Softies looking ill and SPS thriving

So here's my latest dilemma. I decided to go with 2 SPS and 5 LPS corals to add to my tank that already houses Zoas, Kenya tree a pipe organ coral. My water has been at 0 nitrates for a month now and my last water change was 2 weeks ago. And surprisingly I got my POS seaclone skimmer working right from mods and taking the nasty stuff out and keeping my tank super clean. Just the day before yesterday and today, I noticed that all my soft corals are staying closed and not really looking good except for Kenya tree and the LPS and SPS that are looking nice and fully open polyps. I do run GFO/GAC reactor but only 1/2 cup total of both for 60 gallons. I have no clue what's going on with these little guys but I'm starting to think that my water might be a little "too clean" for them and maybe skimmed out some trace elements? Tomorrow I'm going to change out 5 gallons of water to just "freshen" up the vitamins and minerals a bit. Any suggestions from you more experienced guys would be great. I think I put all my params....
Ca- 470
Alk-10.1 dKH
ph-8.17-8.22
Mag-1480
Amonia/Nitrites/Nitrates-0
1.025

 

Mag seems a bit high. I keep mine around 1350. Other lvls seem fine.

Are you using a calibrated refractometer? Sounds simple but if your salt is wrong a number of things can contribute to the problem.

How did you add your corals to the tank? What was your acclimation like? Drip? Temp only?

Different carbons/GFO perform differently. Half a cup of GFO sounds right if you are using high capacity. Are you getting a 0 on your phosphate tests? Not that getting a zero tells you the whole story but its a starting point.

 

I wish I was using a refractometer. I'm still doing it the hydrometer way. That could be a possible issue for me. All my soft coral I acclimated temp first then 1/2 cup of water per 20 min until I put about half gallon in there and dropped them in. Phosphates I don't have a test for. And what gets me is that my soft coral are about 3 months old and they were doing great until recently. I do use an ATO so I know my salinity hasn't been jumping around. I do however have some brown algae on my sand and rocks. I don't know if that matters much.

 

Not exactly uncommon, most softies don't care for SPS water quality as good as sewer life. Sometimes you can mix them but you often won't see both types their happiest at the same time.

 

Yea. you're right. I gotta make my pick now I guess.

 

Not exactly on bored with this. I have a mixed reef and all seems great. I think something else is going on here with his tank. Do you have pictures of the different corals?

 

Here's a few from the phone. sorry for quality. The first one I think is a starburst coral that's all closed up. I've had him for 3 months and started really small. The second is my glove polyp not pipe organ coral. sorry for that mistake. They are also 3 months and started with just 3 polyps, now all closed up. And the last I've had for 1 month and was growing great with just 3 polyps it started off as and now closed as well.

 

I wouldn't expect your softies to die in your water. Some don't thrive when you're trying to please both categories, but "clean" water won't kill them. They are photosynthetic corals and will get enough light to keep them going if your SPS are doing fine. Could it be too much light for them? Do you have fish in there?

But your sandbed shows that your tank has more than enough detritus in there.

 

I have 2 ocellaris clowns and a flame angel which only has an acquired taste for my Kenya tree a little but that doesn't bother me. That thing grows too much either way. My sand bed is covered in a diatom outbreak that's been going on for a month already. It's slowly starving out however.

 

Diatoms are awesome for feeding coral because the pods love it!!! Corals love pods. If you are feeding fish, don't worry about the amount of food your softies are getting. They're fine. There's something else ticking them off.

What lights do you have?