Struggling with receding corals during ugly phase

[Muraad]

My tank cycled about a month ago but was struggling with keeping my nitrates and phosphate from zeroing out. I was able to keep my nitrates around 5-7 ppm and phosphates around 0.03-0.06 ppm. My tank went through an ugly phase about 3 weeks ago where the sand started becoming yellow. I thought maybe I accidentally added some regular water into my tank and after a bit, the sand cleared up. A few days later, it came back and now it's much worse.

I tested my parameters with a HANNA checker and my nitrate is at 5.6 ppm, and phosphate at 0.06 ppm. Alkalinity around 9.5 dKH. I have 3 euphyllias that I fragged off from another tank of mine. One of them started receding. What should I be doing right now to save my corals? My parameters seems okay, did I rush too fast?

Salinity is always maintained at around 51.5 mS (1.0252 SG) and my temperature is always at 25 C (77).

Only the green coral is receding so far.

 

[whalewhalewhale]

Raise your nutrients. Don't fight the ugly phase.

Also the bubble strand looks suspiciously like ostreopsis. If it disappears at night, you accidentally triggered dinos.

 

[Muraad]

Raise your nutrients. Don't fight the ugly phase.

Also the bubble strand looks suspiciously like ostreopsis. If it disappears at night, you accidentally triggered dinos.

I thought 5-10 ppm nitrates and 0.03-0.1 ppm Phosphate was optimal so that's what I was going for. What should I raise them to?

 

[whalewhalewhale]

I thought 5-10 ppm nitrates and 0.03-0.1 ppm Phosphate was optimal so that's what I was going for. What should I raise them to?

when I start new tanks, I make it super dirty. the ugly stage is inevitable if you're using dry rock and even with live rock you get a mini ugly stage with cyano and hair algae everywhere. But you need to know that bacteria require nitrates/phosphates too. New tanks are a battle for real estate and you want the slightly bad guys to keep out the really bad guys before the good guys settle in.

 

[Muraad]

#reefsquad Looking for some advice on how to combat this please. Basically increase nitrates and phosphates. Can I reduce light with corals in the tank?

 

[whalewhalewhale]

address the brown bubble strands. Is it cyano or dino’s?

 

[Fish Fan]

To me, this tank is quite new for Hammers. In my experience, they need a little more stability, and if your nitrate and phosphate are bottoming out, that's a sign of instability.

To increase nitrate and phosphate, I think you should first try feeding more, and/or removing some or all mechanical filtration.

You may find that your rockwork is binding phosphate, and because of that, you may have to dose phosphate until the rock work stops 'absorbing' it.

If feeding more and reducing mechanical filtration doesn't help your nitrate, you can dose nitrate directly, or I believe better is to dose ammonia.

I hope this helps!

 

[Muraad]

address the brown bubble strands. Is it cyano or dino’s?

I'm not sure what it is, no microscope right now. It looks like dyno though, more brown and stringy. There isn't too much on the sand bed yet. I will try to get a microscope in the coming days if possible.

To me, this tank is quite new for Hammers. In my experience, they need a little more stability, and if your nitrate and phosphate are bottoming out, that's a sign of instability.

To increase nitrate and phosphate, I think you should first try feeding more, and/or removing some or all mechanical filtration.

You may find that your rockwork is binding phosphate, and because of that, you may have to dose phosphate until the rock work stops 'absorbing' it.

If feeding more and reducing mechanical filtration doesn't help your nitrate, you can dose nitrate directly, or I believe better is to dose ammonia.

I hope this helps!

I just removed all mechanical filter. Every time I dose around 1.5 ml of neophos, my phosphate goes from 0 to 0.1 then back down to 0 after a few days, so it does seem like the rock is absorbing all of it.

For Nitrates, I'm already dosing ammonium bicarbonate, keeping it around 5-7 ppm. But I should be increasing to 10 right?

Since I have hammers, is reducing the lights even possible for me?

