Red Sea Recipe for Red Sea Max Nano

[Herndog]

I have been following the mixed reef recipe for months and my tank is not doing well. I think I had better luck following no recipe and no dosing and with reef crystals and water changes. I am dosing Alk and NoPox and Calcium although not using much calcium.

I setup this Nano buying the best of everything and following the recipe yet my beautiful little birdsnest is almost fleshless. My Hulk Lepto is almost white. My other corals losing color.

My Nitrates and phosphates had hit near zero so I overfed to bring back up and now my tank is full of algae again. It is getting so frustrating seeing this.

I bought a cleanup crew and it seems like a few days later is when things went south. I have seen the hermit crabs on the birdsnet and other corals. Plent of algae for them so I do not know if they are causing the damage or what.

Maybe a Nano is just not for me... Should have gone big or gone home.

[Herndog]

I apparently had chlorine breakthrough in my last two water changes( I smelled it in my filtered water bottles and thought it was just a smell from the bottles ). I do run carbon in tank. Maybe that breakthrough started the downturn. I have since purchased a new full size RODI with Catalytic carbon since we have chloramines.

I wasn't aware we have chloramines but we do.

Water from the new RODI has zero odor. I may have been putting some chlorine/chloramines in my tank for a month.

[mcgyvr]

Thats not possible.. Red Seas Recipes always work perfect for everyone/everytime.. :uhoh2::facepalm::uhoh3:

Hermit crabs IMO are a poor choice for a Nano tank.. They will eat just about everything if they want and they will certainly go after dying/weak corals..

Corals like stability... Stability in a nano tank is much more difficult to maintain..
The Red Sea programs from what I saw make rather large assumptions in thinking they know when a tanks parameters will be what and how much a tank will consume.. This will likely lead to instability too..
How old was/is your tank?

[Herndog]

This tank - 6 months. All things have been lab stable checked with multiple test kits. Only issue was the chlorine breakthrough which I should have followed my instinct when I smelled it.:headwalls:

Instinct is also telling me these hermit crabs are killing my corals which were doing great two days prior to adding the cleanup crew.

I have caught the crabs in and on the corals that are losing flesh and going pale. Not sure if they are the cause or after the fact.

[mcgyvr]

Crabs WILL go after dead/decaying coral flesh.. They are unlikely to be a cause..

And no tank at only 6 months is "stable".. ;)
Its quite rare to have SPS corals.. Even the easier ones do well in such a young tank..

I don't think you are really experiencing anything beyond the normal new tank life..

[Herndog]

OK it has been a while since I started a new tank let alone a Nano. My smallest reef tank prior was a 75. I guess I am accustomed to more stability from a larger tank.