Killer algae

[Erik L]

I’ve been going through the new tank algae blues.. I had dinos and beat that, but got what I think is a strain of cyano immediately after. The cyano, if it is that, seems to be worse because it started to get on my corals and kill them so 3 days ago I did a very thorough cleaning and scrubbed the algae off all my rocks and glass etc. I did a 50% water change while doing the algae removal, made sure salinity and temp were good with new water and kept my lights off until last night. Day after the algae scrubbing and 50% water change I lost 3 out of the 4 fish. I lost my yellow tang and two damsels, only thing to barely survive was my clown fish, I think because I did subsequent 20% water changes each day after the algae removal/50% WC. Day after (yesterday) almost all my stonies are bleached and dead, which I guess I’m not surprised after the fish died, but after less than 24hours of lights being back in the algae is coming back like nothing happened... I’m sure I’ll get recommendations to read the typical dinos thread, been there done that, still struggling. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[fishguy242]

hi what size tank,params,sorry to hear losses

 

[Cell]

Don't see why your fish would die from what you described. What are your parameters?

 

[Erik L]

hi what size tank,params,sorry to hear losses

52 gallon, no sump. I haven’t tested my parameters in a couple of days since I’ve done almost a 90% WC in 3 days. I did check salinity, it’s at 1.023. Temp hold steady at 77F. I have had issues with extremely low nitrate and phosphates, found this after my Dino outbreak, started dosing nitrate and phosphate twice a week per Flourish instructions, started feeding a bit more and put my skimmer on a timer. I think that regiment is what bested my initial dino outbreak, but like I said, that moved immediately into this next algae phase, which I’m assuming is some strand of cyano.

 

[Erik L]

I’ve read that (trying to) kill off certain algae’s can release toxins, I’m thinking that’s what happened to me. Funny thing is I tried MB7 and Dino x to little avail, but also no fish or coral die off. Getting in and scrubbing my rocks and glass is what caused the major die-off. Still a little surprised considering I pulled and replaced 50% of the water out while I was doing the cleaning.

 

[Retro Reefer]

Low p04 and n03 can cause Dinos, do you know your numbers?

 

[Erik L]

Low p04 and n03 can cause Dinos, do you know your numbers?

Low p04 and n03 can cause Dinos, do you know your numbers?

I committed a newb mistake about 6 weeks ago and added GFO to my canister filter, that plummeted those nutrients to zero and shortly after I got dinos from what I can tell from the research on R2R threads and YouTube vids. Shortly after realizing this mistake I pulled the GFO out, started feeding more, put my skimmer on a timer and eventually started dosing no3 and po4 in an attempt to “dirty” my water up. The algae started to change from the classic Dino snotty bubbly algae to something different, which is what I’m battling now. Again, I think with almost a 90% WC in three days using pharma grade salt and RO water the no3 and po4 are going to be zero just due to the massive WC. I think it’s highly unlikely that these parameters are up based on that but I’ll verify tomorrow with testing though.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Did you scrub the rocks in tank? If I’m going to scrub my rocks I do a water change and have 2 buckets . 1 bucket I will use that water to scrub the rocks. The other bucket will be the rinse bucket before back into display.