☠ Double major issues in my Nano Reef ☠

[Sdiesel77]

Hi All,
After a year and half of perfectly fine tank health my Nano 60 litters tank is now affected by 2 major issues:
- 80% of my LPS/SPS dying because of sudden Alkalinity spike (8 to 12.5) due to last water change with new salt Red Sea Pro (previously using standard Red Sea)
- Massive invasion of Caulerpa Racemosa and bubble algae.

I'm so gutted

Issues started 2 weeks ago after new salt being introduced.
Since last week I have done 2 water change with standard Red Sea salt to go back to previous KH value.
And have ordered Vibrant Reef cleaner product to try getting rid of the algae.

 

[hatrix11]

What kind of lights? Also how did caularpa get into your tank?

 

[vertigo01]

Do you have Calurpa in a fuge. Possibly gone asexual?
Add any new frags or rocks lately?

 

[Sdiesel77]

What kind of lights? Also how did caularpa get into your tank?

It's a ViparSpectra 165w. I have no idea how Caulerpa got into the tank. The latest (2 months ago) arrival was snails

 

[Sdiesel77]

Do you have Calurpa in a fuge. Possibly gone asexual?
Add any new frags or rocks lately?

No fuge just a back filter and no, no Caulerpa there.

 

[Reefrookie220]

You've got A hill to climb with the calurpa, it's a bear to get rid of. But it can be done.

Lots of manual removal, lots.

Any root left becomes more, and if nutrients are available it can get out of hand.

As far as the alk swing, bring it down slowly. A spike in one direction did the damage, a sudden drop would be just add bad.

 

[Sdiesel77]

I have been removing the Caulerpa manually for the last month and it keeps growing faster and faster. Hopefully Vibrant will kill it.

 

[Tautog]

I too had this issue with high Alkalinity, BRS suggested a very large WC, 50%, but double check, I use Reef Crystals.
I used NoPox for the algae, gone in a month
Most acros and chalices didn't make it, but others did and grew quick /large, and I'm still trying to figure that out

 

[brandon429]

Light intensity *especially white spectrum which those pics show to be high* must drop when alk spikes happen, the loss or bleaching would be much less pronounced if that occurs

It's the light intensity that amplifies the risk on the alk spike and most of those corals are still fine, I'd blue that bad boy for a while and lower the intensity to simulate cloudier days on the reef until restored.

For the caulerpa and bubble algae it's ok to try vibrant

If it doesn't work, we already had ways to restore nanos long before vibrant and it's with a take apart cleaning and skip cycle cleaning. The entire system would be drained fully, fish held separately, corals and rocks in separate buckets as possible, sandbed rinsed out to brand new, and before reassembly every trace of detritus accumulated in the system would be cleaned which is how the recycle is avoided. When algae invades a tank the porosity of the live rock is plugged and becomes detritus retentive. Removing all the algae in a rip clean session restores the flow across the rocks but they need to be rinsed well in saltwater to make sure detritus isn't plugging the rocks too badly before returned to the tank

The point of the big surgery/takedown is the ability to access rocks outside the tank so peroxide can be applied only to the targets. Racemosa is highly susceptive to peroxide it will melt away to the root and we aren't dosing the water with it like vibrant, it's all work directly applied to surfaces

When it's all parted out, we would use a steak knife to rasp out all the valonia by force, rinse it out externally, and this time a *detailed* removal of all caulerpa plus peroxide is applied to the rocks where it once anchored. That access is why we part out nanos to restore them

The fully rinsed sandbed with absolutely zero detritus is put back into the fully empty aquarium. Then the rinsed rocks (in saltwater) are stacked back plus corals, fish and shrimp reacclimated, bluer and less intense lighting is ramped back up over two weeks time.
A complete water change would be my route, keeping none of the old water.




The water change isn't dangerous, I could change my entire water column out with the high alk mix you used and lose nothing because my lights are already heavier blue and less white intensity


My tank goes through mass name brad changes all the time already because I buy premade water from the lfs and they change brands routinely.

