3 years of struggle fixed in 4 months !

[CMMorgan]

Following this journey is like reading war and peace. Congrats on all of the success!

 

[SCiMMiA]

If someone is interested by the test data over the 3 years, maybe we can learn something.

Salinity :

Calcium :

Magnesium :

Alkalinity :

Nitrate :

Phosphate :

For Nitrate/Phosphate it was really testing 0 , it is not a lack of data in 2019.

 

[SCiMMiA]

It is hard to read... here is the orignal Excel file for the curious.
It is in french, sorry it's my main language... You can google translate it maybe lol.

 

[Lavey29]

Congrats on your success. I am kind of in the middle of your troubled times also and there is always deep frustration and thinking why do I keep at this? If it isn't the corals, it's the fish or some nuisance algae. I keep hoping that if I do my part eventually things will work out as you described in detail. Thanks for providing light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[SCiMMiA]

Congrats on your success. I am kind of in the middle of your troubled times also and there is always deep frustration and thinking why do I keep at this? If it isn't the corals, it's the fish or some nuisance algae. I keep hoping that if I do my part eventually things will work out as you described in detail. Thanks for providing light at the end of the tunnel.

The feeling of acomplishment when things start to go well is very rewarding.
It is worth the struggle !

 

[Bato367]

March 10 2019, I started this 120 gallons 5 foot long. Oh I was sooo excited !

New sump 100% new and clean in the basement.

April 28 2019, started some corals and fish, (I had old established rocks in the sump at this stage)

June 19 2019, rock is starting to mature corals look « ok », can you see the patch of some kind of green « turf » ? Ohhh is this the start of a bad journey ! (yes it is)

Can you notice what is missing ? NO FISH ! they got infected by ich ! They are all in quarantine to be treated where I will lost almost all of them. I started a 90 days fallow period and from now on all the new fish get treated with cupramine. I’m still ich free today.

Octobre 17 2019, things are doing « ok »

Keep this red montipora cap in memory until the end

November 17 2019, fish that lived trough ich are now back in tank. (not sure at what date)

Good coralline growth, something must be going good for a 8 months tank. But I still see those green turf patch, hmm should I start removing them ?

November 19 2019, what the heck are those green and red patch on the sand. LOL its christmas soon, my tank is in the christmas mood, cool ! Yeah, wait until I find out what it is , stupid cyano !

April 22 2020 , I don’t want to put too many ugly picture but…. It really is a journey. Yeah big red cyano patch… also, do you see those green turf patch ? Yeah I started to remove them, it spread like wildfire ! Never try to remove that by scrubbing them !

July 06 2020, at this point, i’m struggling with the green patches and the cyano, but the corals seems to still grow, slowly, but at least they don’t die. Remember that monti cap ?

October 09 2020, yeah got a tone of red planaria flatworms everywhere, they don’t eat anything of value. They seem to eat the green patches, but not enough to stop the patches from spreading more.

December 23 2020, how can you be proud of something that look so disgusting Corals are struggling but not dying… that’s probably what kept me engaged.

February 12 2021, going downhill …………..

March 20 2021, Seriously, why do I have to battle 2 type of things at the same time ! Cyano over whatever turf green thing it is.

May 4 2021, I’m crying….. nothing else to say… down down downhill…

Look at the monticap dying…. Told you to keep it in memory. GSP is still taking over the glass, but really, is there a way to kill GSP ? Maybe in pure acid who knows…

September 1 2021, Well, yeah I stoped taking picture between May and September, really who want to keep memory of a tank so ugly …… But I was working hard, I finally got rid of the stupid cyano with many chemi-clean treatment and syphoning. I also got rid of the dang green turf patch. For the green turf, well it was bryopsis I am guessing because I killed it with about 3-4 Fluconazole treatment ! Notice how the monticap is recovering over itself.

November 12 2021, man, corals are growing ! woot ! Look at that monticap LOL. And the hammer !

December 11 2021, I am really getting proud now !

December 18 2021, pictures from above. Yes i’m infested by aiptasia the journey is not over, I have a filefish in quarantine, we’ll see if he eats them.

Now, what I need to do is find how I can bring more color in the corals (maybe I just have to wait) and kill those dang aiptasia.

Nice job powering through!

 

[dieselkeeper]

You definitely know the meaning of preserve and endeavor. Glad to see you can see the rewards of you hard work. Keep on top of the aiptasia. I've seen it in the overflow really bad to where it is impossible to get at it. Keep the us posted on your progress.

 

[SCiMMiA]

Nice job powering through!

Thanks !

You definitely know the meaning of preserve and endeavor. Glad to see you can see the rewards of you hard work. Keep on top of the aiptasia. I've seen it in the overflow really bad to where it is impossible to get at it. Keep the us posted on your progress.

