got ethical husbandry?

Hi there!

Hi guys! I have been lurking around for couple years and finally decided to introduce myself. I'm newbie trying to keep hardest thing - small mixed reef, red sea reefer 170. It's been a constant struggle and I think I have made all kinds of mistakes newbie can do. I wonder if there are anyone around walnut creek - Pleasant Hill who can help me to figure out whats wrong with my tank.

Thank you,
Eugene


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Hi Eugene - We are all here to help the best way we can. I remember many struggles starting out and still get them from time to time
 
Overall tank looks unhealthy - corals are not growing, no coraline for 2 years. There are some PE but not as good as I would expect, in the past months some SPSs started to die after I changed the light (Assumed not enough light but maybe too much?) I have no idea what I should do to be honest - the params are ok - 1.026 salinity, 9-10dkh alk, CA 400-450ppm, nitrates was 4-5 last time I checked, 0.02-0.04 phosphates. Tank is about 2 years old and I feel like I should start from scratch but don't want to do same stupid mistakes again.
I spend a lot of time on forums reading about corals/maintanance/etc but would really appreciate some guidance since I think I'm missing something really important.
 
I have 2 clowns, starry blenny, royal gramma and two cardinals, shrimp, snails and hermits. Flow is Eheim 2000 + 2 Jebao RW4 in random mode. Not the strongest flow but I can't measure it and compare to anything - that's probably where I need a help since I can't measure it. Temp is 78. New light is AI Hydra 26HD, 11-12 inches above water line. Use AB+ profile - approx 18k, 100% blues 35% red,green and white. Old was Nanobox duo - it's was perfect to growing algae :)
 
Depends on what you're keeping and how high you're running the pumps at. I have the same return pump on my 47G and its mainly to push water from sump back to tank, and not for circulation. I run a couple of MP10wES which at max is a bit stronger than the RW-4s. I run them at 80% on reefcrest random and that's about as high as I can go before the sand gets pushed in the front of the tank (both are mounted on the back walls). No issues with the SPS so far and I'll upgrade to stronger pumps or add more once the SPS gets larger.

As for lighting, you can use your SPS as an indicator of light needed. Not enough and they'll brown out on you. Too much and you'll get bleaching. There are other factors but as far as light goes, that's basically the gist of it.

Got any pics of what the SPS looks like that are unhappy? You getting any burnt tips with them? Looking at your parameters, I would consider running the tank with a lower alk value, closer to 8 or so instead of the 9-10 that you're currently at. BTW, didn't see you mention anything about dosing. Are you dosing at all or relying on the weekly water changes to keep up with the demand?
 
Depends on what you're keeping and how high you're running the pumps at. I have the same return pump on my 47G and its mainly to push water from sump back to tank, and not for circulation. I run a couple of MP10wES which at max is a bit stronger than the RW-4s. I run them at 80% on reefcrest random and that's about as high as I can go before the sand gets pushed in the front of the tank (both are mounted on the back walls). No issues with the SPS so far and I'll upgrade to stronger pumps or add more once the SPS gets larger.

As for lighting, you can use your SPS as an indicator of light needed. Not enough and they'll brown out on you. Too much and you'll get bleaching. There are other factors but as far as light goes, that's basically the gist of it.

Got any pics of what the SPS looks like that are unhappy? You getting any burnt tips with them? Looking at your parameters, I would consider running the tank with a lower alk value, closer to 8 or so instead of the 9-10 that you're currently at. BTW, didn't see you mention anything about dosing. Are you dosing at all or relying on the weekly water changes to keep up with the demand?

I'm dosing 55 ml Ca and 40 ml alk with auto doser - should be fine imho


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Do you have any LPS? How are they doing?
I cant spot anything very wrong from the info you have shared, things look ok. I have reef tanks for almost 2 years now, so cant call myself an expert. But I think you should not give up. Theres nothing going very wrong with your tank. Whats about focusing on the basics, get some LPS going, and try to get stability and coralline and then move to SPS. That will also reduce complexity (dosing, very particular lighting & flow)
Share some pics if you can, they help understanding placement etc.

Keep sharing as much information as you can, and dont loose hope
My 2 cents.
 
That's a problem - numbers looks ok, but corals don't care about numbers :)
I'm sure placement is not ideal - LPS are surviving, but not thriving. Acans on the bottom, micromussa on the bottom, Euphyllias - everything alive but look bad. And there are no coraline at all... So definitely something wrong.
 
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