PLS HELP!! ITS ALL OVER :(

oscaaar · Nov 27, 2023

Hey guys , so I have a 20g long housing a decent amount of corals as I wait for my IM tank to be delivered/setup. I have been doing weekly waterchanges 5-10g weekly using Fritz blue box. Housing 5 fishes atm

Lately I have been seeing this all over my tank and makes my water very very cloudy. Can I get some help on trying to get rid of it ? Waterchanges seems to make it worse or do nothing. Thanks

Kfactor · Nov 27, 2023

whats your n and p

MnFish1 · Nov 27, 2023

First - it's not all over.
Second. is there any evidence that the algae is damaging the coral you have?
Third what are your parameters

Gill the 3rd · Nov 27, 2023

Looks like Dino’s. What are your parameters? Stop doing water changes as it’s probably making it worse.

MnFish1 · Nov 27, 2023

Gill the 3rd said:
Looks like Dino’s. What are your parameters? Stop doing water changes as it’s probably making it worse.

Agree - what are your parameters However - there is nothing affecting your corals - so I would not stress so much

CubsFan · Nov 27, 2023

Agree with all the above. You’re good.

Gill the 3rd · Nov 27, 2023

Yea the corals look fine. It’s all manageable, not the end of the world.

My guess is your phosphates and/or nitrates are 0, but you will need to confirm this with testing.

MnFish1 · Nov 27, 2023

Can you post your PO4 and No3

oscaaar · Dec 7, 2023

Kfactor said:
whats your n and p

MnFish1 said:
Can you post your PO4 and No3

Gill the 3rd said:
Yea the corals look fine. It’s all manageable, not the end of the world.

My guess is your phosphates and/or nitrates are 0, but you will need to confirm this with testing.

Gill the 3rd said:
Looks like Dino’s. What are your parameters? Stop doing water changes as it’s probably making it worse.

I’m sorry fellas for the late response. I’m a trailer driver so I’m constantly on the road days/weeks on end. I’m home for the weekend. So I just tested my Nitrate is 0.0ppm & Phosphate is 0.07ppm .

Lavey29 · Dec 7, 2023

oscaaar said:
I’m sorry fellas for the late response. I’m a trailer driver so I’m constantly on the road days/weeks on end. I’m home for the weekend. So I just tested my Nitrate is 0.0ppm & Phosphate is 0.07ppm .

How long has you tank been set up? Bottomed out nitrates mean your corals are starving to death and opens the door for problem algae.

seamonster · Dec 8, 2023

oscaaar said:
Hey guys , so I have a 20g long housing a decent amount of corals as I wait for my IM tank to be delivered/setup. I have been doing weekly waterchanges 5-10g weekly using Fritz blue box. Housing 5 fishes atm

Lately I have been seeing this all over my tank and makes my water very very cloudy. Can I get some help on trying to get rid of it ? Waterchanges seems to make it worse or do nothing. Thanks

seamonster · Dec 8, 2023

Time to get a uv sterilizer

Mikeltee · Dec 8, 2023

Patience goes a long way in this hobby. Did you just buy a bunch of coral and a box of salt? Setup a carbon reactor in case those dinos are toxic. You will need a microscope to ID them. While you are at the store, purchase a little patience or you aren't going to last long.

oscaaar · Dec 8, 2023

Lavey29 said:
How long has you tank been set up? Bottomed out nitrates mean your corals are starving to death and opens the door for problem algae.

Mikeltee said:
Patience goes a long way in this hobby. Did you just buy a bunch of coral and a box of salt? Setup a carbon reactor in case those dinos are toxic. You will need a microscope to ID them. While you are at the store, purchase a little patience or you aren't going to last long.

seamonster said:
Time to get a uv sterilizer

I have lost a couple , and have seen that they are just surviving not thriving. Now that you mention it. The tank has been up since around after September. With cycled media from my LFS. I’ve been adding coral little by little.

Perthegallon · Dec 8, 2023

oscaaar said:
I have lost a couple , and have seen that they are just surviving not thriving. Now that you mention it. The tank has been up since around after September. With cycled media from my LFS. I’ve been adding coral little by little.

That seems way to short

ekandler · Dec 8, 2023

oscaaar said:
I have lost a couple , and have seen that they are just surviving not thriving. Now that you mention it. The tank has been up since around after September. With cycled media from my LFS. I’ve been adding coral little by little.

Everything in this hobby is a waiting game. I’d say for a tank that old there’s too much stuff in there. I know you said you’ve been adding little by little, but for this hobby, the coral and fish you have in there over a 2 month period, it’s way too fast.

Things go well or improve over the course of months and can go wrong in days. Now that you’re on the downward trend it’ll be a long road to recovery but we’ve all done it, just need to be patient.

Try to get the tank stable. You need a good base of bacteria for the healthy system. Get the nutrients up, stop doing water changes unnecessarily, test the system regularly, and fight specific issues you see as they come. Don’t buy any more coral or fish for a few months and make sure you’re 2 months free of issues before you buy something new.

