Mystery algae, dead coral and dead inverts??

[Mjc092]

Hello all,
I have a 40g tank that has been running for 6 months now. I have 40lbs of live rock in the tank and almost all of it has a white stringy/thick sort of slime on it? I'm not sure if this is bad but everything is dead/dying in my tank other than my fish and I can't figure out why. Maybe the slime or maybe I am just not meant to have an amazing reef tank. So let me give y'all the run down of what's going on.

I have 2 clowns and 1 damsel that are doing great. About 2 weeks ago I decided to get 2 zoa frags from a reputable LFS. After about 2 hours of acclimating the frags I put them in the tank and they opened up for 2 days in a row but closed up ever since. So I got a kenya frag and a gsp frag 4 days ago hopping they would work out, however they have been closed up and now everything is breaking down into a mushy blob of death.

Also over the past 2 weeks every snail has died about 10 of them, also 4 hermits are dead with the exception of 1 scarlet hermit which looks good.

The only changed that I have made in 2 weeks was get an rodi unit and did several 5g water changes. Maybe 4 Wc in 14 days. I found my salinity at 1.021 when I purchased the frags so my ro water had 2x as much salt to bring up the salinity. The ph was at 7.6 and alk was at 8 drops so I purchased seachem ph buffer and have used that to get the ph/alk up. 1 day ago I added extra carbon to see if something was in the water but no improvement.

I started the frags on the sand bed and then moved to mid tank to see if it was the lights. I tried to put more flow on the frags and then no flow. That didn't do anything. But I have a feeling that the white slime and dead coral are tied together??

Please any help you can offer I would greatly appreciate it.

Here are the specs:
-nitrate: 10ppm
-phosphate: 0.25
-alk 11 drops with API test
-ph: 8.1
-temp: 78
-ammonia 0
-nitrite: 0
-copper: 0 I think but my test kit is about 1 year old so maybe it's expired.
-salinity: 1.024-.025
-light: 150 watt led
-protein skimmer: 22w homemade Venturi style.
- 2 hangon 50g filters with polyfill which is changed every 3 days
- I run phosphate sponge to lower phosphates and change that every 2-3 days.
-and have 20lbs of crushed coral for substrate.

The 3rd pic is the Kenya frag.

 

[CodyRVA]

Could very likely be a combination of high PO4, which i've found does indeed kill snails, and a fluctuation in salinity which would also affect inverts very noticeably. Not sure what the drop count for ALK relates to, but it sounds like you're getting different readings, this could also be apart of the issue. Not sure what the white stuff is, but so far it seems to be a chemistry issue.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Did the white fuzz appear quickly ?

What did you use for a dip on the corals?

I have to disagree a bit in the po4 and invert death. Just IME. I've had it hit that number.

 

[CodyRVA]

Did the white fuzz appear quickly ?

What did you use for a dip on the corals?

I have to disagree a bit in the po4 and invert death. Just IME. I've had it hit that number.

My trochus all flip upside down when my PO4 hits .15 ppm

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

My trochus all flip upside down when my PO4 hits .15 ppm

That's pretty Weird. Mine don't.

 

[CodyRVA]

That's pretty Weird. Mine don't.

They don't die per say, but they flip and do not attempt to correct themselves. At that point, if I don't take action to reduce my PO4, they start to die off. I usually run PO4 very low, so it may be the spike or sudden change that causes it more so than the degree of "high" PO4.

Anyways, would love to know what that white stuff is in the images above.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

They don't die per say, but they flip and do not attempt to correct themselves. At that point, if I don't take action to reduce my PO4, they start to die off. I usually run PO4 very low, so it may be the spike or sudden change that causes it more so than the degree of "high" PO4.

Anyways, would love to know what that white stuff is in the images above.

Yea. That's weird. I've had the same five for over a year with all the ups and downs.

And agreed. Looks like sponges(silicates from former water perhaps) but...

 

[Mjc092]

I used a coral dip that I purchased from the LFS and I can't remember what it was called but the sales person told me he recommends it to everyone. It comes in a orange container and smelled minty. I only dipped the 2 zoas and did not dip the 2nd set of frags to see if the dip may have been the cause.

 

[Mjc092]

The white fuzz actually started around week 3 of having the tank setup but it was a few spots and only a few "hairs". I actually posted awhile ago and someone said it might be die off which I thought sounded good. But the white fuzz has started to grow faster and faster. It spread to about 60% of the rocks within the past 3 weeks. At least that's when I started to pay extra attention to it. I just started to get the green algae/hair algae within the last few weeks too.

If the water is bad wouldn't the fish die too? They do not look stressed at all. And the snails would sit on the sand not moving as if they were paralyzed. After a few days of not moving I would see an empty shell or a stinky dead snail. I thought it was the scarlet hermit that was killing them but no injuries were visible prior to death.

The only change I can think of is getting an rodi unit and bumping up the salinity.

One guy said it might be due to the water changes which caused the tank to start cycling all over again?

