HELP!! I'm scared my tank is crashing.

[Austin Lee]

Hi everyone. I need help and I need it now. I've tried all I can think of.

Long story short, I went to Savannah for 4 days, didn't change anything, came back and my tank looked like this. Over the past week or two, I've tried doing a ton of water changes, cleaning filter media religiously, and sucking up all the algae. This has seemingly done nothing. So, I did a blackout for two days. No lights at all. Let the lights come back on this AM, and absolutely nothing has changed. Tank parameters all test fine.

Current equipment/things I'm adding to the tank:
- Carbon
- GFO (in a bag, not a reactor)
- Frozen food (LRS nano reef frenzy)
- Seachem Fuel (haven't put this in since I've been back)
- reef roids (haven't put this in since I've been back)


See test results below:
Temp: 78
Salinity: 1.026
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Calcium: (Didn't test. I have a salifert test coming in. I only have a Hanna Checker right now and don't trust it)
Alk: 8.9
Magnesium: 1575

Pics:

 

[Flippers4pups]

What's your P04 at?

 

[NewGoby]

What's your PO4? & how old is the tank?

 

[Amboss72]

From your pictures it appears that you have dinoflagellates. The water changes are most likely contributing to this nuisance. If you go to the nuisance algae and bacteria forum you’ll see what others have done to kill this crap. Usually Dino’s will become more concentrated in the water column at night. I use a marineland $40 micron filter charged with diatomaceous earth to kill this crap. From the forum it seems as though many have had success with UV sterilizers. Keep the carbon clean and running as dinoflagellates release toxins as they die

 

[Amboss72]

Do you have snails in your tank and if so are they still living?

 

[Austin Lee]

What's your P04 at?

I will test this now and check.

 

[Austin Lee]

What's your PO4? & how old is the tank?

Going to test that right now. Will report back soon. Tank is about 9 months old.

 

[Austin Lee]

From your pictures it appears that you have dinoflagellates. The water changes are most likely contributing to this nuisance. If you go to the nuisance algae and bacteria forum you’ll see what others have done to kill this crap. Usually Dino’s will become more concentrated in the water column at night. I use a marineland $40 micron filter charged with diatomaceous earth to kill this crap. From the forum it seems as though many have had success with UV sterilizers. Keep the carbon clean and running as dinoflagellates release toxins as they die

Okay - I also heard people had success with peroxide. Is that worth trying? Snails are still good. I did have an emerald crab die a couple weeks ago.

 

[mta_morrow]

Don’t dose peroxide!

I looks bad, but it can be fixed.

We’ve all seen much worse bounce back

Let’s get your PO4 reading

 

[Amboss72]

I would keep my nutrients down and not add any of the additional things like fuel or reef roids as it sounds you’ve already discontinued. I would look at reefcleaners.com site or the nuisance algae and bacteria forum on this site. There is a good article on advanced aquarists entitled Killing Dinoflagellates and the lessons I learned. It will address the hydrogen peroxide treatment. As previously stated many have had success with uv sterizers and I use diatomaceous earth filters.

 

[Austin Lee]

Don’t dose peroxide!

I looks bad, but it can be fixed.

We’ve all seen much worse bounce back

Let’s get your PO4 reading

Thanks. Would dinos cause my corals to look this bad? From what I've read, it seems like it suffocates them.

 

[Amboss72]

Maybe this is just a diatom bloom which would be most ideal.

 

[mta_morrow]

I don’t think it’s Dino’s plenty of nitrates, just need to see the PO4 reading.

 

[Austin Lee]

@mta_morrow @NewGoby @Flippers4pups

PO4 read 0 via the Hanna Phosphate ULR checker

 

[Austin Lee]

Maybe this is just a diatom bloom which would be most ideal.

Would that cause my corals to look this bad? My hammer looks awful and I'm scared I'm going to lose it.

 

[Amboss72]

Yes Dino’s can cover/coat corals to the point of stress that results in death. They can also kill fish. There is another good article that’s quick and easy to read on reefaquarium.com entitled Dealing With Dinoflagellates. I’d highly suggest you read this.

 

[Austin Lee]

bump. can anyone help here given the PO4 reading?

Here are some steps I'm thinking I'll take tomorrow when my LFS opens:

1. New carbon
2. New inserts for my RO/DI filter. It's reading at 0, but want to be safe.
3. New filter sock
4. manual removal of as much algae as possible

Any other recommendations?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Don’t dose peroxide!

I looks bad, but it can be fixed.

We’ve all seen much worse bounce back

Let’s get your PO4 reading

just had a Jungle of dino and went SUPER LOW light and Peroxide 6 days applying it at night and basting dino loose to my overflow into filter socks and every bit of it is gone

 

[Flippers4pups]

@mta_morrow @NewGoby @Flippers4pups

PO4 read 0 via the Hanna Phosphate ULR checker

0 P04 is part of the problem. Remove your GFO.

 

[Mykawl]

Can you just blow it off the corals with a turkey baster?