help please ... the little tank is dying

[typemismatch]

Hi,

I have an 20G tank which has been fine for over 5 months but over the last month it is looking really bad. The corals are always closed, pulse xenia looks almost dead ...

The tank has 1x Fluval 304 external, 1x Surface Skimmer, 78W PC Lights. The temp is at 80F. 2 Clown Fish, 1 Shrimp and various Toad Corals, Xenia and a Flower Pot.

pH is fine, all other tests show no nutrients, no ammonia or nitrite etc. I have been adding (once a week) coral suppliments but they haven't helped.

Basically the corals are showing signs of low nutrients but I am getting red algae growing which would suggest otherwise but all my testing shows low nutrients as well .... water changes aren't helping.

any suggestions would be great

Thanks
Craig

[jeepjon]

keep up with the water changes, and what supplements are you using? Some can be toxic if not kept in check. If you're doing many water changes, supplementation (besides calcium and alkalinity) is usually unneccessary. Do you have a protein skimmer? What about your salinity? Do you feed often? Do you have a Live sand bed in the tank? We're going to need a lot of information to try and help you. Do you topoff the tank with tap water, R/O water. Have you used copper in the tank? These are some of the things that should be in the "differential diagnosis" of this tank. I'll need you to give me some more information (I need a better history on this patient).

[typemismatch]

Here is some more info;

The tank is topped up with R/O water. I did find the sg down to 017 ... oops so that is back up already. I hand feed the two clowns a little food each day. The tank has a live sand bed 1/2 inch deep. I never used to do lots of water changes but I have tried that to no avail. I was also using all the carbon that came with the 304 (3x big bags) I have removed that from the filter now.

thanks

[typemismatch]

ok. ... so after taking my water to be tested I found the following

salinity was low as I suspected ... .017
the Kh was 16 ....
alkalinity was off the scale ...

so the water was a little hard I think

I did a 75% water change .... lets see what happens.

-c

[shaggydoo541]

Well sounds like you found the issue let us know if it makes a comeback. Good luck

[Twitterbait]

When you start to see the polyps come out again you might look at doing some targeted feedings with DT's or some kind of plankton. I have found that to help perk my coral up when there is an issue. Good luck.

[jeepjon]

Get those params back to normal, and keep up with the water changes, unless the water changes are contributing to the problem? How is your R/O membrane? are you dosing alkalinity? Could that have done it, or do you think your make-up or top off water could be contributing to the high levels (and low salinity). If you really think about it, in relation to the rest of the ions in the water, with it being a low salinity, the kh is even higher than that! (and I thought KH was alkalinity, unless you're measuring general hardness as Kh and alkalinity in another measurement). If you don't understand what I just said, that's ok, I barely understand what I just said :P . If you have a level of say...calcium. At 1.025 salinity, you can have a 400ppm level, but if your salinity is 1.021 and you have a 400ppm level, it is seen as higher in relation to the other ions in the water (it takes up a larger proportion of the ions at a lower salinity). Anyway..get those levels down, and keep us updated.

[typemismatch]

Hi everyone,

My wording earlier was a little off ... after the panic I wasn't thinking straight. So to summerize the following were off somehow ...

Salinity was 017, pH was >8.9 (erm don't ask), kH was 16.

My topup water is ok, tested that, the water change water is also ok, the only thing I was putting in the tank was a seachem buffer which said could never be overdosed and would hold the pH at 8.3 ... liars I think so right now the pH is back to 8.4, kH is at 11 and the salinity is at 023 so all close enough for now.

The corals are still closed but look better, the colt has color back, the xenia is trying to pulse ... the fish ... they don't even know anything happend

now time will tell ....

Thanks
Craig

[typemismatch]

everything is almost back to normal! The leathers are almost completely out again, everything else even the flower pot is open again.

me

[paullav]

I'd suggest sticking with nothing but R.O for the tank, in my opinion, there isn't a better step you can take for nano reefs than regular water changes with good water. What salt mix are you using?

[typemismatch]

I am using Instant Ocean.


-c