SPS dying and some LPS struggling

[RaymondNoodles]

Over the last couple months my SPS has been slowly dying. The sunset monti I've had for 6 months and it was doing great up until 1 month ago. The acro I've had for 4 months which was doing well for the first 2 months but has since completely died. The favia I've had for 9 months which recently started losing tissue. Three out of the four acans look decent but haven't grown much in 9 months. One acan has never done good from the start and is dying slowly. Torch seems very happy and has doubled in size surprisingly. Soft corals are doing very well but I can't figure out what's wrong with the SPS. About 5 months ago I started using kalkwasser. Alkalinity rose from 8 to 10.5 over the course of a few months. I've been reading that low nutrients and high alk can be a bad combination. I gradually decreased the kalk dosing and lowered alkalinity from 10.5 to 9.5 over the course of a month, but my pH has been lower as a result. Previously pH stayed between 8.05 and 8.2. These days it's 7.8 to 8. Another change that I made about 2 months ago was adding a second wave maker for a total of 2 Octo Pulse 2's. I put them on opposite sides of the tank on random with max 35%. The single wave maker was also running at 35% before adding the second. Tank had dinos and cyano in the first 2 months but no signs in the last 10 months. Noticed my UV bulb was dim and ballast was abnormally hot 2 months ago so I filed a claim with Lifeguard Aquatics and am waiting for the replacement. I'll admit I didn't jump on that as quickly as I should have, I drug my feet for a month before filing the claim, so I've been running no UV for the past 2 months after running it 24/7 for the last 7 months. I recently rented a par meter from my LFS and readings are as follows:

Sunset Monti 300
Acro 225
Red monti 170
Acan 180
Favia 150
Orange zoas 125
Zoa garden 120
Kenya tree 150
Torch 120
Top of xenia 50
GSP 130
RFA's on rock 140
RFA in sand 120
Sandbed by GSP 140
Sandbed by zoas 120
Sandebed by feather duster 110

So a lot has changed over the last few months:
Added 2nd wave maker
Nitrate and phosphate went up (intentionally by limiting water changes)
Alk went up, then down
pH went up, then down
UV died

Specs:
57g (36"x24"x18") with 20g sump
SG 1.026
Temp 78
Nitrate has slowly risen from 2 to 4 over the last 4 months
Phosphate has slowly risen from .01 to .03 over the last 4 months
Calcium 430 (steady)
Magnesium 1380 (steady)
Alkalinity 9.5
2 Kessil A360x 40% max, 2hr ramp up, 2hr ramp down, peak for 8hrs
2x Octo Pulse 2 wave makers at 35% max set for random
Eshopps S-120 skimmer on 24/7
0 TDS RO/DI ATO

Stock list:
2 ocellaris clowns
2 fairy wrasses
Tailspot blenny
Diamond goby
Royal gramma
Yellow watchman goby
Pistol shrimp
3 hermit crabs
Emerald crab
Various snails

Yesterday I sent in an ICP test. Hoping to figure out these SPS/stony corals. Advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

That looks like you have a rainbow BTA...or am I mistaken. I have a BTA tank and have been unable to keep sps and lps since adding my nems. I have been told it is chemical warefare and that I should be running carbon.

 

[RaymondNoodles]

That looks like you have a rainbow BTA...or am I mistaken. I have a BTA tank and have been unable to keep sps and lps since adding my nems. I have been told it is chemical warefare and that I should be running carbon.

Thanks. That crossed my mind and I forgot to mention it. I didn’t intend on putting BTA’s in this tank but they started to overtake my other smaller tank so I moved 2 of them over. I have some activated carbon on hand and can drop a bag in the sump if that’s recommended. I noticed negative effects of running carbon in my other tank so I haven’t used it in over a year.

 

[billyocean]

That 2-4 nitrates and .01-.03 phosphate scares me. It's at least detectable but within range of zeroing out within testing margins. With alk that high, as you mentioned, higher nutrients make coral life easier...but at the same time your par isn't cooking them so to speak. There have been quite a few changes as mentioned so it's hard to pinpoint. My advice would.be to bump up those p04/n03 numbers a bit (maybe .05 p04 and 10 n03 at least). Personally, I would get for at least .08 and 15-20. More experienced reefers may have a better answer.

 

[Lavey29]

That 2-4 nitrates and .01-.03 phosphate scares me. It's at least detectable but within range of zeroing out within testing margins. With alk that high, as you mentioned, higher nutrients make coral life easier...but at the same time your par isn't cooking them so to speak. There have been quite a few changes as mentioned so it's hard to pinpoint. My advice would.be to bump up those p04/n03 numbers a bit (maybe .05 p04 and 10 n03 at least). Personally, I would get for at least .08 and 15-20. More experienced reefers may have a better answer.

