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

[dkray944]

I would also do a 50% water change and again a week or so

 

[SandJ]

Probably a long shot since there are issues with other corals....but do you happen to see any white spots on the stalks of the zoas (zoa pox)? Just went through treating my daughter's zoas for it and they closed up exactly like yours.

 

[jsker]

Red Sea pro

Are you testing high or low? That or it could be test, have you thought about have your water tested at the LFS just for comparison. Just humor me please.

 

[jsker]

Here is the most common since post I found here. The two places I have are in dead spots.

 

[cginter]

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

1) leds are good and t5's were added June.
2)flow got two mp40s on blast.
3) my no3 is (.75) lowest I've seen on my tank, phos is undetectable on Hanna hi713 (0.00). I think u may be on to something with this...
4) no alk swings. On a doser, 150ml/day throughout 10 hrs.
5)temp is ok

6) Rodi system reads 2ppm in the di and 0ppm out.

So cyano comes when there is an unbalance in nutrients? I think I need to raise my no3 and phos

 

[cginter]

Probably a long shot since there are issues with other corals....but do you happen to see any white spots on the stalks of the zoas (zoa pox)? Just went through treating my daughter's zoas for it and they closed up exactly like yours.

Nope no white spots. They're just slowing getting smaller and smaller until they melt

 

[cginter]

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

I thought about doing a lights out period but some of my sps are struggling and I feel days without light will just make them worse.

 

[beaslbob]

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

+1
Kill you lights until the cyano dies off then resume with less lighting and feeding and adjust until the good stuff thrives and the cyano stays away.

 

[cginter]

Next time I'll try the lights out trick. I just didn't like the idea of my corals not getting light for days with them already being stressed out.

 

[cooper5389]

I battled what looks like the same type algae you have. There is so many different varieties of algae that all look similar. I wish there was a silver bullet treatment. Let's hope its something different. Uggg It was a miserable experience...But with persistence you can beat it!

I tried chemi clean, red slime remover, dino X, algae X... Multi-Day blackouts, hydrogen peroxide, sadly none of these worked for me. They just knocked it back some and over time either the treatment or the algae slowly killed my coral.

Honestly it's hard for me to know what exactly was the trick.


Here's what I think helped most. Basically I did everything I could to improve my water quality, I starved all the algae out and manually removed as much as possible to break the cycle.

Do a 3-4 day blackout with cardboard completely covering the tanks (No light). Don't half butt this or you will be wasting your time

Cut your light cycle and intensity. Or maintain your intensity but lower the duration to 6-8 hours.

Follow this up with a good sand vacuum and water change.

Make sure your top off water is clean and not adding phosphates or silicates fueling the algae. Replace your RO/DI filters... I upgraded mine to a 6 stage (zero TDS dosn't mean your always good)

I had 1.5 year old miracle mud in my fuge... apparently the stuff goes bad after a while so I isolated that section of my fuge and cleaned all of it out.

I replaced my GFO and carbon, swapped my GFO every two weeks.

I put big bags of Phosgard in my sump to absorb phosphates

I vacuumed the algae on the sand weekly and got a toothbrush and scrubbed my rocks in the tank. Run filter socks to catch the debris and skim heavily.

I did big and small water changes every time I really stirred things up.

Once I could see progress was being made I added 3 conks to stir the sand and 5 turbos to attack the algae on the rocks.

Over time with lots of setbacks, things slowly improved and really one day after a sand vacuum and water change it just went away!!!

My sand is completely clean and white. FINALLY!!!!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Make sure your top off water is clean and not adding phosphates or silicates fueling the algae. Replace your RO/DI filters... I upgraded mine to a 6 stage (zero TDS dosn't mean your always good)

I'm certainly glad you solved your algae problem, but I don't agree with that assertion. Any nutrients in 0 ppm TDS RO/Di water are insignificant relative to other sources, such as foods.

 

[cginter]

My rodi filters were replaced July 1st. And I have a inline TDS meter, so I believe my top off water is a OK.

Sump is clean, and I change my carbon every 3-4 weeks depending on the flow out of the reactor. I took GFO off because my corals were starting to pale/loose color. (I assumed it was due to super low no3 and po4). NO3- (.75) Po4 (0.00) with Hanna 713.

I'm going to purchase another clean up crew after this chemiclean treatment. ( if anyone knows of a good reputable company for clean up crews please lmk).

I wish I could use a tooth brush to get the thick algae off or even remove some of the rocks, but coral is binding them together on most places.

 

[cginter]

Correct me if I'm wrong. But if my po4 reading is 0.00 and colors are fading, one would suggest not to run GFO? @Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Correct me if I'm wrong. But if my po4 reading is 0.00 and colors are fading, one would suggest not to run GFO? @Randy Holmes-Farley

That would be my opinion, right.

 

[cooper5389]

Randy thanks for correcting me...good to know. Don't mean to hijack the thread. So many factors that could of created my algae issue. Guess I can rule out the top off water as being the initial source. I'm guessing I added too many fish too soon and my bioload exceeded my biofiltration and mechanical export capability.

In hindsight... when I look back...either the algae, the chem treatments, or both slowly caused my tank to wither away.

Frustrating but learned a lot!

 

[cooper5389]

This was what made me try everything over 6 months

 

[Snookster]

I'm going through the same issue. My zoas were showing the same exact symptoms. You have cyano and that's what is irritating your corals. You need to stir your sand bed, siphon the cyano off the rocks and change your socks DAILY (if you're are not using socks, start). If you don't have a baster, get one to blow detritus off the hard to get spots.

Cyano "killers" (chemiclean, red slime remover, etc) may help, but won't cure without following the preceding steps. If you choose to use these, wait until you make a some good headway first and then use it as the knockout punch, but you must follow the preceding steps, or it WILL be back.

Make sure you are not overfeeding. I also found dosing carbon seemed to contribute to growing the cyano, but that's just an observation. Once I stopped, it stopped showing up as quick.

It's taken a lot of work, but I'm now into this fight after a month and things are now looking a lot better. Remember, nothing good happens fast.

 

[Girish23]

to much light are created cyano in tank i also have lots of cyano in my 180 gallon tank few days before.but after i read some thread here i reduce my light specialiy phot period.after few day they starting to redduce.and now it will almost go i have some but they not threating like your tank.so keep reduce your light and observed the tank what happend and how your coral response

 

[Snookster]

Light does not cause cyano. Cyano is responding to the nutrients in the tank. Shorter photo periods will affect how fast it grows, but it's still there unless you address what's feeding it.

 

[cginter]

Well I do my 40g wc today. Can't really tell if it worked yet as the DT is still full of bubbles. I will admit that some of the zoas look 100 times better but not all of them.