Hello everyone! I wanted to reach out to see if I can get some opinions from everyone regarding a big RTN episode on my system. Please bear with me as this is a lot.
A little background on the system. I have a 150 gallon SPS dominant tank which is about 2 years old. I started the tank off with Mars Aqua Chinese black boxes. Things were going well for about a year. I picked up a $5 frag of Pocilopora and didn't notice the tiny bubble algae on the bottom of the frag until it was too late. This led to a massive bubble algae outbreak. I tried everything from Foxface's, Emerald crabs, etc and nothing touched the stuff. This led to me using Vibrant. I used Vibrant for about 1.5 months and it worked great on the bubble algae. However, it did cause issues with some of my pieces which led to discoloring and a dry look and also brought on Dino's. I worked on Dino's and was able to rid Dino's in about a month or so.
Things were going well for a couple of months and then I used Chemiclean along with Fluconazole. Those worked well and I really didn't experience any issues with corals except I lost 1 frag of Echinata.
Fast forward a couple of months and around the end of June, I started Vibrant again because my bubble algae was at plague proportions again. All corals were looking great with good color when started. I dosed for about 2 months or so and stopped because I lost my Red Dragon colony and a couple of frags. Things turned around within a month or so and I didn't lose anything else.
I decided to change out my lights at the beginning of November from the Chinese Black Boxes with Upgrades diodes to a 6 bulb retrokit with all ATI bulbs. Things were looking great and my ALK consumption jumped with great growth. Around the middle of November, I dosed Chemiclean because of a lot of Cyano in my frag tank and some in my Display Tank. After a week I decided to dose Fluconozaole again because I had an explosion of GHA in my frag tank. I ran Flucnoaole for about a week then decided to do a water change because things were looking "dry". Since the beginning of December things have seemed to take a turn for the worst. I have lost about 6 colonies and about 15 frags. They all start from their tips peeling.
Really at a loss for words here. I know I did a lot at once and I am torn as to what it could have been. My wife swears it the lights but I refuse to listen because I do not want to go through the work of taking down the retrokit and installing the LED's again.
Here is a breakout of the timeline of events.
March 2018 - Started up 55 gallon tank
April - 2019 - Moved everything over to 150 gallon tank and added additional rock
November 2019 - Dosed Vibrant for two months - cleared up bubble algae but made corals angry and Dino's kicked in as the result of it
March 2020 - Dosed Fluconazole - Cleared GHA and lsot 1 frag of Echinata
June 2019 - End of June I dosed Vibrant for two months. I quit because I lost a Red Dragon colony and a couple of frags. The system turned around the end of September-October.
November - Changed lights out to 6 bulb retrokit T5's with ATI bulbs
Middle of November - Dosed Chemiclean and then Fluconazole
End of December - Added Chaeto back to my Fuge and it has taken off and filled up my entire 20 gallon fuge within 2 weeks.
Paramaters
ALK - 8-8.3 - Per Trident
Cal - 400 - Per Trident
Mag - 1390-1400 - Per Trident
NO3 - 4.67 - Per Hanna
PO4 - 0.08 - Per Hanna
I sent off an ICP on 12/30 and waiting to see what I get.
This is very frustrating and depressing. Many times over the last month I have been on the verge of throwing in the towel. I won't though. I have spent too much time and money to just give up. It is depressing when I am unable to pinpoint what is exactly going on.
I looked around and found what looked like ALK precipitation going into the Sump from my dosing tube holder. It is weird because it is coming from a spot where there isn't a tube. Any thought of what this could be? It seems to have hardened or calcified when it touches the water. I use Seachem Reef Fusion for my Alk and Calcium
Full tank shot taken on 11/01/2020. Switched to T5's about 2-3 weeks prior to this. This is when a couple of pieces started to show issues.
I took these pictures the other day. As you can see this is not looking good and also the bubble algae has returned again for the 3rd time!!
I completely lost this one since the picture was taken.
I completely lost this one since the picture was taken.
I completely lost this one since the picture was taken.
