I can keep fish, not corals

[Scorpius]

Tank is an 18in cube

Temp 80
Alk 9.8
Calcium 434
Magnesium 1450
Salinity 1.026
Nitrate 0 per API test kit
Phosphates show 0 per Hanna Checker, not ultra low range checker
Lighting Kessil A360we
--Maximum intensity is 20% and color is 45% 8 hrs total photo period.
--Eshoops PSK 100H skimmer
--Ecotech MP-10 set on Reefcrest 80%. No night mode.
--I run two tablespoons of BRS HC GFO and .08 ROX carbon which I change out weekly. I also do a weekly 5 gal water change.
-- I have a BRS dosing pump running at 12pm,8pm, and 4am dosing 3.3ml total of BRS Alkalinity. I usually dose calcium once a week if that. Magnesium supplemented twice a month.

Inhabitants
--Two clownfish
--One Blue Damselfish
--Two Mexican Turbo snails
--One peppermint shrimp.
--Three Red Legged hermit crabs

Corals
One dead/soon to be Stylophora
One burned Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
One dead Acropora
One hanging one purple plating Montipora


I can't seem to keep corals. They don't RTN. They slowly fade/bleach and finally STN. I'm beginning to think I burned them with my lighting as I probably didn't acclimate them slow enough. I have green algae on my rocks and glass so I don't think I have ultra low nutrients.

I have the beginnings of coraline algae growing on my MP-10. I'm just racking my brain trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong when my parameters seem like they are where they are supposed to be. I don't like killing corals.

I put the purple monti on the bottom of my tank with access to full light. I noticed lightening of it within a week and put it back in the shade. It seems to have stabilized so far.

[Scorpius]

My fish grow like weeds.

[Moray26]

Try keeping soft corals for now and see how they work! Easiest corals to keep.

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by Moray26

Try keeping soft corals for now and see how they work! Easiest corals to keep.

Any suggestions? I'd be thrilled to have just one coral stay healthy and grow.

[kissman]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

I run two tablespoons of BRS HC GFO and .08 ROX carbon which I change out weekly .

water might be to clean

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by kissman

water might be to clean

But I have algae, way more than any tank I've seen on the forum.

[kissman]

then you Nitrates and Phospahtes are not trully zero the algea is consuming them. Need to find the source of the nutrients. Are you using RO/DI water?

[rEeFnWrX]

You will not have ULNS by just using skimmer/carbon/gfo. Dosing of some sort is required whether it be carbon dosing or a system like ZEOVit.


18in cube? 25 gallon tank? Is this a new setup, how long has it been running. The smaller the tank the more impact minor changes will have on water quality. The more sensitive you have to be with your water changes etc...


What is your water source? Do you have your own RODI unit, are you buying your water from LFS?



Which ever it is, I would test the source water... If you are using your tapwater does your mud district use chloramines? If so you need special carbon blocks for chloramine removal as typical carbon will not work.

Test for silicates as well.

[Scorpius]

Well water is my source. I use RO/DI exclusively, that I make. Tank was setup in May 2014.

[ReefsandGeeks]

+1 on starting with easier corals. Mushrooms and other soft corals should be fairly easy to keep. Go on Liveaquaria and look at there beginner corals and see what you like, then pick one up at your LFS.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/a...cfm?c=597+2856
When I got into coral I started with a green finger leather, mushroom leather, watermellon zoas, a red zoa, hammer coral, and Green birdsnest. (all frags). I didn't have any problem with any of them. My setup is similar to yours, 40 gallon though. I'm not familiar with your lights, but it seems thay are propperly sized to me. I have 160W max LED over my 40g tall (24 inch tall with 4 inch sand bed). I started my lights on very low, and increased intensity every day by just a tad, not enough to tell by looiking at the light, but I know I turned the knob. Probably took 1 month to get up to my final power, which is 100% blues, and maybe 30% whites. so 65% of 160W full power = 104W for my 40 gallon tank.

A young tank takes time to stabalize, and the perameter swings are often worse than perameters that are off. Trying to maintain stable perameters should be the most important thing IMO. I didn't see anywhere you mentinoning the age of the tank. I waited 6 months for coral, though I've heard of people having sucess sooner.

[ReefsandGeeks]

BTW, the LEDs I have are strong enough on my settings to keep any SPS coral. Depending on how bright your lights were, they could have been light shocked when introduced.

[lllesley]

Originally Posted by rEeFnWrX

You will not have ULNS by just using skimmer/carbon/gfo. Dosing of some sort is required whether it be carbon dosing or a system like ZEOVit.


