Need some tips for my newish tank, corals are dying, may have cyano.

[Leon Gorani]

So I have a 43 gallon Red Sea 170. I used to have a good amount of corals, mostly easy to keep ones but my tank has been going downhill lately and I’ve lost a lot of corals. I have three fish, a bangai cardinal, royal gramma, and a 1.5 inch blue tang.

My nitrates and phosphates were very low the first 3 months since my tank has cycled. Yes this is a fairly new tank. It finished cycling May 30 of this year.

My phosphates were very high last month, but nitrates were not too bad. Nitrates have gone up and down from 6 to 2 ppm in the past 2 months.
here are my phosphate values with the dates:
July 12: .03 ppm
July 24: .48 ppm
August 7: .09 ppm
August 10: .15 ppm

I believe I had a huge cyano outbreak and that messed up most of my corals, but now that my phosphates have been up I have been seeing more green hair algae along with cyano. At first I thought I had dinos, due to low nutrients but I don’t think I have them anymore. For filtration I have a klir filter roller, and a octo essence e-130 skimmer I believe, I forget the exact name. And I have a bunch of bio media blocks, I even have 2 more pieces of the Eshopps bio-lux media behind the filter roller that you can’t see in the pics.

But here are some pics of my tank and the filtration:

I have ordered some chaeto and I just recently installed a phosphate reactor with rowaphos in it, maybe I don’t have enough media in that? Should I add more? I also had a possum wrasse last month but he just died 2 weeks ago, not sure why. I also started feeding much less due to nutrients.
Any tips will be very much appreciated!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Cyano blooms typically start when water nutrient concentrations go haywire. Just like when you eat too much sugar and your waistline starts to bloom, the same happens in your tank when concentrations of phosphate, nitrate and other organic compounds are too high.
Some of the most common causes include:
- Protein skimmer which fills water with tiny air bubbles. As bubbles form from the reaction chamber, dissolved organic compound molecules stick to them. Foam forms at the surface of the water and is then transferred to a collection cup, where it rests as skimmate
- Overstocking / overfeeding, your aquarium with nutrients is often the culprit of a cyano bloom
- Adding live rock that isn’t completely cured which acts like a breeding ground for red slime algae
- If you don’t change your water with enough frequency, you’ll soon have a brightly colored red slime algae bloom. Regular water changes dilute nutrients that feed cyanobacteria and keeps your tank beautifully clear
- Using a water source with nitrates or phosphates is like rolling out the welcome mat for cyano. Tap water is an example
- Inadequate water flow, or movement, is a leading cause of cyano blooms. Slow moving water combined with excess dissolved nutrients is a recipe for pervasive red slime algae development

I recommend to reduce white light intensity or even turn them off for 5-7 days. Add liquid bacteria daily for a week during the day at 1.5ml per 10 gallons. Add Hydrogen peroxide at night at 1ml per 10 gallons. Add a pouch of chemipure Elite which will balance phos and nitrate and keep them in check.

After the week, add a few snails such as cerith, margarita, astrea and nassarius plus 6-8 blue leg hermits to take control.

 

[arking_mark]

Corals need stable parameters, light, flow, major/minor elements/ions, and nutrients.

Here's how i looked at identifying issues..

Dry start and bare bottom cycling time?

Cannot keep SPS not LPS alive … Have a 300 dry start and bare bottom that has been cycling for almost a year now… fish are happy, rocks and bottom where the sand would be, are covered in coralline… have used a PAR meter for the tank and light settings… we cannot keep LPS nor SPS in this tank…...

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