When is enough enough?

[Reef Keeper 18]

So corals have been dieing for no apparent reason in my tank for a while and algae has been growing even though my levels are normal and ive been keeping up with changes i got new rock and ifugred its time to just find a temp home for what livestock I have and starting over. you guys think its worth it?

 

[REEFKEEPER10]

how old is the tank. have you checked for copper. what kind of corals are dieing. you might have hitchhikers.

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Found some sort of yellow nudi with green algae colored spots the other day and took it out. theres no copper have always used ro to mix and top off Ive had a plate chalice few sps favia torch and radioactive dragon's eye zoas. The tank is over a year (set up september of last year)

 

[gar732]

I'd be willing to bet that its PO4. Some details about your system would be helpful. Do you run any gfo or other PO4 media, size of your system, bio load, feeding schedule. I just went through this myself and thought about tearing down my tank. The wife was really over feeding and PO4 went through the roof. I lost most of my lps and polyps including many high end corals. I had a lot of algae in my tank so my tests always came up good. Also your rock will absorb the PO4 and release it slowly over time. Its been months since I figured out what was going on and dealt with it and I still can't keep chalices or acans.

 

[secretreefer]

REEFERS NEVER SAY ENOUGH!!! j/k! i've been there also let me tell you. won the war with FW, RB , and most recently a really bad alk swing. lost most of my high end sps frags.. but i'm thinking of redoing my tank over too. just a 180G is kinda alot of water.....lol.....sooo i'm looking into a ADA 120P.

 

[skinz78]

Can you post a pic? Do you use RO/DI? How old are your bulbs? How old are your filters? Do you use any type of phosphate removal media?

 

[Troylee]

Love the title... I was gonna do the same post word for word yesterday when I took these pictures... After removing all the skeletons and cleaning the tank I felt better... Then with some encouragement from the great people of r2r I might have some color again to look at it... So one last time for me man I'm diving in...

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Love the title... I was gonna do the same post word for word yesterday when I took these pictures... After removing all the skeletons and cleaning the tank I felt better... Then with some encouragement from the great people of r2r I might have some color again to look at it... So one last time for me man I'm diving in...

Jesus Mary and Joseph thats a lot of sticks.. sorry man. The tank im talking about is only 34 gallons so its a lot easier to switch out the water guys. I have a 60 or so gallon mixg bin for saltwater just carry some ro water over to it measure salt make sure salinitys good leave it over night and ive got saltwater ready to use. The only real reason im considering starting over completely is because i already have the new rock here and scaped. I use (forgot the name) but its those little white balls that remove phosphates as well as activated carbon and have a skimmer. change 5gallons of water every week too and vaccum the sand While i do so.

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

My tank has had some problems from day 1 and i look at the other two tanks in the house and the worst problem is this is growing too fast or there isn't enough room for this.

 

[Troylee]

Maybe the Rock is bound with po4 and just leaching slowly... Do you have any algae problems??? If there is nothing left in the tank then I don't see why starting over would hurt anything...

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Only thing thats left are a few fish and a few corals. And idk if its the rock I've already completely changed it

 

[Troylee]

Do you have another tank to house them temporary while you start it over???

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Yep I have three others although Nothing is going in the 300 because what fish go in there are impossible to get out. I have most corals and fish in other tanks already

 

[Reef Keeper 18]

Started restarting the tank today.. Removed most of the sand water and all of the rock. Livestock that didnt have a home is in a tote with a heater and two pumps with the rock and tankwater

 

[Me z]

The little white balls im guessing are the aluminum based phosphate removerand I have heard of it causing issues but havnt even attempted to use it myself. I suggest buying gfo, its cheap it works and if you have a fuge a little extra iron is a good thing, also there are only two company's that import gfo into the U.S. so its one product you should buy based on price. If you have algae, you have phosphate, there is no physical way it can grow without it, its impossible. Problem algae = a problem with phosphate. Phosphate issues = lots of pretty white sticks or sometimes you might get "lucky" and just have no growth and pretty brown sticks. This hobby is about water, water, water, and did I mention water?? Flow, lights, feeding, it all comes after nutrients and chemistry. Take care of your water and the corals can take care of themselves. Good luck I hope you have a better experience this time around.

 

[Birdee]

Found some sort of yellow nudi with green algae colored spots the other day and took it out. theres no copper have always used ro to mix and top off Ive had a plate chalice few sps favia torch and radioactive dragon's eye zoas. The tank is over a year (set up september of last year)

Never assume that there is no chance of copper!
This summer I was having issues, snails were dying, shrimp I added died, things were doing poorly... It's a 7 yr old tank so I broke it down, moved rock to holding buckets and fish to a QT. I bought a micron/diatom canister filter to clean my sand with.

Lo and Behold! After days of work and cleaning I was putting the rock back in and found a DIME!!! Dimes are 90+ percent copper, not sure how long it had been in there. Also found a tab off an aluminum can. Some kid evidently decided to use my reef as a wishing well. :cry:
Luckily it hadn't killed everything but the fish by the time I figured it out. Snails are now living and I may try to add some shrimp again soon.
I'm still running Cuprisorb just in case there is copper in the rock that is leaching, and will probably keep running it for some time.
Same thing happened to a guy I was talking to recently and he lost LOTS of coral. A brass screw had fallen into his tank... copper and zinc. He found it when breaking down his tank to give up... His tank is back up and running now.

Moral of the story... test for copper before you assume it isn't in there!

 

[dknuckles]

Also check for very tiny Black Bugs (red bugs evil Cousin!)
They will be at the base and they live under the tissue. They have a ferocious appetite, and seem to gild the stalk and then the colony starts to die.