Mak21
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2026
- Messages
- 19
- Reaction score
- 42
- Location
- Colorado
- What state or country do you live in
- Colorado
My beloved tank has finally lost its imbalance battle. You see, for my birthday I decided to head feet first into the world of marine fish keeping. And for the passed 8 months, it's been a roller coaster. From excitement to tears, this experience has been like no other.
I think it all started with wanting to add my first anemone. Where the crash started, I should mention. My first anemone found himself wandering around my pristine tank. And by pristine, I mean it. And I've since learned too pristine is not the goal. Lesson learned. He soon found an interesting device called Fluval 407, and quickly became familiar with the inside of it. Now, I had never kept an organism like this before. I assumed maybe he found a nice crevasse to crawl into and regulate his stress. Boy was I wrong. Two weeks later, filter cleaning day arrived! Lucky me. The sight was....less than pleasant. The whitish reddish sludge smeared across every media source, the smell emanating from the canister, enough to insight a foul feeling from within the gut. But that wasn't the worst bit. A fleshy substance remained at the bottom. A tiny, gaping, bubble tip-less mouth stared into my soul. Correction, two tiny, gaping, bubble tip-less mouths. Two? How the anemone managed to split, I'm unsure. A stress response, a defense mechanism possibly. The twins were quickly placed back into the tank. I can fix this, I can "cure" them. I was foolishly determined. Both got placed beneath a metal wire prison, surely they will not escape to be lost to the abyss again. The smaller of the two died off rather quickly and was removed promptly. Still surprised to this day, the second of the unlucky duo survived for a near 2 weeks. It was looking rather well with its oddly misshapen, half grown baby bubble tips appearing in spurts around the diameter of the mouth. Then one day, sludge. It just couldn't survive. My first loss in the tank. Not my last unfortunately...
The red algae began as a whisper, a subtle scent on the wind. Now a roaring war cry, the appearance of the dinoflagellates was of no concern to me. I of course, did not know what they were at the time. I assumed it was the "dirty" stage everyone talked about. The ugly algae that will disappear in due time, harmless and normal. This, it was not. But at this stage, it was a non-issue. Ugly, sure! Problematic, in my tank? No way!
Yes way.
Let's add crabs to take care of all that algae! Oh, and how about a tiger tail cucumber to churn up that sand! Hmmmm, one more thing.... I know! A Scooter Blenny! Perfect to help keep that top sand layer glistening. Bad idea. On all fronts. This wasn't nutritious algae to be eaten and enjoyed by all these new cleaning creatures. A fact that would confuse me continuously. Why did my blenny starve? Why is my cucumber avoiding the sand entirely? The crabs...well actually the addition of four crabs didn't change much, they did fine. Maybe I didn't feed my blenny enough, so lets get another and target feed him Mysis Shrimp. Where I learned this was his diet, I'm not entirely sure. The loss of another blenny made me start to think however.
The cucumber, it's actually something I've posted about previously here. Longest story short, he burrowed himself into a rock formation, rarely appeared outside of it and in a desperate plea one day when I saw him seemingly trying to remove his too big body from the crevasse, I attempted to help him escape. What I believe is, in doing so I damaged his body, to which he responded by dispersing his intestines across the tank floor. It was a brutal watch over he course of nearly 24 hours trying to figure out what was wrong. but after seeing the stringy white insides floating across the tank the next morning, there was no mistaking what had happened.
A second, more mature anemone was added to the tank. Specifically purchased at a larger size as to not repeat....past mistakes. This anemone moved quite a bit, finally resting upside down in the empty space of an over arching bridge of live rock. He settled there for what would seem like a peaceful resting place.
The red sludgy algae continued to grow, expand and conquer. I'm starting to think this isn't algae. And after a third starved blenny (this time I attempted to culture a microbiome for him to snack on) I started thinking, it's probably time to step back and truly diagnose the issue. I inquired about such to none other than ChatGPT as well as my local fish store, both concluding it was most likely a bloom of cyanobacteria. Increase water flow and hope for the best was the advice I received. And so, I purchased a second dual wave maker to ensure maximum flow. One of my largest failures. The suction on the wave maker was entirely too weak, falling off the glass not once, but twice. Inciting not one, but two massive sand storms across the entirety of the tank. The stress from these back to back major sand disturbances sent my settling corals into a ceaseless panic. Not just the corals however. The new anemone, placed perfectly as to receive the harshest wave of this atrocity, began to quickly wither, seemingly gaping for air, and shriveling, melting in areas. And after the sand settled? The dreaded red sludge algae returned in a force I had never seen before. Determined to lessen it's grasp, I consulted my fish store...and ChatGPT....once again. This time the consensus was Diatoms. Another false diagnosis. Overfeed, overfeed, overfeed. And so, I fed my tank like its life depended on it. And while the working theory of a low nutrient tank may not have been entirely wrong ( I wanted to maintain a spotless, crystal clear tank with minimal waste) the actual issue was Phosphates and Nitrates. A lack in both created a breeding ground for the real villain of this story; Dinoflagellates. So while I overfed my tank and one by one each and every fish died along with the slow decomposing anemone, my confusion only grew further and further.