Any suggestions you guys can think of and some words of encouragement to keep me going would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks again!
A little background on the system. I have a 150 gallon SPS dominant tank which is about 2 years old. I started the tank off with Mars Aqua Chinese black boxes. Things were going well for about a year. I picked up a $5 frag of Pocilopora and didn't notice the tiny bubble algae on the bottom of the frag until it was too late. This led to a massive bubble algae outbreak. I tried everything from Foxface's, Emerald crabs, etc and nothing touched the stuff. This led to me using Vibrant. I used Vibrant for about 1.5 months and it worked great on the bubble algae. However, it did cause issues with some of my pieces which led to discoloring and a dry look and also brought on Dino's. I worked on Dino's and was able to rid Dino's in about a month or so.
Things were going well for a couple of months and then I used Chemiclean along with Fluconazole. Those worked well and I really didn't experience any issues with corals except I lost 1 frag of Echinata.
Fast forward a couple of months and around the end of June, I started Vibrant again because my bubble algae was at plague proportions again. All corals were looking great with good color when started. I dosed for about 2 months or so and stopped because I lost my Red Dragon colony and a couple of frags. Things turned around within a month or so and I didn't lose anything else.
I decided to change out my lights at the beginning of November from the Chinese Black Boxes with Upgrades diodes to a 6 bulb retrokit with all ATI bulbs. Things were looking great and my ALK consumption jumped with great growth. Around the middle of November, I dosed Chemiclean because of a lot of Cyano in my frag tank and some in my Display Tank. After a week I decided to dose Fluconozaole again because I had an explosion of GHA in my frag tank. I ran Flucnoaole for about a week then decided to do a water change because things were looking "dry". Since the beginning of December things have seemed to take a turn for the worst. I have lost about 6 colonies and about 15 frags. They all start from their tips peeling.
Really at a loss for words here. I know I did a lot at once and I am torn as to what it could have been. My wife swears it the lights but I refuse to listen because I do not want to go through the work of taking down the retrokit and installing the LED's again.
Here is a breakout of the timeline of events.
March 2018 - Started up 55 gallon tank
April - 2019 - Moved everything over to 150 gallon tank and added additional rock
November 2019 - Dosed Vibrant for two months - cleared up bubble algae but made corals angry and Dino's kicked in as the result of it
March 2020 - Dosed Fluconazole - Cleared GHA and lsot 1 frag of Echinata
June 2019 - End of June I dosed Vibrant for two months. I quit because I lost a Red Dragon colony and a couple of frags. The system turned around the end of September-October.
November - Changed lights out to 6 bulb retrokit T5's with ATI bulbs
Middle of November - Dosed Chemiclean and then Fluconazole
End of December - Added Chaeto back to my Fuge and it has taken off and filled up my entire 20 gallon fuge within 2 weeks.
Paramaters
ALK - 8-8.3 - Per Trident
Cal - 400 - Per Trident
Mag - 1390-1400 - Per Trident
NO3 - 4.67 - Per Hanna
PO4 - 0.08 - Per Hanna
I sent off an ICP on 12/30 and waiting to see what I get.
This is very frustrating and depressing. Many times over the last month I have been on the verge of throwing in the towel. I won't though. I have spent too much time and money to just give up. It is depressing when I am unable to pinpoint what is exactly going on.
I looked around and found what looked like ALK precipitation going into the Sump from my dosing tube holder. It is weird because it is coming from a spot where there isn't a tube. Any thought of what this could be? It seems to have hardened or calcified when it touches the water. I use Seachem Reef Fusion for my Alk and Calcium
Full tank shot taken on 11/01/2020. Switched to T5's about 2-3 weeks prior to this. This is when a couple of pieces started to show issues.
I took these pictures the other day. As you can see this is not looking good and also the bubble algae has returned again for the 3rd time!!
I completely lost this one since the picture was taken.
I completely lost this one since the picture was taken.
I completely lost this one since the picture was taken.
Any suggestions you guys can think of and some words of encouragement to keep me going would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks again!