Rev's 400+ Gallon Basement Inwall

C-Reefer · Jan 28, 2019

Cruisin' through the whole thread leaves with... not much

The most recent video looks fantastic though! Love that zoa garden, and hope the tank is continuing to progress. Way to go for fighting your way through those dinos and other problems, that in itself is awe-inspiring.

Brew12 · Jan 28, 2019

C-Reefer said:
The most recent video looks fantastic though!

I missed that one. Was the video done in color? I wasn't sure if color video was available the last time he updated or if it was in black and white.

Janci · Jan 28, 2019

Well... at least we tried.

griff500 · Jan 29, 2019

Is he still a member?

Ariton · Jan 29, 2019

Just over rated threat

revhtree · Jan 30, 2019

LOL! I'm actually pretty bummed at the moment and need advice. The tank was doing fantastic. SPS all encrusting with amazing colors, first for me..LOL! Anyway I started getting a green algae covering the sand. Not slime and not hair. It would literally blow into a thousand pieces with a turkey baster unlike any other algae I have seen. I jumped the gun I think and did a chemiclean dose. That didn't do anything so I started heavily dosing Vibrant and that didn't touch it either. But along the process I did something to tick off the sps. They have really started to lose color, polyp extension is gone down to very minimal if any. Some are starting to stn from the bottom and I am not sure what I should do next. Rookie mistakes.....

I have changed the water a couple times but only about 15-20%.

Oh and I also found out my nitrates were hovering around 30.

Any advice? I want to save the sps above all and deal with the algae afterwards.

Brew12 · Jan 30, 2019

revhtree said:
It would literally blow into a thousand pieces with a turkey baster unlike any other algae I have seen.

Sounds very odd. Are you sure you have enough flow in your tank?

What is your PO4? It hasn't bottomed out, has it?

revhtree · Jan 30, 2019

Brew12 said:
Sounds very odd. Are you sure you have enough flow in your tank?

What is your PO4? It hasn't bottomed out, has it?

It does and I've never experienced this type before. My last water changes I sucked most of it out from the sand but in about 4-5 days its coming back to covering the sand again. I'll check my PO4 tomorrow.

Janci · Jan 31, 2019

revhtree said:
LOL! I'm actually pretty bummed at the moment and need advice. The tank was doing fantastic. SPS all encrusting with amazing colors, first for me..LOL! Anyway I started getting a green algae covering the sand. Not slime and not hair. It would literally blow into a thousand pieces with a turkey baster unlike any other algae I have seen. I jumped the gun I think and did a chemiclean dose. That didn't do anything so I started heavily dosing Vibrant and that didn't touch it either. But along the process I did something to tick off the sps. They have really started to lose color, polyp extension is gone down to very minimal if any. Some are starting to stn from the bottom and I am not sure what I should do next. Rookie mistakes.....

I have changed the water a couple times but only about 15-20%.

Oh and I also found out my nitrates were hovering around 30.

Any advice? I want to save the sps above all and deal with the algae afterwards.

Do you have a picture of the algae?

For sure the Chemiclean and/or Vibrant did something with the water composition.
I know it is a big tank, but water changes are the best way to return to balance.
I would add to put the skimmer at max. I am not sure why, but fresh oxygen helped me in various occasions.

Terence · Jan 31, 2019

Likely you did a one-two punch that killed off some beneficial bacteria as well as affected zooxanthellae in the corals. Now it’s going to take time to get things built back up most likely. Do some large water changes to get nitrates back in order and keep feedings to the minimal. No other magic juices and hands out of the water or monkeying with things. Sucking out nuisance algae is fine but you really should have things like diamond gobies and conchs to do that for you. You can also back off the lighting schedule a bit as without the zooxanthellae (or if it was just affected or stunted), the corals would use, and can even be damaged by too much DLI.

ourcoralreef · Jan 31, 2019

revhtree said:
LOL! I'm actually pretty bummed at the moment and need advice. The tank was doing fantastic. SPS all encrusting with amazing colors, first for me..LOL! Anyway I started getting a green algae covering the sand. Not slime and not hair. It would literally blow into a thousand pieces with a turkey baster unlike any other algae I have seen. I jumped the gun I think and did a chemiclean dose. That didn't do anything so I started heavily dosing Vibrant and that didn't touch it either. But along the process I did something to tick off the sps. They have really started to lose color, polyp extension is gone down to very minimal if any. Some are starting to stn from the bottom and I am not sure what I should do next. Rookie mistakes.....