 

[CodyRVA]

One guy said it might be due to the water changes which caused the tank to start cycling all over again?

How old is this system?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

It could have been th salinity change too fast. Maybe.

Where did you get the water before?
Are you testing tds?

Is the white stuff slimey or sponge like?

Tanks cycle dont really start over. The cycle is bacteria processing ammonia. To stop it you'd have to kill all the bacteria.
A mini cycle is the sudden rush of ammonia.
Most call a mini cycle stirring stuff up and making algae and cyano. This is not correct.

 

[Mjc092]

I was using tap water through a Pur pitcher and using Prime. I tested the tap water which was at 67ppm before and after the Pur filter so it was just for peace of mind I guess. But once I saw my first zoa frag close up I purchased an ro filter from amazon the next day. The ro filter water is reading 3ppm. It's not an rodi just a 3 stage ro.

Once ro filter came in I did a 5g water change per day for 3 days in a row 6/8-6/10 followed by another 2 5g WC on 6/14-6/15. On 6/7 is when I picked up the zoas and 6/15 was the date I picked up the 2nd set of frags from a different shop.

The white algae is stringy, slimey, and doesn't blow off the rocks easily when I have a wavemaker right on the rock. It doesn't look like a sponge and when it does come off the rock it looks like snot like of. I would call it a stringy slime fuzz.

I think it might be silicates which could possibly explain the snail die off and maybe the change in salinity caused the first batch of frags to go into shock. But... why would the second batch die too? And why are the fish happy? I'm just guessing here and going off what the google/other forums say.

Question. Would a large water change hurt my tank or help? Maybe something made its way into it and is causing trouble. I have been testing my nitrates/phosphate/ph on a weekly basis since startup and the past 2 months phosphate has been .25-.5 but close to .25 to .00 for past 3 weeks. Nitrates started to get high around 30ppm mid may but stayed around 10ppm for the past 3 weeks. PH has always been around 8.1 but dropped to 7.6 last week and now back to 8.1. Alk was constant at 12-14dkh however also dropped down to 8dkh last week.

 

[Mjc092]

Tank is turning 6 months old.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Don't google too hard. It's like diagnosing yourself on web md. I'm pretty sure you don't have cancer.

Silicates won't effect much. It grows diatoms and sponges.

To me the snot sounds like bacterial colonies. Those are spurred by things like carbon sources. Vodka vinegar are most common. Other sources are paint thinners have sanitizers and air fresheners and sprays.

Are you cleaning the tank with any soap or glass cleaner ?


Phosphates are brought in with foods but can come in on rock.

Don't buffer your ph btw in a mixed reef. It a bit complicated and might not be your problem.

You would likely do best making sure your powerhead is really making the top of the tank ripple.

What salt are you using.

Assuming your new water is pretty good yes. Water changes will help.

I'm still not sure what of this is effecting the corals and inverts. It's not ph. Po4 or I belive. .

 

[ndrwater]

I'm gonna go with @saltyfilmfolks here.. Looks more like a bacteria bloom than anything else. Reading top down from the original post, I see quite a few potential suspects as to why you have gotten to this point.
I do agree with Salty that your Phosphate is elevated, but not to dangerous levels by any means. I would suspect the quality of the source water when you were using a Pur filter and Prime.
Sounds like you have gone to RO which is a good thing, but I suspect that the Prime may be the root of the suspected bacterial bloom. I think it contains Aloe which would be a carbon source resulting in the bloom

 

[Mjc092]

I figured it probably had something to do with the original tap water Prime mix. Every video I watched said not to use tap water but I wanted to cut down on cost a little and now it looks like I'm paying for it with dead frags. Thank you everyone for helping me out. So to move forward should I just do a water change?

But to answer a few of the questions above.
-I used windex on the glass maybe 2x. I mostly use just water and a paper towel.
-I'm using coralife salt from petco. From the packaging it says it has higher trace elements which looked like the reef crystals.
-A weird thing is that my RO water says the ph is 8.1 but my tank was at 7.6-7.8. I wasn't checking that regularly until the frags died.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So to move forward should I just do a water change?

yep.

I used windex on the glass maybe 2x. I mostly use just water and a paper towel.

I use a tiny dab of dish soap(ours is never scented really)on a paer towel, then wipe and polish with newspaper.

I'm using coralife salt from petco. From the packaging it says it has higher trace elements which looked like the reef crystals.

its a fine salt.

-A weird thing is that my RO water says the ph is 8.1 but my tank was at 7.6-7.8.

double check your meter and test. but overall it effect very little. You only really need to know the ph of the tank before lights on, mid day and before lights out to get the feel of the swing.

 

[Mjc092]

Sounds good. As for the water change, what % could I take out without doing more harm? And is a large WC better than doing a several small WC every day for a few days? I would ideally like to do a 100% to get whatever is in the water out of there.

Would products like Seachem Stability or Bio spira be a good thing to use after a large WC?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Go in the middle. several med sized ones once a week.