Trouble Shooting Recent aqurium struggles

[Reef Cloverson]

I’ve been in the hobby for seven years and have never had an issue with persistent Cyanobacteria, until now. My 60-gallon tank has been running healthy for two years with consistent parameters and no ugly phase. I attribute that to starting with live rock and corals on day one. Growth has always been a bit sporadic, with periods of growth followed by stalling, but the system has been able to color up some of the tougher SPS. Since this event the SPS have stalled.

Out of nowhere, I started losing Microlados and, I believe, Cytharea. They turned black, polyp extension stopped, and they eventually died. Some are still hanging on, but the Cyano showed up at the same time. It seems like a microbial imbalance, but why now? Water changes haven’t helped, and my routine hasn’t changed.

What’s the best plan forward? Chemiclean? I’m curious to hear thoughts or suggestions.

My routine is changing slightly as I used to feed 3 times a day with flake and once with frozen (mysis, LRS). This still isn’t showing progress yet. I don’t want chemiclean to further hurt my system, and this feeling of not being confident if my corals will look good tmrw is not a good one.

Water changes have always been 20% weekly, recently I boosted it up to about 35% for the last 4 weeks. We are on month two of this issue. Thanks guys for reading any feedback is greatly appreciated

 

[Frags 2 Fishes]

How is the phosphate level in your aquarium?

Have you checked your RODI filter for any issues, high TDS?

 

[Reef Cloverson]

How is the phosphate level in your aquarium?

Have you checked your RODI filter for any issues, high TDS?

My TDS is 0, however I have elevated Manganese, zinc, silicon and phosphate on my rodi on ICP analysis. However all of these elements were actually depleted in my main tank. I just added a dual DI resin attachment and did a 30 gallon water change. I did that water change yesterday and the cyano has not grown back as fast but it’s still there. If this corrects the issue I’m thankful, but upset that I had to lose these corals to find out. Other corals are still struggling a bit so I hope I caught the issue in time before it spirals worse.

 

[Reef Cloverson]

How is the phosphate level in your aquarium?

Have you checked your RODI filter for any issues, high TDS?

The parameters that I check without ICP are
Alkalinity: 7.2
Calcium: 460 (a bit elevated)
Nitrate: 10 ppm
Phosphate: 0.03

 

[Lavey29]

Do you have pictures under white light?

 

[Subsea]

@Reef Cloverson
Which tank size is this? If I read your other threads correctly, didn’t you add a 50G display 2 months ago to a 60G display with a 40G sump?

 

[Reef Cloverson]

@Reef Cloverson
Which tank size is this? If I read your other threads correctly, didn’t you add a 50G display 2 months ago to a 60G display with a 40G sump?

Correct the total water volume now is about ~150 gallons. The outbreak of the cyano did begin in the newer tank, but then quickly went away. The cyano however persisted in the older tank, that’s why I did not mention the whole system. The 30 gallon water change that I did with the new DI resin is seeming to be very effective. No cyano showed all day today! Kind of ironic that it’s an issue I’ve been dealing with for ~2 months now and it seems to show resolve shortly after posting about it. I am still worried about the lasting impacts this event may have on the long term health of my corals.

 

[Subsea]

In 25 year mature system, Cynobacteria shows up every now and again. Normally, a gravel vac incorporated with water change is sufficient. Sometimes I use chemi clean. When following directions with due diligence, I have had zero bad experiences with ChemiClean.

PS: your alkalinity is low considering SPS in your original display tank.