Brown/Red hair algae, coral dying

[Mickeyfairlane]

Hi all,
I recently had an outbreak of brownish reddish stringy algae in a year old, 30 gallon tank. (which I think was dinos) I dosed Vibrant as per instructions and now my alveopora/zoas/ric are closed up and seem to be dying. Monti's seem to be fine however.
I did a lot of manual removal of the algae as well as vibrant. I was also using nopox prior to Vibrant to get the algae under control before it got bad. (didn't work)
Coral was doing great until this.

Nitrates and Phosphates are now testing zero, which is the only parameters that have change. No lighting changes.

10 percent or so water changes every couple days for the last 2 weeks, 50 percent water change yesterday..no improvement.

I've been overfeeding to try and bring nitatres up, but hasn't been working. The algae seems to be going away, and dying off, so still looks like greyish/brown strands on the rock, which I can brush off.

The water is also slightly cloudy still and its been almost 2 weeks since first Vibrant dose.
Is the bacteria, algae die off, Vibrant, or nutrient imbalance killing the coral? Should I keep doing manual removal and water changes or dose something else to clear the water? and How can I get nitrates back up...?

Running protein skimmer, Saxby lighting schedule...

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Reefer5640]

Have you checked temp and SG? What are you using for fresh water top off? Tap water, RO, or RODI? I would do an ICP test. I just got done dosing vibrant and in my experience it didn’t make the water cloudy, it had the exact opposite effect. And I had tons of algae dying off. That’s just with the type of algae I was dealing with though. Could be different with another type. As for getting nitrates up I really don’t like the idea of over feeding because you have no control of how much your effecting you’re level. Definitely have had much much better success with nitrate dosing than over feeding. Also keep in mind the red field ratio while dosing nitrates

 

[Mickeyfairlane]

Thanks for the reply! Attached is a pic so you can see a little better what I'm dealing with. (The algae looks more green in the picture than it actually does. It's definitely more browinsh/gold.)
Also pictured is my alveopora and Zoa. These guys were doing great past 6 or 7 months, and as you can see are looking on their way out after the vibrant dosing week and half ago.

Temp has been a steady 77/78 and salinity has been 1.025. I use distilled water and it's the same water I've been using. Previously had good results with it until this recent outbreak.
I suspect overfeeding may have brought about the algae in the first place.
I stopped the -overfeeding to raise nitrate- strategy as it didn't seem to be working.

I'm going to try dosing nitrates, while keeping an eye on the other params, with the guidance of the "stump remover" thread and see if that can turn them around.

Is there anything else you can think of that I could do to save these guys? Thanks in advance!!

 

[Mickeyfairlane]

Also, 2 clownfish, 2 firefish, 1 chromis, and 3 turbo snails, and 3or 4 small bumblebee snails are in the tank. All seem unaffected. Just the coral.

 

[Hydrored]

More than likely it’s due to the nutrients being 0, I would work on correcting them with dosing or take the path of feeding a bit more. I hate Dino’s lol

 

[Reefer5640]

Yeah the Dino’s thrive on 0 nitrates/phosphates. I battled with Dino’s several times now. I’ve got a pretty good approach that works for me. I’ll dig up my notes and post them. Maybe there’s something in there you’ll find useful. As for the coral it’s hard to tell how much life is left on them. If there is anything left on that alve I would try to feed it some phytoplankton and zooplankton. As for the zoas and ricordea I’ve seen them bounce back from pretty much nothing. How long have you had them? Is it just the three frags together in the pic?

 

[Mickeyfairlane]

Awesome, thanks! Can't wait to see that info!
There is another Zoa frag(not gone but not open at all), two monti caps(doing fine), and a purple candelabra gorgonian (doing ok)- that are not it that photo. I've had all of them for about 4 months. There is a war coral and pscammora that have been in there for over a year and are now struggling, but hanging in there.

I did just get some algae barn phytoplankton recently. Haven't noticed much change, but it has only been a week or so. I also did a small nitrate dose. I tested after a few hours, but didn't register a change. Does it take longer for it to become measurable, or in your opinion, do I need to dose more? I shooting for around 5ppm because that's what it was when everything looked good. ( using this thread..https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/potassium-nitrate-spectracide-stump-remover-dosing-steps.215730/)

Also, would you recommend using a water clarifier at this point to help the coral recover and get rid of the cloudiness, or would that not really help?

Appreciate all the tips! Thank you so much! Have a happy 4th!

 

[Reefer5640]

As far as a water clarifier are you referring to carbon or a chemical/liquid that you dose from a bottle? I tend to stay away from the stuff in a bottle unless it’s a bacteria meant to clean the water column of the current bacteria bloom. Or carbon. But I don’t like the chems in a bottle.

As far as my notes on Dino’s, I found them and typed them up. Keep in mind that these notes were just meant for myself to go back and reference so I may not give a great explanation of each of them. Let me know if you have any questions. Hope it helps.

Here is a list of what I go through when I start experience a Dino breakout (not in any specific order, I just check all of this to make sure I’m good) Also a couple of things to keep in mind;

-Things to keep in mind-
-Zero nutrients is a bad thing
-No water changes, they can feed off certain trace elements in the new salt
-Dosing H2O2, metro, Dino X, and blackouts are last resort (every success story with these have just as many devastating stories of killing some or everything in the tank.
-Deep sand beds and other low flow/cryptic areas are a place for Dino’s to hide and reproduce.
-Sand in general is where they stay during the day and swim in the water column at night.
-Copepods are a great defense against Dino’s but when Dino’s die they can release toxins that can kill the pods and that creates food for the living Dino’s so if you start to get an outbreak get your hands on some Acartia pods right away. Maybe only add half the order at first and then a few days to a week later add the second half (get a large order- it can’t hurt)

-A list to go through-
-water parameters to target
NO3- at least .5 ppm preferably 1-5 ppm
PO4- should be driven off NO3 using the red field ratio (ie: 10:1- if NO3 is 1 ppm then PO4 should be 0.1 ppm)
pH-8.4 (don’t stress about this one, it’s not the time to be chasing pH if it’s not already there or close)
*if you’re going to raise your nutrients do it slowly over a 1-2 week period and expect an ugly phase
-Check RODI filters & TDS change if necessary (Tap water is a huge **** no in any reef tank scenario in my opinion- seen too many people quit the hobby because they didn’t realize the importance of clean top off water)
-Employ a refugium or chaeto reactor
-Employ Acartia tonsa Pods
-Reduce photo period on display tank and employ UV sterilizer (adults swim in the water column at night so this is when you’ll be able to kill some off. (flow set to low flow to kill protozoans, not high flow for algae)
-Remove any natural sunlight from the scenario-**This is a big one**
-Manually remove as much as possible and change mechanical filter daily if not twice a day-**This is a big one too**
-Run carbon and change it frequently. It will help remove the toxins they release when they die.
-Keeping water/nutrient parameters stable is key. (Once you get the nutrients where they need to be that is)


In summary, thinking back on it, I’d say my main goals are; Pods, manual removal, change mechanical filter frequently, change carbon frequently, no sun light, no water changes, test water for low nutrients daily (dose if necessary to keep things stable), and reduce photo period. If you have the luxury of being able to work it into the mix then get a UV but get a good one there is a huge difference in price for a reason. And if you don’t have a refugium then add one. The algae will compete with the Dino’s in some ways.