Slightly Depressed Reefer :(

Hello, it's been a while since I posted on here but I have a picture of my tank in the "introduce yourself" section...I think it was like back in May. Anyways, I have a problem in my tank. I can't seem to grow "easy" soft corals too easily at all. The LPS do rocking awesome but softies aren't...except the Xenia (go figure). I can't seem to grow GSP, Zoas, Clove Polyps, and even my mushrooms look unhappy (not fully open ever and babies not growing much) even though they are multiplying a bit still. And the colors seemed washed out in the corals and my really purple coralline died off as well. I'm frustrated because all my parameters check out okay (except my PH, but Mr. Saltwater Tank says his is at 7.7 and everything is doing just fine). The corals that are supposed to be the easiest to keep are the hardest for me for some reason. They either barely grow or slowly die off.

I did end up getting a second nano tank (29 Biocube HQI) back in June and have my LPS in there and everything in there was doing fine until a recently purchased Elegance coral for Christmas kicked the bucket after not even two weeks of owning it...learned the hard way there on all newer collected ECs. Very pretty coral though. So now my neon green (Kryptonite) Candy Cane coral colony looks affected even after changing 5% of the water almost every day in there and doing a major water change yesterday. I tested the water every day and it wasn't hardly affected except maybe the ammonia just a tad, but I changed water daily anyways because there was a slight slight cloudiness. Everything else (Duncans, Chalice, Green Open Brain, Blasto, Pink Gonipora, & MS Cyphastrea) are all doing just fine and have been for a few days now. Just my Candy Cane seems cranky. So that's got me down a bit and stumped too.

In both tanks, I do all regular maintenance, like weekly water changes of about 10% with RO/DI and Reef Crystals, rinse all filter media weekly, change filter floss weekly, turkey baste live rocks and top 1/3" layer of sand, feed every other day, change light bulbs regularly. I have no algae issues (thankfully), no other problems. Just poor growth and color on my softies...except the Xenia. Ugh!! Cool coral but yes, it's a weed.

Everyone says keeping saltwater is easy and so many "newbies" have rocking sweet pics of their corals and tanks that are growing really good for them. Cool! But why do I find myself in the few that are struggling to keep even easy corals going when I thought I educated myself pretty good before getting starting and still keep learning and reading? I have to say though, I'm not wanting to give up because I so want that fully stocked healthy tank that I know I can eventually get. But the struggle I feared before I ever started I'm finding myself actually in. Ugh!! lol

Anyone else out there having or had the same issues when they got started? Feeling like you're just struggling to "keep your head above water". I'm always feeling like it's two steps forward one step back with this. Oh well, I will keep trying until I can swim like the fishes.

Wish me wisdom and success, I don't need luck, just wisdom and success.

Well you seem to be better off than me somedays. I am typically one step forward and two steps back lately. But onto your issues:

First thing first, what are your exact parameters? Without these it is very hard to make a good judgement to what to do next... Full set Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Magnesium, Calcium, Alkalinity, Salinity, PH.

Do you run Carbon in your system and if yes how often is it changed out? When keeping softies it is a good idea to have carbon in the system to neutralize the chemical warfare they produce daily. Without the carbon, one softie will be releasing chemicals the other ones don't like causing slow growth and possibly death. This isn't the case for shrooms, xenia, and zoas though. Sometimes Xenia doesn't grow in our tanks. I was unable to keep it until recently and I think it was because my water was too clean. No idea though to be sure.

You say you change the bulbs out frequently... What bulbs are you using? Sometimes bulbs aren't all created equal so if you are looking at a bargain bulb, may want to look into quality. If you are already on a good quality bulb, ignore the last sentence.

How much sand do you have in the tank? Depending on the depth, I wouldn't turkey baste the sand at all as you could be releasing hydrogen sulfide which can be toxic to everything in the tank if enough is released. Let a good sand stirrer take care of that or just leave it alone.

There will be ups and downs for sure. I think all of us could use some extra wisdom some days

Picture of my tank in November...need to get a more current pic.

I do run carbon, Chemi-pure Elite. I knew of the chemical warfare in softies. I change the lights about every 6-7 months and use Coralife bulbs. The sand bed is about 2" - 2 1/2" deep and does have bubbles in it. But as of a few weeks ago I know don't mess with the sand anymore cause there is something"s" building little 1/2" to 1" mountains in under it and I have no more "brown" sand to worry about. lol I'm assuming the sand worms have gotten quite big enough to make a difference in moving the sand around now.

