Help! Problems and a bit lost with where to go next.

Jacko85

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Hey All,

Would appreciate some advice. I've got a ~80G tank that i've had up and running for a few months. Couple of clowns, some snails, an urchin, and in terms of coral a hammer, an acan, and a mushroom leather. Chaeto in the sump (about baseball size). Feeding is liquid mysis + pellets.

As far as history, tank cycled fine before any of that was added, but very sterile early. Once lights came on diatoms etc but that subsided. Current params are nitrites 0, nitrates 0 phosphates 0, ph 7.8, dissolved oxygen 8.1/8.2. Salinity 1.026. Current monitoring with a seneye as well as API testing manually, hanna for salinity. Daily water changes of ~1-2% and ATO in place.

The problem, over the last couple of weeks had a decent GHA outbreak. Around the time the CUC came in so guessing came from that. Noticed larger ph swings (0.2) over a number of days with lighting and increasing day by day, so backed that off back down to ~50% and back into acclimation mode. At this point corals were still happy and had been for a few weeks prior.

*but* what then started to happen was the acan started looking unhappy and no longer puffy etc. And over the next few days the hammer and mushroom have now retracted also. Did a 10% water change which seemed to help *slightly* so backed that up with another 10% a day later. That was this weekend. Everything still unfortunately looks not great. I was thinking maybe flow, however now my urchin has decided to drop all it's spines. So im now back to thinking water.

But everything i'm testing for is coming up nothing. I was thinking maybe the GHA was stripping out too much and that was the issue, but I can't imagine 0 nitrates would cause the urchin to become unhappy. Note the clowns are still 100% fine.

Bit of a ramble, but honestly I'm just a bit at a loss. Is it just a matter of doing a bunch more large water changes (salt is tropic marin pro btw)?? Or is there something else I should be testing for.

Cheers,
Jack
 

tbrown

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Are you feeding the corals? With no detectable nutrients in the water column your corals are likely starving.
 

tbrown

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By the way, API for phosphates is really hard to actually see results until they're fairly high.
 

Semper.Reefing

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Do you have any pictures?

I think you’re doing a lot which is stressing the coral out- the black out and a lot of water changes. If it is GHA, manual removal and an army of turbo snails and assorted hermits will take care of it. Or do you have Dino’s? I ask because they’re common in newer tanks and correlated with low nutrients in most cases.
 
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Jacko85

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Are you feeding the corals? With no detectable nutrients in the water column your corals are likely starving.
Target feeding with the mysis every couple of days plus broadcast.

The phosphate test is the salifert.. should have said.
 
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Jacko85

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Do you have any pictures?

I think you’re doing a lot which is stressing the coral out- the black out and a lot of water changes. If it is GHA, manual removal and an army of turbo snails and assorted hermits will take care of it. Or do you have Dino’s? I ask because they’re common in newer tanks and correlated with low nutrients in most cases.
IMG_3631.jpeg
Here’s the (what I think is GHA). I don’t think it’s dinos but I could certainly be wrong! I have a couple of hermits but could use a few more I think.

Yeah I worry about doing too much. It’s quite stressful when you are new at this!
 

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Any of the phosphate tests that you have to determine the "blueness" are difficult to read until you get close to that 0.25+. Some people can though so hopefully you're one of them.
 

Semper.Reefing

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IMG_3631.jpeg
Here’s the (what I think is GHA). I don’t think it’s dinos but I could certainly be wrong! I have a couple of hermits but could use a few more I think.

Yeah I worry about doing too much. It’s quite stressful when you are new at this!
Only one way to find out by looking under a microscope. If it is I would recommend holding off on the water changes and introduce some more biodiversity- Pods, phyto, etc. I have a video of a pod eating Dino’s under my microscope.

I get it though. I was very hands on when I started. A few years in now and I’ve seen better results with a hands off approach and only making changes if absolutely necessary
 

Cichlid Dad

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IMG_3631.jpeg
Here’s the (what I think is GHA). I don’t think it’s dinos but I could certainly be wrong! I have a couple of hermits but could use a few more I think.

