Tank is slowly dying... please help

[SteveVT_MSE]

So our 55 g has been up for about 1.5 years and was doing great until a couple of weeks ago. Around August we had a bit of hair algae outbreak and it was a long battle getting it under control. Since the hair algae has been somewhat tamed cyano begin to appear. Regular vacuuming and water changes has kept it under control but still have a few spots in the sand. I ran chemi-clean about 2 weeks ago and knocked it out for about 3 or 4 days but small spots came back. Now in the past week or so all of my coral have closed up and began to die. Fish all are doing fine. Acans started receding into their skeleton, sps stopped extending polyps and some have just RTN'd overnight. Euphylia barely extends. But zoanthids looky happy as ever. Water parameters (below) have been steady and nitrates are a little on the high side but nothing I think would be excessively dangerous. I've been doing large water changes (20-30%) once a week and small water changes (10%) almost every other day. RO water is used as always. The membrane was getting old and was changed about a month ago as TDS was rising. I'm at my wits end and don't know what to do.

A lot of the coral have been moved to another tank but can't put sps in there because of the clown goby that likes to nip at them. Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated.

System is a 55g standard tank with jebao pp15, coral vue skimmer, BRS GFO/carbon dual reactor, and aquatop canister filter.

Temp 79*F
Salinity 1.025
pH 8
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Mag 1350
Cal 460
dKh ~8 (can fluctuate between 8 and 8.7 regularly but has always been like that and never caused problems)

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

RO or Rodi? tds 0?

 

[SteveVT_MSE]

RO or Rodi? tds 0?

RO only. TDS is has been reading between 0 and 3. Have been thinking about ordering a DI add on, but is it necessary with consistently low TDS measurements?

 

[reefes pieces]

are you running carbon? As it seems chemiclean was a known change in your tank routine before things started going south. Also, PO4 hasn't been tested. Do you test this regularly? Hair algae die off can definitely spike po4. finally have you checked for stray voltage?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

RO only. TDS is has been reading between 0 and 3

Dang. My only thought would have been the water company added a treatment. My SOCal home the water goes from a bit of algae smell to Clorox.

My only thought would be run an aggressive carbon and perhaps GFO.

 

[Tahoe61]

What lighting type?
Have you double checked the dkh values against another testing type or kit?
When you vacuum the sand bed is this a deep sand bed?
Basically everything went down hill after treating for Cyano?
What are you dosing?
Regular maintenance on the canister?

 

[NVTE]

So our 55 g has been up for about 1.5 years and was doing great until a couple of weeks ago. Around August we had a bit of hair algae outbreak and it was a long battle getting it under control. Since the hair algae has been somewhat tamed cyano begin to appear. Regular vacuuming and water changes has kept it under control but still have a few spots in the sand. I ran chemi-clean about 2 weeks ago and knocked it out for about 3 or 4 days but small spots came back. Now in the past week or so all of my coral have closed up and began to die. Fish all are doing fine. Acans started receding into their skeleton, sps stopped extending polyps and some have just RTN'd overnight. Euphylia barely extends. But zoanthids looky happy as ever. Water parameters (below) have been steady and nitrates are a little on the high side but nothing I think would be excessively dangerous. I've been doing large water changes (20-30%) once a week and small water changes (10%) almost every other day. RO water is used as always. The membrane was getting old and was changed about a month ago as TDS was rising. I'm at my wits end and don't know what to do.

A lot of the coral have been moved to another tank but can't put sps in there because of the clown goby that likes to nip at them. Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated.

System is a 55g standard tank with jebao pp15, coral vue skimmer, BRS GFO/carbon dual reactor, and aquatop canister filter.

Temp 79*F
Salinity 1.025
pH 8
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Mag 1350
Cal 460
dKh ~8 (can fluctuate between 8 and 8.7 regularly but has always been like that and never caused problems)

what about your PO4?
you said you vacumn the sandbed, could disturb sandbed and shock your system.
your RO water might have some impurity left that contritube to tank algae, and might have some metal that could lead to your corals toxicate.
Did you clean your canister filter too? that can hold unwanted stuffs in one place, not actually removed from your water column.
I would try POLY filter Pad to see if you have any metal.

 

[Paul B]

I would stop changing water, stop vacuuming, stop with the GFO and BRS (whatever that is) , don't use Chemiclean, forget stray voltage, don't do anything except maybe go out to dinner and let that tank settle on it's own.
Eventually, if you don't mess with it, it will get back to normal. It may get scrunger first, don't worry about it. You need not "battle" algae or cyano. There is no battling as those things are normal in such a new tank. Let them cycle out on their own. Give the bacteria a chance to grow. Tanks with the most tweeking have the most problems.
I know you won't believe me and will keep doing all those things, so good luck whatever you decide to do.

 

[SteveVT_MSE]

What lighting type?
Have you double checked the dkh values against another testing type or kit?
When you vacuum the sand bed is this a deep sand bed?
Basically everything went down hill after treating for Cyano?
What are you dosing?
Regular maintenance on the canister?

No on the second test kit for dKh.
Not deep, only about 1-2" in thickest spots.
No dosing, regular water changes. Most coral are rather small colonies to large frags.
Canister is cleaned and filters changed every 2-4 weeks.

Phosphates are present but not high. Hanna checker seems to fluctuate but usually around 7-12 ppb (0.007-0.012 ppm)
Pump for GFO/carbon may have been failing for a while, but not sure and it was just replaced.

