Corals perishing

[dnwolf]

Hi ,

Some of you may have known that my bubble tip anemone died a few weeks ago , luckily i did manage to remove it in time .

I am running two packets of fresh activated carbon for a week and did some water changes , not ro / di water but tap water treated with

Seachem Prime . Here's my tank's specs :

Ammonia : 0

Nitrite:0

Nitrate:0

Phosphates : Unknown ( Will get the API test kit soon )

Copper: 0 ppm

Salinity: 1.023 ( Im using a 15 dollar hydrometer not a high tech refractometre so this might be off )

Calcium : 550 ( Why is this so high ? I haven't been dosing any chemicals except prime , and this is only for water changes , the salt im using is Dymax improved formula reef salt )

Alkalinity : 10 dKH

Temperature : 30 degrees Celsius ( Im already using a HC 150A chiller which is connected to a Eheim 1000 compact and set to 26 degrees , however it was only added today , a few hours ago so it has yet to go down to that temperature )

Light period and intensity: 4 watt per gallon ( stock lighting for the rsm 130 )

Initially the lighting period was from 10am - 11pm at night , today i reduced it to 1pm-9.30pm to combat the algae issues .

Water flow : Only than the stock circulation pump , which is 550l per hour and a cheap wave maker ( I directed the circulation pumps towards the water surface to aggitate the water and i directed the cheap wave maker towards the drain to promote drainage of materials . Should i shift them towards the live rocks instead ? )

All the water parameter results are obtained via API test kits . I'm a little skeptical about it as there's significant algae growth . However this might be due to the phosphates . But my tank is only roughly a month old so 0 nitrates is nearly impossible as I do have 1 yellow striped blenny and 1 ocellaris clown . Im planning to get a lawn mower blenny to control those pesky algae that growth so fast .

I do have lots of live rocks but the corraline seems to be bleaching . Some of the algae have spreaded to them and some have taken over the sand bed .

The tank inhibitants i currently have :

3 blue legged hermit

2 sand sifting star fish ( Im removing this from the tank as i heard many horror stories about them )

1 Clown

1 Yellow striped blenny

3 rocks of mushrooms ( One of the rocks seems to be fine , the other two look like they are about to die any moment)

One thing i have noticed is that there are significantly less bristle worms , or any at all . I cant seem to find a single bristleworm even at night . Just last week a two snails died in my tank and some of its flesh was blown away by the water current and trapped beneath the live rocks . I couldn't remove it as there was lots of rock structures there , so i just observed my tank's parameters and waited for the worms to feed on it at night . However ( I've been monitoring it for several nights now ) there was no worms to be seen anywhere . One thing however is that the meat has reduced significantly over the days , maybe this was due to the worms? Im not really sure .

Anyways , one of my green mushroom coral is bleaching , wait not only my mushrooms , the corraline algae is as well . When the mushroom first arrived it was a greenish in color , now it seems to lost it and became whitish green instead. The other one has been closing up since the day it arrived till now which is around a week . ( But i think this was due to the presence of an unidentified anemone which i removed yesterday) The last rock of mushrooms seems to be doing ok , and even splitting , however they do curl up occasionally .

Also , i have noticed another thing , the hitchhiker xenia was no where to be seen , and some mushrooms have gone missing , as well as a significant increase in algae growth ( The red hair like one )

This picture was taken weeks ago , now it has taken over half of the tank . ( someone help me identify this too , it seems to be able to peel off nicely , and when peeled off, it reveals green hair like algae.

One last thing i have notice is that the hitchhiker tubeworms are still in my tank , despite the mass extinction of my corraline and corals , and the fishes are too as well .

So what might the cause for this ? Is it the detritus that has settled down on the corals and live rock ? ( Because there's loads of them whenever i use my hands to make a wave )

Or is there a chemical / metal in my tank that is causing this ? There's no copper in my water for sure .

Or might this be due to the salinity of my water? I've read other forums online and some of them said that 1.026 is most ideal for coral growth .. Im trying to increase the salinity with every water change i do but it doesn't rise very much .

And one more thing , im planning to dose vodka / vinegar as i plan to keep mainly LPS corals in the near future , when my corals stop dying .

Would that be advisable? How much should i dose for opitmum effects? I heard they bring down algae growth with them as well , myth of fact?

