Hello R2R Team,
I would love to get some help battling this nuisance algae please. I recently upgraded my system. My tank has been set up for about 3 months. I set up my tank using new dry real reef live rock and 1 1/2 bags of new CaribSea live sand. I used BSI coral glue, AquaStik Epoxy and BRS Accelerator to aquascape. I ran carbon and poly filters for the first 2 weeks and did a 50% water change before introducing any corals/livestock. I dipped all my Corals using revive as well. I have been doing 10% weekly water changes every week except for the last 3 weeks I started to do a 10% Biweekly WC to try and raise my nitrates. My phosphates and nitrates have still remained at zero. The algae started of as a diatom bloom and then has turned into a fuzzy brown/burgundy hair looking algae. It has completely covered all of my rock and some of my coral frag plugs. I will write as much information as possible below and include a few pictures:
System:
Redsea Reefer 250
2x MP40QWD
2x XR15W w/Diffusers
Nyos Quantum 120 Skimmer
Cobalt 200w heater
Phosban 150 Reactor (Run GFO max cap 4hrs a day)
Livestock:
Mix Corals
Yellow Tang
Royal Gramma
Designer Clown
Purple Fire Goby
Scarlet Hermits
Red Sea Serpant Star
Astraea Snails
Margarita Snail
Nassarius Snail
Lighting:
11 hours a day at 55% intensity
Feeding:
Everyday: Pinch of spectrum pellets
1/2 cube of brine shrimp with Selcon.
Also add 3 drops of coral vitalizer every day.
Twice a week: Target feed all my corals with 3 x 1/4 teaspoon of reef roids and reef chili.
Maintenance:
I use polyester and change it weekly instead of filter socks.
10% biweekly water changes using RODI water with Red Sea Sea Salt.
Dosing:
I use 6 TBSP of Kalkwasser in my 5gal ATO reservoir.
Parameters:
Ph: 8.1
Alkalinity: 8.3
Calcium: 435
Magnesium: 1,300
Phosphates: 0
Salinity: 35
Temperature: 77
Nitrates: 0
I would love to get some help battling this nuisance algae please. I recently upgraded my system. My tank has been set up for about 3 months. I set up my tank using new dry real reef live rock and 1 1/2 bags of new CaribSea live sand. I used BSI coral glue, AquaStik Epoxy and BRS Accelerator to aquascape. I ran carbon and poly filters for the first 2 weeks and did a 50% water change before introducing any corals/livestock. I dipped all my Corals using revive as well. I have been doing 10% weekly water changes every week except for the last 3 weeks I started to do a 10% Biweekly WC to try and raise my nitrates. My phosphates and nitrates have still remained at zero. The algae started of as a diatom bloom and then has turned into a fuzzy brown/burgundy hair looking algae. It has completely covered all of my rock and some of my coral frag plugs. I will write as much information as possible below and include a few pictures:
System:
Redsea Reefer 250
2x MP40QWD
2x XR15W w/Diffusers
Nyos Quantum 120 Skimmer
Cobalt 200w heater
Phosban 150 Reactor (Run GFO max cap 4hrs a day)
Livestock:
Mix Corals
Yellow Tang
Royal Gramma
Designer Clown
Purple Fire Goby
Scarlet Hermits
Red Sea Serpant Star
Astraea Snails
Margarita Snail
Nassarius Snail
Lighting:
11 hours a day at 55% intensity
Feeding:
Everyday: Pinch of spectrum pellets
1/2 cube of brine shrimp with Selcon.
Also add 3 drops of coral vitalizer every day.
Twice a week: Target feed all my corals with 3 x 1/4 teaspoon of reef roids and reef chili.
Maintenance:
I use polyester and change it weekly instead of filter socks.
10% biweekly water changes using RODI water with Red Sea Sea Salt.
Dosing:
I use 6 TBSP of Kalkwasser in my 5gal ATO reservoir.
Parameters:
Ph: 8.1
Alkalinity: 8.3
Calcium: 435
Magnesium: 1,300
Phosphates: 0
Salinity: 35
Temperature: 77
Nitrates: 0
. I blame it on my laziness and the use of neonitro incorrectly to try and raise my nitrates but I’m not 100% sure. During the process of trying to raise my nitrates I turned off my Skimmer and did not do any water changes for the first 2 weeks. My nitrates were still at zero so on the 3rd week I added 2 capfuls of neonitro for 5 days without testing..(dumb thing to do) After that I started to use Zeofood and Zeobak. I started to grow a greenish/brownish Algae on the sandbed, rocks and some on my Corals. I’m not sure what kind of algae/bacteria it is but it seems to grow in shaded areas more, in between the rocks and over some of the corals. It blows off the rocks pretty easy with a turkey baster. When the algae started forming is when I started to see a number of corals start to decline. It started with the tentacles not coming out, loosing color, Corals Receeding showing the skeleton and then dieing. Corals affected (Scolymia, Pecitinia , blasstomussa, Chalices, Favias). I used a poly filter for a week and did a 20% water change Incase any chemical or metals were present. I also stopped using GFO and bought a Pax Bellum n18 chaeto reactor in hope of it competing with the algae/bacteria. It’s been 4 weeks since I bought the chaeto reactor and I have not seen a difference with the nuisances algae/bacteria and today another coral (Blasto) was affected. Can someone please help me get some answers on what is killing my corals? STN/RTN? What kind of algae/bacteria am I dealing with? Thanks in advance. I’ll add some pictures. 
