I have no idea what to expect anymore

[ItsAName]

First, sorry for the long post, but I thought the more info I gave the better. Plus I'm feeling a little anxious about this.

I'm new to the hobby, but did tons of research before starting. I probably spent about 3-4 months reading, watching videos, asking for advice on forums, etc... I probably spent 20-30 hours a week doing this, I'm super into this! Took me about another 4 months to buy the equipment, set everything up and so forth. I went into this with the attitude, "Yeah, I'm ready, I've done all the research, I know what I'm doing, I know the best approaches, I understand the water needs, how to create a symbiotic environment, and so forth" Well, I'm now 5 months in and now I'm thinking, "I don't know what I'm doing!!!" and it's causing me to panic a little.

I think I did a clean install. I did my own rodi salt water, I got dry rock and cleaned it, and cured it for 6 weeks with bacteria. Cycled tank for a month.

Tank: 75 gallon tank with 40 gallon refugium. My tank is mostly zoanthids, a few lps, and one tiny sps. Clean up crew is trochus and nassarius snails, 2 emerald crabs, and 2 hermit crabs. Fish include: 2 clown fish, royal gramma, algae blenny, firefish, hoaven wrasse. 2 powerheads in the tank, 2 radion xr15 lights

Everything is/was going great. I test the water regularly and change the water on average every 1.5 weeks with a 10-20% water change. My corals looked great, algae was minimal (rocks brown, algae on glass), fish doing good. I don't dose because I figure the frequent water change is enough and my water tests showed that I didn't need to. Then about a month ago, everything starting to change and unexpected things started happening. Maybe co-incidence but it's the same time I added a couple new coral and the hoeven wrasse.

1. A few pineapple sponges appeared in my refugium. Those few eventually took over all the glass in the refugium. Now there are like 500 in the refugium.
2. Saw some asterina star fish in the tank. Removed them immediately.
3. Saw 1 big bristle worm in the tank. Removed it immediately.
4. Feather duster appeared out of no where

So far, all unexpected things, nothing my research prepared me for, but nothing bad. About a week after adding the new coral/wrasse (so about 2 weeks ago) all my zoanthids have been closed and the algae on the glass is becoming very filmy within 3 days (I have to clean it every 2-3 days), and a new algae started (looks like brown strings with tiny air bubbles attached). Again nothing I expected, but this time it feels "bad". But maybe it isn't, maybe this is common and is ok? I don't know. Are zoanthids closing up for weeks at a time normal, especially when it's all of them? Weird thing though is they look like they are growing buds but I'm not totally sure because I never counted them. Is the algae growth normal? Will is ever stop?

So, I tested the water a couple of days ago and got:
PH Display Tank: 7.9
PH Refugium: 7.99 (I have two different PH meters)
Nitrate: Less < 1
Salinity: 1.026
Alkalnity: 9.6
Calcium: 445
Magnesium: 1350
Ammonia: 0
Phosphate: 0

A friend (and this forum) said my nitrates are too low and he gave me Red Sea Energy A/B to dose, so I started doing that this week, but I haven't noticed any change in the corals.

So, do I need to relax and let things take their course, is this all normal. Or am I doing something horribly wrong and my tank is about to crash and lose all my zoanthids?

Also, my ph swings alot. Anywhere from 7.8 to 8.4 depending on how many windows I open for the day. But it's done this from day one.

Thank you for hearing out my rant!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

A good rant.

Show us some pics. Could be ugly phase stuff.
You got sponges instead of diatoms for the sameness reason folks get them. Silicates.

 

[leahfiish]

Zoas closing up for weeks isn't normal, have you tried dipping them?

 

[iemsparticus]

Brown stringy algae with bubbles on it sounds like diatoms.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

You're going to learn the most just...reefing...just maintaining the tank. Sounds like you probably have a handle on things more than most of us starting out!

1. A few pineapple sponges appeared in my refugium. Those few eventually took over all the glass in the refugium. Now there are like 500 in the refugium. Not an issue.
2. Saw some asterina star fish in the tank. Removed them immediately. Good and just keep an eye out. Very hard not to get those little guys at some point.
3. Saw 1 big bristle worm in the tank. Removed it immediately. Again hard to keep out and some argue that they are beneficial. I say they are ok as long as they don't take over!
4. Feather duster appeared out of no where. Isn't reefing cool?!?!

 

[JaimeAdams]

Brown stringy algae with bubbles on it sounds like diatoms.

No that sounds like Dinoflagellates!!!