New stuff is fun, but anytime you introduce something new it destabilizes the balance you have, creating or consuming more nutrients than you had previously. Going from 1 to 2 is the hardest. 20 to 21 won’t be as noticeable.

Just my advice, good luck.

oscaaar · Dec 8, 2023

ekandler said:
Everything in this hobby is a waiting game. I’d say for a tank that old there’s too much stuff in there. I know you said you’ve been adding little by little, but for this hobby, the coral and fish you have in there over a 2 month period, it’s way too fast.

Things go well or improve over the course of months and can go wrong in days. Now that you’re on the downward trend it’ll be a long road to recovery but we’ve all done it, just need to be patient.

Try to get the tank stable. You need a good base of bacteria for the healthy system. Get the nutrients up, stop doing water changes unnecessarily, test the system regularly, and fight specific issues you see as they come. Don’t buy any more coral or fish for a few months and make sure you’re 2 months free of issues before you buy something new.

New stuff is fun, but anytime you introduce something new it destabilizes the balance you have, creating or consuming more nutrients than you had previously. Going from 1 to 2 is the hardest. 20 to 21 won’t be as noticeable.

Just my advice, good luck.

Great thank you so much for that info. Yeah now noticing I think it might’ve been a little to much to fast and with the waterchanges didn’t seem to be helping it. But I’ll definitely try to be more patient aswell as test on a regular basis. Definitely will try to get this under wraps before moving anything into my IM 25 once I set it up

Mikeltee · Dec 8, 2023

Go buy all the LIVE rock you need now from your lfs and put it in a Brute with a heater and circulation pump. You want 1 month in this Brute to kill off all the anemones, pests and such. After a month, put it in your new tank and add 3 fish. Take half the coral and cut the plugs off and gove it an H2O2 bath. Research how to do this. Glue it on new plugs or pieces of rock and add it to the tank. Measure your Phosphates and Nitrates weekly and keep them high. You may need to dose to keep them high dependant on whatever the LFS tank breakdown rock is at. Look for porous rock and not that cement crap. After 2 weeks, add the other 2 fish and do the same procedure with the remaining coral. You have about a 10% chance to not carry those dinos over. You are going to need quite a bit of rock too. You want to transfer the least amount as possible out of that mess you got yourself in to. You are going to want to quarantine those fish as well. Don't add anything else to the tank until your parameters stabilize. Once you figure out how to get your Phosphates and Nitrates where you want them, you want to keep them there with weekly tests for 6 weeks. If they swing, you are not ready. This again will depend on the rock that you choose. Another option for rock is Facebook marketplace and someone that breaks down a tank. If you get it all from the same tank it will more than likely be stable. LFS has rocks from many tanks so it's probably not going to be stable.

This is called a skip cycle. You might just make it out of this... make sure you have a skimmer. A skimmer is all you need. Don't EVER dose nopox, use GFO, chaeto, or algae scrubbers or you will be staring at what you are now.

oscaaar · Dec 9, 2023

Mikeltee said:
Go buy all the LIVE rock you need now from your lfs and put it in a Brute with a heater and circulation pump. You want 1 month in this Brute to kill off all the anemones, pests and such. After a month, put it in your new tank and add 3 fish. Take half the coral and cut the plugs off and gove it an H2O2 bath. Research how to do this. Glue it on new plugs or pieces of rock and add it to the tank. Measure your Phosphates and Nitrates weekly and keep them high. You may need to dose to keep them high dependant on whatever the LFS tank breakdown rock is at. Look for porous rock and not that cement crap. After 2 weeks, add the other 2 fish and do the same procedure with the remaining coral. You have about a 10% chance to not carry those dinos over. You are going to need quite a bit of rock too. You want to transfer the least amount as possible out of that mess you got yourself in to. You are going to want to quarantine those fish as well. Don't add anything else to the tank until your parameters stabilize. Once you figure out how to get your Phosphates and Nitrates where you want them, you want to keep them there with weekly tests for 6 weeks. If they swing, you are not ready. This again will depend on the rock that you choose. Another option for rock is Facebook marketplace and someone that breaks down a tank. If you get it all from the same tank it will more than likely be stable. LFS has rocks from many tanks so it's probably not going to be stable.

This is called a skip cycle. You might just make it out of this... make sure you have a skimmer. A skimmer is all you need. Don't EVER dose nopox, use GFO, chaeto, or algae scrubbers or you will be staring at what you are now.

Jesus lols nah thank you so much for all that information I will definitely keep this in mind when I go over to my lfs next week

Lavey29 · Dec 9, 2023

As others already mentioned, patience is the number one rule in this hobby. Your tank(s) will be going through a variety of ugly phases over the course of the first year. Real live wet ocean rock will Jumpstart your biome and make these ugly phases very manageable or negligible too so it's a great investment. Focus on the fundamentals of reef keeping and avoid harsh chemicals that will kill off all the good stuff on that ocean rock. Don't add corals or fish to much to quick. Give your tank time to adjust and create a positive environment for your live stock. It comes down to a few basic things, water chemistry, flow, lighting and good husbandry which creates tank stability.