I have a massive diatom bloom, both in my display and my quarantine. The quarantine isn't as bad but I have had 2 episodes of RTN with two different frags. Debating my options here. Just siphoned out the best I could in my display, did a 10 gallon water change (50 gallon total system). Currently making more water. Corals are not happy in any tank except a trooper of a hammer coral. Corals were from WWC live sale so I'm bumming pretty bad. What are my options here guys? My order of silicabuster DI resin won't arrive until Thursday. I can't explain why my 9 month old tank just is not stable. I did so much research prior to starting, and have done everything by the book. Need advice..what should I do to try and save all my corals? Freaking out a bit lol.
Tank is going to hell.
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Are you ordering new di resin because yours is bad? Having bad ro water can cause a lot of problems. Did you test for tds? A temporary Solution is to get a giant plastic storage bin mix fresh saltwater And use that as a temporary tank until you figure out the problem. I would definitely acclimate everything to the new water
Stingray122
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I have a large bag of brand new resin, from BRS. Always replace it when the color change reaches about 2 inches from top. I think the silica is passing through the resin and for whatever reason more amounts during this time of year for me. Always used 0 tds water from the start. Dual mixed resin. 150gpd BRS water saver plus system.
Parameters at 12/12
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
1.0 ppm nitrate
pH 7.96-8.13 (apex)
SG 1.025
Temp stable at 78.1-78.2 degrees via apex
Calcium 415 ppm
Alk around 8dkH
Magnesium 1540 (red sea test kit, apparently always reads high)
Unreadable phosphate on nyos kit.
Parameters at 12/12
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
1.0 ppm nitrate
pH 7.96-8.13 (apex)
SG 1.025
Temp stable at 78.1-78.2 degrees via apex
Calcium 415 ppm
Alk around 8dkH
Magnesium 1540 (red sea test kit, apparently always reads high)
Unreadable phosphate on nyos kit.
Stingray122
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At this rate, I am unsure of what to do. I have 2 spare 10 gallon tanks, my two clownfish are doing fine. Acclimating all these corals I am sure would be the death of all of them, unless it was a slow 24 hour process, and would be unsure of how to go about it to maximize my success chance.
How old is your system? I'm used to not seeing a lot diatoms in fairly mature systems. Maybe the tank wasn't ready for corals yet and needed some more time to balance itself out? Do you have any pictures or parameter info?
Is anyone familiar with diatom bloom and then coral death? Suffocation by GHA or bryopsis or dinos, I'm familiar with. I usually think of diatoms as the little innocent guys, but I certainly could be wrong there.
Is anyone familiar with diatom bloom and then coral death? Suffocation by GHA or bryopsis or dinos, I'm familiar with. I usually think of diatoms as the little innocent guys, but I certainly could be wrong there.
Stingray122
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Diatom bloom started about a month ago, definately is going on some parts of my birdnest coral, right next to polyps. Also see some on the base of torch. I can get some pictures. Reef tank is 9 months old.
I just had a major tank issue this week. I was hoping diatoms but it’s Dino’s. Happened coincidentally right when I got my wwc live sale shipment too. My phosphates hit zero and had non nitrates. Perfect Dino storm.
Stingray122
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I mean I am not that upset due to this is my first tank, I learned a whole lot, it was fun, I am just hoping to keep some life. I went so slow with the tank, that's why I am frustrated. Corals were not added until about the 4 month mark. Tank cycled for 2 months before fish.. I have not added any fish since..I went so slow with it, I don't understand.
Stingray122
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I am not giving up, I will switch to softies if all my corals do infact die. I will give this tank a long time to stabilize, fix all my issues, learn more. I am going to post pictures of all my corals right now.
How many fish do you have? When I first started I had no clue how much to feed to put in to perspective I went from feeding a couple pinches of pellets a day to 3 or 4 pellets per fish every 2-3 days
Stingray122
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One in display are ticked because I was using a toothbrush/siphon hose to collect the diatoms on the surrounding rock work. The purple one with green polyps was bleached from months ago, and has been bouncing back slow as can be, that one is very hardy. It was my first coral, bleached while I was on vacation and it tipped over in my QT and didn't get any light on the bottom half.
Stingray122
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I have two medium sized clowns, I feed very lightly, my nutrients were 0 (phos/nitrate) for months. Corals seemed okay. About two weeks ago I started dosing about 0.25ppm nitrate and 0.025 phosphate daily. Levels took awhile to register even detectable levels. I contribute this to my diatom probably, as phos/nitrate were likely their limiting factors rather than silica.
Stingray122
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I have microscopically identified them to be diatoms. Check this post for the process https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/persistent-diatoms-need-help.522823/
