Shall I just give up and quit?

[Qasim]

This is what my tank looks like now... did you ever get it under control? I'm adding grazers...

(sorry for hijack)

At least your corals are opening Up not showing skeletons.

One of my frogspawns got into skeleton with in 3 - 4 days and I think it is dead now.

I turned on the lights today in the morning and there is a little brown algae on the sand.

Additionally when catching the fish yesterday I had to take out a couple of the rocks so I took advantage and changed my rock work a bit.

I will siphon today and see how it goes along.

 

[Hermie]

At least your corals are opening Up not showing skeletons.

One of my frogspawns got into skeleton with in 3 - 4 days and I think it is dead now.

I turned on the lights today in the morning and there is a little brown algae on the sand.

Additionally when catching the fish yesterday I had to take out a couple of the rocks so I took advantage and changed my rock work a bit.

I will siphon today and see how it goes along.

My advice would be... run activated carbon assiduously and replace it at least once a week for a few weeks until things look better.

The reason I say this... you seem to have a fair amount of corals but because some of them are struggling/dying they may be releasing toxins in the water that is killing other corals and causing a cascade effect. The algae problem does not look so bad in my opinion, but since you took steps to solve it chemically (biopellets etc), those actions may have irritated the corals who are now suffering and releasing some toxins... I say this because I had a Sinularia that just about wiped out my QT tank that was "dying" over a long period of time. Once I removed it, the other corals recovered.


Oh and listen to Lasse too

But skip the NOPOx - it will take more than 2 - 3 weeks. With microbacter razor - I do not know - if it contain DOC - skip that too. And stop the Bio pellets. Run it without adding any dissolved organic carbon for 3 weeks or more. Test it out and if it does not work after a month - try to take another path.

 

[Qasimja]

At least your corals are opening Up not showing skeletons.

One of my frogspawns got into skeleton with in 3 - 4 days and I think it is dead now.

I turned on the lights today in the morning and there is a little brown algae on the sand.

Additionally when catching the fish yesterday I had to take out a couple of the rocks so I took advantage and changed my rock work a bit.

I will siphon today and see how it goes along.

totally unrelated but is your first name Qasim cause mine is lol

 

[Qasim]

totally unrelated but is your first name Qasim cause mine is lol

It is

 

[Qasimja]

It is

small world lol

 

[Qasim]

small world lol

Indeed it is

 

[Qasim]

So i just checked the tank it is doing great so far i can say like 60% of the brown algae on the sand is gone and the water has cleared up really good that the light penetrates very well its almost running very low but the tank is lit bright since the sand is clear again and reflecting the light back.

 

[2pawsreefer]

Tbh i had dinoon my sand bed and green hair everywhere else i just bought a big ol bag of chemipure elite and a bag of chemipure blue nano in a hob and its gone and i got 2 turbo snails

 

[Qasim]

Hello today 4th of august i had to cleanup the gravel again and siphon out moat of the brown slime algae. I have started to see thick layers of red slime algae on the rockwork. What do you guys suggest shall continue on siphoning the sand bed and blasting the red slime algae off of the rockwork?

 

[Hermie]

Hello today 4th of august i had to cleanup the gravel again and siphon out moat of the brown slime algae. I have started to see thick layers of red slime algae on the rockwork. What do you guys suggest shall continue on siphoning the sand bed and blasting the red slime algae off of the rockwork?

I think the Red slime is a natural occurance after the removal of a competitor, but that you can manually remove it for a while longer until the hair algae is gone, and then use chemiclean to remove the slime if it hasn't receded on it's own

 

[Kimberely]

The photo was taken like 27 days ago i was measuring 100ppm nitrates and 0.025 phos do you think silicas might have an affect on the issue i replaced my di resin today, i even replaced my RO units

That really does look like amphidinium dinos. Impossible to say for sure without confirming it with a microscope though. When I first started out I was super concerned with keeping nutrient levels really low. So much so that I was changing 25% of the water weekly and running a refugium full of chaeto. I starved my tank into a full scale dino infestation and lost most of my corals and several fish due to the toxins they produce. I literally tried every remedy that was recommended and nothing worked. I fought it for a year before I ended up buying new dry rock and some live rock from my LFS to seed it with. Then bleach cured all my old rocks and did a hard restart of the tank. I also bought a UV sterilizer and ran it constantly for 3 months after restarting the tank. I no longer even test nitrates or phosphate to be honest, and only change 5 gallons every week or two on a 29 gallon tank. No skimmer or refugium either. My tank has never looked better. No algae whatsoever. But I don't keep sps either. Just various anemones, softies and lps. I am currently having a spirobid problem but they're harmless. I think a lot of people are too obsessed with keeping nutrients extremely low. Stability is more important than ultra clean water in my experience.

 

[Qasim]

I agree stability is more important than Ultra clean water however, keeping things stable is abit hard with few resources. I have reduced my tank inhabitants from 10 fish to 7 getting out 3 large fish, with that I noticed 30-50 ppm decrease in my nitrates from 100 ppm. I have noticed red slime algae now on the rock work and coral skeleton I think they are irritating the corals. I have lost another LPS it was dividing very nicely now the flesh is getting brown most of my corals were accepting food nowadays only 3 of them are accepting a torch coral and a fully closed torch and a duncan coral. the rest of the LPS are gone at this point shall I stat with water changes? or still siphon? and to be honest I dont siphone every day I siphone every couple or three days.

 

[Paullawr]

There is little point in trying different things until you know the strain. Quite likely amphidium or coolia based on the photos.

Id do two things.

get a cheap microscope and formal id.
by some fauna marin red x.

treat with red x initially. If this doesnt resolve then you want to nutrient balance.

different strains like different conditions but most people dont realise this and bung them altogether. This causes conflicting arguments to appear.

blackouts wont work if its dinos. Can survive 15 days no sweat. In fact the cysts can lay dormant on dry rock for over a year and germinate when added to water.

 

[AiKkz]

 

[Paullawr]

What he said.

I thought that three aquariums ago. I can beat them now in a day or two. Just takes time and patience. Work out the strain then your plan of attack. I do recommend red x though.

 

[Sump Crab]

Too many big fish and most likely poor water maintenance over the life of your tank IMO. If you are serious about addressing the problem lose all of your large fish and step up your water changing game. Good luck!

 

[MnFish1]

Too many big fish and most likely poor water maintenance over the life of your tank IMO. If you are serious about addressing the problem lose all of your large fish and step up your water changing game. Good luck!

The answer is not getting rid of the fish - its (as you said) stepping up your nutrient export (either water changes or something else (bigger skimmer, chaeto, biopellets etc etc). I woudn't get rid of the fish

 

[Sump Crab]

The answer is not getting rid of the fish - its (as you said) stepping up your nutrient export (either water changes or something else (bigger skimmer, chaeto, biopellets etc etc). I woudn't get rid of the fish

agree to disagree

 

[MnFish1]

agree to disagree

I probably said it too strongly - ONE of the options is getting rid of the big fish - its not the only one

 

[Sump Crab]

I probably said it too strongly - ONE of the options is getting rid of the big fish - its not the only one

That's true and I certainly concede to that point, however, the bioload in this 90 gallon tank is extremely high due to the several large tangs. The effort involved to control their waste would be extreme IMO although it definitely could be done.