What may be the issue with few corals

Ryan Kindle · Apr 15, 2023

Hey all, I did a water change last week. I usually do 15-20gal change biweekly in my 75 gall. After this change the next day all the xenias were tiny and dropped, almost looked melting. My gsp on back wall and on a big branched rock arent as full or long, and my finger gorgonian isnt opening anymore. Im dealing with a big hair algae issue, and I have a lawnmower blenny now that ive noticed is always nipping around those to eat off the algae. Could he just be irritating them? Hes the only new addition. My leathers, bubble coral, rfa, bta, few zoas, duncas and hammers are all thriving still. Duncan and hammers have added a new head each even. Paremeters look fine.

LiLinka · Apr 16, 2023

Did you test salt after the water change? And by fine for your parameters, did you wait a couple hours after the water change to make sure it was mixed completely. Also where did you get saltwater that you used from.

Ryan Kindle · Apr 16, 2023

Salinity stayed same after. Yes i waited to test. I use reef crystals and rodi water

LiLinka · Apr 16, 2023

You also said this happened last week. Is anything opened up and looking better now?

Ryan Kindle · Apr 16, 2023

Here you can see the gorg and in the one some the gsp branch. There is GHA wrapped around some the gorg. I tried to wave some off and purple cloudyness came off the gorg.

Ryan Kindle · Apr 16, 2023

No, they look the same as after the change. But the blenny was added the day before the water change also, why im almost suspecting him agitating them along with the gha maybe. Tomorrow im going to try to turkey baster some the alage off and doa change, see if it helps.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Apr 16, 2023

Ryan Kindle said:
No, they look the same as after the change. But the blenny was added the day before the water change also, why im almost suspecting him agitating them along with the gha maybe. Tomorrow im going to try to turkey baster some the alage off and doa change, see if it helps.

Manually remove as much algae as you can. Fish and snails can only do so much. If it's "wrapped around" some corals, you need to intervene even if it means taking things out and using tweezers, etc to get the majority of the algae off.

Then, plan to address the underlying issues causing the algae outbreak.