 

[Fish Fan]

For a variety or reasons, I have lowered my lighting for 3 or 5 days or so. This is fine, it's much akin to a stormy week on a real reef where the sunlight would be greatly reduced, and shouldn't hurt your corals.

 

[slingfox]

Why don’t you just move the coral back to your other tank as you wait for the new tank to mature a bit?

 

[whalewhalewhale]

I'm not sure what it is, no microscope right now. It looks like dyno though, more brown and stringy. There isn't too much on the sand bed yet. I will try to get a microscope in the coming days if possible.

Yeah you will want to address that asap before it takes over. I've had a long battle in the past with ostreopsis and had to install UV to eliminate it.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

"only the green coral is receding so far".... IMO no need to do anything at all. Hammer coral is not a beginner level coral and should not have been placed in a one month old tank. It doesn't look that bad actually, only the underside is suffering, and if the other corals are doing well, then maybe its just a positioning issue. If only one coral is slightly receding, then why make changes to the entire tank?

It looks like diatoms to me, and soon the tank will turn green. Personally I would not be raising nutrients or doing anything at all, just leave the tank alone, let it mature, just keep up with weekly water change. Its just my 2 cents. Good luck

 

[Rocks reef]

"only the green coral is receding so far".... IMO no need to do anything at all. Hammer coral is not a beginner level coral and should not have been placed in a one month old tank. It doesn't look that bad actually, only the underside is suffering, and if the other corals are doing well, then maybe its just a positioning issue. If only one coral is slightly receding, then why make changes to the entire tank?

It looks like diatoms to me, and soon the tank will turn green. Personally I would not be raising nutrients or doing anything at all, just leave the tank alone, let it mature, just keep up with weekly water change. Its just my 2 cents. Good luck

^This

 

[hatfielj]

Starting with dry rock and sand means it's going to take 6 months to a year before the tank is at all stable and ready for corals. You might be able to keep a few alive at this stage, but they will struggle and won't thrive long term.
My advice is to wait until you see strong coralline algae growth and some sponge growth. Those are clear signs that your tank has finally matured enough for corals to thrive.

Too often in this hobby people think that once their tank has "cycled" they are good to go...but that initial "cycle" that everyone talks about is simply the most basic first step towards a mature tank. A cycled aquarium is nothing more than a tank that can process a little bit of ammonia. It is not a biologically diverse system capable of supporting corals yet.

The good news is that you don't need to do anything else at this point but wait it out. Maybe add a couple of small pieces of actual ocean live rock to your sump or display in order to give you a biodiversity boost, but other than that, you just have to be patient.

 

[Muraad]

Thank you all! My apologies, I did not mean to rush this process. I genuinely thought after it was cycled it would be okay, my fault. I'm going to take it a lot slower now and wait until the tank matures up more.

Why don’t you just move the coral back to your other tank as you wait for the new tank to mature a bit?

Yup I did that yesterday. I thought I could keep them in while maintaining the issue but I dont want to risk it.

 

[hatfielj]

Thank you all! My apologies, I did not mean to rush this process. I genuinely thought after it was cycled it would be okay, my fault. I'm going to take it a lot slower now and wait until the tank matures up more.

Yup I did that yesterday. I thought I could keep them in while maintaining the issue but I dont want to risk it.

Yeah man, believe me, everybody rushes the process when they are first starting out, haha. You're just excited and I can't blame you. I was SO impatient when I got into this hobby back in 2006. It's taken me years to gain a little bit of self discipline when starting a new tank. Basically after dealing with so many problems I caused by rushing I had to learn the hard way, lol

 

[Muraad]

Yeah man, believe me, everybody rushes the process when they are first starting out, haha. You're just excited and I can't blame you. I was SO impatient when I got into this hobby back in 2006. It's taken me years to gain a little bit of self discipline when starting a new tank. Basically after dealing with so many problems I caused by rushing I had to learn the hard way, lol

Thank you for the advice brother. Im going to find some live rock to put into my sump to help boost the process.

 

[hatfielj]

Thank you for the advice brother. Im going to find some live rock to put into my sump to help boost the process.

Talk to Eric @TankStop Asst.