Pictures would certainly help

 

[iemsparticus]

No that sounds like Dinoflagellates!!!

Pictures would certainly help

Could be Dinos too... but diatoms can do that too... mine certainly did. I agree, pictures would help a lot.

 

[ItsAName]

Sorry for the silence, been at work all day. I'll post some pictures when I get home.

 

[ItsAName]

Zoas closing up for weeks isn't normal, have you tried dipping them?

I dipped all the corals before adding them to the tank. Why would dipping them again help? It would be quite cumbersome to remove the ones on the rocks that aren't on the frags anymore. Do you know what would cause them to close up for so long?

 

[leahfiish]

There could be some kind of pest bothering them. Dipping them will kill the pest but not the eggs so they could have hatched and repopulation into the tank. Dipping corals also can help them recover from infections, etc.

 

[Tahoe61]

Try not to feel overwhelmed. It's often difficult to pin point a precise problem. Before making significant changes make sure values are correct, such as SG how are you measuring the SG?
You're using Radions, at what intensity?
Look in the middle of the night for zoanthids pest.
Are you running any GFO or charcoal?

You have done the home work which will help you dramatically as the tank ages with your level of experience. This hobby takes sooooo much patience. Water changes are almost always your friend, smaller more frequent being optimal imo.

 

[jd371]

No that sounds like Dinoflagellates!!!

Pictures would certainly help

Yeah, I agree, but can't be certain without a picture or better yet a microscope to confirm. Dino's really messed up my tank when I had them, a lot of the coral were closed and I lost 3 acro colonies. Dino's are the scourge of Satan.

 

[ItsAName]

Try not to feel overwhelmed. It's often difficult to pin point a precise problem. Before making significant changes make sure values are correct, such as SG how are you measuring the SG?
You're using Radions, at what intensity?
Look in the middle of the night for zoanthids pest.
Are you running any GFO or charcoal?

You have done the home work which will help you dramatically as the tank ages with your level of experience. This hobby takes sooooo much patience. Water changes are almost always your friend, smaller more frequent being optimal imo.

I have carbon and gfo in a bag in my refugium sitting infront of the return pump. I'll check the zoanthids at night for pests and dip what I can tomorrow night.

I googled dinoflagellates and the pics look like what I have, but I would say mine has just started as my tank is no where as infested as the pictures I saw. I will definitely post pictures when I get home for you all to confirm. Do they cause corals to close up? Is there something I could have done that would have introduced the dinoflatulence (sorry couldn't resist a stupid pun)

 

[jsh mee]

If it's diatoms, don't need to worry much, just wait it out. If it's dinos or anything of the sort you need to act as quick as possible. The key to beating it getting ahead of it.

Inspect you zoas clearly. Look for 1. Little white pimple-looking spots, 2. A pretty snail with a spiral pattern shell, 3. Tiny fuzzy slugs 4. Tick-looking bugs. Also out a flash light on them a few hours after lights out and see how many amphipods are on them

 

[Rick cowen]

All great advice above and remember 1 thing, you're working with a microverse,anything is possible, just take a deep breath and proceed slowly." This too shall pass".

 

[ItsAName]

I checked the zoanthids for the 4 things you mentioned and didn't see any. I don't see any amphipods, I don't think I've ever saw them in the tank. Below are all the pictures. I put little descriptions before each picture to try and describe why I'm showing you it.

Closed up Zoanthids with some algae on it from over night.

Rocks with a fluffy whispy brown cotton candy on it with lots of little bubbles in it.

This sprung up in two days. Veiny and big bubbles appearing on my overflow.

This is what my refugium is starting to look like.

These bright orange red spots started appearing.

These white spots started showing up on the rocks and the back glass panel. They are very hard.

 

[ItsAName]

Someone asked what intensity my Radions are at. I'm using the Coral Labs template with the LPS/Soft sub template. I have the intensity at 80% which brings the peak to 50% since only the blues are on, and the rest are at like 10-20%

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Looks like just a bunch of sponges and some diatoms pink stuff is coraline algae good and white stuff looks like snail eggs.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Sponges an diatoms will disappear over time just increase flow.

 

[Maacc]

You want to be careful, you are running a bit too 'clean'. Gfo can be a great tool but very easy to over do it. I almost crashed my 6 month old tank with too much gfo. With your diligent water change schedule you shouldn't need it.
As stated above, bottoming out nutrients can lead to dino or cyano outbreaks. Nasty simple stuff can go wild when their more complex competition is nutrient starved.