18in cube? 25 gallon tank? Is this a new setup, how long has it been running. The smaller the tank the more impact minor changes will have on water quality. The more sensitive you have to be with your water changes etc...


What is your water source? Do you have your own RODI unit, are you buying your water from LFS?



Which ever it is, I would test the source water... If you are using your tapwater does your mud district use chloramines? If so you need special carbon blocks for chloramine removal as typical carbon will not work.

Test for silicates as well.

Hi,
you can run a ULNS with just skimmer. GFO, carbon.
I run a system, no carbon dosing or Zeovit and my numbers are always great.
Nitrates 0.00 to 0.02 phos 0.00 to 0.03.
no algae, in fact have just had to sell off all my snails and now I am having to feed my abalone every day because she is starving.
I think it really depends on the system you running.
I successfully keep LPS & SPS.
And I know many reefers who don't carbon dose with ULNS as well.

I think an important factor are what kind of lights your running ?

[rEeFnWrX]

Originally Posted by lllesley

Hi,
you can run a ULNS with just skimmer. GFO, carbon.
I run a system, no carbon dosing or Zeovit and my numbers are always great.
Nitrates 0.00 to 0.02 phos 0.00 to 0.03.
no algae, in fact have just had to sell off all my snails and now I am having to feed my abalone every day because she is starving.
I think it really depends on the system you running.
I successfully keep LPS & SPS.
And I know many reefers who don't carbon dose with ULNS as well.

I think an important factor are what kind of lights your running ?

That has been the debate for a long time... remember majority of the tests this hobby uses are not extremely accurate and don't test down to extremely low ranges. Just because your tests show 0 nitrate and low phosphate does not mean you are ULNS...

[rEeFnWrX]

Keep in mind.. it can be done with other methods other than dosing... Bio pellets, algae scrubbers, sulfur based de-nitrators... Big refugiums can assist in removing nutrients as well but a true ULNS system is not just your API test kit saying you have 0 nitrates or your salifert test saying you have low phosphate. A true ULNS goes beyond what just carbon and GFO can do.

[lllesley]

Originally Posted by rEeFnWrX

That has been the debate for a long time... remember majority of the tests this hobby uses are not extremely accurate and don't test down to extremely low ranges. Just because your tests show 0 nitrate and low phosphate does not mean you are ULNS...

Certainly understand what you saying about test kits etc. So then let me ask you a question, What does prove you run a ULNS ?

[lllesley]

Originally Posted by rEeFnWrX

Keep in mind.. it can be done with other methods other than dosing... Bio pellets, algae scrubbers, sulfur based de-nitrators... Big refugiums can assist in removing nutrients as well but a true ULNS system is not just your API test kit saying you have 0 nitrates or your salifert test saying you have low phosphate. A true ULNS goes beyond what just carbon and GFO can do.

Agree very much that there are many other ways of achieving ULNS, if its not just a test kit telling you, how do you actually know then ?

[Greaser84]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

Any suggestions? I'd be thrilled to have just one coral stay healthy and grow.

Green star polyps are very easy to keep. They grow like weeds. GSP was my first coral.

[rEeFnWrX]

Originally Posted by lllesley

Agree very much that there are many other ways of achieving ULNS, if its not just a test kit telling you, how do you actually know then ?

It varies from system to system.



Did you ever acclimate the coral to your lights? Either by decreasing the photo period per day and slowly ramping it up over a few weeks? Or by decreasing the intensity and slowly ramping that up? Corals need to be acclimated to light especially if going to LED's. LED's are very focused beams of light and corals need to be acclimated to them.

[Mcgeezer]

Led's definitely can photoshock corals. I'd definitely lit acclimate any new additions from bottom to top over about 2 weeks.

I use t5 solely because the array of colors are endless and par is consistent.

Your parameters seem fine to me, but if you have algae, I can promise you that 2 tbsp of GFO is simply not enough. You likely have phosphate issues. Eliminate the source and you will alleviate your problems.

[rEeFnWrX]

Originally Posted by Mcgeezer

Your parameters seem fine to me, but if you have algae, I can promise you that 2 tbsp of GFO is simply not enough. You likely have phosphate issues. Eliminate the source and you will alleviate your problems.

+1

Another reason why test kits aren't enough to justify a ULNS system... If you have algae growing you have phosphates. Your test may only show .02 phosphates which may be the same level as someone else with a ZEOvit system with coral growing like wildfire... but they may have limited algae growth... Aglae is constantly taking in phosphate. So if you have algae growing 5x's faster than the other person but both have the same phosphate levels... You have a lot more nutrient/phosphate than they do.

My point is, focus less on the test result and more on the source of whats being introduced and causing issues. test results really only let you know when something is going really really bad....