Everything going wrong with my tank…. I have a few questions

[Andreas' Reef]

Hi, in the last little while literally everything has been going wrong with my tank. Nitrates tested at 64 ppm. I did 2 water changes to get them down. Now apparently cyano decided to start creeping into my tank. Oh yeah, and almost every other kind of algae. So I noticed all of my corals started receding and I can’t figure out why. The only coral that looks fine is my watermelon zoa colony. My Duncan’s are definitely dead. My gsp could be better. The only answer I may have for this is that when I did the first water change, I somehow disturbed some detritus in the back corner that I thought a sucked up with the water change and it pretty much clouded my entire tank and Maybe my corals got extra ticked. Anyway, here are the params (currently):

nitrate: 16 ppm ( I got them down a bit)
Phosphate: 0.02

Calcium: 450
Alk: 12 dkh
Mag: 1450

here are my questions:

is my Kenya tree dead or just receding?

what should my next course of action be?
And why do you think my corals are dying?

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Tank is 32 gallons and 7 months old. At one point it was doing well and free of algae

 

[Nemosis]

Hi, in the last little while literally everything has been going wrong with my tank. Nitrates tested at 64 ppm. I did 2 water changes to get them down. Now apparently cyano decided to start creeping into my tank. Oh yeah, and almost every other kind of algae. So I noticed all of my corals started receding and I can’t figure out why. The only coral that looks fine is my watermelon zoa colony. My Duncan’s are definitely dead. My gsp could be better. The only answer I may have for this is that when I did the first water change, I somehow disturbed some detritus in the back corner that I thought a sucked up with the water change and it pretty much clouded my entire tank and Maybe my corals got extra ticked. Anyway, here are the params (currently):

nitrate: 16 ppm ( I got them down a bit)
Phosphate: 0.02

Calcium: 450
Alk: 12 dkh
Mag: 1450

here are my questions:

is my Kenya tree dead or just receding?

what should my next course of action be?
And why do you think my corals are

 

[Tiki_Reef]

Are missing any fish, how fast did your nitrates jump up like that?

 

[SchrutesReefs]

Kenya just looks upset, what’s your salinity and temp?

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Kenya just looks upset, what’s your salinity and temp?

Salinity 1.025 temp 77 f

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Are missing any fish, how fast did your nitrates jump up like that?

All fish are alive and well. I don’t really know how fast my nitrates jumped but when I tested 64 ppm they all looked pretty normal. It was when the water clouded up that my corals get extra ticked.

 

[SchrutesReefs]

Sand bed and rocks look pretty new still. Do you have any clean up crew besides the shrimp? (Sorry if it was already mentioned)

 

[Uncle99]

It’s not dead (yet) but obviously unhappy.
It’s not going to like the hair algae at all and if left unchecked, will slowly take over corals.

Are you sure about the phosphate number 0.02ppm?
looks like .2ppm for a while with maybe some light in the red spectrum.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Sand bed and rocks look pretty new still. Do you have any clean up crew besides the shrimp? (Sorry if it was already mentioned)

That was a pic from a few months ago

 

[Andreas' Reef]

That was a pic from a few months ago

Sand bed and rocks look pretty new still. Do you have any clean up crew besides the shrimp? (Sorry if it was already mentioned)

I have 3 astrea snails and 2 turbo snails. I’m more worried about the corals than algae

 

[Andreas' Reef]

It’s not dead (yet) but obviously unhappy.
It’s not going to like the hair algae at all and if left unchecked, will slowly take over corals.

Are you sure about the phosphate number 0.02ppm?
looks like .2ppm for a while with maybe some light in the red spectrum.

I tested twice it’s 0.02

 

[Idech]

Your alkalinity is high for what corals you have.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Your alkalinity is high for what corals you have.

It’s because I use coral pro salt from Red Sea. My lfs told me it would be fine and I don’t think that’s the problem since they’ve been happy the entire time leading up to now.

 

[mdb_talon]

I am going to go a different route and say I would be more inclined to think lack of flow is more likely to be causing issues than parameters. It looks like a relatively new tank and algae outbreaks are not uncommon. I would increase the cuc and maybe add an urchin and also use a brush to try to manually clean up some of the algae. Unless you have a powerhead in there i dont see(other than the one coming from the rear chamber) i would consider a small controllable powerhead.

Assuming you are not dosing i would bot worry about things like alk. Wouldnt hurt to use a lower alk salt mix (and cheaper mix), but i dont think that is probably the issue.

 

[Nemosis]

Depending on the size of your water changes, your parameters may have changed too drastically. Nothing good happens fast in this hobby and the sudden change in water quality my have been more problematic than I can see in the pictures you provided. Test often, feed less, reduce your light cycle, be patient, and most importantly, don't panic.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

+1 for flow. What kind of flow do you have in there?

 

[Andreas' Reef]

+1 for flow. What kind of flow do you have in there?

The picture I’m there was old as there are no corals. I have one sicce pump rated at 35 gallons

 

[Andreas' Reef]

I am going to go a different route and say I would be more inclined to think lack of flow is more likely to be causing issues than parameters. It looks like a relatively new tank and algae outbreaks are not uncommon. I would increase the cuc and maybe add an urchin and also use a brush to try to manually clean up some of the algae. Unless you have a powerhead in there i dont see(other than the one coming from the rear chamber) i would consider a small controllable powerhead.

Assuming you are not dosing i would bot worry about things like alk. Wouldnt hurt to use a lower alk salt mix (and cheaper mix), but i dont think that is probably the issue.

I have a pump in there it is an old picture

 

[Andreas' Reef]

To clear up a few things: yes there is a pump, and the pic above is the tank 2 months ago. Here is the tank now