Help on reviving a slowly dying tank

[shrimped]

Hey what’s up
I’m not new to R2R, this is just a new account but as the title says, I think my tank is slowly dying.

I kept a small 34g AIO (which crashed early twice) then upgraded to a 60g cube because I wanted to restart on a fresh new slate with better equipment to prevent old mistakes I have made. The current tank is running with water for about half a year.

I have realized about a month ago that the current tank is slowly dying due to how diatoms are blooming everywhere and some simple LPS are dying for unknown causes. The water is also usually cloudy.

I am a Junior in Highschool so I don’t have much time every week to perform a half decent water change so I haven’t done one in 2 weeks from today.

Tank stock list:
Sunburst Anthias
McCoskers Wrasse
Blue Neon Goby

4 Sexy Shrimp
A few cuc snails and hermits
Feather Duster

Branching Black Sun Coral
Fat head Dendro
Plate coral
Hammer coral
Ricordea
Interstellar shroom
Unknown Zoa

Main Equipment:
Nyos Quantum 120
Eheim Jager heater
Vortex going MP40WQD
Radion G4 Xr15
Chaetomorpha
Tunze Osmolator

Water Params from Sunday/Jan/20
SG: 1.026 (refracto)
PH: 8.2 (API)
dkh: 9.5 (Hanna)
Calc: 398 (Hanna)
Phos: > .25 (API)
Mg (forgot to write down but from what I can recall*): 1320 (Salifert)
Nitrate: ??
Nitrite: ??

Today I posted this because I noticed that the tank looks more “dead” than usual. I don’t see much life going on in the tank. The Anthias is weirdly sleeping at day time and I don’t see the very active blue Neon Goby.

My goal or “dream” for this tank is to have a clean look and to see coral visibly growing at a decent pace due to how I have never experienced that in past tanks.

I’m sorry this is so long to read but I would love to take in some information or advice from successful reefers.

Thank you
-Sung

 

[Gonebad395]

What top off water are you using RODI or tap. Do you have a sup wha filtration are you doing

 

[shrimped]

What top off water are you using RODI or tap. Do you have a sup wha filtration are you doing

I use BRS 4 Stage RODI
TDS meter: 0

I have a Trigger System 20C Saphire (20g)
Only filtration is Nyos Quantum 120 and Chaetomorpha

 

[Gonebad395]

What is your nitrates at

 

[shrimped]

What is your nitrates at

I haven’t tested nitrates in a month but I will test again in a few mins

 

[alf1096]

I had the same slime it takes elbow grease and hydrogen peroxide

 

[Beefyreefy]

The second pic looks like Dino. Do you have access to a microscope to verify?

 

[shrimped]

I had the same slime it takes elbow grease and hydrogen peroxide

I tried siphoning our 90% of it but within a week it all grew back. Some of the algae is on the rocks too. I’ve never heard of people using hydrogen peroxide.

 

[shrimped]

The second pic looks like Dino. Do you have access to a microscope to verify?

I don’t have a microscope to verify but some of the algae grow on the glass and rocks

 

[Beefyreefy]

The fact that it came back so quick really makes me think it’s Dino. Are you sure your phosphates are greater than O.25? Did you ever have a period where your phosphates and nitrates were basically zero? did you start with dry rock? Just trying to sort this out.

 

[alf1096]

I tried siphoning our 90% of it but within a week it all grew back. Some of the algae is on the rocks too. I’ve never heard of people using hydrogen peroxide.

Read the sticky at the top of this tread on dinoflagellates. It’s h2o2

 

[shrimped]

The fact that it came back so quick really makes me think it’s Dino. Are you sure your phosphates are greater than O.25? Did you ever have a period where your phosphates and nitrates were basically zero? did you start with dry rock? Just trying to sort this out.

From the famously inaccurate API test kit my phosphates read less than 0.25.
I use unfortunately use API for both Nitrates and Phosphates and they are “undetectable” or less than .25 when I test. I will test nitrates again in around 5 min
Edit: I used dry rock (from Marco Rocks). I used Dr. Tim’s bacteria and ammonium chloride for cycling. During cycling period nitrates were high then went low.

 

[shrimped]

Read the sticky at the top of this tread on dinoflagellates. It’s h2o2

Will do thank you!

