Corals refuse to open after treating tank for dinos

[Chris_Noles]

Got tons of cyano now and i see some recession on some coral…..I have no idea what to do

 

[Fourstars]

Be patient and do nothing except what has been suggested.

 

[jda]

The zoox in the corals are dinos too. I cannot believe that vendors sell products to get rid of dinos when they should know this. Hobbyist should know this too, but I can give more of a pass on them especially if new. In any case, just wait it out... not much more that you can do now.

 

[ggNoRe]

I unfortunately had a similar occurrence. After treating dinos had a massive cyano outbreak followed by red turf algae. About 80% of my corals didn't make it and the ones that survived lost their zooxanthellae and were looking grim. Things didn't turn around for about 2 months of not dosing anything.

For me the worst of this whole catastrophe is when I went out of town for a week to find all my coral covered in cyano. What I would have done differently is clean the tank slower. What I mean by that is what I did do was a heavy dose of Chemiclean paired with a intense scrubbing of all rocks and intense turkey blasting of everything. While this did eradicate cyano very quickly it was the number one factor of my coral death. While they were still mostly living while covered in cyano the intense cleaning was the death note for many and they died almost instantly. I've learned to clean my system now in only parts at a time. So one day scrub 25% of rocks then wait til water clears then 25% more and so on. Having a whirlwind of bacteria and particulates in the system I found to be too harsh for the corals.

 

[jda]

While too late for most on this thread, people who don't have a tank yet should use this as another example of why it is worth it to spend a bit more on some real, functioning live rock. Dry rock is no bargain in the end.

 

[Chris_Noles]

I unfortunately had a similar occurrence. After treating dinos had a massive cyano outbreak followed by red turf algae. About 80% of my corals didn't make it and the ones that survived lost their zooxanthellae and were looking grim. Things didn't turn around for about 2 months of not dosing anything.

For me the worst of this whole catastrophe is when I went out of town for a week to find all my coral covered in cyano. What I would have done differently is clean the tank slower. What I mean by that is what I did do was a heavy dose of Chemiclean paired with a intense scrubbing of all rocks and intense turkey blasting of everything. While this did eradicate cyano very quickly it was the number one factor of my coral death. While they were still mostly living while covered in cyano the intense cleaning was the death note for many and they died almost instantly. I've learned to clean my system now in only parts at a time. So one day scrub 25% of rocks then wait til water clears then 25% more and so on. Having a whirlwind of bacteria and particulates in the system I found to be too harsh for the corals.

So I shouldn’t turkey baste the rocks all at one? That’s what I’ve been doing for the past 2 weeks.

 

[ggNoRe]

Yes. Personally I've found just doing parts at a time is easier on my livestock. Now whenever the water starts to get murky I stop until it clears up again.

 

[Chris_Noles]

While too late for most on this thread, people who don't have a tank yet should use this as another example of why it is worth it to spend a bit more on some real, functioning live rock. Dry rock is no bargain in the end.

Would adding live rock now help anything or would it be useless?

 

[ggNoRe]

It should help with any bacterial imbalances you might have. Adding a UV sterilizer helped my system a lot.

 

[Chris_Noles]

It should help with any bacterial imbalances you might have. Adding a UV sterilizer helped my system a lot.

Yeah I got one in there now

 

[jda]

It always helps to add real live rock. It will still take time where it could have already been working, but it is never too late. Gulf stuff is available and you might be able to find some pacific AQ stuff too.

 

[Chris_Noles]

Finally got my nitrates raised to 25 PPM is that too much?

 

[ggNoRe]

I'm not an expert but based on my experience that is probably a little higher than you want considering you have SPS. What are your phosphates? I think the more important aspect is having a good balance of nitrates to phosphates. From what I've read cyano typically comes when the ratio of nitrates to phosphates is out of wack. Personally I try to keep Phosphates at .05-.1 and Nitrates from 5-15. But once I beat dinos I found that quitting all dosing and just being very consistent and patient had the best impact on my coral recovery. I still have some red algae and browning on the sand but now I just purchase CUC and work on manual removal methods. It is working slowly but surely.

 

[Chris_Noles]

I'm not an expert but based on my experience that is probably a little higher than you want considering you have SPS. What are your phosphates? I think the more important aspect is having a good balance of nitrates to phosphates. From what I've read cyano typically comes when the ratio of nitrates to phosphates is out of wack. Personally I try to keep Phosphates at .05-.1 and Nitrates from 5-15. But once I beat dinos I found that quitting all dosing and just being very consistent and patient had the best impact on my coral recovery. I still have some red algae and browning on the sand but now I just purchase CUC and work on manual removal methods. It is working slowly but surely.

I'll have to check my phosphates tomorrow but historically they have been undetectable, Nitrates are 25 PPM currently, but if my phosphates are 0 i'll start dosing for them again