NEED SOME HELP/GUIDENCE getting my tank back 2 normal!!

cginter · Sep 21, 2016

My tank is on a downward spiral and i need some help! I havent been able to be around my tank as much these past few months and with nobody around me knowing what to do i thought i could swing it and get by.

Well over the coarse of the past 3 months or so, ive lost a few colonies of sps and zoas and lots of frags and some colonies of sps are starting to STN/RTN again. Ive only missed 1 water change as i do roughly 40g/ month on the REG. I haven't added any coral to the tank in about 6 months as im discouraged to put anything new in the tank. i did add 8 green chromis, mandarin, and a wrasse before all this started.... lost the Mandarin, yellow eye kole tang, 5 chromis and my potters got lock jaw.... all fish were taken out cept 2 of the chromis, couldnt find them.

tank info:
180g DT
40g sump
carbon rox.8 (1.5 cups)
was running GFO hc (1cup) stopped running 2 months ago due to coral color was fading
i dose alk and cal 150ml/day on dosers (9pm-9am)

params (RED SEA pro)
alk 8.4 been checking daily as i thought i was maybe getting a spike (STN/RTN)
cal 430
mg 1400
no3 .75
phos 0.0 (hanna hi713)

algae is getting pretty bad and i believe its killing some coral (zoas) almost seems like cyano. also getting some thick algae with bubbles on the overflows and returns, completely covered the GSP and its killing that.

im willing to do anything to get this tank back up to shape but honestly im stumped. i feel as if water changes makes the problem worse. Please Please give me some advice or help im loosing all my corals slowly, and im about to start completely over.

if your a experienced reefer and can help me, feel free to pm as we can talk more direct. Thanks everyone...

cginter · Sep 21, 2016

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cginter · Sep 21, 2016

For some reason it won't let me load anymore pics.

cginter · Sep 21, 2016

cginter · Sep 21, 2016

i miss this [emoji17]

cginter · Sep 21, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 21, 2016

When you say bad algae, do you possibly mean cyanobacteria on the sand? I don't see green algae in the pictures.

cginter · Sep 21, 2016

Thanks for the reply randy, I'll get some white pics.

I guess you would say it's more red than green algae. The green algae I was referring to was on the Zoas and I can blow it off most of the time. The algae next to the power head is the same that's on the overflows covering the GSP but more tough and i have to scrub to remove that.

cginter · Sep 22, 2016

I'm gonna do another 40g wc and use chemiclean. I know it's not the best way to do it but I know it'll get rid of the cyano and hopefully rebound my zoas. As far as this algae with bubbles on it I hope it not diatoms as I heard they are a pain to get rid of.

I did dip (no pests) some of the corals that I could and ended up fragging that big piece that started to stn from the base up on me. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't loose any more corals.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 22, 2016

Looks like cyanobacteria to me, and the antibiotic in chemiclean will likely kill it, and at least temporarily take care of it.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 22, 2016

Diatoms are golden brown and are not generally problematic. Stopping any silicate from getting into the water will stop them.

jsker · Sep 22, 2016

cginter said:
I'm gonna do another 40g wc and use chemiclean. I know it's not the best way to do it but I know it'll get rid of the cyano and hopefully rebound my zoas. As far as this algae with bubbles on it I hope it not diatoms as I heard they are a pain to get rid of.

I did dip (no pests) some of the corals that I could and ended up fragging that big piece that started to stn from the base up on me. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't loose any more corals.

Have you chem cleaned before? I am a lets wait to nuke the tank and figure out the issue.

cginter · Sep 22, 2016

jsker said:
Have you chem cleaned before? I am a lets wait to nuke the tank and figure out the issue.

I have in the past about five years ago on my 50 gallon

jsker · Sep 22, 2016

cginter said:
I have in the past about five years ago on my 50 gallon

Your are running high nitrates and getting the nitrates down will be the key. I see you are running carbon. I was have an issue with high nitrates/cayno/GHA/red slim cayno all over the place 3 months ago tried a bunch of things to get the nitrates down. I started do research on bio pellets and I have a small reactor and felt that was the way to go. At the Middle of June I stated with a 1/4 dose of pellets with my nitrates 40+ and brought them down to a 4 in 30 day and I also hired my cleaning crew and my algae issue are now going except two small are of red cayno which are getting smaller every day.

cginter · Sep 22, 2016

jsker said:
Your are running high nitrates and getting the nitrates down will be the key. I see you are running carbon. I was have an issue with high nitrates/cayno/GHA/red slim cayno all over the place 3 months ago tried a bunch of things to get the nitrates down. I started do research on bio pellets and I have a small reactor and felt that was the way to go. At the Middle of June I stated with a 1/4 dose of pellets with my nitrates 40+ and brought them down to a 4 in 30 day and I also hired my cleaning crew and my algae issue are now going except two small are of red cayno which are getting smaller every day.

I think you may have miss read it accidentally No3 is at (.75) I don't think it's high.

cginter · Sep 22, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Diatoms are golden brown and are not generally problematic. Stopping any silicate from getting into the water will stop them.

Would excess cyano make sps recede/rtn and make my zoas look like that? And as far as silicate the only new thing I have added was that huge frag rack (egg crate) on the back wall. Other than that we're or how would excess silicate get in the DT. I've just never had cyano take out coral like that before.

Macdaddynick1 · Sep 22, 2016

couldn't read the whole thread, but here are some troubleshooting i do when i have the same problem. 1) is the light strong enough , ( i.e. look if any leds burnt out , or your t5s are old, 2) Flow very very important to sps as well as zoas imo ... 3) are my nitrates hight enough 2 ppm+ no more than 10 , ( cyano starts covering my tank when my no3 drops to 0 , my zoas close and my acros rtn ) 4) obvious one is alk swings if you had any alk swings they could kill stuff a few days after 4) po4 .02 at least , not over .8 i have trouble with zoas at those levels , . 5) large temperature swings , not as crazy but could be a problem 6) RO Di membrane is bad . .. ( just some quicks thoughts , hopefully this will help you brainstorm in solving your problem. GL

READ the last part of your post , if your water changes make the stuff worse, its definitely your RODI membranes . IMO

jsker · Sep 22, 2016

cginter said:
I think you may have miss read it accidentally No3 is at (.75) I don't think it's high.

What test are you using.

cginter · Sep 22, 2016

jsker said:
What test are you using.

Red Sea pro

dkray944 · Sep 22, 2016

I can't say I've never used chemi clean because I have however I've found over the years a 3 day lights out period works just as well. Haven't lost any corals and usually clears out a lot of the cyno