K so here's some pics of what some of my remaining corals look like and what it was when it wa healthy. It's rly pale n looks like it's dried out of water for a day. Some others that I didn't take pics of r all brown. Sps doctors please diagnose

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...pspfpstlxp.jpg

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...pszx5s1osl.jpg

Mybe my rowaphos did pull out the nutrient too fast n pales my sps but how does it explain my other sps brown and still so muh algae alive? My green hulk colony is still lush green as ever. This thing is a tank

It looks like lighting may have something to do with your sps browning out. If it was me, I would add a lot more flow and light to your tank. Just my opinion

Wouldn't adding another fixture now cause the algae to go full blown? Maybe I should do another 3-4 day blackout again. My sps are already all messed up anyways. If darkness will stress them out further then what can I do right

Hey there, I have a full bottle of algae fix 473 ml and a little in a small bottle,I give to you for a 20$... I refuse to use them, I don't even know why I got them, I'll stick to water change and manual removal of the algae, and focus on what really is the cause of the algae bloom... But if you want the algae fix let me know, is no use for me....

Well if you do add more light just do it slowly over time. If your water parameters are in check algae shouldn't get any worse, and it might benefit your coral quite a bit. If you do what has been recommended above and add some light I think it would help a lot. Just my 2 cents. Hope you find a solution

Perfect! I'm gonna try another total black out first if it fails I'll grab this from u for sure


Thinking about ordering these lights. What u guys think http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2pcs-New165W-...item2c7ab3f7ab

If you are running out of room open up the rock work. I would maybe trade off some bigger LPS Frogspawn, Hammer corals so you can open for more flow and jack it up. Just a thought its not going to solve your problem with your lights but getting the flow up might help in the battling of etra nutrients and less a build up of detruis in your tank and help of getting into those hard to reach places to siphon out.

I don't think lights is my only problems cuz my tank was beautiful before under the same light.

I had same problem , i did 80% to 100% water change it work for me :D

Ok, no problem, let me know, hopefully you can get the algae under control without using algae fix....
Those lights looks good and a good price, I always look at those on eBay, I wonder if they are any good.....

Yea I'm debating between these and the evergrows but u can't beat around $200 for 2 fixtures

New light would likely make it worse. Just sayin' from recent experience. I got a piece with cyano on it early this year and learned that chemiclean did a good job. It also affected the hair algae. I'm also in the later stages of a Kent Tech M treatment currently which, although slow, is showing good signs of cleaning the whole tank. I'll be doing another chemiclean treatment later today.

As a gardener, know your enemy: http://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide has been helpful in figuring out which ones I have and how to deal with them. In retrospect, I should have been more aggressive early-on with the toothbrush. A cheapo submersible battery toothbrush would have been perfect, if there is such a thing. I had the misfortune of being poisoned by a neighbour with an organophosphate and ended up in VGH almost dead. While I was there, my mother decided she was going to feed the seahorses. With her hand tremors and turkey baster overfeeding combined with the death of a softball sized Sea Hare led to a massive hair algae outbreak. Even though I was sent home unable to walk, I immediately did a 50% WC followed by 25% later in the day and another 50% the next day. The deep sand bed held quite a bit of crud. A few months later, the tank is virtually algae free and the macros are doing a good job of stealing what's left of nutrients from the hair. When I installed my new LED, I turned it too high and lost a Monti. The hair algae has also been quite robust. I've been regularly doing the toothbrush scrub and mag-float scrape with great filtration from a canister with UV.

I hope you do get a handle on it. It took me some time but I have won the battle.

Ok my tank is looking more and more like ****. Things are getting worse even after my large water change. LPS hasn't really opened since. Sps and Monti plates are getting more and more pale. My tri-colored nana colony was almost all dead so I fragged whatever branches were unharmed and it was totally dead as well the next day. Birdnest flesh is peeling off in the middle of this pic. Is the rowaphos reactor the cause cuz it pullin nutrients ou too fast? Should I put it offline or remove half of the media.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...psmgw1axak.jpg

If its getting worse after big water changes, id maybe test the water and salt you are using. Do you use rodi?? Do you check ppm??

I use rodi 0ppm water. Newly made salt water is from IO and tests shows it 10kh, 350cal, 1100 mag

Hmm. A lil low on calcium and magnesium, but nothing that would harm your tank. I don't really think it would be your rowa. The only way to really tell is by testing your phosphates. Did you test before you put your reactor online? If that is one of your concerns I personally don't think it would hurt to turn it off temporally until things start to look better. Or like you said even take half of it out.

