Can you help me save my beloved reef tank?

[coralgazer]

Not sure, but I think my reef tank is dying. Almost all the corals seem to be in demise. The fish are doing great, and always have. Here's my stats:

36 gallon bowfront with 15 gallon sump; Coralife lamp: (2) HO T5 10,000K + (2) Actinic Blue HO75 (new bulbs); Total 124 watts; (2) Koralia 550 wavemakers; Bubble Magus NAC 3.5 skimmer, filter sock, PhosBan and activ carbon bags in sump
Tank has been up 18 months and did fairly well until about 2 months ago.

Livestock:
CUC turbo snails and hermit crabs
1 Kenya tree, only thing seems to be thriving
1 Fox coral, my favorite, used to be huge, now tiny
1 very large rock with green mushrooms, getting smaller
1 very small Florida ricordea, used to be huge, with 2 other huge ones (died)
Several small frags with multiple zoas & palys
1 firefish, 1 royal gramma, 2 clownfish, 1 pajama Cardinal, 1 midas blenny
Bubble coral died


my numbers:
RODI water + Instant Ocean
T= 80 F
SG= 1.023
pH=8.1
Ammonia= 0
Nitrates= 8ppm
Nitrites= 0
Alkalinity= 11 dKh
Calcium= 460
Magnesium= 1285
Phosphates= 0

I had an aiptasia infestation a few months back which I seem to have pretty much eradicated.

Now this (see pics)

2 more in next post.

 

[coralgazer]

 

[ritter6788]

Moved to Reef Aquarium Discussion.

Your phosphates are reading 0 but with the algae problems and struggling corals your phosphate reading has to be high. What test are you using?

 

[coralgazer]

Very good question. I have to admit to you, I don't have a phosphate test kit. But I do have a TDS meter with which I test my RODI water, and it reads 0 ppm. So I figure my water was safe from phosphates. It is well water, no chlorine. All the other parameters, I tested with Salifert. So you think I might have high phosphates? I have actually seen bubbles in this crap, so I figure that the least I have a bubble algae growth. I will buy a phosphate test kit. But if it tests low, which I am anticipating, what else could cause this? I am really discouraged and don't know what else to do. Could a fresh cleanup crew help? if so, what species do you suggest?

 

[nelsonre]

Definitely high phosphate! That's my vote. Solution, massive water change (50%), phosphate remover and a cleaning crew

 

[tonymission]

Very good question. I have to admit to you, I don't have a phosphate test kit. But I do have a TDS meter with which I test my RODI water, and it reads 0 ppm. So I figure my water was safe from phosphates. It is well water, no chlorine. All the other parameters, I tested with Salifert. So you think I might have high phosphates? I have actually seen bubbles in this crap, so I figure that the least I have a bubble algae growth. I will buy a phosphate test kit. But if it tests low, which I am anticipating, what else could cause this? I am really discouraged and don't know what else to do. Could a fresh cleanup crew help? if so, what species do you suggest?

You have high phosphates. If a test result is low it's only because all the algae is consuming it.

 

[coralgazer]

Dear Tonymission,

No offense, just trying to save my tank. Please try to go a little deeper into my problem here. My understanding is that most phosphates enter through the water added during changes. My RODI water has o TDS. Nothing coming in. I just now ordered a Salifert Phosphate test kit to check on this. But now you are saying, if the reading is low that just means the algae is eating it? And if it's high, that proves you are right? Still doesn't provide me with a solution to save my tank!

Is there no other way I can tackle this while I wait for my tests kit to arrive? Did you inspect the pictures? Is that bubble algae? How can I kill it? Will a CUC help? Is there anyway I can alter the chemistry of my water to kill it? I do appreciate any help or insight you could provide as I love my tank, and especially the Fox coral. It will break my heart to lose that when I have had it for almost a year. Fox corals are absolutely beautiful.. . Thanks again!

 

[talwen]

I would start by pulling out as much of that crap you can by hand. Then do a massive water change and get as much of the floating crap as possible. I would repeat that for 4 weeks and then buy a clean up crew to knock down any new algae growing.

 

[tonymission]

No offense, just trying to save my tank. Please try to go a little deeper into my problem here. My understanding is that most phosphates enter through the water added during changes. My RODI water has o TDS. Nothing coming in. I just now ordered a Salifert Phosphate test kit to check on this. But now you are saying, if the reading is low that just means the algae is eating it? And if it's high, that proves you are right? Still doesn't provide me with a solution to save my tank!

None taken, bud. Apologies for being so brief, I was on my phone.
Phosphates come from just about everywhere, but it's assumed that you have a good source of RO/DI water.. TDS is essentially just solids so it's not going to tell you about phosphates ... you can do a test on that source when you get your test kit to determine if that's the main source of phosphates.

Mainly they come from overfeeding or a dirty food source in general. For example, many of the cube foods have a lot of bad water in them which is why people rinse their frozen food first. Could come from poor nutrient export in general? Bad flow not allowing waste to stay suspended and be skimmed out. Not enough water changes.

