I would do this dip, and then give them time. Dips are stressful, and corals can take up to a week to open back up afterwards, dipping again could make it worse.
I skimmed through most of the posts in this thread and I hate to say it, but you are trying to avoid things that are unavoidable. Starting a reef with only dry rock is the biggest test of patience you'll ever endure. Your rock will go from bone white, to brown, to green, and eventually purple. The reason your zoas aren't doing well is all the changes that keep being made. Because of those changes, the underlying message the tank is telling you, is it's just not quite ready.
I couldn’t agree more. If I could give you any advice, it would be to stop trying to add something new with everything that happens. Trying to stop natural processes only makes things worse. When algae grows, it means that there is something that needs to be consumed. Trying to prevent algae from growing with additives just leaves those things in your water.
I would start with 3 snails. I prefer trochus and if you can keep yourself from over feeding, the nassarius snail won't be needed. The reason I say 3 is because your tank is small, snails poop, and if they die, it sort of sucks. I would only add more IF the snails are doing their job and cannot keep up.
I would actually recommend the opposite of what you were thinking. Don’t dose vibrant, and instead start using carbon (not dosing carbon, but the pieces that you can put in a mesh bag. So many people have problems after vibrant that I will never let it anywhere near my tank.Alrighty here's a 2/23/20 Tank Update. While I would've loved to avoid this whole thing, I've learned a lot along the way.
Diagnosis is dinoflagellates. This seems to make sense for the following reasons...
1) Parameters were really low for a good amount of time (weeks) allowing this to happen.
2) I noticed bubbles on the brownish looking algae that continued to spread.
3) My original CUC died. All of them. Snails.
4) The Zoas I have were extremely happy and all of a sudden got this algae on them and stopped opening.
5) Got worse after a water change, thus I must've starved the water even more of good bacteria.
Steps to resolution:
1) Blackout. (Day 2 so far) Pic below.
- Since I've blacked out the tank I've noticed the sand bed is nearly clear of the algae. The rocks have started to clear as well.
- The tank water has become extremely cloudy (brownish). Obviously I'm concerned with a bacterial bloom and it spiking the water parameters and killing my fish and shrimp. Is this possible?
- I've added my backup koralia at the surface of one corner to add more oxygen to the water.
- I've decided against adding carbon/chemipure for the time being and just running filter floss. I don't want to make too many changes to the system.
2) Going to begin Vibrant dosing 2x a week. 2ml for the 20g tank.
3) Ordered the IM Auqa UV Sterilizer that will arrive tomorrow and I'll implement that as well.
I will update along the way for anyone else that has ever dealt with or is currently fighting this. Any advice is certainly appreciated.
Thanks!