Surely Diatoms can't cause fish to drop like this. One Firefish, one Midas Blenny, a second Firefish, one of the two Darwin Clowns...never mind both of the Darwins, my favorite and newest fish at this point - the Tomini Tang, my beloved Blackcap Basslet....one by one, days to weeks apart, dead. A disease was my main question. However the inconsistent and longwinded periods between pointed elsewhere. Still, the tank was treated twice for any type of disease. Nothing at this point, and I mean nothing was helping. After my final fish dropped to the sand bed, my anger, my sadness, my determination, it sparked something. I finally received the answers I had been searching for since the beginning. What is the red sludge? But it was too late. The information at this point, useless.
Or is it? With the corals beginning to bleach and cripple, I have one last hope. Bring them back. Go through the grueling, time consuming process. I nearly brought back a shriveled dying anemone. This is not the end. I will not give up. The plan now?
Remove half of the sand. Dino algae must go. From dead snails, to crabs to the cucumber to the newly purchased conch (now passed), so much has died in this tank. In this sand in particular. So much so, veiny mold like spores have sprouted like tree roots across portions of the sand. As wildly intricate and gnarly as it looks, it most certainly has to go. Next? A water change...a HUGE water change. With the bacteria blooms in the sand, the water conditions are looking exponentially worse. Cloudy bacteria filled water is no place to sustain healing corals. Filter media, replace everything I can. Lights, dim them. The bleached corals are stressing from the over exposure, so we'll slowly bring the lights from a 12 hour cycle to just an 8 hour cycle. Clean the live rock. Its overrun by Dino algae, scrub scrub scrub. Lessen feeding. No more over feeding, and closely monitor Phosphates and Nitrates. Dose coral food 2 times a week at most. Green star polyps, a bleached montipora, a near entire lobophyllia skeleton, a semi healthy platygyra and a decent looking mushroom coral makes up the current coral society. A measly singular Nassarius Snail and crab make up the company of livestock. It's my attempt at essentially restarting this marine tank. With the new knowledge I have gathered from my trials and tribulations, I'm semi-confident I can do this at a second go. Starting with some mature filter media, live rock and semi-nutritious sand, I think I'm giving myself decent odds.
In the end, the findings concluded a nutrient imbalance crashed my tank. A lack of Phosphates and Nitrates and a Dinoflagellate bloom marked the end of a newly thriving ecosystem. I look back on some of my first pictures, how proud I was. I long for that feeling again, but even more so, I just hope to do it right this time.
-Mak
I think it all started with wanting to add my first anemone. Where the crash started, I should mention. My first anemone found himself wandering around my pristine tank. And by pristine, I mean it. And I've since learned too pristine is not the goal. Lesson learned. He soon found an interesting device called Fluval 407, and quickly became familiar with the inside of it. Now, I had never kept an organism like this before. I assumed maybe he found a nice crevasse to crawl into and regulate his stress. Boy was I wrong. Two weeks later, filter cleaning day arrived! Lucky me. The sight was....less than pleasant. The whitish reddish sludge smeared across every media source, the smell emanating from the canister, enough to insight a foul feeling from within the gut. But that wasn't the worst bit. A fleshy substance remained at the bottom. A tiny, gaping, bubble tip-less mouth stared into my soul. Correction, two tiny, gaping, bubble tip-less mouths. Two? How the anemone managed to split, I'm unsure. A stress response, a defense mechanism possibly. The twins were quickly placed back into the tank. I can fix this, I can "cure" them. I was foolishly determined. Both got placed beneath a metal wire prison, surely they will not escape to be lost to the abyss again. The smaller of the two died off rather quickly and was removed promptly. Still surprised to this day, the second of the unlucky duo survived for a near 2 weeks. It was looking rather well with its oddly misshapen, half grown baby bubble tips appearing in spurts around the diameter of the mouth. Then one day, sludge. It just couldn't survive. My first loss in the tank. Not my last unfortunately...
The red algae began as a whisper, a subtle scent on the wind. Now a roaring war cry, the appearance of the dinoflagellates was of no concern to me. I of course, did not know what they were at the time. I assumed it was the "dirty" stage everyone talked about. The ugly algae that will disappear in due time, harmless and normal. This, it was not. But at this stage, it was a non-issue. Ugly, sure! Problematic, in my tank? No way!
Yes way.
Let's add crabs to take care of all that algae! Oh, and how about a tiger tail cucumber to churn up that sand! Hmmmm, one more thing.... I know! A Scooter Blenny! Perfect to help keep that top sand layer glistening. Bad idea. On all fronts. This wasn't nutritious algae to be eaten and enjoyed by all these new cleaning creatures. A fact that would confuse me continuously. Why did my blenny starve? Why is my cucumber avoiding the sand entirely? The crabs...well actually the addition of four crabs didn't change much, they did fine. Maybe I didn't feed my blenny enough, so lets get another and target feed him Mysis Shrimp. Where I learned this was his diet, I'm not entirely sure. The loss of another blenny made me start to think however.