Could be too much rowa. Shocking corals possibly. If too high of phosphates and then you change rowa and suck out phosphates too fast. It can lead to a cyano spike for sure. Cyano will thrive and stretch for food. But will die off once phos under control. But it will take over. New light also can cause it

Phos always tested for 0 before and after but I knew it was there. When I added my rowa I did see a a lot of cyano on my sand. When corals started to go south I changed my rows and added more than I did previously. Dam chemicals!

if your test kit was telling you "0" its lying. and if it actually is "0" then thats probably one reason things arnt doing to well. sps needs small amounts of phosphates to grow and do well

I'm guessing the rowa has cleaned your water a lot faster then your coral can handle. Adding more made it worse I almost bleached my entire tank 6 months back with to much rowa to fast I was lucky and caught it before anything was damaged.

Sps need very very little phos. Like minimal. But if phos are 0, still shouldn't affect corals that much
.like 0.01-0.03 are perfect

get a low range phos test kit. Hanna checker

K I just took out more than half of my rowa. Gonna feed fish and corals double to help my sps not die. I think my zoas r done. Too much algae on it n still haven't opened

Despite some seeming evidence, I am skeptical about low P04 linked to STN and RTN of SPS. I think it is more the rapid change in parameters especially KH that SPS don't like.

I say this, because my SPS grew fastest (and I mean really fast) and had the best colour when my P04 and N03 were the lowest. When I say low, my P04 usually measured zero with my Hanna checker (only occasionally up to .02 to .04). Then last spring due to some issues (mistakes) it went up to 0.10 and my N03 to 30 ppm. My SPS then lost some colour and growth drastically slowed. But then in the summer I had another problem where my KH dropped to 5 (doser plugged), and that was a fatal blow to some of my SPS. It started with some STN and burnt tips on my SPS, and turned to full out RTN on some others. This continued for a while even after correcting my KH and bringing my P04 and N03 back down. But the good news now, a few months later, everything is turning good again, with SPS colour and growth returning. Even with some of my badly injured SPS (which I had cut off the dead parts) I have signs of life and new growth again.

So I think the big thing with SPS is they don't like change. And once they become unhappy, it takes them a while to recover. Get your parameters in check, and keep them stable, and with a bit of time, things should recover. But if you keep tinkering and changing things, you may continue to have problems. Anyway, that's my theory,... FWIW.

Ok so here's my corrective actions I'm going to take in the next few months to try n save my tank. Slowly remove more rowa from my reactor till I only have about half an inch. Replace my blue/white led fixture with 2 full spectrum LED fixtures in about 2-3 weeks when my tank heals a bit. About a month or so after that I'll take out half of my live rock in 1 go and put in half of my newly cycled live rock. Wait another 2-3 weeks and replace the rest of the rocks. Do u guys think this will work?

Why remove rowa slowly? Just take half out and call it good.

I did not know Rowa could be that much of a b****, always learning something new....

Well, it's your tank, so do what you like. But raising P04 is certainly not the route I would go.

If low P04 is so bad, then explain to me why ocean water is typically less than .03 ppm and as low as .005. Here is what Randy Holmes-Farley has to say about that. Do you think he is wrong!??
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php#1

I don't think it's wrong but my problem was stripping water of p04 way too fast that I believe crashed my tank

I thought you said your P04 was already zero, so how could you be stripping P04 from that??

Are you sure it was zero? Are you using a Hanna Checker? The color test kits will show zero long before the Hanna. The color kits can show zero while the Hanna will show .1 or higher. Then indeed you have to be careful not to lower too fast. But you still want to lower it, just more slowly.

Bought another sea hare to eat some long hair algae but seems like it's just going for the film algae again! Dammit. Checked my alk and it's at 10.2kh. Never been this high is it because a majority of my sps is dead so it's raising? Is this causing more sps to die cuz it's still happening. Guess I should lower my alk doser

Just wondering what salt do you use?

Been using instant ocean sea salt since day 1. Talked to my LFS and apparently I'm supposed to be using the instant ocean reef crystals instead

+1 to all of this. I have had identical experiences. And once a coral is angry enough you're almost better off tossing it and replacing it for how long it will take to recover

I don't think I have the heart to just throw it away if it's still alive. Too much time, effort and lots of $$ been spent on my so called reef

More and more rtn happening each day. Hammers,frogspawn and such are all still closed. Even my candy came colony looks like it is slowly melting. Is there really nth I can do but watch my whole tank slowly die?

IMO slowly lower your kh to around 8.* and do a massive water change

My 3rd sea hare I added on sat is pretty much dead again. Black splitting and is now half it's size.

Ya I'd stop adding seahares, it's probably making the situation worse

Crash
 

Best thing you can do now is a water change once a week and run carbon until your parameters are at par . Also you must chill out cuz you can't stop nature she will do what she wants . We have all been through tank crashes and if you haven't you are new to reefing or a god .Yes it sucks Jason but nothing you do is going to stop this crash its going to run its course.Just look at it this way you can always rebuild. Good luck things will turn around .