Something's wrong

[Floundering_Around]

We've got some trouble in paradise.

So as some background, my most recent water change was this Saturday, three days ago. Ca was at 440 and all other parameters were fine (don't have my own test kit so I got my water tested at the pet store when I went to get more saltwater. Waiting for a good one to go on sale).

Before doing the water change, all of my new zoas were acting up (Radioactive dragon eye, eagle eye, and utter chaos). They were all closed up or half closed, not fully opened and pretty. At this point, all of them have been in my tank for about a month; the UC was always open and it was the RDEs and the EEs that were giving me problems. On the advice of another zoa keeper, those two got a peroxide dip.
Nothing had happened in the tank other than a hermit crab knocking my Fat Head Den on top of my UC; even then it was still open though.

Following the peroxide dip, my UC polyp starts acting up, Mind you, it was fine before and didn't receive a dip.

Now after the water change on Saturday, UC still has not opened up and the polyp looks likes it regressing? At the same time, my Monti cap (which was also fine on Saturday during the water change) has started bleaching?! The Monti has also been in my tank for a month and was totally fine. Its mounted on a magnet so I have it at the surface of the water where the par is the highest. It's directly across from my wavemaker so it's getting good flow. And, I feed the tank a mix of benepets and Reef Chili so there is food in there small enough for it to eat.

I've been checking for flatworms on both but I see none or any eggs. Any clue as to what's going on? I don't want to lose either of these corals!

[Frag Factory]

Hows your temperature? It is summer, has the tank got adequate cooling?

[Floundering_Around]

House's temp stays at 72F/22C and the tank's temp is 74F/23C. I have a habit of turning off the AC when I have the door to the balcony open so I'm not trying to cool down outside too so maybe there was a temp spike in the tank? But at the same time, those are the only two corals affected.

[Frag Factory]

Those could just be the most sensitive specimens.

 

I don't think it will be parasites or disease when two different species are effected, I would say its something environmental. 

[Floundering_Around]

What other factors do you think could affect them? My salinity is kept at 1.025 and I have Kent's nano two part that I can dose to raise the Ca since it's a bit low at 440

[specore]

48 minutes ago, Floundering_Around said:

House's temp stays at 72F/22C and the tank's temp is 74F/23C. I have a habit of turning off the AC when I have the door to the balcony open so I'm not trying to cool down outside too so maybe there was a temp spike in the tank? But at the same time, those are the only two corals affected.

74 is a little on the cool side.  I have always kept mine 78-79

[banasophia]

I would say get a test kit and check the rest of your parameters because maybe they are off... looks like a lot of algae in your first pic so maybe your nitrates or phosphates are elevated making your corals unhappy?

[Floundering_Around]

Unfortunately battling a mix of hair algae, bubble algae, and bryopsis (kmn ?) . Running chemipure blue to keep levels down. Got more salt water from the LFS and am planning on doing smaller, more frequent water changes to keep the tank happy. Also running chaeto in the back chamber

[Frag Factory]

Hey OP,

 

Why are you linking to amazon with your affiliate tag bro?

 

1 hour ago, Floundering_Around said:

We've got some trouble in paradise.

So as some background, my most recent water change was this Saturday, three days ago. Ca was at 440 and all other parameters were fine (don't have my own test kit so I got my water tested at the pet store when I went to get more saltwater. Waiting for a good one to go on sale).

Before doing the water change, all of my new zoas were acting up (Radioactive dragon eye, eagle eye, and utter chaos). They were all closed up or half closed, not fully opened and pretty. At this point, all of them have been in my tank for about a month; the UC was always open and it was the RDEs and the EEs that were giving me problems. On the advice of another zoa keeper, those two got a peroxide dip.
Nothing had happened in the tank other than a hermit crab knocking my Fat Head Den on top of my UC; even then it was still open though.

Following the peroxide dip, my UC polyp starts acting up, Mind you, it was fine before and didn't receive a dip.

