Algae/bacterial bloom, or something else - what should I do?

[rrichardsmn]

All fish QTed in copper prior to adding to tank.
All corals stable prior to incident.
Water stable with Po4 under .1, No3 around 15, alk between 8.2-8.4, calcium around 440,

I recently added a group of fish to my main tank that had been in QT and dosed with copper for 30 days followed by prazi treatment. After adding to main tank, everything looked stable - phos and nitrates rose a bit, but only to .12 on Po4 and 25 in No3. I did a small water change to help a bit, but wasn't too worried about the rise given the added fish and feeding.

After about a week, I awoke to a completely cloudy tank with all corals looking stressed. I tested water and parameters hadn't moved except ORP had dropped significantly. Over the next 2 days I lost several SPS and LPS corals, but water did clear up. Zoas and other polyp/soft corals along with LPS that survived were unextended/unopened and still looked stressed. Now 5 days later things are gradually are opening up again except Octospawn and bubble corals. Water is clear and fish are eating. I assumed an algae/bacterial bloom, but didn't think that could damage corals this much.

A few things:
On corals - Do you think bubble coral and octospawn will recover? Bubble has tiny bubbles on parts of it, but mostly deflated. I tried moving to more shaded/lower flow area, but that hasn't seemed to help. Octospawn is tightly pulled back. I noticed a few lost polyps from it, but not a huge amount. Also, will sps that started to die survive if they didn't go completely white?

On fish - yellow tang has some brown/orangish spotting that has started and mini angelfish is swimming back and forth on glass like it's stressed. Should I assume yellow tang has a bacterial infection and try to get it out of the main tank for treatment, or continue to feed variety of foods and assume it will get over it? With angel, is there anything I can do to get it out of this stress pattern? I tried to catch it to move to a quiet tank for a bit, but he is too fast and I didn't want to stress more.

Any thoughts at this point to move forward and any thoughts on what caused the issues would be appreciated very much!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

All fish QTed in copper prior to adding to tank.
All corals stable prior to incident.
Water stable with Po4 under .1, No3 around 15, alk between 8.2-8.4, calcium around 440,

I recently added a group of fish to my main tank that had been in QT and dosed with copper for 30 days followed by prazi treatment. After adding to main tank, everything looked stable - phos and nitrates rose a bit, but only to .12 on Po4 and 25 in No3. I did a small water change to help a bit, but wasn't too worried about the rise given the added fish and feeding.

After about a week, I awoke to a completely cloudy tank with all corals looking stressed. I tested water and parameters hadn't moved except ORP had dropped significantly. Over the next 2 days I lost several SPS and LPS corals, but water did clear up. Zoas and other polyp/soft corals along with LPS that survived were unextended/unopened and still looked stressed. Now 5 days later things are gradually are opening up again except Octospawn and bubble corals. Water is clear and fish are eating. I assumed an algae/bacterial bloom, but didn't think that could damage corals this much.

A few things:
On corals - Do you think bubble coral and octospawn will recover? Bubble has tiny bubbles on parts of it, but mostly deflated. I tried moving to more shaded/lower flow area, but that hasn't seemed to help. Octospawn is tightly pulled back. I noticed a few lost polyps from it, but not a huge amount. Also, will sps that started to die survive if they didn't go completely white?

On fish - yellow tang has some brown/orangish spotting that has started and mini angelfish is swimming back and forth on glass like it's stressed. Should I assume yellow tang has a bacterial infection and try to get it out of the main tank for treatment, or continue to feed variety of foods and assume it will get over it? With angel, is there anything I can do to get it out of this stress pattern? I tried to catch it to move to a quiet tank for a bit, but he is too fast and I didn't want to stress more.

Any thoughts at this point to move forward and any thoughts on what caused the issues would be appreciated very much!

I’d be leaning towards a heterotrophic bacterial bloom, but I can’t be certain. Be sure the tank has good aeration any time you have white/cloudy water. Green water would be an algae problem.
The ORP drop goes hand in hand with low dissolved oxygen/bacterial bloom.
I wonder what the nutrient source was? Common sources are from Prazipro, over feeding or excess carbon dosing.
Jay

 

[rrichardsmn]

I’d be leaning towards a heterotrophic bacterial bloom, but I can’t be certain. Be sure the tank has good aeration any time you have white/cloudy water. Green water would be an algae problem.
The ORP drop goes hand in hand with low dissolved oxygen/bacterial bloom.
I wonder what the nutrient source was? Common sources are from Prazipro, over feeding or excess carbon dosing.
Jay

I would guess the doubling of bioload with fish and feeding along with No3Po4-x was what triggered it. I won't be adding any significant fish in future, so should be fine there.

What about the corals and yellow tang? anything that can be done for the bubble and octospawn that won't extend/inflate? Should I do anything for the yellow tang, or just wait it out given he is eating well and looks healthy besides the light orange/brown spot that started after this?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I would guess the doubling of bioload with fish and feeding along with No3Po4-x was what triggered it. I won't be adding any significant fish in future, so should be fine there.

What about the corals and yellow tang? anything that can be done for the bubble and octospawn that won't extend/inflate? Should I do anything for the yellow tang, or just wait it out given he is eating well and looks healthy besides the light orange/brown spot that started after this?

