Corals wont stay alive

Hey here is the short and not being mean just the straight honest truth

you need to get you phosphats in check
you need to set up a auto top off of some kind ( if you really want to kept sps ) sg moving around will kill them

have to get temp undercontrol ( I know its moving around ) everyones does even with chillers

get your alk under control .. if your buying DI water bottled are you sure its not alkaline water ?
if your losing LPS coral and its melting away is I have seen a buntch of time is heat and sg
also everyone here is trying to help you :/

 

The algae is GHA I'm sure of that. and it keeps working in a cycle. itll die off then come back slowly. It may have been the feedings b.c i was getting sloppy. but i have backed of feeding as much, did so slowly. its frozen brine/ pellets alternating every other day now.

Phosphates were a concern that i had as they had gotten high, so ive been running the phosguard for almost a week now. have replaced it 2x now.

And I considered a black out but was unsure of the effects it would have on the corals. with them being photosynthetic.

 

Healthy corals do fine with a 3-4 day complete blackout. Compromised corals might not be able to tolerate it. The coral in my avatar went through a 4 day black out without issue as did all my other corals.

You have some different options now.

I have a feeling the problem with the tank is cumlative. A combination of dosing possibly too much and high phosphate level, and possible parameter swings. Nano can sometimes be a real challenge. Some fine tuning and it should come around.

 

i understand the sg problem now. Did not know that the small top offs each day would cause a large enough swing to not be able to keep sps. As for temperature, honestly there is not much change in the temperature. I have a digital thermometer and look at the readings each morning. The tank starts at 80.2 and goes to 80.8 by the end of the day. and i know it may be hard to believe but thats the honest truth.

 

Alright thanks for all the help. Ill try the blackout and keep combating the phosphate problem as best as i can. I knew doing a nano reef was going to be a challenge but I was up for it. Had a 20 and 40 gal in High School but it was FOWLR so things were a bit easier.

 

Where are you getting your water from? Do you have the ability to measure TDS with anything from the school? That would be my first suspicion, maybe invest in a cheap RO/DI from Bulkreefsupply and just start creating your own water. Or buy some from a LFS on a trial basis. Seems awfully suspicious that even zoos and LPS and dying right away...

 

3 red flags for me:

1. Dosing
2. Using well water & bottled distilled water
3. GHA problem (probably from the water)

 

In addition to what others have said, I would never use Algaefix in a reef. Algaefix is a potent biocide.... If your a biochem magor you should understand the danger of adding such a chemical to a reef with sensitive inverts.

 

I only use well water to clean the equipment, besides that, now well water enters the tank. I wont be able to get my hands on one of the TDS meters until I begin working in the lab again at the end of aug. but what are you asking for me to test? the tank or the bottled water.
As for using distilled water from bottles, I do not see what the problem is there. Distilled water is pure H2O and nothing more and is virtually the as RODI unit. Is there something Im missing here? I do understand the concerns with using it in years past due to the irresponsible bottling practices but times have changed. It is the same distilled water that we use in some of our labs. Yes we also have a RODI until but it does not always keep up with amount needed on a weekly basis.

As for the Algaefix, all the research i had done on it previous to use showed that there was no problems associated with its use in a tank.

FYI : poly(oxyethylene(dimethyliminio) ethylene(dimethyliminio) ethylene dichloride is the active ingredient. It is an cationic polymeric algaecide, when administered correctly to a tank, will have no affect on the livestock contained. When administered in large amounts it become toxic to everything, even ourselves. However there is barely enough of this chemical contained in one bottle to do even the slightest damage to a reef. It is only meant to help solve the problem. Ultimately it wont solely do this and I do not expect it to. I believe it was the feedings doing me in. I have cut back and have been running a phosphate remover and was using it to help the tank along.

 

i would question the bulb configuration. with just 3 T5s, i would want at least two full spectrum bulbs combined with just one actinic.