Hi everyone!
I am currently experiencing issues with our LPS corals. They are receding more day by day and so far I have lost a blasto and a 4 polyp hammer colony among other livestock. We have been battling dino (still are) but that has been going on since November and it wasn't until 3 weeks ago that the LPS started dying. Here's a timeline of our tank. It's long but I wanted to be sure you all had the total rundown of what we did.
Sept 2017: Set up Nuvo Fusion 20 with live rock, live sand, and a Hydra 26 (blues/purples at 70% power, red/white at 10%). Temp at 78 and stable. No skimmer. Tank cycled for 30 days before we added anything to the tank.
October 2017: Added a clown fish, cleaner shrimp, a few zoas, a frogspawn, and an acan. 5 gallon water changes were done every week (BRS RO/DI unit and Res Sea Coral Pro salt). Livestock was added spaced out.
Early November 2017: Added an algae blenny, another acan, more zoas, and the hammer. 5 gallon water changes were done every week (BRS RO/DI unit and Res Sea Coral Pro salt). Livestock was added spaced out.
Late November 2017: Dino showed up. 5 gallon water changes were done every week (BRS RO/DI unit and Res Sea Coral Pro salt).
December 2017: Added 6 line wrasse before we knew we had dino (thought diatoms). Dino confirmed by microscope mid December. Stopped all water changes because of Dino. Tried just doing 3 day blackouts with no luck. Added peroxide dosing (2ml every day) mid December as per our local LFS.
January 2018: Did a water change and then started DinoX for 21 days. Followed the directions and paired this with one 3day blackout at the beginning. Dino receded a ton but not gone (confirmed by microscope) Corals seemed really stressed so we did nothing to the tank (other than water changes) for a month. Lost all brittle stars in live rock and the algae blenny
February 2018: Decided to just let Dino run it's course. It was suggested to lower our Hydra 26 (blues/purples at 50% power, no red/white) but increase biodiversity in the tank (recommendation from World Wild Coral). Began adding copepods weekly. Corals began to recover and we saw the frogspawn split and the zoas recover. Dino still littered the sand and increasing slowly.
March 2018: Dino not getting better so added Vibrant to increase biodiversity further (1.5 ml 2x a week). Lost our Illuminati zoa (ugh!) and Turbo snail
April 2018: Seeing a slight increase in Dino so we kept up with everything but increased Vibrant to every other day 2ml as per the company that makes Vibrant. Kept adding copepods and Ocean Magik. Zoas are taking OVER. Our WWC Superstar went from 4 polyps to 20 in a month. All remaining LPS is unhappy and won't open fully. Lost our hammer, blasto, Astrea (sp?) snail, 6 line wrasse, and two turbo snails. Seeded the tank with new brittle stars only to lose them too.
I am so confused as to what is happening. We are following the recommendations of our LFS (WWC) and keeping up with tank maintenance. As of yesterday my TDS meter is 0 for our RO/DI water, the pH of the tank is 8, phosphates and nitrates are 0. I cannot test for anything else right now but plan to have our LFS test it themselves tomorrow. Help please? How can my zoas be exploding but I am losing snails and LPS coral?
I am currently experiencing issues with our LPS corals. They are receding more day by day and so far I have lost a blasto and a 4 polyp hammer colony among other livestock. We have been battling dino (still are) but that has been going on since November and it wasn't until 3 weeks ago that the LPS started dying. Here's a timeline of our tank. It's long but I wanted to be sure you all had the total rundown of what we did.
Sept 2017: Set up Nuvo Fusion 20 with live rock, live sand, and a Hydra 26 (blues/purples at 70% power, red/white at 10%). Temp at 78 and stable. No skimmer. Tank cycled for 30 days before we added anything to the tank.
October 2017: Added a clown fish, cleaner shrimp, a few zoas, a frogspawn, and an acan. 5 gallon water changes were done every week (BRS RO/DI unit and Res Sea Coral Pro salt). Livestock was added spaced out.
Early November 2017: Added an algae blenny, another acan, more zoas, and the hammer. 5 gallon water changes were done every week (BRS RO/DI unit and Res Sea Coral Pro salt). Livestock was added spaced out.
Late November 2017: Dino showed up. 5 gallon water changes were done every week (BRS RO/DI unit and Res Sea Coral Pro salt).
December 2017: Added 6 line wrasse before we knew we had dino (thought diatoms). Dino confirmed by microscope mid December. Stopped all water changes because of Dino. Tried just doing 3 day blackouts with no luck. Added peroxide dosing (2ml every day) mid December as per our local LFS.
January 2018: Did a water change and then started DinoX for 21 days. Followed the directions and paired this with one 3day blackout at the beginning. Dino receded a ton but not gone (confirmed by microscope) Corals seemed really stressed so we did nothing to the tank (other than water changes) for a month. Lost all brittle stars in live rock and the algae blenny
February 2018: Decided to just let Dino run it's course. It was suggested to lower our Hydra 26 (blues/purples at 50% power, no red/white) but increase biodiversity in the tank (recommendation from World Wild Coral). Began adding copepods weekly. Corals began to recover and we saw the frogspawn split and the zoas recover. Dino still littered the sand and increasing slowly.
March 2018: Dino not getting better so added Vibrant to increase biodiversity further (1.5 ml 2x a week). Lost our Illuminati zoa (ugh!) and Turbo snail
April 2018: Seeing a slight increase in Dino so we kept up with everything but increased Vibrant to every other day 2ml as per the company that makes Vibrant. Kept adding copepods and Ocean Magik. Zoas are taking OVER. Our WWC Superstar went from 4 polyps to 20 in a month. All remaining LPS is unhappy and won't open fully. Lost our hammer, blasto, Astrea (sp?) snail, 6 line wrasse, and two turbo snails. Seeded the tank with new brittle stars only to lose them too.
I am so confused as to what is happening. We are following the recommendations of our LFS (WWC) and keeping up with tank maintenance. As of yesterday my TDS meter is 0 for our RO/DI water, the pH of the tank is 8, phosphates and nitrates are 0. I cannot test for anything else right now but plan to have our LFS test it themselves tomorrow. Help please? How can my zoas be exploding but I am losing snails and LPS coral?