To Shut Down or Not to Shut Down. That is the Question.

[Mike Lemming]

What's up guys? Sorry in advance for this long post, but I am at a loss..

I have been running a standard 6 foot 125g reef tank for just over 2 years now. I am on my 4th attempt at keeping sps corals and they are declining, again. And, it's been less then 2 weeks. For the most part, they are "easy to keep" sps like green slimer, birds nest, stylo, digi, bonsai, etc. I have a few other softies like leathers and zoas that are doing fine. My parameters aren't perfect but in no way should corals be dying.

Parameters as of 05/22/2025
Alk (Hanna): Stays consistent between 7.7 and 7.8
Cal (Hanna and Salifert): 420
Mag (Salifert): 1350
No3 (Hanna): 26.3
Po4 (Hanna): Between 0 and .02 (I have been dosing phosphates for a couple weeks slowly raising my dose)
Temp (Apex): 77-78
Par (Apogee Par Meter): (3 AI Hydra's and 2 Quanta LED Bars) Peaks for 4 hours between 200-320 while Quanta's are on
Salinity: (sg) 1.026 (calibrated Hanna pen before every use)

I have been doing a "Tank Audit' over the last few months and can't figure it out. I thought it may be flow, I fixed that for the most part. Heavy metals maybe? ICP came back nothing too high or low. Stray voltage? Multi meter says everything is fine. Fish nipping at the SPS? I set up a camera and watched on and off for hours, nothing.

At this point, I am stumped. Is something missing in the Biome? Is it something that I haven't thought of?

I have a rimless 65/70 gallon tank empty that I am thinking of restarting with. New rock, new sand etc.

Should I restart or continue to drive myself crazy trying to figure out this tank?!

Any and all help is appreciated.

-Mike

 

[Chris A.]

Try bringing your PO4 up to .05. Your light are very low in par numbers. Run peak around 350-450 and wait a few weeks and see the results. You could also try some poly filter and carbon to remove anything that doesn’t pop up. Also what’s your ph range day and night?

 

[Mixed Reefer]

What's up guys? Sorry in advance for this long post, but I am at a loss..

I have been running a standard 6 foot 125g reef tank for just over 2 years now. I am on my 4th attempt at keeping sps corals and they are declining, again. And, it's been less then 2 weeks. For the most part, they are "easy to keep" sps like green slimer, birds nest, stylo, digi, bonsai, etc. I have a few other softies like leathers and zoas that are doing fine. My parameters aren't perfect but in no way should corals be dying.

Parameters as of 05/22/2025
Alk (Hanna): Stays consistent between 7.7 and 7.8
Cal (Hanna and Salifert): 420
Mag (Salifert): 1350
No3 (Hanna): 26.3
Po4 (Hanna): Between 0 and .02 (I have been dosing phosphates for a couple weeks slowly raising my dose)
Temp (Apex): 77-78
Par (Apogee Par Meter): (3 AI Hydra's and 2 Quanta LED Bars) Peaks for 4 hours between 200-320 while Quanta's are on
Salinity: (sg) 1.026 (calibrated Hanna pen before every use)

I have been doing a "Tank Audit' over the last few months and can't figure it out. I thought it may be flow, I fixed that for the most part. Heavy metals maybe? ICP came back nothing too high or low. Stray voltage? Multi meter says everything is fine. Fish nipping at the SPS? I set up a camera and watched on and off for hours, nothing.

At this point, I am stumped. Is something missing in the Biome? Is it something that I haven't thought of?

I have a rimless 65/70 gallon tank empty that I am thinking of restarting with. New rock, new sand etc.

Should I restart or continue to drive myself crazy trying to figure out this tank?!

Any and all help is appreciated.

-Mike

That’s tough. How’s all the other corals in tank? How often are you testing? I have some trial corals for you if you keep going. Nothing special but you can have. Also at the club meeting we will be doing water testing. Bring yours. Maybe we’ll find an issue. How many ICP test have you done? Post the results so we can compare.

 

[Mike Lemming]

Try bringing your PO4 up to .05. Your light are very low in par numbers. Run peak around 350-450 and wait a few weeks and see the results. You could also try some poly filter and carbon to remove anything that doesn’t pop up. Also what’s your ph range day and night?