Yeah I worry about doing too much. It’s quite stressful when you are new at this!
That looks like a normal new tank. Nothing to get worried about yet. That is easily taken care of with a tooth brush
 
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Jacko85

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Only one way to find out by looking under a microscope. If it is I would recommend holding off on the water changes and introduce some more biodiversity- Pods, phyto, etc. I have a video of a pod eating Dino’s under my microscope.

I get it though. I was very hands on when I started. A few years in now and I’ve seen better results with a hands off approach and only making changes if absolutely necessary
Thanks for the advice :). I did actually get some phyto in on Sat. The LFS didn't have any pods though but that is definitely the plan!
 
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Jacko85

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That looks like a normal new tank. Nothing to get worried about yet. That is easily taken care of with a tooth brush
Yeah I figured as such, and if it was just the algae I wouldn't be worried. It's more the fact all 3 corals have retracted over a week or so, and now an urchin has dropped it's spines and might be on the way out.
 

Glowurm

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Readings of 0 across the board for nutrients is a little surprising, you should have some nitrate, your PH is also on the lower side...
 

Sophie"s mom

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As others have said, you need both nitrAte and phosphate to have detectable levels. My tank likes nitrates to be between 10 and 25ppm. And I keep phosphate at about .15. But you definitely need these up from zero.
 

Mr. Mojo Rising

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Pictures of the corals will help.

What kind of light are you using and what intensity? How is the flow in the tank?
 

Dburr1014

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It's a newish tank.
Lots of things are still changing.
Let it settle in.

But corals are retracted,...it's a new tank.

One thing you didn't mention,
Lights and flow. Lights you turned down, turn them back up. See if the coral open up. Turn up the flow, see if the coral open up.
Change one thing at a time but down be afraid to change things. These animals came from a place with lots of flow and light but super stable water. We can't do that.
Your tank biome is changing everyday and every time you add anything to your tank.
 
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Jacko85

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Readings of 0 across the board for nutrients is a little surprising, you should have some nitrate, your PH is also on the lower side...
As others have said, you need both nitrAte and phosphate to have detectable levels. My tank likes nitrates to be between 10 and 25ppm. And I keep phosphate at about .15. But you definitely need these up from zero.

Yeah definitely low. But have presumed the GHA is stripping it out. Seems a catch 22 as I can maybe feed more but will that just feed the GHA more? Have turned down the photoperiod on the chaeto.. was hoping that would outcompete the GHA and others but it might be having the reverse affect.

PH wise i think the Tropic Marin Pro Reef mixes up around 7.8, so wasn't super concerned. I might dose to raise it at a later date but was aiming more for stability now as i'm learning.
 

Solo McReefer

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That looks like a normal new tank. Nothing to get worried about yet. That is easily taken care of with a tooth brush
A tooth brush

And more snails

I have no idea why frequent water changes is a problem

As for low nutrients on test results, that's because the algae is "eating" it.

There are nutrients in the tank, the algae is proof of that
 
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Jacko85

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Pictures of the corals will help.

What kind of light are you using and what intensity? How is the flow in the tank?
2*AI Prime 16 HD. And currently 1*AI Nero 7 (Another ordered and on the way).

Ramped the primes up to 100% over time... the PAR at the lower levels where the corals as didn't seem excessive 75 or so IIRC so was actually worried about too little. Backed it off to 60% with acclimation so now is rising back up again.

Flow is... ok? And when feeding the mysis can see it fairly well. (But honestly it's hard to know what is normal for me) Corals are in the middle lower portion and seems to be turbulent / random middle to low flow. Its low on the opposite side of the tank to the AIN7 but hence the extra on the way (was always the plan). Corals were happy for quite a while before this episode so wasn't immediately thinking flow.

Edit: Will get some more pics soon.
 

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