Sure it's a lot of work, we have already fixed many tanks like this and it's fun too because so much is on the line it's nano surgery

I would choose your condition over any Dino invasions as caulerpa is responsive to peroxide in a big way but a rip cleaning is how to apply it, I wouldn't continue water dosing if vibrant doesn't work first

 

[Sdiesel77]

Thanks Brandon for the complete explanation.
Actually i put a gel filter to take my photos this is why the blue is removed but if i don't put it, it's like this

 

[Sdiesel77]

 

[brandon429]

im glad we aren't framing your issue from a nutrients perspective, as the algae in question require no testable params to invade, that's how mightly clean running reefs in the Caymans and in Fiji sustain grazers, algae grows in pure water if it merely finds a place to anchor.

its not that you couldn't win by starvation, but those corals don't want that at all, that's a tank of the month man I wouldn't change anything you are doing to the water.

A hitchhiker rode in unwelcomed, that's the cause and nothing else although little light tweaks and nutrient tweaks we know can help sway in our favor. Id truly do the vibrant. for twenty bucks you have a 60% chance of success with no takedown, Id do it to save the work. I bet it will kill the valonia and that stuff is worse than the macro, that macro will shrivel and die with any form of peroxide.

if it didn't work, me and that tank would have a date with peroxide and a complete tear down/rebuild

for a quick assessment and for my joy lol, if you want to lift out a simple top rock with no big takedown, and not rip off the racemosa, just dribble a little peroxide from a new bottle right on the test rock racemosa, straight 3% peroxide on target, let it sit in the air 2 mins, rinse off and put the algae rock back in the tank. contact no corals with the peroxide. post a pic in 48 hours of the dead racemosa and that w give an idea of what the whole tank w do after teardown. you can even evaluate growback potential off the test rock for a week or two before delving deep in the tank

 

[Sdiesel77]

Thanks for the kind words Brandon!

My wife surprised me tonight. She suddenly said: I'd love to try removing this bad algae from your tank.

So i let her have a go, thinking she'd stop after 5min.
Guess what: she spent 2.5 hours with the tweezers until she couldn't see any Caulerpa left!!
She said she found this activity soothing lol

 

[brandon429]

Yes excellent it's exactly like dandelion gardening

The deeper you cut the more roots come out and the less growback will occur. This is what keeps it trimmed in the wild.

The tangs on a real reef aren't raspers, they're grazers who mow algae off the reef but also leave a little behind, which allows feed for more grazers

A bunch of tangs are active feeders and can keep a patch of rock clean easily, that's like the clipping above, certain to make a dent.

But the parrotfish and urchins are raspers of the reef

They bite so well, their southbound waste is sand for the most part~

Thorough removal, bites below the roots, takes rock with the bite

That's someone using a knife to score off the anchor area where algae took hold, it's a scarring action but the reef re plates over the marks in two months

Then theres the chemical cheats which simply kill the algae in place and lyse the cells/true death

To have the option of approaches is ideal it's not that one is better than others in my opinion

For emergencies, the mode of tank knife/rasp plus the chem cheat peroxide after the area is cleaned by force, not before but after the area is debrided free of algae, is the most powerful anchored algae technique I know. It will obliterate any anchored algae, for that nuke option one day.

 

[hart24601]

Just out of curiosity is your sandbed dirty? I had issues in nanos with not being able to clean the SB. Tank did well for about 18 months, then mystery issues I couldn't figure out. Finally I took the rock out and examined the sand... wow it was just rotten.

 

[abbas.jaffer5]

I'm battling turf/bryopsis with vibrant. On my 15th dose, the algae goes away and then my phosguard depletes and it comes backs with a vengeance. If you use vibrant I recommend you run a skimmer and change out gfo as much as often. I change my phosguard every 3-4 days. Good luck!

 

[Sdiesel77]

Just out of curiosity is your sandbed dirty? I had issues in nanos with not being able to clean the SB. Tank did well for about 18 months, then mystery issues I couldn't figure out. Finally I took the rock out and examined the sand... wow it was just rotten.

Doesn't look dirty but it could be underneath as I never "hoovered" it

 

[Sdiesel77]

Almost a month following the crash here is the situation:
SPS: dead at 90%
LPS: dead at 60%

Some might recover but it will take long time I'd say by their look.

I have now starting dosing Vibrant for the last 2 weeks for my Caulerpa issue. The algae seems weaker but is still growing.

 

[Sdiesel77]

It's been now 2 months since the crash. The tank is slowly recovering, parameters are stable.
I'm now using rowaphos which really impressed me so far. Caulerpa growth almost stopped and still fighting with bubble algaes.
Some corals are recovering well and growing again: montipora, stylophora, candycane, cyphestrea.
Fungia has still 5% alive but I'm hoping for a recovery as the death process stopped.