LPS Receding.

[TreyC2010]

Happy Easter! I’ve had some recent bad luck. My LPS came in and were doing beautifully for quite a while, but within the last month or two they’ve obviously not done well.

Tank params I’ve measured are
Alk 8 (Hanna)
Nitrate .2ppm (salifert)
Salinity 1.025

I have a Fuge and it’s filthy. It’s growing Chaeto very nicely and my skimmer cup needs emptied every 3 weeks or so. It’s about 200 gal total system. Is my water just too clean?

MAINTENANCE
I do monthly 20% water changes.

I have an eheim auto feeder that feeds two spins, twice daily.

I feed reef frenzy once or twice a week along with spirulina, and reef chili. I’ve also started back dosing aminos. I had to quit the aminos a while ago to fight algae. The system is 6-7 months old. I have good coralline algae growth and tons of the small feather duster worms.

Any clues?

 

[TreyC2010]

For what it’s worth, I tried an acro frag and it has boomed. That’s what led me to either too clean water, too much light, or too much flow.
Lights are two kessil 360 and the t5 combo.

 

[Jekyl]

I would vote a little too clean. I empty my skimmer every 3 days or so. Also don't like when my nitrates are below 10.

 

[James Johnson]

Tank is running super dirty, rocks and sand look like they are in a 8-10 year old neglected tank. You are getting false test results because the fuge is removing the high nutrients before you can test them. Strange that you do not list a test result for phosphates as that is probably the most important parameter to monitor for algae problems. Sand bed needs a good stirring and you need more clean up crew to clean the rocks. The corals looks bleached as well so either too much light or too high of phosphates. The cyano is the result of the high nutrients that the fuge keeps dropping as it grows tank is out of balance. Good levels would be nitrates between 5-15 and phosphates between 0.06-0.09. I would cut the light cycle on the fuge greatly and manage nitrates with water changes for a bit until everything is back in balance.

 

[TreyC2010]

I would vote a little too clean. I empty my skimmer every 3 days or so. Also don't like when my nitrates are below 10.

Turn the skimmer down or feed more? Or both

Tank is running super dirty, rocks and sand look like they are in a 8-10 year old neglected tank. You are getting false test results because the fuge is removing the high nutrients before you can test them. Strange that you do not list a test result for phosphates as that is probably the most important parameter to monitor for algae problems. Sand bed needs a good stirring and you need more clean up crew to clean the rocks. The corals looks bleached as well so either too much light or too high of phosphates. The cyano is the result of the high nutrients that the fuge keeps dropping as it grows tank is out of balance. Good levels would be nitrates between 5-15 and phosphates between 0.06-0.09. I would cut the light cycle on the fuge greatly and manage nitrates with water changes for a bit until everything is back in balance.

I ran out of my reagent for phosphates and I haven’t ordered them from BRS because they were out when I placed my last order. I’ll get that checked too.
My question would be how does the acro do so well in a nasty environment and the LPS do so poorly? Is it just an exception to the rule?

 

[Jekyl]

I don't know if I would change anything right now. 6 or 7 months is part of the ugly phase. Like other post says, your algae is sucking the nutrients out of your system. I would remove as much algae as you can by hand and turn the skimmer up not down. If phosphate is indeed high maybe run some chemipure

 

[TreyC2010]

I don't know if I would change anything right now. 6 or 7 months is part of the ugly phase. Like other post says, your algae is sucking the nutrients out of your system. I would remove as much algae as you can by hand and turn the skimmer up not down. If phosphate is indeed high maybe run some chemipure

I definitely won’t make any big changes. I just wanted an idea of which direction to head towards. I don’t over feed, but I do only monthly water changes. My clean up crew is hard to keep up when the Melanurus eats all of the snails...

I’ll work on more extraction and hope it works itself out with that. Thank you!

 

[Jekyl]

I definitely won’t make any big changes. I just wanted an idea of which direction to head towards. I don’t over feed, but I do only monthly water changes. My clean up crew is hard to keep up when the Melanurus eats all of the snails...

