Harmful Acro Bacteria Life Cycle?

[Johnson556]

I had a phosphate dosing mishap a few months ago that led to a lot of burnt tips and STN. Most of those acro's are no longer in the tank with the exception of a bonsai and pink lemonade(no growth since). Had a few posts questioning why I'm getting burnt tips/ stn when everything has been stable (for the most part). In conversation with a few people I would consider experts, they've concluded I have a bad bacteria in the tank. Asked about a UV and stated that would not help in this situation.

I added a few pieces since the dosing mishap and they continue to do the the same thing months after. Healthy/looking great then in the course of a few days would start to get burnt tips and lose tissue, eventually having a brown algae coat them. This happened to a green slimer...like come on. Apparently caused by this "bad bacteria" that is free floating then sticks to the skin of sticks and causing chaos.

Anyone experience this before?

If so how long until I can start confidentially adding sticks again?

Any measures I should be taking or tricks to help this go away?

 

[dansreef]

Can you share some more details around your tank? Please provide levels of salinity, PH, temp, alk, ca, nitrates and phosphates. Why were you dosing phosphates and what was the mishap? What lighting and filtration do you have?

In my experience, if you can establish good levels and more critically stability in these levels, then you should have no issue with Acros. Of course, Cyanobacteria is a nuisance, I wouldnt neccessarily call it bad bacteria. I am not sure it fits with what you are talking about as I have had acros grow with Cyano in my tanks. In fact, in some instances, like trying to defeat Dinos, cyano can be quite helpful... again, my experience.

If you can provide the detail above, we can try to help you better. Also, any more detail on what the "bad bacteria" your experts had identified... I would be curious to learn more.

 

[Johnson556]

No problem, tank is 11-ish months old, all the substrate and rock is 2+ years old. I had the tank loaded with thriving acro's until an AEFW outbreak. I ripped everything out in September and was completely SPS free for almost 75 days. I run ROX Carbon, a filter sock, over sized skimmer (Regal 250-INT), and an ATS. Will be getting rid of the filter sock after a water change tonight. There is a small cryptic fuge in my sump that's just live rock covered in sponges. For dosing I ESV 2-Part. Salt is Red Sea Blue Bucket

Waiting for my results from the ATI ICP test as someone stated I could have put some harmful heavy metals in my tank from seachem's flourish (PO4 additive). However, that was about 200G in water changes ago and like 3+ cups of carbon. Doubtful but possible

I dosed the PO4 because I had dino's at one point and though hmm, maybe dirtying up the tank will help. Instead I essentially crashed my tank of all my good stuff. I should mention the only thing that seems to be thriving is an upscale microclados, full PE and no signs of stress, just lacking some color.

Salinity: 1.026
Alk: 7.8
Calc: 440
Mag: 1500 (high, but tested with a red sea test kit)
NO3: 4-5ppm
PO4: .00-0.02 (Hanna says undetectable but I call BS on that, glass gets coated in green too fast to be 0.00)
K: 400PPM

 

[dansreef]

So, why were you dosing phospates? Also, what lighting are you using?

I think I would take the Carbon off-line....and either the skimmer or the algae scrubber..... You can run them part time.... for instance the scrubber at night when the lights are off.... or the skimmer part-time. This will help with the nitrates and phosphates... to increase them.

So, why am I suggesting taking the cardon off-line?... I am not sure what you are trying to do with running carbon as it can strip the water and make it almost too clear. If you are running LEDs as a for instance.... this amplifies the amount of light getting to your acros. I have seen guys toast their corals using the same light schedule but then running carbon to clarify their water. By the time they realize, the corals are burndt....

What other things are you dosing? You say that your K - Potassium is 400 PPM. Are you dosing potassium? How are you keeping your alk and calcium at these levels?

At 11 months, your tank is still pretty young. I would work towards getting your parameters stable. I am not a fan of zero nitrates and zero phosphates... or ULN. It sounds like you are working towards a low nutrient but not a no nutrient system. Find a place where it is stable. Stability is key to acros in my opinion.

Share your IC test when it comes back.

 

[Johnson556]

So, why were you dosing phospates? Also, what lighting are you using?

I think I would take the Carbon off-line....and either the skimmer or the algae scrubber..... You can run them part time.... for instance the scrubber at night when the lights are off.... or the skimmer part-time. This will help with the nitrates and phosphates... to increase them.

So, why am I suggesting taking the cardon off-line?... I am not sure what you are trying to do with running carbon as it can strip the water and make it almost too clear. If you are running LEDs as a for instance.... this amplifies the amount of light getting to your acros. I have seen guys toast their corals using the same light schedule but then running carbon to clarify their water. By the time they realize, the corals are burndt....

What other things are you dosing? You say that your K - Potassium is 400 PPM. Are you dosing potassium? How are you keeping your alk and calcium at these levels?

At 11 months, your tank is still pretty young. I would work towards getting your parameters stable. I am not a fan of zero nitrates and zero phosphates... or ULN. It sounds like you are working towards a low nutrient but not a no nutrient system. Find a place where it is stable. Stability is key to acros in my opinion.

Share your IC test when it comes back.

Lighting is six 80W T5's (B+/B+/C+/Act/B+/B+) and 3 Kessil A360we's, the average par around the tank is about 280, some 300's hot spots and some 200's lows sprinkled in.

I dosed phosphates to get them detectable as they were constantly reading 0.00 on my Hanna checker and I had Dinos. However this was when I was feeding 4-5 cubes a day with 22 fish. Phosphates had to be in there.

I dose ESV B-Ionic to maintain my big three, I never dose Potassium or Magnesium. I just have those test kits and test them once in a while to see where they are at.

I didn't Run carbon for a few months actually, I took it offline from about October to February, just last week I through some in to clean up some potential contaminates. Ran it for 10 days then took offline again. The next thing I'll stop running is my filter sock.

My nitrates have been solid at 4-5PPM for months now, its just my PO4 that seems to be "low". However, I don't trust my Hanna checker for PO4

 

[dansreef]

I am sorry you had battled Dinos.... I have fought them myself... and the reality.... I dont think we ever really get rid of them. A good strategy is to keep your nitrates and phosphates from hitting zero. I keep my nitrates around 10 and my phosphates at ~.05 I run an oversized algae scrubber and a skimmer... I feed like crazy.... I know I still have dinos in my system... but I keep them in check. BTW... I have a microscope and will regularly take samples. Yes there are some Dinos in the samples. Like I said I keep them in check by keeping my nutrients up a bit and allowing algae and other bacteria to grow. I keep them in check as well.... I feed a ton.... my fish and corals love it.

I do not run Carbon at all... I also dont run GFO. I dose BRS 2-part via a doser. I run G3 Radions with a couple of T-5s for added fill. My alk is at 8.5ish... with Calcium at 400 and magnesium at 1350. I track via my Apex my temp at 78.3 +/- .3 and PH 8.56 +/- .5 I try to test weekly... but will fall behind and let my eyes determine how the tank is going... and then confirm things with tests.

I have 12 fish from tangs to clowns. I have a mixed reef but love my sticks.

It works for me. The key for me is stability.

 

[jda]

There is always bacteria in the tank. Always. Stuff has to stay healthy to fight it off. If you had a bacteria issue, it is a symptom, not the disease. The disease was the stress that you put on your corals. It can take months and months for them to bounce back. It sucks to wait, but that is pretty much all that you can do.

If you take measures to kill some bacteria, you will kill all kinds, just like adding organic carbon can allow all kinds to multiply faster. I seriously doubt that any bacteria that should not be in your tank is doing any harm. All of this just sounds like normal STN followed by algae taking over.