Massive RTN event

[Foothill Corals]

I just took a quick look at your build thread. I’m starting to lean towards this being a nutrient / nutrition issue. You show a pic of a Fox Flame on Nov.25 that looks very bleached and a fairly pale green slimmer. It also looks like a persistent Dino issue. Do you use GFO? What do you do for nutrient export? they my have just been getting weak over time.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

That is exactly how they looked last night!

When you said white strings I was almost certain it was mesenterial filaments. Definitely a sign of stress/irritation in my experience. Like I said before, sometimes they retract them no problem and other times the stress is too significant and they really begin to suffer. It takes a lot of energy to send out those filaments and sometimes the coral is too weak so it declines much like what you experienced.

 

[homer1475]

No GFO, haven't use it in years. And yes I seem to be having a persistent dino issue even though I run elevated nutrient levels.

Levels I posted in the OP, have been that way for at least a year now, or pretty darn close. Wondered why I got the dino's even with elevated nutrients.

The pics on the 25'th, look exactly how I received them, other then "browning" out a bit.

 

[homer1475]

So thats mesenterial filaments, I thought the little clear filament that comes out of the middle of the polyp was that. Learn something new every day! Thank you.

 

[homer1475]

So any idea what my course of action should be?

Already changed carbon last night, and did a roughly 50% WC last night.

Maybe I'll do a 3 day blackout to try and mop up the rest of the dino's?

 

[RVA REEF]

what powerheads are you using?

 

[Foothill Corals]

No GFO, haven't use it in years. And yes I seem to be having a persistent dino issue even though I run elevated nutrient levels.

Levels I posted in the OP, have been that way for at least a year now, or pretty darn close. Wondered why I got the dino's even with elevated nutrients.

The pics on the 25'th, look exactly how I received them, other then "browning" out a bit.

You said Po4 is .03 I consider that very low myself.

 

[stephj03]

I would blow off the brown stuff that is growing over the dead skeleton a few times a day if you can. That will make it easier for new skit to grow back if it's possible.

 

[tehmadreefer]

The brown is not algae, its the skin turning brown, and peeling off.

I've fought dino's in the past, several times actually(stupid trying to run ULN), and I know it's not dino's. But I do have a scope, so maybe I'll pull some off and scope it?

That’s not skin that’s Dinos’s...and is why your sps are looking the way they are but are still alive for now.

 

[tehmadreefer]

No GFO, haven't use it in years. And yes I seem to be having a persistent dino issue even though I run elevated nutrient levels.

Levels I posted in the OP, have been that way for at least a year now, or pretty darn close. Wondered why I got the dino's even with elevated nutrients.

The pics on the 25'th, look exactly how I received them, other then "browning" out a bit.

Dinos are not always caused by low nutrients. There are several varieties. You say you have been battling dinos for a while so something happened in the tank that caused them to explode and now are now overtaking everything as the dominant “algae” so to speak. There is a major imbalance in the ecosystem.

 

[homer1475]

what powerheads are you using?

2 mp10's, 2 jebao PP8's, and a gyre xf 350, along with RFG nozzles on the returns.

You said Po4 is .03 I consider that very low myself.

When I go above that, GHA starts in, then I'm right down the same rabbit hole of chasing a number.

That’s not skin that’s Dinos’s...and is why your sps are looking the way they are but are still alive for now.

Totally understand that now, thank you. Being new to SPS, it looked like the flesh to me.

 

[homer1475]

Dinos are not always caused by low nutrients. There are several varieties. You say you have been battling dinos for a while so something happened in the tank that caused them to explode and now are now overtaking everything as the dominant “algae” so to speak. There is a major imbalance in the ecosystem.

How it seems to go over the last couple years.....

Raise nutrients to about .1, GHA takes over. Under .1 GHA dies off, tank looks great for about a month, then dino's come in. Rinse repeat over the last couple years now.

 

[melanotaenia]

I am sorry to see this, it is one of the fears I always have with keeping SPS corals.

I have seen this before; one person on here had persistent problems similar to this and narrowed it down to some sort of bacterial infection among their SPS, and seemed to have good luck using Chemi-pure which eventually slowed it down and allowed many of them to recover. However I believe their experience was a slightly slower decline than what you are experiecing.

Do you have any more photos of SPS in your tank that look fine you can post for comparison?

 

[zalick]

That’s not skin that’s Dinos’s...and is why your sps are looking the way they are but are still alive for now.

Agreed with this. Happened to me once and wiped out all of my SPS quickly.

 

[tehmadreefer]

How it seems to go over the last couple years.....

Raise nutrients to about .1, GHA takes over. Under .1 GHA dies off, tank looks great for about a month, then dino's come in. Rinse repeat over the last couple years now.

I’d rather have gha which is easily managed then Dino’s. At this point you will need to bring in “desirable algae” to our complete the Dino’s. And yes, in that process your goi g to get gha and/or turf varieties. Having manageable GHA in your tank is actually a good thing...which most newbies don’t understand.

Ever seen a pristine reef with absolutely no algae in the wild? No.

 

[homer1475]

OOh someone mentioned nutrient export.....

Nothing really. I do 10G WC weekly religiously. My tank seems to have settled on .03 and 5ppm.

Had chaeto at one time, died. Ran a turf scrubber for a while, never grew anything in over a year to make any noticeable difference.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

As for the dinos I think too many people look straight to N/P levels as the cause. This is an organism that loves to take advantage of biological imbalance within a system. They thrive without the proper competition and predation. I think dinos are an issue that definitely increased as more an more people started tanks with dry rock. The more diverse a system is, the quicker it will mature and more resilient it will be towards issues like dinos. Now let me ask, how many fish do you have and how often do you feed them? In my opinion that is far more important than what your N/P are reading. For example, my tank runs at 0.2ppm N and 0.03ppm P with great success, but I feed 6 fish in a 35 gallon tank 5 times per day with at least 8 different foods. I also don’t think you should do a blackout with your corals stressed as much as they are.

 

[homer1475]

I feed 4 wrasses, 2 clowns, 1 flame back angel, starry blenny, and bumblebee goby pellets in the AM, and roughly 2 cubes of frozen at night.

9 fish in an 80G cube with 30G sump. Roughly 85G total water volume.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I feed 4 wrasses, 2 clowns, 1 flame back angel, starry blenny, and bumblebee goby pellets in the AM, and roughly 2 cubes of frozen at night.

9 fish in an 80G cube with 30G sump. Roughly 85G total water volume.

So this is just a side note but for the overall health of your tank, I would recommend getting an ehiem auto feeder and set it to dispense 4 times per day at 2 rotations each. You can work up to this amount you don’t have to go all at once. But then you can put your chaeto back online to help keep your N/P under control. This way you will have more food moving through the system without having your N/P go through the roof. This will also help to provide nutrition to lots of beneficial micro and macro fauna and flora that will help you tank become more diverse and most likely outcompete your dinos.

 

[homer1475]

I’d rather have gha which is easily managed then Dino’s. At this point you will need to bring in “desirable algae” to our complete the Dino’s. And yes, in that process your goi g to get gha and/or turf varieties. Having manageable GHA in your tank is actually a good thing...which most newbies don’t understand.

Ever seen a pristine reef with absolutely no algae in the wild? No.

Nope understand there needs to be some algae 100%. Im not a new at this lol. Just hate GHA and run lower nutrients to keep it at bay. I certainly have algae growing in spots in my tank. I'm not that new at doing this, just new to keeping SPS.