Yes I will. I hope the filefish will eat the aiptasia and not the corals !

 

[Reefvision]

Congratulations on your tanks evolution towards your dream tank- I have been thru this same scenario also but not turf algea; mine was gha and red cyano. I have found that increasing lighting intensity, flow in tank and manual removal of these two issues did the trick. I would also add that aptasia should get eradicated by filefish but watch out if you have lps corals , especially one like Duncan’s with tentacles- mine was nipping at them and I had remove filefish and rock to isolation tank to get rid of aptasia- patience will be your best bet.

 

[SCiMMiA]

Congratulations on your tanks evolution towards your dream tank- I have been thru this same scenario also but not turf algea; mine was gha and red cyano. I have found that increasing lighting intensity, flow in tank and manual removal of these two issues did the trick. I would also add that aptasia should get eradicated by filefish but watch out if you have lps corals , especially one like Duncan’s with tentacles- mine was nipping at them and I had remove filefish and rock to isolation tank to get rid of aptasia- patience will be your best bet.

I don't have duncan's for now. I really hope he will be gentle on my corals ! I will try to feed him as much as possible even if it means he will eat aiptasia only at a very slow pace, as long as he eat like 1 per week or something like that it should eventually reduce the aiptasia population. I'm ok with that, aiptasia are not nearly a problem as with the turf/bryopsis/cyano I had, until it takes plague proportion.

I wish one day the corals will grow fast enough that the filefish could eat some corals and it does not show haha.

 

[BWV]

My tank is at 6 months... Fish just back in after 11weeks fallow.
felt like I beat the dinos 2 months ago, tanks been nice... Now I have brown hairy stuff, red slime, and I think some dinos back. My cyphostrea, leptoseris, hammers, torch, ricorida, goniopora, gsp, palys and goniastrea did look really good and still do....but now I'm beginning to worry the brown hairy stuff is overtaking.
I know this will pass..and your story helped.
Thanks

 

[DrEggroll]

How did you get rid of your tuff algae? I had one rock that was growing algae. I should have taken it out and scrubbed clean, but I used a brush and scrubbed in the tank. I have been dealing with this across the whole tank after. Been manually removing a couple times a week but haven’t been successful. My nitrates have never been above 3-5. I just started vibrant 4 weeks ago and it’s weaker but still there. My chaeto is now out of the tank after breaking apart

 

[SCiMMiA]

My tank is at 6 months... Fish just back in after 11weeks fallow.
felt like I beat the dinos 2 months ago, tanks been nice... Now I have brown hairy stuff, red slime, and I think some dinos back. My cyphostrea, leptoseris, hammers, torch, ricorida, goniopora, gsp, palys and goniastrea did look really good and still do....but now I'm beginning to worry the brown hairy stuff is overtaking.
I know this will pass..and your story helped.
Thanks

Ouch ! Your post bring back bad memories to me. (Does that sentence make sens ?)
I remember having to wait all that time to put back the fish in the tank + I was seeing them die one after the other from ich in the quarantine tank
At least you are past that point with the fish back in tank !

I hope yours take less than 3 years like me to get on track !
Brown hairy stuff does not sound like too hard to eradicate but I may be wrong.

I don't want to turn this thread into nitrate/phosphate talk but I just noticed from my graphics that the tank turned on the right way when nitrate started reading 0 and phosphate detectable.....

I am curious what reading on nitrate and phosphate you get after that fallow period ?

From the graphics I started at 0/0 then a little of both then 0 nitrate and little phosphate. The later seem to work for me but I guess all tank may be different

 

[SCiMMiA]

How did you get rid of your tuff algae? I had one rock that was growing algae. I should have taken it out and scrubbed clean, but I used a brush and scrubbed in the tank. I have been dealing with this across the whole tank after. Been manually removing a couple times a week but haven’t been successful. My nitrates have never been above 3-5. I just started vibrant 4 weeks ago and it’s weaker but still there. My chaeto is now out of the tank after breaking apart

I tried vibrant, it did kill all the bubble algae valonia but not that green turf thing.
I managed to kill 100% of the turf with 3 or 4 treatment of Fluconazole. It was VERY infested.
Normally Fluconazole is recommended for bryopsis, but I tried it anyway and it worked very well.
So I guess that the "turf" was maybe a kind of bryopsis, who knows...

 

[Pattys]

March 10 2019, I started this 120 gallons 5 foot long. Oh I was sooo excited !

New sump 100% new and clean in the basement.

