Bacteria bloom coral sulking need advice

[jadedog]

Hello

Recently ive been dealing with a pretty bad bacteria bloom I believe it's because I was getting lazy with my filter socks. My parameters are currently nitrate 5 , phoshate 0.08, alk 9.4. So my issue is most of my coral are doing fine but my micro mussa hasnt opened in 4 days since the bloom. Im not quite sure when this bloom will be over but its quite bad im doing my best to end it but would it be worth moving my micro to my nano tank? I can match par and try to match parameters. Would this move stress the micro mussa even more or is this a smart move? I really love my micro mussa and I dont want it to die. I can send pics if needed i am just looking for advice before the bloom my micro was happy for over 3 months.

 

[Dan_P]

Hello

Recently ive been dealing with a pretty bad bacteria bloom I believe it's because I was getting lazy with my filter socks. My parameters are currently nitrate 5 , phoshate 0.08, alk 9.4. So my issue is most of my coral are doing fine but my micro mussa hasnt opened in 4 days since the bloom. Im not quite sure when this bloom will be over but its quite bad im doing my best to end it but would it be worth moving my micro to my nano tank? I can match par and try to match parameters. Would this move stress the micro mussa even more or is this a smart move? I really love my micro mussa and I dont want it to die. I can send pics if needed i am just looking for advice before the bloom my micro was happy for over 3 months.

A bacteria bloom needs an organic carbon source. Are you dosing anything? A dinoflagellate bloom could cause cloudy water too. UV would help in both cases

 

[jadedog]

A bacteria bloom needs an organic carbon source. Are you dosing anything? A dinoflagellate bloom could cause cloudy water too. UV would help in both cases

I dose Neonitro nitrate daily, all for reef daily, occasionally magenisum. Could one of these be it? I also threw a bag of carbon in my sump yesterday to try to get it under control.

 

[Dan_P]

I dose Neonitro nitrate daily, all for reef daily, occasionally magenisum. Could one of these be it? I also threw a bag of carbon in my sump yesterday to try to get it under control.

All for Reef contains calcium formate which is a carbon source for bacteria growth, though I doubt there is enough to cause cloudy water. I am still leaning towards a dinoflagellate bloom if we can rule out fine particulates from the substrate being kicked up by water circulation.

 

[elysics]

That alk is pretty high. What is your calcium level? Did alk or calcium spike up very high before maybe? A precipitation event could be confused for a bacteria bloom and would tick of corals too.

Is there white stuff coating pumps, surfaces, sand?

 

[jadedog]

That alk is pretty high. What is your calcium level? Did alk or calcium spike up very high before maybe? A precipitation event could be confused for a bacteria bloom and would tick of corals too.

Is there white stuff coating pumps, surfaces, sand?

No i keep my parameters pretty stable calcium is 460. I think what happened was I got lazy with my filter socks for a week and when I went to change them they were visibly overflowing with debris and clogged. I will say there was a little white coating on my return pump nozzle on the left side but that was it. How do you handle a precipitation event? Ive always kept my alk around 9.4 I can slowly try to lower it.

 

[elysics]

No i keep my parameters pretty stable calcium is 460. I think what happened was I got lazy with my filter socks for a week and when I went to change them they were visibly overflowing with debris and clogged. I will say there was a little white coating on my return pump nozzle on the left side but that was it. How do you handle a precipitation event? Ive always kept my alk around 9.4 I can slowly try to lower it.

Ah ok doesnt sound like significant precipitation then.

Do you have an image of the bloom if you say it's "quite bad"? And of the coral?

 

[jadedog]

This was 2 days ago. Im at work so im not quite sure how it is now but last night I would say it was much worse then this pic. I got my skimmer and pumps turned up high for oxygen I also tossed in a airstone. I have hardly fed the last few days and I am constantly changing my filter socks. im assuming I'll have to wait it out. I ended up moving my worse looking coral (micro mussa) and he seems to be slowly opening up in the nano. All my other corals seem to be hanging in there for now.

 

[elysics]

This was 2 days ago. Im at work so im not quite sure how it is now but last night I would say it was much worse then this pic. I got my skimmer and pumps turned up high for oxygen I also tossed in a airstone. I have hardly fed the last few days and I am constantly changing my filter socks. im assuming I'll have to wait it out. I ended up moving my worse looking coral (micro mussa) and he seems to be slowly opening up in the nano. All my other corals seem to be hanging in there for now.

yeah waiting it out sounds good. You stopped dosing the neonitro for now, right?

 

[jadedog]

yeah waiting it out sounds good. You stopped dosing the neonitro for now, right?

So ive been dosing very little of it the issue is my nitrate will bottom out very soon. My corals already seem stressed so idk what I should do its like a double edged sword.