I posted this on Nano Reef today and I got two responses back saying I might have too bright of lighting. I'm using Biocube stock lighting and have added 2 Reef Brites mini mags for sunrise, added shimmer, and sunset. The stock are on for 9 hours and the Reef Brites are on 13 hours. But the Reef Brites aren't super bright so I never thought of them as additional lighting at all. So I'm going to cut the stock lighting time by an hour to see it that helps. I'll try just about anything. lol

Also, I don't have super current water parameter readings at the moment, but I will go test shortly and give that report.

Thanks so much for any help you can offer.

Not much help but if it makes you feel any better softies hate me too, zoas do not spread for me and usually die off, xenia dies, I finally have clove polyps spreading, palys do ok and toadstool leather is like a weed but some stuff no go, gsp is another than just dies no matter what. I just figure out what I can keep and do that instead. I don't think it's your lighting at all, there are people with 400 watt halides keeping leathers and gsp fine.

I read alot that the Toadstool leathers are the worst for creating the chemical warfare in a tank so I decided to never get one. lol Do you think that maybe that's the cause for non-thriving softies in your tank? I read all I could on each coral I have and there is a chance my Nepthea could be the cause but it's not for sure either so I don't know if I want to move it just yet. I'm going to try the lighting first and if that doesn't work after like a month or so than I will try moving my green Nepthea.

No because there's been times I haven't had toadstools and a couple times toadstools have done crappy and died themselves, honestly unless you have stuff right next to each other, I think the risk is minimal in most tanks just because of water changes and carbon and flow. There's people with giant toadstools in sps tanks and they are far touchier than other softies.

Also whats the tank temp? I had one of the coralife thermomiters and checked it agast a floating thermomiter and it was 5 degrees off. It might be the chem pure I though someone was having problems with that a while back causing issues with thier tank. Do you have the hqi or compact flourecents on this tank?

I have 3 of the Coralife Thermos and two seem to be somewhat matching while one was like 2-3 degrees off but that's my fresh saltwater mix one anyways. I used my dad's laser temp reader and it read that they were a little warmer than the Coralife read, but it was also surface temp where the light heats the most. I have my temp at about 78 but it rises a little during the day to about 81. It's the PC lighting and I can't seem to do much about the heat, unless I open the hood a little. :{

I thought of switching out the Chemi Pure for BRS (Bulk Reef Supply) carbon that many I read are having great success with. They run it with the BRS GFO too I guess and many are happy with that combo. So I thought of switching both my tanks over to that.

One other thing, (also yeah, lights might be too bright, softies like it low) is.. your tank might just be TOO clean. Yeah, I know it sounds odd. But some softies need 'junk' Not ammonia, but other things that a clean tank doesn't completely give them.

I thought of that too, but I'm currently NOT running a skimmer though I do have two stages of filter floss.

I'd say your tank isn't too clean for softies. I have a massive skimmer pulling junk out and can grow softies just fine...

Get a float thermometer as they are more accurate. The coralife ones honestly are worthless. They never keep their calibration.

Have you tried to put the softies at the bottom of the tank? That would reduce their intensity. I have my full lights on for 8 hrs and actinics on for 11 so I don't think it is the timeframe...

Some of it might just be placement. I know The woman's tank mushrooms did really well when we first set it up and then upgraded pumps and they never opened up much and don't seem to spread as fast as they were. So some may need more or less light and some may need more or less flow. Still need the tests that cdness asked about. If there is a way to mount a small pc fan to the hood would take care of the rise in temp, plugged in with the light. I want to say BamBam was the one who had the problem with chem pure or something like it and it was messing with alk or something.

The only nutrient that I know of that messes with softies is phosphate! (My memory is going, seriously lol) I can't keep xenia for the life of me due to TOO low of phosphates.

Anywayyyyyyy Its likely lighting heh.

Question I read you have your hood on still? how much fresh air return is your tank exposed to? the reason I'm asking is I notice from your pic every one have pretty good air pockets forming in the front of your sand leads me to believe it's just not in the front of the tank,how strong is your detrivitor crew? your sand bed is not deep enough to be a deep sand bed so you should have a good detritus crew and maybe a conch some Nass snails and maybe a small yellow goby or something small that burrow's just to help slowly moving your sand around,and I would agree with cdness I wouldn't Baste my sand bed either.
I wouldn't think your lighting isn't an issue softies like mentioned I've grown and seen many under PAR freaks tank like myself and have done fine, I would lean more if your corals are just closing up and not coming back, it sounds more like there getting irritated by something?