I have been dosing Phosphate trying to raise them over the last few few weeks and still running low. I raised my dose a bit this morning so we’ll see how that goes. See Ph below

 

[Mike Lemming]

That’s tough. How’s all the other corals in tank? How often are you testing? I have some trial corals for you if you keep going. Nothing special but you can have. Also at the club meeting we will be doing water testing. Bring yours. Maybe we’ll find an issue. How many ICP test have you done? Post the results so we can compare.

I don't have many other corals because I wanted this tank to be an SPS dominant tank from the start. I have a some zoas, 3 different leathers and a hammer that are all doing fine. i have been testing Alk, No3 and Po4 damn near every day for the last month. The last ICP I did was like 3 months ago (the last time I failed with SPS). I haven't done anything different as far as dosing or salt or routine.

Triton Lab Showroom - Explore this water test results and click on the image above.

Someone wants to show you the water test results and shared this link to the evaluation. Click on the image above to explore the water test results.

www.triton-lab.de

Here's a link to my ICP test.

 

[jayteerq]

DONT GIVE UP BRO

 

[Mike Lemming]

DONT GIVE UP BRO

I don't know bro. This tank is getting the best of me. I have never run a tank that his given me so many problem like this one. Makes me want to just start over!

 

[jayteerq]

Well lets share struggles. I've been dealing with Dinos since the start of my tank ~5 months. I have 10 aiptasia every square inch. And I just lost my Walt Disney frag & Copperband Butterfly last week. This hobby SUCKS sometimes but we have to keep pushing! Lol

 

[Mike Lemming]

Well lets share struggles. I've been dealing with Dinos since the start of my tank ~5 months. I have 10 aiptasia every square inch. And I just lost my Walt Disney frag & Copperband Butterfly last week. This hobby SUCKS sometimes but we have to keep pushing! Lol

I hear you bro! The struggle is real!

 

[NeverlosT]

Mike I know there are no guarantees in this hobby, but I can guarantee as long as your temp and alk and other params are stable, your problem is phosphate. It is way too low. Also consider that there is little to no downside to having a lot of phosphate.

Over the next week or so, dose enough to raise your phosphate 0.03 ppm or so each day. Test every day. Work your way up to 0.1ppm or a bit higher, then test regularly and dose as needed to stay there.

There is an excellent talk on the relationship between nitrate and phosphate, and I will try to find it for you, and it will confirm what I am telling you. Also, my comments come from experience.

Lastly, dont raise your PAR until you get phosphate higher.

Try that, and maintain everything else stable, and I sincerely believe you will turn things around over a course of 3 weeks or so.

 

[NeverlosT]

watch this vid

I think the NO 3/ PO 4 molar ratio for Coral (from the vid) is around 50, and it appears from this talk that shooting for a ratio of 50-300 is probably fine, but look at what you have:

With the equation NO3/P04 x 1.53 = ratio. so your ratio is currently 26.3/0.01 x1.53 = 4000. That is your problem in my opinion (and Charles Delbeek's opinion)

If you keep your nitrate stable, to have a healthy molar ratio you will need phosphate up a good bit (at least between 0.1-0.2ppm, maybe even a bit higher)

But just work in that direction. I am currently at 37ppm nitrate and 0.15ppm phosphate (and SPS are happy), so I am at 37/0.15 x 1.53 = 377 so I could stand to increase phosphate too (or reduce Nitrate some, which is what I will do with a WC). I tend to shoot for Nitrate around 20ppm and phosphate around 0.15ppm.

Dont go crazy and focus on the math here too much, just get your phosphate up slowly. Your tank needs some nitrate and phosphate, so I'd leave your nitrate for now, just get that phos up and be patient!

 

[Mike Lemming]

watch this vid

I think the NO 3/ PO 4 molar ratio for Coral (from the vid) is around 50, and it appears from this talk that shooting for a ratio of 50-300 is probably fine, but look at what you have:

With the equation NO3/P04 x 1.53 = ratio. so your ratio is currently 26.3/0.01 x1.53 = 4000. That is your problem in my opinion (and Charles Delbeek's opinion)

If you keep your nitrate stable, to have a healthy molar ratio you will need phosphate up a good bit (at least between 0.1-0.2ppm, maybe even a bit higher)

But just work in that direction. I am currently at 37ppm nitrate and 0.15ppm phosphate (and SPS are happy), so I am at 37/0.15 x 1.53 = 377 so I could stand to increase phosphate too (or reduce Nitrate some, which is what I will do with a WC). I tend to shoot for Nitrate around 20ppm and phosphate around 0.15ppm.

