SPS turned brown (not light related)

b4tn · Mar 7, 2019

I think I know what caused it but I want to confirm my thoughts and treatment. I ran vibrant for 4 months which decimated the bubble algae problem I had but a side affect was a massive red cyano outbreak. So once done with vibrant I treated with Chemiclean. This is not my first go round with chemiclean and I have never had issues in the past. Regardless I dosed per instructions, removed carbon, skimmer was left on but over flowing for aeration, after 48 hours I did a 20% water change. Tank looked great for the first time in almost a year! No bubble algae, no cyano, corals where popping! Skimmer was still going nuts as expected but I turned on my algae scrubber which has been off and thought I was happy.

On the third day I noticed diatoms (All my RODI cartridges where replaced about 3 weeks ago). On the 4th day I noticed that one of my finicky Acros was starting to turn brown. On the 5th day I noticed the diatoms where on the rocks as well as the sand. The finicky acro was even more brown so I did a water test and my Nitrates where between 15ppm and 20ppm, phosphates somewhere between 0 and .01. I have always had issues with my one particular acro turning brown if nitrates hit 5ppm or more. and in the past I could never get readable nitrates or phosphates. Having readable numbers with nitrate is a first for me without purposely dosing since cycling 4 years ago.

I did a 20% water change and have been going a 10% change every day now for about a week. As of now two of my largest acros are completely brown, My Hollywood stunner is brown, My other acros are starting to transition to a more brown color. All LPS and select SPS seem fine. Even with daily 10% water changes My nitrates are still hovering around 5-10ppm and corals are continuing to brown. Yesterday I put some carbon in my reactor. My skimmer is still going nuts so I cant get it dialed in, I am hoping the carbon will help calm the skimmer down so I can get it to start pulling gunk out of the water. I read of several people having success with a bi weekly maintenance dose of vibrant. so I went ahead and dosed per the instructions and set a task to re dose in 2 weeks. I am hoping it will help bring nitrates down.

My salinity is 1.025
Calcium 425
Alkalinity 8-8.9 (I have been having issues keeping it perfectly stable due to ticked off corals not consuming as much)

Has anyone else had a 0-15ppm nitrate spike wreak so much havoc? Am I on the right track? Any other suggestions? Crazy how it takes several months for positive affects but only days for a decline!

1Blazer · Mar 7, 2019

Just briefly reading over it --- What are your phosphate levels at?

jda · Mar 7, 2019

You did too much too fast. I won't get on my soap box about vibrant, but it is not easy on SPS. Spikes do wreak havoc... maybe not one, but several can.

If you want to bring nitrates down, throw the vibrant in the trash and just do a regimented daily dose of sugar, vodka or vinegar and do it methodically, consistently and SLOWLY.

b4tn · Mar 7, 2019

1Blazer said:
Just briefly reading over it --- What are your phosphate levels at?

between 0 and .01

b4tn · Mar 7, 2019

jda said:
You did too much too fast. I won't get on my soap box about vibrant, but it is not easy on SPS. Spikes do wreak havoc... maybe not one, but several can.

If you want to bring nitrates down, throw the vibrant in the trash and just do a regimented daily dose of sugar, vodka or vinegar and do it methodically, consistently and SLOWLY.

I agree. I wont discredit vibrant 100% because It took care of bubble algae when everything else failed. I patiently waited for 4 months of dosing and jumped in to quickly with chemiclean. I did run across a tidbit on sugar and need to read up on it a little. I am reluctant to carbon dose mainly because I dont know much about it and am frankly getting tired of constantly running to the next thing to try when things go bad.

jda · Mar 7, 2019

That is likely what you did with the Vibrant. I got a bottle and there is nary a bacteria in there. Looks like ethanol and maybe a few other substances that they deny are in it... and maybe a chemical to kill the algae. I dunno...

I would let the tank settle down for a few months, take measure of where you are and then decide on a strategy. It might need to stabilize more than you need to do anything to it.

The bubbles will come back. Get some emerald crabs from the Florida Keys. Give them time to work. They do a great job, but you need several of them and they need a month or two to get them all - they don't come out into the open until the ones that are more hidden are gone. Once the bubbles are gone, you can just feed them mysis, pellets, flakes, etc. They cannot eat poop, so be sure and feed them and they will keep the algae under control when it decides to come back.