Update 05/08/25
I've often said " If I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all" and it tracks. 2 weeks ago, out of nowhere havoc ensued. Parameters were all in check, nitrates were around 8, phosphates were around 0.07 and the rest of the numbers were perfectly within range. A few days later, out of the blue, the tank started looking murky and then it hit. within a few hours the corals started looking off, and by the time i got home from work, everything was starting to get covered with what I thought was some type of hair algae. the Flasher Wrasse started acting oddly, and the brittle star came out of the substrate and died shortly there after. My initial thought was that there wasn't enough oxygenation and this was causing the algae growth. I tried hooking the skimmer up that came with the tank and lo and behold, the pump didn't work. A desperate search began for a suitable alternative and my wife discovered the Aqua Ready HOB 1.5. After some further research on her part and a brief talk with me about it, she ordered it and it was delivered the next day. She even went as far as to assemble and hook the whole thing up while I was at work. But by this time, the damage was already done. the flasher wrasse was struggling to swim, we had lost several frags, and the tank was a mess. water changes did little to help, BUT... the Skimmer was an absolute beast, pulling out the nastiest dark skimmate, and the water clarity was noticeably improved after only a few hours. With the water clearing up it was time to assess the damage. The algae looked much less like algae, but not like Cyano either. We had lost both Montipora frags, 3 brain coral frags, a 2 polyp zoanthid frag, and the rainbow pocillopora. 3 other brain frags looked as though they headed for the bone yard, and the Wrasse spent about half his time laying on the substrate. When he did swim, it was a struggle. Since then, we were able to identify the problem, and some of it is starting to make sense. A bit of research and a new microscope later, I was able to confirm my theory (one that most of you reading this have already muttered to yourself) Dinoflagellates. Osteropsis to be precise. Thinking back, I recognize a few mistakes that probably led to this headache. Cleaning the thickening algae from the back glass, running out of Phytoplankton, reducing feeding to try to curb the algae growth.
We are now on the mend, or at least it seems so (see my earlier remark about "luck"). We are about a week in from the time the skimmer was added. The hairy growth has been slowly regressing and the 3 nearly dead brains have some tissue left that seems is, at least, not getting any worse. All of the corals during this event had lost most or all of their fluorescence and the zoanthids stayed closed up, as did the leathers. They have all since opened back up, and everything that is still alive is back to glowing as brightly as ever. The water is as clear as its ever been and the sense of helplessness and frustration that i felt throughout most of this is starting to wain.
But I'm not out of the woods just yet. The dinos are still in there. I've turned off the white, green and red spectrums of light as a start, and that seems to be keeping the hairy growth at bay. I've got a new batch of pods coming and some fresh bottles of Phyto to help. Also looking at adding some microbacter7 and microbacter clean to the list. we've been tossing around getting a UV added, as I know that will be a big help, but for now, the cost is making that a hard pill to swallow. I'll monitor the steps we're taking now and decide soon how we're going top proceed for here on out. Ultimately, i think we'll end up pulling the trigger on the UV within the week. Who knows... I guess we'll see.
I'll post video from the microscope as soon as I can figure out how to get it onto my computer.