Dont go crazy and focus on the math here too much, just get your phosphate up slowly. Your tank needs some nitrate and phosphate, so I'd leave your nitrate for now, just get that phos up and be patient!

I appreciate it man. Do you think there is a limit to how much I can raise Po4 in a day (like for Alk, they tell you not to raise more than 1dkh in a day)? The bottle tells me to dose like 5ml's to bring it up .01. I have been dosing 10ml's for the last (almost) 2 weeks. Wednesday night it was .012 and then last night read 0. Today, I dosed 12 ml's and will see what it brings. I honestly don't want to break this tank down as it is a relatively mature system..

 

[dz6t]

Before you give up, change 75% of the water with Reefcrystals salt purchased from Chewy or Amazon. Make sure the salinity is 1.025 to 1.027.

 

[Mixed Reefer]

I don't have many other corals because I wanted this tank to be an SPS dominant tank from the start. I have a some zoas, 3 different leathers and a hammer that are all doing fine. i have been testing Alk, No3 and Po4 damn near every day for the last month. The last ICP I did was like 3 months ago (the last time I failed with SPS). I haven't done anything different as far as dosing or salt or routine.

Triton Lab Showroom - Explore this water test results and click on the image above.

Someone wants to show you the water test results and shared this link to the evaluation. Click on the image above to explore the water test results.

www.triton-lab.de

Here's a link to my ICP test.

Try bringing your PO4 up to .05. Your light are very low in par numbers. Run peak around 350-450 and wait a few weeks and see the results. You could also try some poly filter and carbon to remove anything that doesn’t pop up. Also what’s your ph range day and night?

@Chris A. Nice check on lighting. I would definitely up the par too over an extended period of time. I shoot for 450par for my tank at top of water. For phosphate just feed your coral, easy fix. Reef Roids will raise that in one feeding.

 

[Mixed Reefer]

I don't have many other corals because I wanted this tank to be an SPS dominant tank from the start. I have a some zoas, 3 different leathers and a hammer that are all doing fine. i have been testing Alk, No3 and Po4 damn near every day for the last month. The last ICP I did was like 3 months ago (the last time I failed with SPS). I haven't done anything different as far as dosing or salt or routine.

Triton Lab Showroom - Explore this water test results and click on the image above.

Someone wants to show you the water test results and shared this link to the evaluation. Click on the image above to explore the water test results.

www.triton-lab.de

Here's a link to my ICP test.

Yeah just one test? Nothing to compare. It would be nice to have a test done when tank is running good. Then when issues arise like this you have something to relate to.

Question were your Acros sourced from same place?
I don’t remember what type of rock you started with. Was it Marco? Did you start new or did you purchase used rock from someone’s system.

 

[Mike Lemming]

Yeah just one test? Nothing to compare. It would be nice to have a test done when tank is running good. Then when issues arise like this you have something to relate to.

Question were your Acros sourced from same place?
I don’t remember what type of rock you started with. Was it Marco? Did you start new or did you purchase used rock from someone’s system.

I have a test that I can send out on Tuesday so see the most recent numbers but this is the fourth time I've tried sps in this tank with zero success. This time, I got them from an online vender. wysiwyg that looked healthy in the pictures. They looked healthy when I got them as well but have just continued to decline since going on.

I had a couple structures that were wet for year before I put them into the new tank with another couple of structures that were freshly built. All structures were built from new marco rock.

 

[Mike Lemming]

Before you give up, change 75% of the water with Reefcrystals salt purchased from Chewy or Amazon. Make sure the salinity is 1.025 to 1.027.

Thanks Dong, but why Reefcrystals?

 

[TPhan]

Not to reset!
Starting over wont guarrantee u will solve whatever problems u have maybe u will run into more problems. Why not just add more of the softies or lps that are doing well at the moment. Fill up that rockwork so there is less realestates for unwanted pest to colonize. Maintain a stable system till u have a nice thriving tank then circle back and try some easy sticks again. When that time comes, source your sps locally from a healthy thriving system, this will help them better acclimate to your tank without the shippimg stress.

 

[dz6t]

Thanks Dong, but why Reefcrystals?

Because it less likely to get a bad batch.

 

[NeverlosT]

Before you give up, change 75% of the water with Reefcrystals salt purchased from Chewy or Amazon. Make sure the salinity is 1.025 to 1.027.

Dong i think his sps problem is zero phosphate, im afraid water changes will make it worse unless he doses phosphate to the new saltwater?