 

[SteveVT_MSE]

I would stop changing water, stop vacuuming, stop with the GFO and BRS (whatever that is) , don't use Chemiclean, forget stray voltage, don't do anything except maybe go out to dinner and let that tank settle on it's own.
Eventually, if you don't mess with it, it will get back to normal. It may get scrunger first, don't worry about it. You need not "battle" algae or cyano. There is no battling as those things are normal in such a new tank. Let them cycle out on their own. Give the bacteria a chance to grow. Tanks with the most tweeking have the most problems.
I know you won't believe me and will keep doing all those things, so good luck whatever you decide to do.

I try not to meddle much but its so very hard to sit and watch these animals die as they're covered over with algae or just start dying off. I'm not a fan of using chemiclean but have used it before and had good results.

I'm beginning to think that the pump for my carbon/gfo reactor had not been pumping sufficient water and so the chemiclean may not have been getting probably scrubbed after treatment. That is my only and current theory. But I replaced the pump today and time will tell.

 

[morpheas]

@Paul B I know that by your standards, 1.5 years is a toddler of a tank but in general that's not what you would call a "new" tank right? Regardless though, the point you are making about the bacteria balance is very important. The chemiclean is a gamble in that sense.

So, if I were you, I would pretty much do what @Paul B said, just let it regain it's balance. You might want to get some prodibio or MB7 or something just to help things along (you definitely won't harm anything). Also, measure your PO4 just so you have an idea at what you're looking at and keep monitoring.

As a side note (or more of a Monday morning QB), I have had some cyano/spirulina problems before. I had contemplated chemiclean as well but I was afraid of what you're going through. Instead, I bought some conch's and my sand bed has never been squeakier cleaner before haha

 

[morpheas]

Phosphates are present but not high. Hanna checker seems to fluctuate but usually around 7-12 ppb (0.007-0.012 ppm)

Not very important but the Hanna ULR which measures ppb it measures Phosphorus so to get the traditional phosphate ppm number you multiply by 3.066 and devide by 1000 (which will make your numbers 0.021-0.036 ppm). Still not high but a somewhat important distinction.

 

[gig 'em]

I would definitely add a DI stage to your RO filter. I never had long term luck with SPS with RO only and even had receded SPS polyps and STNing from DI resin getting old and letting things through. I now run a dual DI stage after my RO and aggressively change out my filters every 6 months regardless of TDS readings. Your water supplier could have spiked the water with chloramines that got through your RO carbon blocks. Catalytic carbon is best for removing chloramines if you even want to add a catalytic carbon block.

 

[brandon429]

its not easy to run a large tank correction thread turning around eutrophic tanks by having the algae left in the system to wane on its own. what works in ones system does not translate to multiple tank fixes in the live-time theads, action on the target runs those

although I believe after as many decades in one place a balance can be found, we are just generating huge tank fix threads by manually cleaning the entire system all at once and changing the algae farming habits after, not as the cure approach. we use some cheats when cleaning, which function as algaecidal actions

What does work measurably and for searching in large algae cure threads is forcing the algae out the instant one sees it, regardless of tank age. The amount of turned around tanks from that method is the basis of 60 page threads. do consider before taking the tank down

 

[reefguyty]

Dang. My only thought would have been the water company added a treatment. My SOCal home the water goes from a bit of algae smell to Clorox.

I live in Socal too and the tds of my water can fluctuate so much. After coming out of the RO filter (before going through DI) the tds can range from 10-24. I've checked the filters and lines so many times I'm sure it's the water. I try to fill up on water when the tds is low so it doesn't burn through the DI lol

 

[nervousmonkey]

I agree with others statements to leave it alone for a while. If you keep changing things the livestock never gets a chance to recover fully before the next change occurs. Just take it slow, and think about what is happening in your tank. Let it be for a while, take algae out if it is endangering coral, but otherwise just leave stuff alone. Algae is a sign of a healthy system. Some stuff may die, and that really sucks. Continuing to change things will definitely make stuff die though. My 2 cents.

 

[Paul B]

The tank was running good until you added Chemiclean. I actually like Chemiclean but only for a horrendous cyano outbreak. As for hair algae, it is normal. Hair algae grows on every healthy reef, if it did not what do you think all those tangs, urchins, chitens, algae bleenies, rabbitfish and slugs are eating?
I took this of a remote Hawaiian Island where the tangs disappeared.
Your parameters also don't cause algae even though that is what you read. My nitrates are 140 and my PO4 is way too high according to most people. I keep SPS and LPS and I have "almost" no algae. It only grows where I want it in an algae scrubber which is what you can use if it bothers you. If it "wants" to grow, it will grow no matter what your nitrates are.
Chemiclean, although it is good for cyano disrupts the bacterial balance as you found out and it will take some time for it to correct itself. Tanks normally run in cycles and if you let those cycles complete, the algae or cyano will exhaust whatever it needs and straighten out.
I still feel a 1 1/2 year old tank is very new and not stable yet. Just my opinion of course as I am not the God of fish tanks.
Your TDS reading of 3 is fine. Even 15 would be fine as your tap water is probably 150 or so.

 

[bblumberg]

Since you live in SoCal and many others (on different forum) have been complaining about recent water problems, I would highly advise adding a small amount of sodium thiosulfate to scavenge any stray chloramine. I use crystals, but you can also use various sorts of dechlorinators. I do this routinely when I change water in my FW tanks and also put a few crystals into my RO-DI water barrel before mixing. Otherwise, I agree with other posters to let tank stabilize.

 

[chaoha]

Are you running a skimmer?
I agree with Paul B. Sometimes it will settle and fix its self.

 

[Hbreef]

Phosphates?