Everything is slowly dying

[Marc2952]

So for the last 2 months ive been battling dinos, and so far i was winning. The dinos are barely detectable in the upper rock, problem is ive been getting lots of different types of algae on my rocks and film algae on the glass. I already lost all my sps and in the process of losing my scoly acans and my favorite which is thw space invader pectinia! My zoas havent opened in days since thwy are also being choked out by the algae. As of noq my parameters have been stable
Alk: 8.5
MAG: 1450
CAL: 480
Salinity: 1.025
PO: 0.05
NI: 10ppm
I feed my scoly 3 times a week
I only have 2 kessil a360x on my 4ft tank so i know it csnt be bleaching. I did add 3 turbo snails a couple days before thought it will help but already had 2 died idk if its because of the dinos. This is really getting frustrating since i also have a fallow tank due to an ich infestation, everything seems to be coming at once. As you can see even my cyphastrea is doing horrible. And those are hardy corals.

 

[SliceGolfer]

Food for thought, this is what I see in your photos.

It looks like your tank is relatively new, I’m guessing less than 6 months old. The rock doesn’t have much life on it, no coralline algae. I see algae that is typical with new tank setups that will eventually pass. You’re going to see diatoms, green algae, brown algae, Dino’s, cyano. It’s all life developing and growing into dry rock. Having banded trochus snails and a utilitarian algae eating fish would also help, at least with the algae’s. Dinos and cyano will take different actions to resolve.

Your parameters are a bit out of scale given the nutrients. There is a balance of Alk, ca, mg, nitrates, and phosphates. Maintaining stable levels of 8.0 for Alk, 420 calcium, 1400 mag, 5-10ppm nitrate and 0.10 phosphate would be great targets. These vary by person and tank, so these are my recommendations.

I think you added corals too quickly. Or at a minimum, corals that require a bit more maturity and stability in the tank. Without knowing placement or light settings, it is possible some corals could have been bleached. They could be starving, they could have been mishandled somewhere in life, there could be pests you can’t see, etc. Most corals are photosynthetic and don’t require feeding. Not in the sense of powdered or solid foods. They draw their food from algae in their tissue, or from the by products of broken down nitrate, phosphate, Alk, ca, and mg.

The best you can do is manually clean the algae, get a good clean up crew, get an algae grazing fish, work on stability, keep up with maintenance, test regularly, chart your test results so you can analyze trends, and give your tank some time to catch up with the developing ecosystem.

You don’t mention tank size or equipment. Advice here is to not over do it and strip everything out if your water. Doing so just slows things down.

 

[0utworld]

My best guess is that whatever you did to rid the dinos had a huge effect on the microfauna and parameters of your tank. Even if your parameters are good (which yours are), large swings can have an effect you are seeing right now. I agree with SliceGolfer with stabilizing and maturing your tank for now.

 

[Marc2952]

Food for thought, this is what I see in your photos.

It looks like your tank is relatively new, I’m guessing less than 6 months old. The rock doesn’t have much life on it, no coralline algae. I see algae that is typical with new tank setups that will eventually pass. You’re going to see diatoms, green algae, brown algae, Dino’s, cyano. It’s all life developing and growing into dry rock. Having banded trochus snails and a utilitarian algae eating fish would also help, at least with the algae’s. Dinos and cyano will take different actions to resolve.

Your parameters are a bit out of scale given the nutrients. There is a balance of Alk, ca, mg, nitrates, and phosphates. Maintaining stable levels of 8.0 for Alk, 420 calcium, 1400 mag, 5-10ppm nitrate and 0.10 phosphate would be great targets. These vary by person and tank, so these are my recommendations.

I think you added corals too quickly. Or at a minimum, corals that require a bit more maturity and stability in the tank. Without knowing placement or light settings, it is possible some corals could have been bleached. They could be starving, they could have been mishandled somewhere in life, there could be pests you can’t see, etc. Most corals are photosynthetic and don’t require feeding. Not in the sense of powdered or solid foods. They draw their food from algae in their tissue, or from the by products of broken down nitrate, phosphate, Alk, ca, and mg.

The best you can do is manually clean the algae, get a good clean up crew, get an algae grazing fish, work on stability, keep up with maintenance, test regularly, chart your test results so you can analyze trends, and give your tank some time to catch up with the developing ecosystem.

You don’t mention tank size or equipment. Advice here is to not over do it and strip everything out if your water. Doing so just slows things down.