Thanks ! I long for your speedy reply

[dnwolf]

As of today , the water temperature is cooled to 26.1 degrees but the corals still seem dull and lifeless

Is it because of the salinity problem or is it because of the detritus problem .

Today im going to get a few bags of ro/di salt water mix from my lfs , to do a 30% water change , maybe this can dilute whatever toxins there are in the tank ( there shouldn't be as I am running lots of carbon ) . Also I will add in a few other chemical medias , mainly purigen and seachem phosguard .

I would also be getting a turkey baster from the shop to blow off the detrititus that has settled on the corals .

[Land2013]

There might have another ammonia spike with the dead LS. Remove all LS and off your light and let the tank cycle again. Dose some bacteria and frequent change water. Chiller would help in this case and you might want to off that too.

[dnwolf]

LS = life stock ?

So far there was one ammonia spike .

It went from 0 to 0.2 after the snail died .

However it was always at 0 since then .

[Land2013]

Coralline algae is pretty hardy and not so easy bleach. You tank parameter still not optimum. Maybe you can use salifest no3 to test again. Maintain sg 1.025 max. Your coral condition will better upon your water quality improve.

[dnwolf]

Does phosphates cause it to bleach ? And how much does salifest test kits cost?

[brojj]

U re using too much carbon. U say u had already run your carbons for a week, that is more than enough to remove any toxic cause by the death of your bubble tip anemone. Reduce or remove them immediately now. For normal, one full tablespoon for every 50USgallon is enough to remove any yellowing. I have made the same mistake before & i did lose a few corals.

[brojj]

After removal, some more corals will perish because the water in your tank has been strip clean. Remember that photosynthesis of plants required some NO3 & PO4. Corals need some traces of them too. This is basic science that we have learn in school. Your corals are currently 'eating themselves' due to not enough nutrients in thw water for them to photosynthesis to produce enough food, resulting in bleaching. Check & confirm your ammonia, NO3, if this 2 are ok, highly possible as what i had mentioned. 2 packs of carbon is too much.

[brojj]

And u mentioned your tank is a month old? Too early to add in corals. I would advise u for wait for at least another 5 mths to start adding in corals. Meanwhile, u can get rowa, put them in a FR & use them to pull down your PO4. Get a good PO4 test kit & test weekly, replacing the rowa whenever the PO4 started to increase. U will need to test often & replace rowa quite often at this stage. It will become less frequent once under control. Also those algae, try to remove them manually, taking care not to leave any strands inside. I would recommend polylab reef resh to control your NO3 & PO4. I have seem my blue digi revive after using this. No joke. A good product for corals & SPS. Btw, if u want to keep SPS, wait for after a year when your tank is stable & parameters under control. Your high Ca is maybe cause by the salt mix & u don't have any corals that consume high amt of Ca yet, example, clams, LPS & SPS corals. I am not so worry about 550ppm yet. U can try to switch to normal salt if u re not keeping too much corals yet & the Ca will come down. Salinity of 1.023 to 1.026 should be ok although u have read success with 1.026. Top up with salt water to replace those evaporated water & measure the salinity everytime u do this till u get 1.026 from the whole tank, then, u can top up evaporated water with DI water when u reach the target or during water change, mix till u get a slightly high salinity, 1.03. Then measure the whole tank after adding in. The salinity should increase after a few cycle of water changes. Remember, go slow with this either 2 ways.

[dnwolf]

Ok noted . I think i read the results wrongly , the colors were extremely similar ... I think my nitrate is around 0-10ppm ( it looks so similar)

One more thing , the calcium test results seems to be way too off ... It tooked 29 drops to turn the solution to blue . This is very fishy as i do not dose any other calcium related products since i started the tank other than dymax improved formula reef salt . Also , i did the test many many many times and it still took around 29 drops to turn the solution to blue. On the chart , the maximum number of drops indicated was 26 . And 26 was already 550 ppm for calcium . Despite what the test results are saying , im not getting any calcium deposits or snow storms , so maybe i've got a bad batch?

[dnwolf]

The ammonia and nitrites are definitely zero ( this two are easy to tell apart )

[dnwolf]

Im guessing that my phosphates are extremely high as well. This is because there's diatoms and red hair algae all over my tank .

