Corals keep dying.. what could it be?

[125mph]

I had a 60G cube many years ago and corals were great.. However, when I upgraded to my 120G 5 years ago, corals never really did well. Fish and nems live fine, but all new corals introduced = dead!!

Most everything I transferred from the 60G made it. I have some branching gsp, xenia, tons of different kinds of zoas, and frogspawn that are doing well and growing. I have a BTA and a haddoni which are doing fine too. And fish are fat and healthy. But any new coral frags usually die in 1-2 weeks.

My parameters:
- Nitrates & Nitrites: undetectable (seachem test)
- Phosphates: .12ppm (hanna test)
- Calcium: 490 (hanna test)
- dKH: 8.5 (hanna test)

I've tried everything. I went to zero N&P (GFO + bio reactor) and that didnt fix it, and thought maybe nutrient was too low and have tuned it down, which didnt fix it either. I changed flows (high, low and medium) and changed frag placement to start high, low and in-between. Not really sure what else to do. I just introduced a duncan and a chalice. Both placed in the bottom of the tank where par is about 80 only. Duncan is pretty much a goner. It was receding very badly and now wont come out anymore, and the chalice has bleached out a little and definitely faded in color. I've tried these in higher placement with 250+ par and all areas too. I've purchased multiple birds nest and place them all simultaneously in different levels of the tank thinking it was a light issue, all died too! Didnt matter if it was 100par, 200par or 400 par.

Any ideas? I just introduced a refugium with chaeto instead of using my bio reactor, hoping that solve the problem. That was the main difference with older tank and my new upgraded tank.

The main difference between my 60G and my 120G is the old setup was using a refugium and the new one has a bio reactor. And I actually just unplugged the bio reactor and installed a refugion with chaeto to try to eliminate one more possibility of the difference why the old tank did well and the upgraded one isnt.

I really want some ducans and other corals to live!!! Also, not sure if this is helpful but I did notice the live rock doesnt have very much coraline algae. These rocks have been there for 5+ years.

Other info:

Old tank: 60G cube, refugium, AI Sol Blue lights, Media reactor, BK skimmer

Upgraded Tank: 120G, bio reactor, AI Hydra 52 lights, Media reactor, vertex skimmer, calcium reactor (bio reactor replaced with refugium last week)

[kurt_n]

Was the new tank and wetted equipment all brand new when you set up the 120? If it was used equipment, you could have some type of contamination issue.

Is the live rock in the 120g new, or did you transfer it over from the old tank? Did you ever have coralline?

What brand salt water are you using and what salinity?

What temp?

I'm kind of scratching my head too, as nothing obvious jumps out from what you've described.

[125mph]

Hi I actually started the same thread in the adv topics.

Equipment is brand new or from my old tank. Live rock is transfered from old tank and new reef saver dry rock. Red Sea pro salt mix. I do have done coralline but not much.


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[aznflyfisherman]

How big is your bta? The bta could be stinging your corals if its close enough.

[karimwassef]

have you tried putting a metal absorbing sponge? They also come in resin media form.

They change color based on the metal they absorb.