I have changed the water a couple times but only about 15-20%.

Oh and I also found out my nitrates were hovering around 30.

Any advice? I want to save the sps above all and deal with the algae afterwards.

I had a similar experience a couple of years ago i think the chemicals choked out my rock and it killed my beneficial bacteria i had a crash, then started fresh

Any way of setting up a frag tank for the coral cut right on top of dead tissue and glue to new rock or plugs

I recently had a big sps colony die and it wiped out a bunch of my sps encrusted frags
Im thinking its related i broke off one of the frags that was starting to die and its fine i also made a channel in the rock encrusted part between dying sps and living tissue the living side is still alive the dying side totally bleached out im thinking dying sps kills other sps

revhtree · Jan 31, 2019

Thanks guys I'm going to step up the water changes...

This photo makes it look a bit more brown but it’s bright green.

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revhtree · Jan 31, 2019

Also I know it looks like a tank not taken care of but it's not. I change water regular, clean the glass, clean my skimmer etc..

Brew12 · Jan 31, 2019

revhtree said:
Thanks guys I'm going to step up the water changes...

This photo makes it look a bit more brown but it’s bright green.

Looks like cyanobacteria to me. Like a strain of spirulina. Any chance you have a microscope you can put it under?

I see one snail in the photo, what do you have in the way of snails/conch's? I've never had a problem with CuC not wanting to eat the green version.

Brew12 · Jan 31, 2019

revhtree said:
Also I know it looks like a tank not taken care of but it's not. I change water regular, clean the glass, clean my skimmer etc..

And have you checked your PO4 to make sure it's not 0ppm?

revhtree · Jan 31, 2019

Brew12 said:
Looks like cyanobacteria to me. Like a strain of spirulina. Any chance you have a microscope you can put it under?

I see one snail in the photo, what do you have in the way of snails/conch's? I've never had a problem with CuC not wanting to eat the green version.

Brew12 said:
And have you checked your PO4 to make sure it's not 0ppm?

I will get a microscope photo and PO4 number today and report back. Cleaning crew probably needs revamped. Purchased more a few weeks ago and most came in dead and I didn't reorder. That's another story.

Any suggestions for a good crew for this stuff?

ourcoralreef · Jan 31, 2019

revhtree said:
Thanks guys I'm going to step up the water changes...

This photo makes it look a bit more brown but it’s bright green.

Looks like diatoms

I am noticing that its only growing on the sand try covering a spot with a rock, coral etc see what happens on and around that area

Where is the sand from
And what type is it

ourcoralreef · Jan 31, 2019

revhtree said:
I will get a microscope photo and PO4 number today and report back. Cleaning crew probably needs revamped. Purchased more a few weeks ago and most came in dead and I didn't reorder. That's another story.

Any suggestions for a good crew for this stuff?

Mexican turbos (the bigger ones) (they knock non encrusted frags down but they are very good cleaners),
a sea hare,
a sea cucumber,
sand sifting star,
diamond goby (they are jumpers so make sure you have a cover on top),
and maybe some added flow in the affected areas

Brew12 · Jan 31, 2019

revhtree said:
I will get a microscope photo and PO4 number today and report back. Cleaning crew probably needs revamped. Purchased more a few weeks ago and most came in dead and I didn't reorder. That's another story.

Any suggestions for a good crew for this stuff?

Reef2Reef has a sponsor that you could support who I have had great luck with.

John with Reefcleaners.org has very reasonably priced packages, is great at responding to any questions, and offers florida fighting conchs.
To give you an idea of what I use in my 187g. I have around 150 snails, 40 hermits and 2 fighting conchs. I would consider this on the small side right now. I'm not a fan of most hermits so I don't buy his package with the mixed variety. I do like the small blue legged variety so I order those as an add on to the snail only packages.

Since your tank is over twice the size of mine, I would go at least double the size of my CuC and maybe triple.