I’ll work on more extraction and hope it works itself out with that. Thank you!

Everyone goes through the ugly phase. It's a normal part of maturity. I'm of the mind set that it will run its course. I had some awful GHA for a month or 2 then never saw it again. People end up with more problems when they start dosing every chemical they can find thinking they have some huge problem. Take out what you can by hand during water changes. Keep parameters stable. If not using RoDi, that could be a contributing issue.

 

[TreyC2010]

Everyone goes through the ugly phase. It's a normal part of maturity. I'm of the mind set that it will run its course. I had some awful GHA for a month or 2 then never saw it again. People end up with more problems when they start dosing every chemical they can find thinking they have some huge problem. Take out what you can by hand during water changes. Keep parameters stable. If not using RoDi, that could be a contributing issue.

 

[TreyC2010]

You’d think all this would help.

 

[Jekyl]

You’d think all this would help.

Nothing except established rock cuts down on the uglies

 

[vetteguy53081]

Chasing numbers or making sudden changes will only make things worse. What causes recession of tissue - STRESS.
Any physical damage ( rock actually dropped on it or sand landed on it ?)
Euphyllia requires Stable tank water conditions. and is intolerant to major swings in water quality, and sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water. Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400-440 ppm is just right.
Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low. Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.
Over and Over, I typically preach " MODERATE LIGHT AND WATER FLOW" (See pic below)
Moderate flow is the key. The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps do not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.
hammer coral is considered to be an aggressive coral species that will attack its neighbors with sweeper tentacles. These are stinging nematocysts (similar to the sting of an anemone) on the end of a specialized polyp that can extend several inches away from the body of the coral. The sweeper tentacles pack a punch and will chemically burn any neighboring corals.
Recommended parameters :

Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .4
phos < .04
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-9
CA 440

 

[TreyC2010]

I took my params again.
nitrate is undetectable
Phosphate is undetectable on ULR Hanna
Cal 400
Alk went up to 8.4

I used my pmup and blew the rocks off, caught as much as I could, and stirred the sand. My sps and soft corals are still doing fine. The only issue is the acans and one of my hammer coral. I’m sure the tank is dirty, somewhat, because the algae is there. I’m also wondering if it’s just placement and flow issues. I haven’t used my par meter to test the numbers yet and the flow looks like you described above. Hoping to get it figured out soon.

 

[TCoach]

If nitrate and phosphate are both undetectable, you are starving your tank. From what I'm learning, you want to keep them detectable both to help feed corals and other that want that "food", and to help keep dino's starved out.

Still learning, but this one coral may be your canary for your tank. HTH.

 

[TreyC2010]

Update:

Tried Reef flux 2 separate times but it won’t kick it. I’ve scrubbed rocks, pulled algae, upped feeding frozen, lowered feeding pellets, and tried to blow off rocks periodically. My Melanurus picks off most of my cuc so I’m stuck with minimal snails too. I’m at a loss. Can anyone help?

 

[Cell]

Rip clean.

 

[TreyC2010]

I read up on rip clean. Is that my last option to try with this? @ReefSquad?

 

[TreyC2010]

I haven’t lost more coral. I’ve only dented the algae that was there before.

 

[Cell]

You dont need reefsquad if you want to RIP clean. You need @brandon429

 

[brandon429]

I really agree it needs deep cleaned and exported

that’s layers of killed cells and active ones mixed in, it’s not clean compared to this below

total precision export is what’s best

Algae Identification

Any opinions on what type of algae this is growing on my rocks and sand bed?

www.reef2reef.com

once clean, you can boost feed vs withhold it, that makes lps come back


your systems surface area is filled up, no room for extra feed and protein waste so force it clean, no more delay

heres a large reef doing a rip clean

120 gallon rip clean

I’ve decided to perform a rip clean on my 120 with 100% new water. The tank has been running for 5 years and was battling Dino for several months. I used the bacteria method from elegant corals and worked great I haven’t seen Dino in months now. But I tried several other methods including...

www.reef2reef.com