April 28 2019, started some corals and fish, (I had old established rocks in the sump at this stage)

June 19 2019, rock is starting to mature corals look « ok », can you see the patch of some kind of green « turf » ? Ohhh is this the start of a bad journey ! (yes it is)

Can you notice what is missing ? NO FISH ! they got infected by ich ! They are all in quarantine to be treated where I will lost almost all of them. I started a 90 days fallow period and from now on all the new fish get treated with cupramine. I’m still ich free today.

Octobre 17 2019, things are doing « ok »

Keep this red montipora cap in memory until the end

November 17 2019, fish that lived trough ich are now back in tank. (not sure at what date)

Good coralline growth, something must be going good for a 8 months tank. But I still see those green turf patch, hmm should I start removing them ?

November 19 2019, what the heck are those green and red patch on the sand. LOL its christmas soon, my tank is in the christmas mood, cool ! Yeah, wait until I find out what it is , stupid cyano !

April 22 2020 , I don’t want to put too many ugly picture but…. It really is a journey. Yeah big red cyano patch… also, do you see those green turf patch ? Yeah I started to remove them, it spread like wildfire ! Never try to remove that by scrubbing them !

July 06 2020, at this point, i’m struggling with the green patches and the cyano, but the corals seems to still grow, slowly, but at least they don’t die. Remember that monti cap ?

October 09 2020, yeah got a tone of red planaria flatworms everywhere, they don’t eat anything of value. They seem to eat the green patches, but not enough to stop the patches from spreading more.

December 23 2020, how can you be proud of something that look so disgusting Corals are struggling but not dying… that’s probably what kept me engaged.

February 12 2021, going downhill …………..

March 20 2021, Seriously, why do I have to battle 2 type of things at the same time ! Cyano over whatever turf green thing it is.

May 4 2021, I’m crying….. nothing else to say… down down downhill…

Look at the monticap dying…. Told you to keep it in memory. GSP is still taking over the glass, but really, is there a way to kill GSP ? Maybe in pure acid who knows…

September 1 2021, Well, yeah I stoped taking picture between May and September, really who want to keep memory of a tank so ugly …… But I was working hard, I finally got rid of the stupid cyano with many chemi-clean treatment and syphoning. I also got rid of the dang green turf patch. For the green turf, well it was bryopsis I am guessing because I killed it with about 3-4 Fluconazole treatment ! Notice how the monticap is recovering over itself.

November 12 2021, man, corals are growing ! woot ! Look at that monticap LOL. And the hammer !

December 11 2021, I am really getting proud now !

December 18 2021, pictures from above. Yes i’m infested by aiptasia the journey is not over, I have a filefish in quarantine, we’ll see if he eats them.

Now, what I need to do is find how I can bring more color in the corals (maybe I just have to wait) and kill those dang aiptasia.

Wow. Patience. I just started a new tank 8 months ago and I had a bout of ich. I took the fish out. What fun that was trying to catch them all… anyway it happened it’s over thought i was going to die. The tanks I had the fish in were too small and I had to do water changes constantly since the ammonia in the tank was creeping up.
my tang ended up getting a bacterial infection but that was 5 months ago everyone is happy and ich free.

 

[SCiMMiA]

Wow. Patience. I just started a new tank 8 months ago and I had a bout of ich. I took the fish out. What fun that was trying to catch them all… anyway it happened it’s over thought i was going to die. The tanks I had the fish in were too small and I had to do water changes constantly since the ammonia in the tank was creeping up.
my tang ended up getting a bacterial infection but that was 5 months ago everyone is happy and ich free.

Good!
I guess we all learn the hard way ! I bet you will never again add a fish without proper quarantine.
I know I will never do that error again !

 

[Nebunu]

You did a great job, you are made for this hobby. GSP and monti...out of this world. I have no words.

 

[Reefvision]

My tank is at 6 months... Fish just back in after 11weeks fallow.
felt like I beat the dinos 2 months ago, tanks been nice... Now I have brown hairy stuff, red slime, and I think some dinos back. My cyphostrea, leptoseris, hammers, torch, ricorida, goniopora, gsp, palys and goniastrea did look really good and still do....but now I'm beginning to worry the brown hairy stuff is overtaking.
I know this will pass..and your story helped.
Thanks

You might want to try purple non sulphur bacteria and it’s yellow companion bacteria as well as adding pods to help with the brown hair algea - check it out at “Algea Barn” - I have and still use it but anecdotal observations have been positive.best of luck

 

[BillFish Coral Lover]

It is not easy roughing it out so kudos to you.
Good luck wherever you go from here, especially getting the coloration you're looking for. That's been elusive to me, even when my tank was doing "well."

 

[SCiMMiA]

You did a great job, you are made for this hobby. GSP and monti...out of this world. I have no words.

It is not easy roughing it out so kudos to you.
Good luck wherever you go from here, especially getting the coloration you're looking for. That's been elusive to me, even when my tank was doing "well."

Thanks !