unhappy corals...

[disaster999]

i have my tank set up for around 3 months now. brown algae bloom is over and i THINK im getting some red slim algae, but it doesnt really look like it. some of my sand is covered in a red coating, but its not slimmy, its kind of looks like coralline algae wrapping each individual sand particals. some of the rocks and back wall have this red slim looking algae but my 2 snails eat them.

 

my corals arent really looking too happy. my frogspawn lost a head a while ago (due to me moving it around too much i guess) now it looks like its about to lose another when i havent touched it for 3 weeks. only around 50% of my zoas are opened and of the 50% opened, 50% of them only open half way. the sun coral is doing really well, it opens up fully at night. fish is doing fine, swimming happily and eating a lot. i kind of feed on the heavy side...once a day because i feed the sun coral everyday (maybe i should back off on the feeding).

 

ammonia, nitrite=0

nitrate -5-10ppm

calcium - 400ppm

alk 8dkh

mag~1450-1500ppm (kinda on the high side)

 

not dosing anything...havent checked PH, salifert test for calcium alk and mag, so should be pretty accruate. doing water change bi weekly.

[Sctn4Elk]

Nitrates are too high...you need to be shooting for 0...try a large water change and then 20% weekly. Euphyllia are excellent indicators of water quality, if they are unhappy, water conditions are not good. Try only feeding every 3 days, sounds like you are feeding too much. Also try getting some Nass snails as they will clean up the leftovers.

[bradeastondotcom]

Based on your readings being near perfect,

except for Nitrates.

I would say you might be over feeding the corals, especially if your getting some heavier algae growth with your Nitrates levels being that high.

 

I had a problem a few months ago, i was getting some algae growth over the corals from over feeding, preventing them from opening up.

I was feeding them bi weekly with some live phyto, bi weekly with zoomax, and once a week with purple up; which was way too much for what i had in the tank.

 

I just did some heavier water changes and cut the feeding in half.

I also fanned off and picked off any algae I could grab.

 

Im not saying that you should cut your feeding in half, but that could also cause your Nitrate levels to be higher too.

I bet your over feeding could be the source of your problem.

[disaster999]

im not really having an algae problem, just having the slightest amount of what i believe to be red slim, but it doesnt resemble it.

 

ill cut down the feeding and see what happens

[bradeastondotcom]

hmmmm.

 

not sure what your load is in the tank with corals, but my experience with the nano tanks are, they are easier to over feed than my bigger tanks are. just a thought.

 

Its really the only thing that stands out to me besides the Nitrates. Which could also be from over feeding too.

hope it helps out.

[The Propagator]

I would bring your magnesium down to 1250-1300 max.

Your nitrates aren't really in the red at 5-10. I wouldn't expect fall out from those numbers.

They are in the caution zone .. but no where near dangerous. Actually certain cheaper test kits will always read at least 5 nitrate even if its -0-.

 

You definitely need to check your PH, and check for phostphates though to rule them out.

What salt are you using? are you using RO/DI water ? if so from your own unit or store bought ?

Got a TDS meter ?

[disaster999]

i gotta test a fresh batch of freshly mixed salt water and see if the Mg is that high to begin with. are there any thing i can do besides changing salt to lower the Mg levels?

 

im guessing phosphate is down to a bare minimum since there is no outbreak of algae with 10 hours of photo period, but ill test is just in case (yeah, another reason so buy salifert test kits =P)

 

generally not accepted here, but i use tap water. looking into buying a RO/DI unit, hopefully i can get something cheaper here as i like to venture into SPS. TDS meter shows no more than 100ppm on tap

[The Propagator]

More then 10 is to much young grass hopper

For the simple reason that you don't know what form of TDS (total dissolved solids) are registering to make up that 100. It could be anything....

[bdare]

I would bring your magnesium down to 1250 max.

High magnesium levels will inhibit the ability of your coral to absorb and use calcium.

It will effect every thing from gorgonians to sps. even zoanthids utilize calcium.

WTF??? Please explain this one. I think I'm bout to bust a vein.

[The Propagator]

"Whenever calcium carbonate begins to precipitate, magnesium binds to the growing surface of the calcium carbonate crystals. The magnesium effectively clogs the crystals' surface so that they no longer look like calcium carbonate, making them unable to attract more calcium and carbonate"

RHF

 

late night read.....= missunderstanding what I was reading.....

 

BITE ME !!

[bdare]

"Whenever calcium carbonate begins to precipitate, magnesium binds to the growing surface of the calcium carbonate crystals. The magnesium effectively clogs the crystals' surface so that they no longer look like calcium carbonate, making them unable to attract more calcium and carbonate"

RHF

 

late night read.....= missunderstanding what I was reading.....