Other than getting the water quality back in order, I can’t think of anything you can do for the corals. I’m not sure why the tang has a color change, might be something unrelated. Would that be something that can be seen in a photo? If so, you could post one....
Jay

 

[lelandmarine]

What size tank? What are you using for flow?

 

[rrichardsmn]

Other than getting the water quality back in order, I can’t think of anything you can do for the corals. I’m not sure why the tang has a color change, might be something unrelated. Would that be something that can be seen in a photo? If so, you could post one....
Jay

It isn't super easy to see in the picture, but it's near tail and below dorsal fin near head. It looks very similar to yellow tang in this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/yellow-tang-bacterial-infection.831310/

 

[rrichardsmn]

What size tank? What are you using for flow?

It's a 90 gallon with 3 nero 5s running on random 0-60%.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It isn't super easy to see in the picture, but it's near tail and below dorsal fin near head. It looks very similar to yellow tang in this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/yellow-tang-bacterial-infection.831310/

YT often develop a reddish skin reaction to stress... I call it “septicemia”, but that may not be an accurate term. I mostly see it in freshly collected YT. There may not be a bacterial component to this issue, but if there is, then dosing it with antibiotics in a treatment tank would be the course of action to take. However, if the spot is stable in size and the fish is behaving normally, I’d be inclined to just watch it for now.
Jay

 

[rrichardsmn]

YT often develop a reddish skin reaction to stress... I call it “septicemia”, but that may not be an accurate term. I mostly see it in freshly collected YT. There may not be a bacterial component to this issue, but if there is, then dosing it with antibiotics in a treatment tank would be the course of action to take. However, if the spot is stable in size and the fish is behaving normally, I’d be inclined to just watch it for now.
Jay

Thanks - that was my thought. if it gets worse, I'll try to catch and treat.

Also, now that things have settled down, would there be any issue trying to replace some of the lost or damaged corals? Nothing would be residual that might cause additional stress?

 

[SantaMonica]

Since it happened overnight, it almost sounds like a cucumber or similar animal died or got eaten.

 

[rrichardsmn]

Since it happened overnight, it almost sounds like a cucumber or similar animal died or got eaten.

I don't have any cucumbers or anemones in my tank that I know of it. I had a very large mushroom coral disintegrate about a week prior and have noticed hermits attacking some snails with a few extra shells recently. Nothing else that I noticed dead until after the bloom with that being coral only.

At this point, I am going to assume added feeding/bio-load plus carbon dosing fueled the outbreak. It seems to be over, but I plan on adding UV next week as preventative for future.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks - that was my thought. if it gets worse, I'll try to catch and treat.

Also, now that things have settled down, would there be any issue trying to replace some of the lost or damaged corals? Nothing would be residual that might cause additional stress?

I would give things two weeks to settle out. I suspect the carbon dosing, that causes folks a lot of issues.

Jay

 

[rrichardsmn]

I would give things two weeks to settle out. I suspect the carbon dosing, that causes folks a lot of issues.

Jay

Thanks again Jay... So much concern over Phosphates and Nitrates probably made it all worse. I have stopped carbon dosing for now and will see where numbers move to.

 

[rrichardsmn]

I would give things two weeks to settle out. I suspect the carbon dosing, that causes folks a lot of issues.

Jay

Quick update - water is clear and things are recovering mostly. I lost about 1/4 of the corals in the tank, and a few are still on the fence. I am in process of adding UV, which I will run for algae/bacteria clarifying. Since I stopped carbon dosing, phosphates have risen to over .35 and Nitrates over 30 ppm. I am getting some reddish brown algae growth now. I added some chaeto to my refugium as a way to try to reduce without dosing. Is this something I should worry about in your view, or just ride it out and see if it stays pretty stable at these levels?

 

[rrichardsmn]

oh and yellow tangs orange/brown splotches are clearing up.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Quick update - water is clear and things are recovering mostly. I lost about 1/4 of the corals in the tank, and a few are still on the fence. I am in process of adding UV, which I will run for algae/bacteria clarifying. Since I stopped carbon dosing, phosphates have risen to over .35 and Nitrates over 30 ppm. I am getting some reddish brown algae growth now. I added some chaeto to my refugium as a way to try to reduce without dosing. Is this something I should worry about in your view, or just ride it out and see if it stays pretty stable at these levels?

Well, water changes are always a good way to go (grin).,

Jay

 

[rrichardsmn]

Well, water changes are always a good way to go (grin).,

Jay

I have been doing a weekly 5% change. I could do a larger change to drop them down a bit. It feels like they want to stabilize at this level if I don't interfere, which is why I started dosing to begin with. Is it troublesome to let levels sit around .3-.4 phosphate and 30-40 nitrates? Corals I have seem happy with it, but all the SPS that I have tried hasn't lasted long.

Hopefully chaeto can pick up the slack in a bit without dosing.

 

[SantaMonica]

Generally those higher levels should be brought down slowly.

The carbon dosing might have been over-dosed once, which would have used all the oxygen in the water and killed many things at once, which would have decayed over the following week or so, which would cause the bloom.