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Yep kinda happened like that! Well there's a bit more to the story.
With this new tank it's been a HUGE struggle to say the least just keeping algae at bay much less keeping coral alive. And when I say algae I' m referring to the devil itself also called dinoflagellates or devil dinos! Up until a couple months ago I was beat down by the stuff and seriously ready to throw the towel in see here.
But around the end of March first of April I started heavily dosing Vibrant as documented here. Much more than the instructions say. I noticed things started looking better on the dino side but even the, overrun with algae, frag tank was shedding itself of hair algae and bubble algae. Hope was here! Fast forward a few days later and I had a small set back here due to user I believe but this wasn't failure it was a kick in the pants! I got my game face on and almost doubled the dosage of Vibrant I was using that was already 4 times what was instructed for my tank EVERY SINGLE DAY! Figured out I probably triggered the re-bloom because I left my, plumbed in, frag tank light on for 5 straight days. After continuing to dose for at least 3 more months less and less I decided that I had won and decided to stop! Haven't dosed since.
After I "beat the devil" I was faced with a huge outbreak of cyanobacteria. But to me cyano was a tank reprieve from death row because anything was better than dino algae. I hadn't performed any water change since beating dinos because I didn't want to do ANYTHING that would trigger those evil suckers from coming back and taking over but I decided to take the chance. I begin to siphon and do water changes but it only got worse. I was worried about using chemicals so I started this thread.
After some more back and forth, siphoning and water changes I decided to take the plunge and I treated the tank. Most of the cyano was gone but what was left never left and it looked as if it would start a comeback. Resisting with everything in me to retreat I stuck with a regular 15% water change each week and low and behold the cyano started to decrease. During this time something else happened....my corals started to become super healthy. Acro frags went from deaths door to now surviving. Plate corals, the easy ones, started to color up! Even the soft corals started opening up and reproducing faster than ever!
Today, oh today, the tank is more than a tank. It's turning into a REEF TANK finally! The only algae ruling the glass and rock work now is the one algae I welcome, coralline algae. It's purdy and pink!
I had pretty much had zero success with any type of sps corals in the new tank but today not only are all my frags alive but they are thriving, coloring and growing at rates I have never seen before in any of my tanks. I'm feeding more than ever, my fish are fat, the frag tank is covered in coralline as well and life on the reef is looking good!
It's been a battle but now reefing is so simple it's as if someone hit a switch and my tank started growing sps corals. I'm super excited during this season of reefing. I quit experimenting with this and that. Trying the latest and greatest things to achieve the success I longed for. It's still not where I want it to be but now I feel as if only time stands in the way of me and a full blown mature reef tank. And I also know that more time is needed to make a believer out of some of you but that's what I intend to do.
So to recap what did I do?
1. Stopped the algae from growing.
2. Started changing my water once a week.
3. Running Carbon and changing it every two weeks.
4. Clean my skimmer every week.
5. Kept it simple.
Honorable Mention: Added some bio-diversity via Reef Nutrition and Miracle Mud. I also added to my Cleanup crew.
Closing...
Have you ever seen the reef tank of @Brad Syphus? If you know anything about him and that reef is that he is religious when it comes to his weekly water changes and equipment cleaning. He has stated that he actually enjoys the maintenance. I always wondered how in the world that would be possible. Now I know! I love changing my water each week now when the reward is a clean tank and growing corals. I just love knowing I am refreshing them with new elements and clean water. So for now I'll keep on keeping on and leave you with photos of Brad's tank for inspiration. One day I'll post mine to inspire you just give me a bit more time!
With this new tank it's been a HUGE struggle to say the least just keeping algae at bay much less keeping coral alive. And when I say algae I' m referring to the devil itself also called dinoflagellates or devil dinos! Up until a couple months ago I was beat down by the stuff and seriously ready to throw the towel in see here.
But around the end of March first of April I started heavily dosing Vibrant as documented here. Much more than the instructions say. I noticed things started looking better on the dino side but even the, overrun with algae, frag tank was shedding itself of hair algae and bubble algae. Hope was here! Fast forward a few days later and I had a small set back here due to user I believe but this wasn't failure it was a kick in the pants! I got my game face on and almost doubled the dosage of Vibrant I was using that was already 4 times what was instructed for my tank EVERY SINGLE DAY! Figured out I probably triggered the re-bloom because I left my, plumbed in, frag tank light on for 5 straight days. After continuing to dose for at least 3 more months less and less I decided that I had won and decided to stop! Haven't dosed since.
After I "beat the devil" I was faced with a huge outbreak of cyanobacteria. But to me cyano was a tank reprieve from death row because anything was better than dino algae. I hadn't performed any water change since beating dinos because I didn't want to do ANYTHING that would trigger those evil suckers from coming back and taking over but I decided to take the chance. I begin to siphon and do water changes but it only got worse. I was worried about using chemicals so I started this thread.
After some more back and forth, siphoning and water changes I decided to take the plunge and I treated the tank. Most of the cyano was gone but what was left never left and it looked as if it would start a comeback. Resisting with everything in me to retreat I stuck with a regular 15% water change each week and low and behold the cyano started to decrease. During this time something else happened....my corals started to become super healthy. Acro frags went from deaths door to now surviving. Plate corals, the easy ones, started to color up! Even the soft corals started opening up and reproducing faster than ever!
Today, oh today, the tank is more than a tank. It's turning into a REEF TANK finally! The only algae ruling the glass and rock work now is the one algae I welcome, coralline algae. It's purdy and pink!
I had pretty much had zero success with any type of sps corals in the new tank but today not only are all my frags alive but they are thriving, coloring and growing at rates I have never seen before in any of my tanks. I'm feeding more than ever, my fish are fat, the frag tank is covered in coralline as well and life on the reef is looking good!It's been a battle but now reefing is so simple it's as if someone hit a switch and my tank started growing sps corals. I'm super excited during this season of reefing. I quit experimenting with this and that. Trying the latest and greatest things to achieve the success I longed for. It's still not where I want it to be but now I feel as if only time stands in the way of me and a full blown mature reef tank. And I also know that more time is needed to make a believer out of some of you but that's what I intend to do.
So to recap what did I do?
1. Stopped the algae from growing.
2. Started changing my water once a week.
3. Running Carbon and changing it every two weeks.
4. Clean my skimmer every week.
5. Kept it simple.
Honorable Mention: Added some bio-diversity via Reef Nutrition and Miracle Mud. I also added to my Cleanup crew.
Closing...
Have you ever seen the reef tank of @Brad Syphus? If you know anything about him and that reef is that he is religious when it comes to his weekly water changes and equipment cleaning. He has stated that he actually enjoys the maintenance. I always wondered how in the world that would be possible. Now I know! I love changing my water each week now when the reward is a clean tank and growing corals. I just love knowing I am refreshing them with new elements and clean water. So for now I'll keep on keeping on and leave you with photos of Brad's tank for inspiration. One day I'll post mine to inspire you just give me a bit more time!
