All - Over the past two months I've been experiencing a few issues that I cant figure out. Sorry for the lengthy post but want to supply as many details as possible.
My tank is a year and a half old. Things have been great with the exception of constant diatoms which I can't seem to get rid of as well as the front middle glass collecting a thin coat of the green dust type algae (sorry not sure of the name) which I clean every few days. Other than those two issues the tank has thrived and my numbers have always looked good.
Start of the problems - Two and a half months ago I noticed cyano starting to cover my rock. It took me a bit to really notice it as the "good" algae on my rocks is a very dark red and has grown along with the purple coraline since the tank was new. Also it never was on my sandbed anywhere including the spots the goby couldnt sift. Once I did notice it was to the point that vacuuming and manually removing wasn't enough. I dosed the tank with chemiclean for 48 hrs following the instructions which eradicated the cyano. Another thing I noticed was that during the cyano period the "dust" algae had almost completely gone away on the glass. I have also noticed on a few of my rocks mainly on the side of the tank they have turned brown almost like there was organic matter of some kind growing there and since the chemiclean has died off.
About a month ago I tested the water and had nitrates of 40! I immediatly did a 50% wc which brought them down to 30, did another 50% 4 days later and have been doing 20% wcs every 4-5 days. I also cut feeding from one frozen cube once a day to half a cube daily and stopped feeding the corals reefroids/oyster feast. I also turned the lights down a bit. Nitrates have been at 20 for the past two weeks, I cant seem to get them to drop back to normal which is zero on the test kit. As a side note about the time nitrate spiked I pulled the goby out as he was wreaking havic on the corals I have in the sandbed. NEedless to say the diatoms are pretty heavy on the sand. I vacuum when I perform wc and within a day they start building up. After 3-4 days they are really bad.
At the same time the nitrates spiked I noticed the green star polyps which normally thrive and grow like crazy not coming out fully and each head being skinny vs fat and full like normal. The zoas have followed suit and are not fully opening as well. In general my soft corals are not full like they were prior to cyano following up with the nitrates.
Leading up to the cyano I had made no changes. I will admit that the few months leading up to the cyano I missed a weekly wc here and there but with my numbers being so constant didn't think it would hurt me. I was only testing water once a month as literally every time I tested my numbers came in good and as long as I wasn't changing anything I didn't think it would hurt me. Flawed thinking I know. I have decided to start running bio-pellets and installed this week. Started off with 30% of recommended amount and will add over the next two weeks.
JBJ RL30
2 x MP10
Tunze 9001 skimmer
Hydra HD 26
AquaMaxx hang on reactor with biopellets - new
Topping off with kalk
purigen/chemi pure elite/filter floss in InTank rack
Weekly wc of 20% IO reef crystals
Feeding brine/mysis half cube a day. Have always soaked cube on towel to minimize the "extras" going into tank
Target feed corals a few times a week - have stopped since issues started
SG 1.025
78.0
PH 8.0-8.1
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 20
Alk 9.4 hanna
calc 450 hanna
Phosperous 0.34 hanna ultra low range
silicate 0
Clown
midas blenny
bangai cardinal
6 line wrasse
firefish
1 peppermint shrimp
2 astrea snails
3 hermits
2 fighting conch - new
Any help or instight as to what may have happended and or is happening will be appreciated.
Thank you
Ron
My tank is a year and a half old. Things have been great with the exception of constant diatoms which I can't seem to get rid of as well as the front middle glass collecting a thin coat of the green dust type algae (sorry not sure of the name) which I clean every few days. Other than those two issues the tank has thrived and my numbers have always looked good.
Start of the problems - Two and a half months ago I noticed cyano starting to cover my rock. It took me a bit to really notice it as the "good" algae on my rocks is a very dark red and has grown along with the purple coraline since the tank was new. Also it never was on my sandbed anywhere including the spots the goby couldnt sift. Once I did notice it was to the point that vacuuming and manually removing wasn't enough. I dosed the tank with chemiclean for 48 hrs following the instructions which eradicated the cyano. Another thing I noticed was that during the cyano period the "dust" algae had almost completely gone away on the glass. I have also noticed on a few of my rocks mainly on the side of the tank they have turned brown almost like there was organic matter of some kind growing there and since the chemiclean has died off.
About a month ago I tested the water and had nitrates of 40! I immediatly did a 50% wc which brought them down to 30, did another 50% 4 days later and have been doing 20% wcs every 4-5 days. I also cut feeding from one frozen cube once a day to half a cube daily and stopped feeding the corals reefroids/oyster feast. I also turned the lights down a bit. Nitrates have been at 20 for the past two weeks, I cant seem to get them to drop back to normal which is zero on the test kit. As a side note about the time nitrate spiked I pulled the goby out as he was wreaking havic on the corals I have in the sandbed. NEedless to say the diatoms are pretty heavy on the sand. I vacuum when I perform wc and within a day they start building up. After 3-4 days they are really bad.
At the same time the nitrates spiked I noticed the green star polyps which normally thrive and grow like crazy not coming out fully and each head being skinny vs fat and full like normal. The zoas have followed suit and are not fully opening as well. In general my soft corals are not full like they were prior to cyano following up with the nitrates.
Leading up to the cyano I had made no changes. I will admit that the few months leading up to the cyano I missed a weekly wc here and there but with my numbers being so constant didn't think it would hurt me. I was only testing water once a month as literally every time I tested my numbers came in good and as long as I wasn't changing anything I didn't think it would hurt me. Flawed thinking I know. I have decided to start running bio-pellets and installed this week. Started off with 30% of recommended amount and will add over the next two weeks.
JBJ RL30
2 x MP10
Tunze 9001 skimmer
Hydra HD 26
AquaMaxx hang on reactor with biopellets - new
Topping off with kalk
purigen/chemi pure elite/filter floss in InTank rack
Weekly wc of 20% IO reef crystals
Feeding brine/mysis half cube a day. Have always soaked cube on towel to minimize the "extras" going into tank
Target feed corals a few times a week - have stopped since issues started
SG 1.025
78.0
PH 8.0-8.1
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 20
Alk 9.4 hanna
calc 450 hanna
Phosperous 0.34 hanna ultra low range
silicate 0
Clown
midas blenny
bangai cardinal
6 line wrasse
firefish
1 peppermint shrimp
2 astrea snails
3 hermits
2 fighting conch - new
Any help or instight as to what may have happended and or is happening will be appreciated.
Thank you
Ron
