Cloudy water coral wont open

Pico bam · Feb 9, 2021

This has been going on about a week now. I noticed all my coral wouldn't open fully one day in my nuvo mini 38. I sort of panicked a bit and did a 25% water change (I usually don't do water changes). Later that day I realized my water was cloudy. The clownfish seemed short of breath and not very energetic. So I did a little research (assuming the cloudiness wasn't due to the water change). And I believe I have a bacteria infection. Being the idiot I am I threw some of the coral into different tanks but only the expensive ones. Now it seems my bacteria infection has spread to my nuvo 30L. I put a uv sterilizer on my 38 and it seemed to clear up the water quite a bit. But the coral will not open up and seem to be on a downward slope. Lost a Miyagi tort and a wwc yellow tip. Only 2 across I had. What are your guys thoughts? Anybody have a similar situation? Anybody know the magic chemical I need to solve this problem?

brandon429 · Feb 9, 2021

I would rip clean the tank bottom to top using a rip clean thread, and drop the lighting down immediately and ramp it all back up slowly while feeding well.

Pico bam · Feb 9, 2021

brandon429 said:
I would rip clean the tank bottom to top using a rip clean thread, and drop the lighting down immediately and ramp it all back up slowly while feeding well.

It's definitely an option but I dont know what I'd do with all the coral.

brandon429 · Feb 9, 2021

we just put it in a holding container of clean water its held to the side as we take apart the reef, rinse out the sand, put it all back cloudless with new water and corals and fish back in, lighting bumped down for reacclimation.

its hard to pinpoint any causatives in your initial issue, but having a clean nano is an even start palette for any nano, its a refreshing start regardless of your causative above. if this sounds like too much work/legit its a lot/then light ramping alone is your safest bet as you search out the irritant in other ways.

a rip clean is just a fresh start with no recycle required, it has to be done in an ordered way to avoid recycling but we have fifty pages on file in the sand rinse thread of this exact action.

*most scoff at the offer: how could you recommend disassembly cleaning for such a minor problem

and the answer is nobody scoffs at the mode when they're moving homes

the motivation has merely changed into something favorable. and since nobody has a misperforming reef when its totally clean, acclimating in the new home...

the outcome is the same on each nano, the reason why we're deep cleaning ranges tank to tank.

*sometimes partial water changes kick up irritants and waste, we'd be addressing that above. left unattended, that may settle too. the clean start is simply a clean start.

its just handy to know deep cleaning isn't bad in one setting and good in another, its always good if we repeat the ordered steps for skip cycling. It’s lots of work but has other benefits such as de-aging the tank and it streamlines waste compounds if any, by removing them.