Basically if you're not exporting nutrients as much as you're adding them you will run into a problem like this eventually.

I think the above advice to manually remove the algae often followed by a water change and then to get a CUC that can handle any of the new growth is great advice. That said, you still have to figure out what the source of your excessive phosphates is so you can prevent it in the future or all your hard manual removal work will be for waste.

 

[JOKER]

Can also use gfo to lower phosphates. Lot of pellet food also brings In phosphates. Do you feed the tank a lot?

 

[Wags]

Your Gfo and carbon are probably used up T this point and could be leeching phosphates back into the tank. I would replace that as well

 

[Kasasah]

On top of what everyone has already said, which should be done asap. I would cut back how long your lights are on for a little while. Go to your LFS and buy a lawnmower blenny, feed a lot less. if you don't have any macro algae, buy some chaetomorpha and throw it somewhere in the sump and throw a light over it. I would recommend reefs2go chaeto and pods for $30 and it ships free.

 

[Mike in CT]

I am battling this also, and my tank is just about the same age as yours. Fish are fine, but some corals are starting to suffer. I have found even doing water changes, and using gfo, phosphates can be very hard to reduce once they build up over time. I have been told that a new tank with new rock and sand can absorb quite a bit of phosphate, then reaches its saturation point and stops absorbing, and/or starts leaching out. Currently using water changes and gfo and not having much luck. Hope you have better luck then me.

 

[Waters]

Yeah, I wouldn't even bother with phosphate tests. It you have algae...you have either phosphates, nitrates, or both. If the test shows 0, it is because the algae is consuming it. If it shows high, it just confirmed what you already knew. Pretty pointless to do phosphate tests IMO.

 

[hart24601]

Have you ever cleaned that sand bed? As in vacuum it?

 

[Joker79]

As previously above stated Phosphates couldnt possibly be 0. Bubble algae clean up crew would consist of emerald crabs, and some fish (RESEARCH which ones). Manually remove as much as you can first.
Your sandbed looks coarse... this type of sandbed is a breeding factory for all sorts of bacteria, nitrates, and phosphates buliding up within it. This type of sand bed needs more care than a aragonite sandbed would and is more difficult to clean.
take a water sample to your local LFS and have them test as well. I would assume you nitrate levels wouldnt be 8 as well.

Major water change, lower lighting cycle, add phosban or other phosphate reducer and carbon. Please take your time with these and try not to do them all at once if you want to save your tank.
Best wishes and good luck!

 

[mtfish]

From what I can see from the pictures it looks like you have green hair algae and dinoflagellates. The bubbles look like gassing off the sand bed. Both of these is from too much nutrients n the water. The nutrients come from the food, not your rodi water. You did not mention what your water change procedure is? What type of food are you feeding and how much? What is your light schedule? These are things you can work on. As stated above, the best way to get rid of nutrients is to remove as much algae by hand as the algae is holding the nutrients. Then depending on what you are feeding, go to a better food source or reduce the amount you are feeding. Then you can either reduce the time the lights are on or go to three days no light. Lastly, make sure you do weekly water changes and keep this up. I would go 25% each week until you get a handle on it. You can get this under control but it will take some work. Good luck.

 

[RalphsReef]

I'd switch out the 10K lights for something more in the blue spectrum. You mentioned the other bulbs are new, but didn't say this about the 10K's. In my experience, older 10K bulbs are a recipe for nuisance algae. Get a hose and siphon as much of the crud out of the tank as you can while doing water changes. Get rid of the Phosban and carbon if they have been in use for a while. Someone else mentioned, and it's true, they will put the crap right back into the water once they reach their capacity. I'd bump the salinity gradually to 1.025 also.

 

[coralgazer]

Hi all, and thanks so much for the great advice.
To answer your questions:

1. I feed frozen brine shrimp and mysis shrimp cubes, 2x daily (not very much, it is gone in about 90 secs). I have not been rinsing them first. Will start rinsing. I also feed Formula II flakes, a small pinch at noon, to give them some veggies.
2. All four of my bulbs are brand-new. I run them 12 hours per day, 7A-7P. I will try cutting back to 8 hours per day.
3. Water changes: I do a 10% water change every Saturday, with instant Ocean. I plan to do a massive water change today.
4. I have not been siphoning the sand bed (which is course crushed coral) because it is hard to reach it around the live rock, which is buried all the way to the bottom of the tank. I will try to siphon as much as I can reach.
5. I removed the exhausted phosban and activated charcoal; I have an order of Chemipure Plus (Phosphate edition) coming.
6. I forgot to add: I have been Vodka Dosing for over a year.

Any other advice based on what I've written above?

 

[tigerdragon]

How often do you change socks? You may have to change phosban twice a week or more. Just had a friend battle this with po4 he finally is getting it back under control but took lots of water changes and gfo changes just about daily. He has a thread on this afamousjohnson is the op. Look it up. He was in planning stages of total rebuild but now that has changed. Def get a cuc hermits, snails, crabs, lawn mower blenny, also need cuc that can stir up sand bed.