One rock of mushrooms has completely disappeared ever since yesterday . One rock seems to be thriving after the temperature change and the last rock seems to be bleaching .

The corraline is also bleaching despite the high calcium and good alkalinity present in the water .

Later tonight i will remove one bag of carbon and leave the other there . I am planning to run some Seachem phosguard and purigen , would that be an issue ? ( Im planning to keep a lps dominated tank , mainly the euphillyllia species )

One last thing that i forgot to mention was that i left a bag of ceramic rings in the filtration compartment for a really long time , ever since i started the tank . So that might be an issue as to why theres algae growth .

Oh and parasites , yes parasites , i read about them online and some of them could cause the bleaching and shrivelling of corals . I do not have a QT tank so the live rock i purchase is dumped into my display tank immediately . I have noticed an empty shell of a crab around 2 weeks ago ( molt ) but have not seen the crab in action . Im thinking that it might be a bad hitchhicker thats disturbing the shrooms .

[dnwolf]

Seachem phosguard or rowa better?

I don't think i can get a FR any time soon and there wouldn't be a place for it since i do not have a sump and my tank is a RSM 130 30 gallons aquarium

[brojj]

For Ca, i believe the test kit that u re using does not read more than 550ppm. U can get another test kit to confirm if u want. Dymax improved reef salt i do not use but all brands of reef salt will have their Ca & KH on the high side as they are meant for tanks with a significane populations of corals, mainly LPS or SPS tanks. U can use SeaChem phosguard if u re comfortable with it. The differences between the two, phosguard efficiency is very high at the beginning but performance drops very fast. For rowa, it tends to last longer with a high & consistent efficiency. U can pump water from your main tank, go thro' the FR holding the media & return the outlet from the FR to your tank. I guess that is the only way since u do not have a sump. Two Little Fish FR can hang onto the side of the tank. I hope your tank is thick enough. U can try throwing the whole bag of phosguard into the tank but i am not so optimistic about that, the efficiency. I believe u re using a 'hang on' skimmer too. Purigen i do not use them as there is some issue that worried me at that time which i have forgotten. So i can't comment on purigen.

[brojj]

U can try bio homes (for suitable for salt water) in addition to the ceramic rings. To me, ceramic rings are meant mainly for fresh water tanks.

[dnwolf]

K so today i went to Ah beng aquarium at pasir ris .

Got 4 big snails ( i think its called turbo / trochus snail )

1 small skunk cleaner shrimp

and 1 algae blenny .

I took the time to acclimate them personally over the course of about 45 minutes so the they look just fine .

I also got some seachem phosguard and purigen , placed them in a fine mesh bag and dump them into the filtration compartment .

I bought a salifert phosphate test kit and it showed <0.03 phosphates ( thats 3 hours after i added seachem phosguard )

So i think the algae problem is more or less solved .

But im still not really sure why the shrooms look so sick

[brojj]

Lights?

[brojj]

Are u using LEDs?

[dnwolf]

Nope the stock lightings . Its t5 compact ,

4 watts per gallon ,

My photo period is 11am-9.30 pm ( recently decreased it )

[dnwolf]

Anyways can help ID the above algae? Its spreading so fast .

One thing about them is that they sorta peel off but the underneath it is a greenish brown hairy algae like thing .

Also the red hair / strands are can grow extremely long .

[carfyx]

I think its Cyanobacteria ( red hair algae )

[dnwolf]

Any way to remove them ? I also found a hairy crab ( brown with small black dots ) , however there are no black tips at the end of the claws , so maybe its not a gorrila crab . Anyhow , I would like to remove them but there the rock works are already in position so its a little hard to remove that particular rock . Is there a natural predator to such crabs ?

[carfyx]

You can get a bottle ( those chicken essence type ) , tie the bottle's neck with a string to pull it out after you finish catching. Then place a piece of prawn or sotong in it leaning slightly upwards against a rock. Leave it overnight to see result.

[dnwolf]

NOOOOOO omg i saw it ripped my skunk shrimp into 2 =.=

Mannnnn my shrimp always the victim in my tank ...

Im going to kill it tomorrow !@$#%

[carfyx]

Not sure if it is a good suggestion . You might want to restart your tank ? With proper procedure from curing rock to cycling your tank for at least a month ?