Now after the water change on Saturday, UC still has not opened up and the polyp looks likes it regressing? At the same time, my Monti cap (which was also fine on Saturday during the water change) has started bleaching?! The Monti has also been in my tank for a month and was totally fine. Its mounted on a magnet so I have it at the surface of the water where the par is the highest. It's directly across from my wavemaker so it's getting good flow. And, I feed the tank a mix of benepets and Reef Chili so there is food in there small enough for it to eat.

I've been checking for flatworms on both but I see none or any eggs. Any clue as to what's going on? I don't want to lose either of these corals!

 

[Floundering_Around]

1 minute ago, Frag Factory said:

Hey OP,

 

Why are you linking to amazon with your affiliate tag bro?

 

 

I didn't make any hyperlinks but I originally posted this on fishlore and I guess the site automatically links things based on the word ?‍♀️

[Aurortpa]

2 hours ago, Floundering_Around said:

What other factors do you think could affect them? My salinity is kept at 1.025 and I have Kent's nano two part that I can dose to raise the Ca since it's a bit low at 440

440 Ca is within upper ideal range.  What is your dkh?  Does your mixed SW match your display’s?  How do you actually put water back into tank?  I suspect it could be water change related, as you mentioned it seems to happen after a water change. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Floundering_Around]

I don't know, I should have had them test dkh. I buy premixed salt water but the salinity is at 1.020 so I have to add salt to raise it to 1.025  (I'm using is reef crystals). When adding water back into the tank, I pour it through the back chambers so it goes through my filtration and is added to the display with the little slit in the second chamber. No water is directly poured onto the corals or anything. Water's temp is a bit cooler than the DT (about one degree) but when checking the thermometer, there's no drastic temp change.

[Aurortpa]

@Floundering_Around, k well that sounds about right.  I suggest you mix the salt at least a day or so before putting into tank.

 

Without other tests, hard to pinpoint but if an sps starts to bleach significantly in my tank and my params seem in order, then that’s an automatic light adjustment for it. 

[Floundering_Around]

3 minutes ago, Aurortpa said:

@Floundering_Around, k well that sounds about right.  I suggest you mix the salt at least a day or so before putting into tank.

 

Without other tests, hard to pinpoint but if an sps starts to bleach significantly in my tank and my params seem in order, then that’s an automatic light adjustment for it. 

Would you suggest moving my monti closer or further away from the light? It's about an inch and a half away from the surface right now. It's not completely white, just pale so I don't think the flesh has stripped away

 

[Aurortpa]

I'd move it away.  I had to move my icefire echinata down the other day and it already has started to color back up.  Some corals are just more sensitive and just need time to adjust.  Altho, it is suspicious it just happened all of a sudden.  Just get it in a spot you can be happy with for a while until it recovers, then you can try to move it again if you even need to much later down the road...be mindful, moving it too often, like every week, could actually just stress it out further so just get it to a spot and watch it.  I know caps love flow.  

[Floundering_Around]

Got it. I'll move it down to about half way and see how it does. I just cranked up my aqamai to 100L rather than 50L so that should help with water movement

[banasophia]

6 hours ago, Floundering_Around said:

Unfortunately battling a mix of hair algae, bubble algae, and bryopsis (kmn ?) . Running chemipure blue to keep levels down. Got more salt water from the LFS and am planning on doing smaller, more frequent water changes to keep the tank happy. Also running chaeto in the back chamber

I switched from Chemipure Elite and Purigen to Chemipure Blue and started to get algae problems... switching back. 

 

Seems really weird that your LFS would be mixing to 1.020 are you sure about that?

[1891Bro]

3 hours ago, banasophia said:

I switched from Chemipure Elite and Purigen to Chemipure Blue and started to get algae problems... switching back. 

 

Seems really weird that your LFS would be mixing to 1.020 are you sure about that?

If you but premixed from the lfs (almost any of them) it will be less salty. Easier way to make a few extra bucks. 

