Ricordea dying due to vodka dosing?

[RozZy]

Hey there guys.

 

My 37 gallon tank has been up and running for almost 2 months and was established with cured live rock. Cycle only took a few days before the nitrates ended up at 10 ppm .

The first corals i bought (2 weeks after cycle) was a ricordea florida, GSP and different types of Zoas.

 

It has now been 1.5 months since these guys were added and the ricordea has now shrunken and likes to be shriveled up. The placement  is on the lower part of the tank where the is low flow but it does have some light.

 

I started vodka dosing really low, 0.1 ml daily. Then increased to 0.2 week after and 0.7 week after that, increasing by 0.5 ML weekly until I saw the nitrates and phos drop. Ending up at 1ml.

Now I have cut it back to 0.5 ml daily.

 

Everything has been going well, did get some algae in the beginning of the tanks life. But that disappeared thanks to vodka and an algae blenny with a good CUC.

The zoas are doing great, GSP is not doing bad but it aint growing. Got a hammercoral that just like the GSP BUT my ricordea has shrunk to about 50% of its size since i started dosing vodka.

I'm dosing trace elements and Amino acids weekly. Calicum is on the higher side (500 ppm+) while DKH is at 10.5.

 

What can be going wrong? Is it dying from the light? should i place it inside the cave instead? Or is the ric just doomed?

 

 

The ricodea is placed on the right side of the cave to the lower right of the tuxedo urchin-

[OPtasia]

You might try lowering it back down to the substrate for a bit. See how it reacts. 

[RozZy]

1 hour ago, OPtasia said:

You might try lowering it back down to the substrate for a bit. See how it reacts. 

I was thinking of moving it into the bottom of the cave (almost inside but enough so light bounces onto it) Or is that a bad idea?

 

Also could it be my peppermint shrimp killing it`?

[Clown79]

Why vodka dosing on a new tank? Simple waterchanges would work.

 

 

Carbon dosing should only be done by seasoned hobbiests.

 

Carbon dosing can be a tricky thing, especially in nano tanks  and a good skimmer needs to be used.

 

What is your nutrient levels at now?

[RozZy]

4 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Why vodka dosing on a new tank? Simple waterchanges would work.

 

 

Carbon dosing should only be done by seasoned hobbiests.

 

Carbon dosing can be a tricky thing, especially in nano tanks  and a good skimmer needs to be used.

 

What is your nutrient levels at now?

 

I'm not new to the hobby, just the rics. Did vodka dosing in the past but tbh, i was only successful with LPS, SPS and zoas back then (I ran biopellets).

Got a great skimmer with the setup and it pulls out a lot of dark gunk. Did tons of research on vodka dosing Nanos.

Its just that, i believe its out-competing the corals with some nutrient. So I'm dosing lower and lower for each week until I hit 0ml again.

 

Nitrates at 0, phosphates undetectable.

 

 

[Clown79]

Nitrates and phos shouldn't be 0. That may be the rics issue. Lack of nutrients.