Sorry forgor to mention its a 4ft 75 gallon tank, im curently getting about 100 Par on the sandbed and about 250 all the way at the top of the rockwork, you are right my tank has only been up for 6 months and just now started getting some coralline algae on some rocks mostly on the frag rack for some reason. I think ichave good flow since i have 2 mp40s at reefcrest mode 75% ( anything higher and i notice the torches start getting blasted too much. Sadly i cant have fish for atleast one more month dud to ich, and i have lost 2 turbo snails and some crabs maybe due to the dinos. You think i should just let things be and just stay on top of the dinos? Let the other algae run wild? I fear that the other algae reduces phosphates to 0 and bring dino back with full force.

 

[Marc2952]

My best guess is that whatever you did to rid the dinos had a huge effect on the microfauna and parameters of your tank. Even if your parameters are good (which yours are), large swings can have an effect you are seeing right now. I agree with SliceGolfer with stabilizing and maturing your tank for now.

I just dosed microbacter 7 and phosphates during the 3 day blackout to keep them above 0. As of now the phosphates have started to stabilize even though it took a TON of phosphate to make it readable. Literally took me a whole bottle of neophos in the course of a week to keep phosphates above 0 which i found ridiculous lol

 

[DonTavo27]

What’s the temperature in your tank?

 

[0utworld]

I just dosed microbacter 7 and phosphates during the 3 day blackout to keep them above 0. As of now the phosphates have started to stabilize even though it took a TON of phosphate to make it readable. Literally took me a whole bottle of neophos in the course of a week to keep phosphates above 0 which i found ridiculous lol

Hmm...that's basically how I dealt with my dinos (without the blackout) and I never had any adverse effects from it. Did you cycle your tank with live bacteria or live sand, given that you're using dry rock? Have you looked at ammonia and nitrates?

 

[Marc2952]

What’s the temperature in your tank?

Temperature has been at a steady 77-76.5 on my 3 neo therm heaters

 

[Uncle99]

I not sure why dosing phosphates is in order here, you are already testing to 0.05ppm which is fine, likely, with the green, your phosphates would come in higher.

Battle the green with low nitrate (2-5ppm) and phosphates in the 0.02-.1 range, correct lighting (low in the red green spectrum) and some more months of stability.

You can also consider Vibrant

 

[Marc2952]

I not sure why dosing phosphates is in order here, you are already testing to 0.05ppm which is fine, likely, with the green, your phosphates would come in higher.

Battle the green with low nitrate (2-5ppm) and phosphates in the 0.02-.1 range, correct lighting (low in the red green spectrum) and some more months of stability.

You can also consider Virbrant

Oh i forgot to say, reason i was dosing phosphates is because as i was batrling the dinos and had the 3 day blackout the phosphates didnt want to get above 0 for over a week. Took a whole bottle of neophos just to keep it readable didnt know bacteria could consume so much ( or the rocks) my fearbwas that if the algae drops it to 0 again wont that cause the dinos to come back and starve the corals?

 

[Marc2952]

I might try vibrant hopefully it helps

 

[Marc2952]

I not sure why dosing phosphates is in order here, you are already testing to 0.05ppm which is fine, likely, with the green, your phosphates would come in higher.

Battle the green with low nitrate (2-5ppm) and phosphates in the 0.02-.1 range, correct lighting (low in the red green spectrum) and some more months of stability.

You can also consider Vibrant

Thats beautiful btw what lights are you using?

 

[Marc2952]

Update
After continuously removing all the algae my phosphates today rised to a ridiculous 0.47 on my hanna checker! Im afraid it might be too much of a shock for the corals! What could have caused such a spike? Mind you i have no fish in the tank so i dont feed.

 

[rmurken]

Your rock might have sucked up the phosphate and is leeching it back. Or analogously, microbial life and algae might have incorporated it and is now releasing it/dying. Could also be testing error.

Could be any combination of that and other things.

Take the advice from @SliceGolfer. Basic truths of the hobby: be patient; don’t chase numbers.

 

[Marc2952]

Your rock might have sucked up the phosphate and is leeching it back. Or analogously, microbial life and algae might have incorporated it and is now releasing it/dying. Could also be testing error.

Could be any combination of that and other things.

Take the advice from @SliceGolfer. Basic truths of the hobby: be patient; don’t chase numbers.

Ok starting today ill just let things be, no more manual removal to see where it leads hopefully phosphates start dropping and dinos completely go away, i will be checking the nutrients though to make sure it doesnt drop to 0 so dinos dont come back.