Euphyllia problems and carbon (vinegar) dosing

CEReefer · Sep 30, 2019

I have a 17g tank (25 g system), I have a purple green tip torch, a purple torch and a yellow hammer that after starting carbon dosing (vinegar) are shrinking more and more. water parameters at the moment (dosing 9ml/day or 0.36ml/gallon/day, never had a bloom yet):

Alk 9.5 (hanna)
Ca 430 (hanna)
Ph 8.2 (hanna)
Mg 1560
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78
Phos 0.028 (hanna ULR)
NO3 0.25 (Red Sea pro)

I grow corals under a kessil 360X and have a small fuge with sea lettuce and a reef octopus 110 int skimmer.
I use Red Sea Coral Pro, 20% water changes every week, (had nitrates at 5 before carbon dosing, that's why I started), but I have no idea if the effects on the corals are related or not, other corals like a frogspawn, ricordea moushrooms and montiporas are thriving, what do you guys think?

mta_morrow · Sep 30, 2019

May I ask why are you even carbon dosing?

Your PO4 and NO3 are very low, especially if you are predominately LPS.

mta_morrow · Sep 30, 2019

And welcome to R2R!

#WelcometoR2R

lapin · Sep 30, 2019

Howdy
I would not be carbon dosing at this point.

Eagle_Steve · Sep 30, 2019

First off welcome.

Second. PO4 and NO3 that low is not good for euphillia. They like it a little dirty. A good traget for Euphillia is around 5 PO4 and .08 PO4. Without a sufficient nutrient supply, they will contract and not be able to utilize the light efficiently. I am not going to get into all the scientific stuff about nutrients, zoo, and light, but Euphillia need some nutrients there to thrive.

CEReefer · Sep 30, 2019

The idea behind it was to get rid of the green algae that after 5-6 days from the water change would constantly build up, a real pain.. I thought the same about potentially stripping the tank from nutrients, but with the algae around wasn't sure if the low values were faked from them picking up nutrients. how do you keep NO3 at 5 and PO4 at 0.08 without having algaes everywhere?

S2G · Sep 30, 2019

I agree. Tanks getting too clean. That's the reason I like lps like you have.

mta_morrow · Sep 30, 2019

CEReefer said:
The idea behind it was to get rid of the green algae that after 5-6 days from the water change would constantly build up, a real pain.. I thought the same about potentially stripping the tank from nutrients, but with the algae around wasn't sure if the low values were faked from them picking up nutrients. how do you keep NO3 at 5 and PO4 at 0.08 without having algaes everywhere?

NO3 16 and PO4.2 with no algae

CEReefer · Sep 30, 2019

That's gorgeous..

now after the jawdrop.. please tell me how do you keep it algae free..?

lapin · Sep 30, 2019

Question about tank age. Algae usually grows the most in new tanks, then after a year or 2 it seems to go away

Eagle_Steve · Sep 30, 2019

I have no issues with algae after new tank uglies. I even have only a small clean up crew. Couple snails is all that is in the 90 below. it is truly a hodge podge of almost all coral types slammed into one, with a heavy bioload. All corals are doing well.

mta_morrow · Sep 30, 2019

CEReefer said:
That's gorgeous.. now after the jawdrop.. please tell me how do you keep it algae free..?

Time, maturity , tomini tang, coral beauty.

It has found its own balance. I just made sure no parameters got out of hand and gave it time. Up and cunning 18 months now. Algae issues went away around the 1 year mark.

This is what’s working for this tank.

I learned that after try to control everything in my first tank.

mta_morrow · Sep 30, 2019

Eagle_Steve said:
I have no issues with algae after new tank uglies. I even have only a small clean up crew. Couple snails is all that is in the 90 below. it is truly a hodge podge of almost all coral types slammed into one, with a heavy bioload. All corals are doing well.

Beautiful! Where did you get the gorgs up front?

Eagle_Steve · Sep 30, 2019

mta_morrow said:
Beautiful! Where did you get the gorgs up front?

Had them for almost 2 years. They started as a small colony. I have since cut up into 4 colonies. That pic is about 2 months old.

CEReefer · Sep 30, 2019

Makes sense... I have a massive CUC , 10 trochus snails, 4 nassarius snai, and several crabs.. (one clown and a cardinal).. but can't keep up with the algae.. may give up carbon dosing and maybe try something like vibrant every now and then when needed..

Eagle_Steve · Sep 30, 2019

CEReefer said:
Makes sense... I have a massive CUC , 10 trochus snails, 4 nassarius snai, and several crabs.. (one clown and a cardinal).. but can't keep up with the algae.. may give up carbon dosing and maybe try something like vibrant every now and then when needed..

How old is the tank?

CEReefer · Sep 30, 2019

Eagle_Steve said:
How old is the tank?

7m old

Eagle_Steve · Sep 30, 2019

CEReefer said:
7m old

You are more than likely still in the "stuff is not quite balanced yet" stage. Manual removal, maybe some H2O2 dips for the rocks if it is really bad, and a stepped up clean up crew. Trick to the clean up crew is to keep the algae trimmed low. The clean up crew will do a better job. Most things outside of sea hares do not like long algae.