 

[Beefyreefy]

The fact that it came back so quick really makes me think it’s Dino. Are you sure your phosphates are greater than O.25? Did you ever have a period where your phosphates and nitrates were basically zero. did you start with dry rock? Just trying to sort this out.

From the famously inaccurate API test kit my phosphates read less than 0.25.
I use unfortunately use API for both Nitrates and Phosphates and they are “undetectable” or less than .25 when I test. I will test nitrates again in around 5 min
Edit: I used dry rock (from Marco Rocks). I used Dr. Tim’s bacteria and ammonium chloride for cycling. During cycling period nitrates were high then went low.

Ok I’m 99% sure it’s dinoflagellates. Dino seems to happen when your phosphates and nitrates bottom out. Starting with dry rock is also a known trigger. They are notoriously difficult to get rid of but there is hope. I was able to get rid of them by raising my nitrate and phosphate by dosing them with Seachem phosphorus and Seachem nitrogen. I also added pods. You should keep your phosphates above .1 and nitrates around 10. The idea is you want biodiversity, like normal algae, to outcompete the dino. Read the thread “are you tired of battleing altogether” in the algae subforum.

 

[shrimped]

Ok I’m 99% sure it’s dinoflagellates. Dino seems to happen when your phosphates and nitrates bottom out. Starting with dry rock is also a known trigger. They are notoriously difficult to get rid of but there is hope. I was able to get rid of them by raising my nitrate and phosphate by dosing them with Seachem phosphorus and Seachem nitrogen. I also added pods. You should keep your phosphates above .1 and nitrates around 10. The idea is you want biodiversity, like normal algae, to outcompete the dino. Read the thread “are you tired of battleing altogether” in the algae subforum.

Sounds like I gotta upgrade my test kits lol. API won’t read low range.
I thought my nitrates and phosphates would be pretty high because I got nonphotosynthetic coral going on.
I got chaeto growing very well in the refugium with a ton of pods visible.
I will read the thread thank you :)
Here is another photo

 

[marvelousone]

I can tell you what I did. A lot of time your tank is not balanced. I cleaned as much of the brown out. The more I did water change it seemed it came back more. I tried blackout for 3 day. Hydro peroxide. Nothing worked. I ordered biodigest. 6 vials. sucked all the brown out I could then dose 2 vials a day for 3 days. I added carbon in a reactor. Within a week it was gone. Might be something you could try. It worked for me.

 

[wattson]

get rid of the sand and clean as much glass and do 50% water change,,add sone stability or Microbacter 7 per instructions..after a few days to week start to skim heavily and an RO DI is amust..

 

[shrimped]

I can tell you what I did. A lot of time your tank is not balanced. I cleaned as much of the brown out. The more I did water change it seemed it came back more. I tried blackout for 3 day. Hydro peroxide. Nothing worked. I ordered biodigest. 6 vials. sucked all the brown out I could then dose 2 vials a day for 3 days. I added carbon in a reactor. Within a week it was gone. Might be something you could try. It worked for me.

I probably try what you did. Thank you for the info.

get rid of the sand and clean as much glass and do 50% water change,,add sone stability or Microbacter 7 per instructions..after a few days to week start to skim heavily and an RO DI is amust..

i don’t think I could find a time to get rid of the sand and putting in new one but I’ll look up MicroBactter 7

 

[Blackice615]

Definitely upgrade your test kit if you have room in your budget. You definitely have nice equipment

 

[Softhammer]

I strongly recommend not adding anything. Keep cleaning it out, do water changes but increase your water movement in the tank to as high as you can. It will run its course. You mentioned Cheatomorpha as well, do whatever you can to keep it growing and make certain your skimmer is dialed in and clean. Inside and out to make sure it is at it best and oxygenating you water as well. Make sure your skimmer is also properly installed and adjusted. You could run some carbon too. An occasional gravel vacuuming wouldn’t hurt either. If your tank has been running for 6 months you don’t need more bacteria. Adding chemicals just destabilizes everything which is 100% what you do not want. I have been keeping reefs for 17 year as of now professionally for a few back in the day and never once has the above not worked. Don’t expect any miracles but it takes time and maintenance. It will come together for you. All these photos of algae free tanks you see on here are because they are usually brand new. Very very few mature systems are as sterile as some portray them in photos on this site. Those that are, the owner are exceptionally careful and religious with their maintenance routines.