 

BITE ME !!

 

LOL. Where?

[The Propagator]

WHAT !!!

 

Thats it ... "I wash my hands of this weirdness !"

 

[disaster999]

More then 10 is to much young grass hopper

For the simple reason that you don't know what form of TDS (total dissolved solids) are registering to make up that 100. It could be anything....

 

true, thats why the switch to ro/di water is in the near future...*next pay check*

 

tested the ph with api test and from what i can see its purple...the color card provided is faded and not sure how accurate the color is anymore

 

heres the purple coloring on the sand

[supraeli]

looks like cyano. what kind of flow, lighting, and water change regimen are you using? im pretty sure your tap water is introducing some sort of dissolved organics into the system. there are so many more chemicals in tap water than you can test for, you'll want that RO machine ASAP - in fact, even after you get the RO water in there, its going to take a while to get rid of whatever chemicals you introduced with tap water because it will be bound in various forms in your tank.

[disaster999]

flow i would say around 450-500gph in a 12 gal tank (quiet one 3000, 780gph, T off to chiller which returns back in to sump). 4x 24w t5ho, change water every 2 weeks

[The Propagator]

Red slime.

Thank your tap water

[vangvace]

what is your SG reading? I was keeping my tank a little low and it mad my corals very pisy

[disaster999]

i keep it at around 1.025

 

should i add some of those red slime remover in my tank to rid the cyano? from what i understand, enough flow should help minimize cyano outbreaks, but i do believe i have enough flow in my tank

[dilbert]

hmmmm.

 

not sure what your load is in the tank with corals, but my experience with the nano tanks are, they are easier to over feed than my bigger tanks are. just a thought.

 

Its really the only thing that stands out to me besides the Nitrates. Which could also be from over feeding too.

hope it helps out.

 

I strongly agree with the above posting.

 

I would check if there is some bacteria film or slime on those corals that are unhappy. That is the first stage. Then attaches red slime on those films.

That way other algae also attach to the bacteria film. The same film can also cover other algae, often bubble and macro algae.

 

This bacteria film is almost invisible, at least if you don't search for.

 

Amphi- and copepods would eat from that bacteria film but if you have critters in the tank that prey on them, that's bad luck.

 

One first measure is to remove the bacteria film by hand with Q-tips buds or something similar but with many corals that may be impossible. For me, it worked with Zoas but it's very tedious.

 

The real cure is lower stocking or good skimming or more than weekly water changes.

 

In my experience, the cause is surely too much organic compounds in the water but not necessarily very low phosphates or nitrates as I had one time 0.15 ppm phosphates and 5 ppm nitrates over months in a pico and it was always almost algae free. At this time, I didn't spot any snail in that pico and there was only one lonely hermit but the tank had a large pods population.

(Now, the same tank has zero phosphates and nitrates and looks the same as before.)

[dilbert]

i keep it at around 1.025

 

should i add some of those red slime remover in my tank to rid the cyano? from what i understand, enough flow should help minimize cyano outbreaks, but i do believe i have enough flow in my tank

 

Different kinds of different cures worked for different people but AFAIK there is no general solution. Red slime can also grow within high flow.

 

The antibiotics work well as far as I read other postings but it may kill other beneficial bacteria, too, and it surely doesn't cure the causes, so you will need to use it every few months again.

[disaster999]

just placed an order for a RO/DI unit. picking it up saturday.definitely would be easier to pin point/eliminate problems

[The Propagator]

Good for you !

It will help either way in the long run. I don't think you will be disappointed at all.

[disaster999]

woot woot...lookie what i got

 

 

water output is kinda of on the low side tho...taking forever to fill up a 5gal bucket for a system rated at 100gph

 

tap water

 

just started the system up

 

couple mins later

 

and that seems to be as low as it gets....probably the cheap freebie TDS meter from a while back isnt as accurate.

 

question tho, is it a good idea to be drinking RO/DI water? ive seen machines that have a separate outlet for the RO and DI. and usually RO is drinking, and DI is for fish.

[The Propagator]

NO you are correct. Don't drink the DI water. If you want to drink the water then install a T with valve ( before the T in line) just before the DI chamber and a valve on the out put for the OR water tap you just made . Then when you want to fill up a jug of RO water that HAS NOT been deionized simply switch the valve off before the DI and turn the one on on the end of the T and stick it in the jug.

Make sense ?

[disaster999]

thanks prop...why isnt it a good idea to drink DI water?

 

heres a pictures of the machine close up...do i tee off where the tube goes to the DI canister?