's together but im wondering if the tank is just to small for them to be mixed.

also i have 6-fish . algae blenny,tomato clown,percula clown,purple firefish, striped damsel, six line wrasse.

1- rose bubbletip anemone.

any idea's of the problem would definately help. thanks in advance.

 

[mos90]

maybe i could reduce the photo period. i could try 4 hours for mh's and 8 hour for actinics.

 

[James404]

Just a thought, have you tried dipping to check for AEFW?

 

[mos90]

im not sure what that is.

 

[murphreef]

Acro Eating Flat Worms

They kill corals by eating them slowly... do a search... easy to tell if you have them... pull a coral out of the tank put it in a clear container take a baster and blow them off with the baster to see what comes off... if a oval opaque color flat worm comes off then you have AEFW's just check because these are very common these days in the trade due to poor pest management they spread easily... if not its really hard to say... maybe change your salt mix again and try new test kits?? I dont dose anything in my tank and rarely change my water... i run carbon in a fluidized media holder but thats about it.. hopefully you get this figured out

 

[mos90]

i did some reasearch on aefw. it is definately possible. coral r/x supposedly can kill them. but i dont think it can kill the eggs. i still plan to frag all of my sps's dip them and transfer to my new tank.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Do you have any pics to share so we can take a closer look to you corals?

 

[mos90]

not a very good picture. i can try to get some more. but for now look at the orange digitata and the hawkins blue in the top part. since this picture i had to frag both of them and my birdsnests are looking bad.

 

[mos90]

better pictures

 

[murphreef]

hm,mmm deff not AEFW's they do not attack birdsnest or digis

this is some sort of STN bottom up... typicall I have found this to happen when water flow is too low or alk is off.... looks like you have a MP10 so i doubt flow is too low unless you have it set very low??

I would try checking alk again with a different kit... what are u testing with now?? otherwise the tank looks healthy ...

 

[mos90]

i am using a hanna alk meter and backed it up with a salfert test. always reads 145-155 ppm. maybe its to high for the pellets?

maybe they are starving?

as far as flow.. i have 2 mp10's set on rtm at 60% speed.

 

[murphreef]

man that is odd ... i dont think it's about starving them because typically low low nutrient tanks the corals look pastel / pale not so much STN....

what salt are you using currently again?

 

[mos90]

yes it is odd. i was originally using i/o reef crystals. then i switched to d-d salt. if i remember correctly that is when i started having problems. then i slowly switched back to i/o rc. it didnt help. maybe i should do a large water change.

 

[murphreef]

yea man its a tough one but ive always had good luck with Tropic Marin... i had issues with a salt before but it wasnt one of those you are using

 

[mos90]

the problem is it could be so many things, but i checked everything i know.

 

[lolgranny]

Im stumped. The only thing i would want to do is raise my alk / ca up a bit. Even so i was keeping mine around 8 for a little while and had very minimal problems. My ORA purple plasma / carolinina. I raised my alk to 10 and Ca to 450 and they are both growing back. The plasma grew back from 1 polyp and the carolinina is on its way back as well.

What kits are you using to test?
Are you blasting the corals with direct flow?

 

[mos90]

The funny thing is the corals with the most direct flow are doing the best. If I turn the mp10s higher I get a sand storm.

I use hanna meter for phos,alk,nitrate and seachem test kits for calcium and mag.

The only thing that worries me is that most people that run pellets keep alk around 8. Any higher seems to cause alk burn. I could give it a shot. What can it hurt.

 

[murphreef]

maybe you should remove the bio pellet reactor... i am assuming used for nitrate removers? or is it just simply pellets to house nitrifying bacteria?

i typically think the simpler the better

 

[wizardx322]

if your going to raise alk make sure you do it slowly. i have mine at 11 with no issues.

light is not an issue i run mine mh 7 hours and t5's 10 hrs

if you have bio pellets are you over feeding? if your not you might want to start.
bio pellets work well but too well since they strip out too much nutrients. to help this out you need to overfeed.

 

[aniceplace]

Lighting could be an issue depending on the type of reflector, photo-period, and how close to the water you have them. I recently changed my reflectors and had to both raise my lights and reduce the photo period. In the process I lost a birds nest by stn. GOod luck.