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, 1891Bro said:

If you but premixed from the lfs (almost any of them) it will be less salty. Easier way to make a few extra bucks. 

Oh wow the three LFSs I’ve bought salt water from use Reef Crystals mixed to 1.025.

[Floundering_Around]

6 hours ago, banasophia said:

I switched from Chemipure Elite and Purigen to Chemipure Blue and started to get algae problems... switching back. 

 

Seems really weird that your LFS would be mixing to 1.020 are you sure about that?

Yup, they run all their tanks at 1.020 too so it's a pain to acclimate when I buy from them cause the difference is so large

[mcarroll]

 it sounds like you have a few things going on at once.

 

You may be new. The tank may be new. And you have some of the more finicky curls around. That's enough !! without going into all the particulars. 🙂

 

I see that you had your water tested but I don't see any of the test results posted. If you could go back and get your water retested again for current results that would be good –  make sure you get nitrates, phosphates, calcium and alkalinity all checked. 

 

If you do not have a Luxmeter or a PAR meter to check your light intensity levels, get one now. You can start with a free app but actual handheld meters only cost $10 and up and are better.

 

I did not see an indication that you are handling your algae growth. Make sure you are hand pulling it as much as possible until you can get your CUC beefed up to handle it.  Don't let it go – you are the #1 member of the CUC. 🙂

 

Most advice on troubleshooting algae is wrong, especially advise the tells you to lower nutrients to zero. That's a good way to put a whammy on your corals and the rest of the tank as well as the algae. Unfortunately most algae have adequate strategies for dealing with this and grow just fine, letting everything else take the hit. 

[Floundering_Around]

The tank is pushing nine months old (started last November). It is my first SW but I've been keeping FW for over a decade.

 

I won't be able to go back to the pet store until this weekend to get results. I had nitrate, phosphate, ph, and Ca all checked. The guy who did it told me Ca was 440 and everything else was fine (he actually has a SW tank so it wasn't the run of the mill employee saying "oh yeah, this looks fine")

 

I'll look into getting a PAR meter in the near future. Will definitely help when I place corals.

 

Algae us being fought, however, it is a mix of GHA, bubble, and bropsis. Pulling only make the bryopsis and bubble algae worse cause it breaks off tiny pieces that regrow and releases spores respectively. I don't want to take the chance of getting an emerald crab for the bubble algae and I don't have the space for a tang (prestige reef on youtube had luck with his powder blue and other tangs eating bubble algae). 

The tank is only 13.5 gallons so I can't beef up my CUC too much; if they eventually run out of algae they might 1) go after my corals 2) go after each other (hermits) or 3) die and pollute my water. I'm playing with the idea of getting a tail spot blenny as the third fish for the system to take care of the algae for me. Once I get back to school I might use magnesium to treat the byopsis.

Plus, on the last water change I did (Saturday), I pulled out half of the rock and ripped off every piece of algae I could. Since then, there's bubble algae in places it wasn't before cause a small piece or a spore started a new patch else where.

 

I feed the tank pretty heavily ( a mix of benepets and reef chili) for my sps, goniopora, and gorgonian. I have no skimmer on the tank either

[markalot]

Alk is the most important parameter and I don't see it mentioned.  

 

Get your own test kits, it's a must.  Calcium is good to check monthly but get that KH checked and make sure it's in a good range and staying there.

[Floundering_Around]

Just pulled the UC from the tank to give it a peroxide dip cause it looked like there was some flesh regression on the main polyp. When I was dipping it, I touched the polyp and it spat out some brown stuff *yuck*. Both the main polyp and one of the babies did this; the other baby didn't spit anything out but it looks pretty sad. Moved the UC towards more light and flow (about half way up my tank).

 

Monti cap looks the same as yesterday. Moved it down to about mid way on the advice of another aquarist

[Floundering_Around]

Would fairly larger amphipods be a candidate to the issue with my UC? I just saw at least three that are living under my RFAs. I wondered why they would curl up like something had touched them even though there wasn't anything there. Guess I know why now