I agree, corals slowly starving to death and the instability with the alk swings over 1DKH can doom SPS too.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Here’s what I would do if it were my tank. Nutrients are on the low side, I would lower your alk down to 7.5 or so. Throw in a bag of carbon and change it once a month. Do a series of water changes.

 

[RaymondNoodles]

Here’s what I would do if it were my tank. Nutrients are on the low side, I would lower your alk down to 7.5 or so. Throw in a bag of carbon and change it once a month. Do a series of water changes.

Adding carbon and lowering alk I can understand, but water changes will only lower nutrients further so that part is confusing for me.

 

[Leadfooted]

That looks like you have a rainbow BTA...or am I mistaken. I have a BTA tank and have been unable to keep sps and lps since adding my nems. I have been told it is chemical warefare and that I should be running carbon.

Never had an issue, I’ve had as many as 16 nems in this display.

 

[billyocean]

Adding carbon and lowering alk I can understand, but water changes will only lower nutrients further so that part is confusing for me.

#1 would be verifying your RODI filters/membrane are good to go. Just because it says 0 tds doesn't mean it's not passing chloramines and such.
You can dose phosphate and nitrate to get your numbers up some after water change. NeoPhos and NeoNitro are 2 easy ways to do this. A cheaper solution is diy (I use trisodium phosphate and calcium nitrate..most use sodium nitrate I believe). What are you testing those with? Anyhoo..that can offset the water change. All in all, I'm kind of just spit balling here on ideas and things to take into consideration. Maybe the icp will tell a story..maybe not.

BTW I'm acro heavy and dose the equivalent of 46ml a day of neophos via a doser to stay around .08-.12..it gets up to .2 at times

 

[RaymondNoodles]

Never had an issue, I’ve had as many as 16 nems in this display.

Do you run carbon? Beautiful display!

 

[CivicS14]

I'd hold off until you get the ICP results back. Nothing about what you listed is a red flag.

 

[billyocean]

I'd hold off until you get the ICP results back. Nothing about what you listed is a red flag.

Cept that high alk and low nutrients.

 

[CivicS14]

Cept that high alk and low nutrients.

Nutrients are still detectable, that means there is available food for the corals.

 

[billyocean]

Nutrients are still detectable, that means there is available food for the corals.

Detectable doesn't rule out testing error margin at that number.

 

[Tamale]

It generally seems Low detectable nutrients is only scary if they aren’t feeding heavily. I didn’t see it mentioned but dosing aminos and spot feeding the LPS with coral foods daily/every other day is something to do. Even if nutrients *aren’t the issue, feeding the corals is good. Especially if you have issues keeping nutrients in the tank like I do.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Adding carbon and lowering alk I can understand, but water changes will only lower nutrients further so that part is confusing for me.

Yeah, you’re right about that. I suggested the water changes in case there is some kind of contaminate in the water, like a broken magnet.

 

[*unique*]

Welcome to the club brother

 

[Leadfooted]

Do you run carbon? Beautiful display!

only randomly if my PO4 climbs. When it does I run a small amount of Seagel which contains Carbon. From my experience I wouldn’t spend to much time thinking it’s the BTA unless your water gets cloudy.
Thank you by the way and hope things turn around for you.

 

[RaymondNoodles]

#1 would be verifying your RODI filters/membrane are good to go. Just because it says 0 tds doesn't mean it's not passing chloramines and such.
You can dose phosphate and nitrate to get your numbers up some after water change. NeoPhos and NeoNitro are 2 easy ways to do this. A cheaper solution is diy (I use trisodium phosphate and calcium nitrate..most use sodium nitrate I believe). What are you testing those with? Anyhoo..that can offset the water change. All in all, I'm kind of just spit balling here on ideas and things to take into consideration. Maybe the icp will tell a story..maybe not.

BTW I'm acro heavy and dose the equivalent of 46ml a day of neophos via a doser to stay around .08-.12..it gets up to .2 at times

Thanks I appreciate it. Ive been feeding heavy twice a day and nutrients have been slowly rising. I’m using the Hanna ULR phosphate checker and Red Sea nitrate test kit. I also have salifert nitrate and phosphate which I don’t use regularly but I should check them as well. Curious what the ICP test will reveal. I do have neophos which I dose on occasion, mostly when the tank was newer when phosphate was 0 or 0.1 but perhaps I should continue to raise it.

 

[Dburr1014]

That looks like you have a rainbow BTA...or am I mistaken. I have a BTA tank and have been unable to keep sps and lps since adding my nems. I have been told it is chemical warefare and that I should be running carbon.

My BTA has been in my system for years and I don't run any carbon. Where did you get this information from?