Need help before I take tank down and start over!

[Saltgator]

10-4, I was thinking of vodka/mb7 tonight. New skimmer went in last night and works great. Now just waiting for the coral to come back.

 

[Saltgator]

question: how am I going to dose while on vacation? I have someone feeding the livestock, but trusting someone to dose scares me.

 

[VegasRick]

Did I miss the alk/ca test results?

 

[Saltgator]

VegasRick: The lfs tested them and stated that alk was 10 and cal was around 450.

Update: took a look at the tank when I got home. No changes, about 4 single heads of frogspawn remaining (lost 2 more, well.. one is about to detach). Xenia still visable, but not extending. My other tank that I tried to save other pieces in last night: No changes, still losing heads. Maybe I'll try to get pics up and let yall see my issues

 

[Saltgator]

Here are the pictures (not my best).
Pic 1: Xenia and coraline (dying Pocillopora also).
Pic 2: A head of frogspawn being released/dying as did the others in the pic
Pic 3: Frogspawn I moved to a 2 year old 29 bio cube that only has feather calupera, xenia, button polyps, and coraline algae thriving. Again, sorry about the bad pics.

 

[zoodood]

Your issues could be due to a pathogenic bacterial infection....the pocillopora had a fresh lesion to allow for infection....xenias and euphillias sp. both can produce excess mucus allowing for pathogenic bacteria to flourish

 

[Saltgator]

Sounds like my issue. Would this explain why my clams and acans are not showing issues?

 

[Saltgator]

Also zoodood, welcome and thanks for your first post in my issues

 

[Saltgator]

Just an update to whom ever may want one: Mag was slightly high (ok.... off the chart), calcium was 500 (a bit higher than I like), kh was 10, salinity was 1.027. No dead loss of the last day or 2, corals don't seem to be "thriving" yet. Still cyano everywhere, xenia still small but noticable, frogspawn and hammer still hanging on, acans and clams couldn't be better, rbta still fully open and no gapping mouth, all fish doing good too. Sps that I tried (pocillopora) completly gone. Anyone have any thoughts and possibly point me to where I need to be with sps (lps is nice, but I'm looking into sps to fill in the tank... so beginner sps.. if any). Thanks again to all who may comment now or before for this has been one of my learning moments since school, Ha. :wink:

 

[zoodood]

Thanks for the friendly welcome gator....took me long enough to make my way over here. I've been needing a new outlet for the hobby.

...here's a fun little tid bit on bacteria: Microbial Wars: Mucus-Associated Bacteria Fend Off Coral Pathogens - Coral Microbial Ecology

there are steps that can be taken to reduce the effects of these "bad" bacteria, such as uv sterilization and ozone. Keep in mind thought that neither of this methods decipher good from bad bacteria. Personally, I use ozone and in addition it reduces turbidity making the water crystal clear for the corals to suck up that light.

If you want to successfully keep sps, you may need to take a step back and make sure your water quality is up to par, meaning nitrate and phosphorus reduction. Stay up on the water changes, clean filtration and media, and keep the sump clean. Keep in mind you want to achieve both low flow areas where the anoxic bacteria can reduce nitrates to nitrogen, and you want aerobic areas to reduce phophorus (also maybe try more conservative feedings).

 

[VegasRick]

Most bact blooms you just have to ride out. They usually go away in a short period of time. Looking at your pictures I have a few suggestions
Invest in a good ro/di unit. Most fish stores don't keep water quality as high as you'd like. Do this first. I wouldn't do any more water changes until you have one.
Change your carbon and gfo every week until your algae has gone away. This may take several months
Get rid of the macro algae. The roots can damage tissue in sps and lps and bacteria infections can result. Macro algae and sps just don't mix well. Stay away from sps for a few more months, sps needs a very stable tank and even if you do everything right it will take a few months for your tank to stabilize. Also there is a chemical released by macro algae the stunts the growth of corals. If you really want it, set up a refugium.

 

[Saltgator]

Thanks to you both. The macro algae that you seen in the pics were my seperate 29 biocube that I raise algae to feed the tangs, plus to use as a back up with pods (and in this case tried to save some frogspawn in case it was my 125 reef, which was not the aparent case because they are in bad shape). My bacteria infection that I "believe got my lps has came to a halt. I haven't lost any corals since last week. Maybe because i choose to dose iodine (I normaly do) and removed the small (1 inch leather) and dead pocillopora. Things are good now, just cyano bacteria, but I can control that. Thanks again

 

[gar732]

I'm having similar issues with my tank but all my LPS are suffering and my sps seem to be doing fine. I did lose my pocillopora colony that I had for over a year though. Glad to hear you're having better luck.

 

[Saltgator]

Thanks gar732 and sorry to hear your having issues too. Good luck