Help me figure this out. SPS fading, dying, brown algae on them.

[musicsmaker]

I've had this 40 breeder going for about a year, and up until now all my SPS has been doing great: growing like crazy, colorful, polyped out all the time....

Now I'm having problems. It started with a few frags turning white around the growth edges of their bases, an progressed to corals fading, polyps withdrawn, and some have a brown stringy substance forming on them.

My first response was to test my alk. It was 9.9 dKH, which is higher that I usually keep it at, at 8.6. This tells me I've had a reduction in consumption, because I've been pretty stable at that level for a long time. I took my dosing pump offline, and have been letting it fall naturally over the last few days. I'm now back to 8.6dKH

I went and got a Hanna checker for phosphate because salifert PO4 tests suck. I tested everything, and my results are as follows:

sg 1.025
Temp: 79°F (inkbird controller)
Alk: 8.6 dKH (salifert)
Ca: 435 (salifert)
Mg: 1440 (salifert)
NO3: 5 (salifert)
PO4: 0.04 (Hanna)

I'm already planning some water changes, since I've verified that my nutrients aren't too low.

Recent changes:
About 2.5 months ago, I added Chemipure Blue rated for 35 gallons

Last month I switched out two really old T5 bulbs for new ones. Spaced that out 1 week between bulbs

A couple weeks ago I upgraded my flow. I actually suspect this might have been the trigger, but can't be sure. I went from minor flow to some pretty major flow all at once. I've since throttled it back a little hoping it will help.

Here are a few pictures. The appleberry monti was one of the brightest green, healthiest looking corals a few weeks ago. Now this. Same with the green acro frags in the second pic. The two faded ones on the left are from the big mother on the right. Same coral, same location, smaller frags affected but mother to a lesser degree. The last one is a Leng Sy cap. It dulled when I first put it in here, then it colored up and was getting bright green, now all of a sudden this. Could too much flow have done this?

 

[dwest]

I’m wondering if your phosphates dipped when using chemipure blue which caused your corals to fade and possibly allowEd dinos to succeed in your system. I would scope the brown stuff to see.

 

[musicsmaker]

I have a scope. How do you collect it? Cotton swab?

What if it's dinos? How do I treat it?

More background: I have a fairly heavily stocked tank. At least I think I do. Lyretail Anthias, Yellowfin Flasher Wrasse, 3 blue chromis, a false perc, a yellowtail blenny, two cleaner shrimp and two sump damsels.

I've been battling the ongoing presence of hail algae, which is why I added the Chemipure Blue to start with. I added a second one last week, and that's when I decided to go get the Hanna checker just to be sure. If I tested zero I was gonna pull the CPB out and hope that fixed it. I've tested it every day and it's staying at 0.04, so I havent pulled it out yet.

I also have a skimmer.

 

[dwest]

I collect my sample with a pipet, then put a couple drops between slides. Then use the dino ID guide or post the videos back to us so we can help. There’s lots of dino treatment threads out there, but ID is the place to start.

Which Hanna Checker are you using for phosphate?

Dinoflagellate Identification Guide

I've had this laying around for a while. Had some recent interest, so I tweaked it a bit and am posting it. Not really about cures just ID pictures, videos, and a few short facts. Hope it can be helpful.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[musicsmaker]

It's the ultra low range phosphate one.

 

[musicsmaker]

Should I maybe remove the Chemipure Blue?

Also, do you think that too much flow for a period of about a week could do this?

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I dont think flow is too high, thats pretty hard to do. Looks like your dropped your nutrients too much and caused a dino bloom. Toxins from dinos will kill coral, I lost nearly everything in my tank from dinos. It can be beaten and the dino thread is the place to go for help. I stopped water changes for a long time, increased no3 and po4 20 ppm and 1.1 ppm by feeding a lot, dosed lots of good bacteria, but what really knocked them out was UV.

 

[Mini colony]

I have this problem before, a big water change help to stop it and bring color back.

 

[kevin_e]

I wouldn't suspect flow.

May be a combination of bulb replacement AND stripping phosphates. That will pale corals very fast.

 

[musicsmaker]

My reason for adding the cheimpure blue in the first place was that I was getting hair algae. I'm feeling a strong urge to remove it now. I'd rather have the algae and my corals look like they did before.

I've increased fish feeding a lot since I first started suspecting possibly low phosphate, and I haven't done any water changes since it started.

I'm almost convinced to remove it. Could it hurt? Maybe a fuge with some chaeto would be a better way to export nutrients?

 

[Kfactor]

I have the same problem right now my po4 and no3 are bottomed out and can’t seem to get them up even with dosing . Then when I dose some corals seem to hate it I can’t figure it out

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

When in doubt undo your most recent change before the problem occurred. I would remove the Chemipure Blue

 

[dwest]

I would remove chemipure but put in some GAC.

 

[musicsmaker]

I removed it today, and I'm going to start doing 5g water changes every other day (maybe daily). So far, with heavy feeding, I've managed to start getting algae on my front glass again. I'll absolutely keep an eye on my levels for the next few weeks.

I haven't had time to scope a sample, yet. I might take take one into work with me soon. We have a 60K scope there with camera and a designated software sweet.

 

[Zoajohn]

Too much flow is possible, at least in my experience. I had my mp10 on my nuvo 30 Long set to reefcrest around 85-90%. Reduced this to 50% and sps all responded positively overnight.

Though I can say SPS growth has stalled or receded in every instance dinos reared up in my tanks. I would work on eliminating those first thing.

 

[musicsmaker]

Well, the problem hasn't got any better, but it hasn't got any worse either. Hopefully the damage is done, and I can get it back to healthy.

The Leng Sy seems to have lost most of the brown that was on it. It looks like it may have been loose, dead and dying tissue that has now sloughed off for the most part. I'll still scope it tonight to be sure about dinos.

Wouldn't dinos be covering everything, though, and not just a few certain corals?

 

[Zoajohn]

Well, the problem hasn't got any better, but it hasn't got any worse either. Hopefully the damage is done, and I can get it back to healthy.

The Leng Sy seems to have lost most of the brown that was on it. It looks like it may have been loose, dead and dying tissue that has now sloughed off for the most part. I'll still scope it tonight to be sure about dinos.

Wouldn't dinos be covering everything, though, and not just a few certain corals?

Dinos can range from mild, to every square inch of your tank covered

 

[musicsmaker]

1 month update:

All of the corals are looking much better. Some are still lacking polyp extension, but everything that was faded is now fluorescing nicely again. Some are even showing growth, and I've had a sudden explosion in coralline algae.

After I removed the chemipure, I physically removed 99% of the hair algae, performed many water changes, added carbon, and kept my fish well fed.

I tested 0 for phosphates a couple times, and feeding a big dose of reef roids brought them up. I'm gong to start dosing phosphate in the future though, because the extra nitrate took a lot of water changes to reduce. I guess this tank is phosphate limited.