The cucumber, it's actually something I've posted about previously here. Longest story short, he burrowed himself into a rock formation, rarely appeared outside of it and in a desperate plea one day when I saw him seemingly trying to remove his too big body from the crevasse, I attempted to help him escape. What I believe is, in doing so I damaged his body, to which he responded by dispersing his intestines across the tank floor. It was a brutal watch over he course of nearly 24 hours trying to figure out what was wrong. but after seeing the stringy white insides floating across the tank the next morning, there was no mistaking what had happened.
A second, more mature anemone was added to the tank. Specifically purchased at a larger size as to not repeat....past mistakes. This anemone moved quite a bit, finally resting upside down in the empty space of an over arching bridge of live rock. He settled there for what would seem like a peaceful resting place.
The red sludgy algae continued to grow, expand and conquer. I'm starting to think this isn't algae. And after a third starved blenny (this time I attempted to culture a microbiome for him to snack on) I started thinking, it's probably time to step back and truly diagnose the issue. I inquired about such to none other than ChatGPT as well as my local fish store, both concluding it was most likely a bloom of cyanobacteria. Increase water flow and hope for the best was the advice I received. And so, I purchased a second dual wave maker to ensure maximum flow. One of my largest failures. The suction on the wave maker was entirely too weak, falling off the glass not once, but twice. Inciting not one, but two massive sand storms across the entirety of the tank. The stress from these back to back major sand disturbances sent my settling corals into a ceaseless panic. Not just the corals however. The new anemone, placed perfectly as to receive the harshest wave of this atrocity, began to quickly wither, seemingly gaping for air, and shriveling, melting in areas. And after the sand settled? The dreaded red sludge algae returned in a force I had never seen before. Determined to lessen it's grasp, I consulted my fish store...and ChatGPT....once again. This time the consensus was Diatoms. Another false diagnosis. Overfeed, overfeed, overfeed. And so, I fed my tank like its life depended on it. And while the working theory of a low nutrient tank may not have been entirely wrong ( I wanted to maintain a spotless, crystal clear tank with minimal waste) the actual issue was Phosphates and Nitrates. A lack in both created a breeding ground for the real villain of this story; Dinoflagellates. So while I overfed my tank and one by one each and every fish died along with the slow decomposing anemone, my confusion only grew further and further.
Surely Diatoms can't cause fish to drop like this. One Firefish, one Midas Blenny, a second Firefish, one of the two Darwin Clowns...never mind both of the Darwins, my favorite and newest fish at this point - the Tomini Tang, my beloved Blackcap Basslet....one by one, days to weeks apart, dead. A disease was my main question. However the inconsistent and longwinded periods between pointed elsewhere. Still, the tank was treated twice for any type of disease. Nothing at this point, and I mean nothing was helping. After my final fish dropped to the sand bed, my anger, my sadness, my determination, it sparked something. I finally received the answers I had been searching for since the beginning. What is the red sludge? But it was too late. The information at this point, useless.
Or is it? With the corals beginning to bleach and cripple, I have one last hope. Bring them back. Go through the grueling, time consuming process. I nearly brought back a shriveled dying anemone. This is not the end. I will not give up. The plan now?
Remove half of the sand. Dino algae must go. From dead snails, to crabs to the cucumber to the newly purchased conch (now passed), so much has died in this tank. In this sand in particular. So much so, veiny mold like spores have sprouted like tree roots across portions of the sand. As wildly intricate and gnarly as it looks, it most certainly has to go. Next? A water change...a HUGE water change. With the bacteria blooms in the sand, the water conditions are looking exponentially worse. Cloudy bacteria filled water is no place to sustain healing corals. Filter media, replace everything I can. Lights, dim them. The bleached corals are stressing from the over exposure, so we'll slowly bring the lights from a 12 hour cycle to just an 8 hour cycle. Clean the live rock. Its overrun by Dino algae, scrub scrub scrub. Lessen feeding. No more over feeding, and closely monitor Phosphates and Nitrates. Dose coral food 2 times a week at most. Green star polyps, a bleached montipora, a near entire lobophyllia skeleton, a semi healthy platygyra and a decent looking mushroom coral makes up the current coral society. A measly singular Nassarius Snail and crab make up the company of livestock. It's my attempt at essentially restarting this marine tank. With the new knowledge I have gathered from my trials and tribulations, I'm semi-confident I can do this at a second go. Starting with some mature filter media, live rock and semi-nutritious sand, I think I'm giving myself decent odds.
In the end, the findings concluded a nutrient imbalance crashed my tank. A lack of Phosphates and Nitrates and a Dinoflagellate bloom marked the end of a newly thriving ecosystem. I look back on some of my first pictures, how proud I was. I long for that feeling again, but even more so, I just hope to do it right this time.
-Mak
) but could some of the 
, man did I dig myself a deep hole back then. It isnt just you, we all face things like this as we learn.
. Without those little guys none of this is possible. If you have a microscope capable of at least 400x magnification it can help tremendously with identifying dino species, each has a different "cure". I always recommend every hobbyist get a microscope, doesnt have to be an expensive one, there are some very inexpensive but effective pieces that can be picked up on 
