Save my tank!

[Skim]

Coral was colourful and started to turn brown, most of the time it mean's Phosphate and build up of Organics.

This is what I would do. Pull any GFO and GAC and go get some Seachem Purigen and couple of the Seachem " The Bag " put it your sump or better would be Canister or a AquaClear Hang on. This stuff removes Organics quickly and you should see things get better and your Phosphates should drop also.
The other thing is make sure your skimmer is working at 100% clean the neck and make sure there is no blockage of the Air supply.
Do not dose or add any 2 part solution if that's what you use for now as it also adds Trace Elements that could feed the Algae.
Good Luck!

Mike

[gregzz4]

What have you done/changed over the last 2 or 3 months ?

I know with my tank I've run into problems that caused some hair algae.
From there, my corals started to suffer as I didn't address my higher-than-normal PO4 and I not only got some browning corals, but I also ended up with a fully blown out GHA issue. It was everywhere and out of control

I lost a couple SPS during the battle. Some due to GHA, and some due to my over-zealous hydrogen peroxide dosing ... my whole tank went into shock after I decided to kill every last living spot of GHA I could see.
It worked for a couple weeks, and my corals are coming back, but I'd not do it again so aggressively

I ended up doing a lot of small carbon changes to try to remove whatever happened to my tank as I still have no idea what happened.
Near as I can tell I killed a bunch of bacteria ..
Regardless, if your corals are upset, carbon is your friend

My softies survived all this just fine, as they will mostly do

Hi PO4 can upset SPS, and so can fluctuations in salinity and Alk

As Brad stated, your Ca is a bit low, and IMHO your Alk could be a tad higher.
I like to try my best to hit 7-8 Alk, 410-420 Ca and 1350 Mag

Keeping your Alk just a tad higher (7.5) gives you the wiggle room if your corals start to use more. Keeping it @ 7 is OK, but if they use more than normal, it can dip too low before you know it

The best thing you can do is keep it stable for now and, as I'm doing, ride it out and see if things turn around

Good luck dude

[jason604]

So here's what changed. About 2-3 months ago my tank was beautiful no algae in sight and my sps were super vibrant n just pops. Till one day I saw some hair algae n just left it alone. Next thing u no it my tank was had a full blown long hair algae outbreak. It began to smother zoas n sps etc but the colours were still vibrant none he less. I bought more larger sps and had no room to place it so I have to put it at the end of my tank but I'm only running 1 16" led fixture on a 4' tank so I decided to raise my lights about 5-6" higher to make sure my new colonies had light shine on them. The very next day most of my sps all browned out right away due to the shock of light I'm sure. I lowered it a few days later back to the original height but my vibrant sps colours didn't rly come back and I was stuck with an ugly brown tank filled with long hair algae. So after seeking for advice here I tried getting a reactor n filled it with about 2" of rowaphos. Then few weeks later is when I had my semi tank sps crash. I'm thinking there's something in my rocks. I did purchase a bunch of base rock and bleach/ muriatic acid bath and put my tank water in it so it will cycle faster. I'm planning to swap all the rocks in my tank with my new rocks when it's done cycling. I'm not sure if using my old tank water is a good idea to cycle the new rocks or not but so far I only did it once and didn't change the water yet. I'm planning to drain the water and fill it with my tank water again tomorrow when I change the water or should I just make new clean saltwater for my new rocks?

[Slyguy00]

Sounds like you have several issues. First you need more light if you want sps. Secondly your phosphates were high you added rowa and pulled it out to fast and that is very hard on sps. And as far as algae goes I would think it was due to your high phosphates. If you wonna fix your algae problem there's only one effective way to do that. And that would be black out your tank. It amazes. Me people still go to all these great lengths to get rid of it when all you have to do is give your Tank 3 or 4 days of complete darkness. After that I bet money 95% of your algae is gone. I would also remove some rowa out of your reactor. That's just my opinion but that's what I would do. Not sure how much flow you have in your tank but increasing that would also prevent algae and detrius. Good luck

[gregzz4]

I did a 4-day blackout and it weakened, but didn't eradicate, my GHA

I'd use new water for cycling your new rock. Your tank water will likely add stuff you are trying to remove

[Reef Pilot]

I know SPS don't like change, esp any kind of rapid change. Earlier this year, my P04 got a little higher, from near zero (hanna digital checker) to about 0.10, and noticed some of my SPS lose color and grow slower. I also disconnected my bio pellet reactor, and my N03 crept up to 30 ppm. I am sure that didn't help either. And GHA took off with a vengeance, too.

Then this summer, I had a problem where my KH doser line plugged, and my KH fell to 5 before I figured that out (was away a lot). Once I fixed that, I upped it to about 9 (miscalculated and did it too fast). After that, I noticed real problems,... white burnt tips on some of my SPS, and big loss in color as well as some STN on some SPS.

Took me a while to get everything stabilized, and meanwhile some of the STN turned into RTN, and lost some of my prized SPS. It took about a month or more after my tank was stabilized before my SPS started to turn around.

Good news, though, is that everything now is looking much better, and growth and color is returning (although still a ways to go from what I had before). I think it just needs more time now, and have to keep everything very constant and stable, esp that KH. My GHA has pretty well disappeared too (needed consistent zero P04 and zero N03 before that let up).

[jason604]

Last time I tried a 3 day blackout I couldn't find my total pitch black sheets n just used a bunch if bed sheets lol. A bit of lights still went through. When I finish the 3 days I did notice a bit of algae gone but my sps looked worse and had some RTN. Since my tank is very delicate right now is it a good idea to do another blackout or wait till it heals? K I'll make new water for my new rocks instead of tank water

[Masonjames]

Debris removal. Nuff said. When this is lacking, all we do is throw a mess of "solutions" at the system trying to correct it throwing things out of balance, waisting time, money, media, equipment, livestock, chemicals, etc. when this becomes the main focus of husbandry practice, many of these "solutions" become irrelevant. Granted allot of these solutions can work fantastic and each can have a successful benefit when used correctly but every action has a reaction and once we start adding in the potential for human error well...

The most valuable and effective piece of equipment a hobbyist can have at there disposal costs next to nothing, is available almost anywhere, comes in a variety of colors, sizes, and can be customized at any length, can be upgraded with unique attachments all suited for an individuals needs, and can ward off so many problems we constantly encounter. Of coarse assuming all parameters are kept in check through equal diligence.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by jason604

So here's what changed. About 2-3 months ago my tank was beautiful no algae in sight and my sps were super vibrant n just pops. Till one day I saw some hair algae n just left it alone. Next thing u no it my tank was had a full blown long hair algae outbreak. It began to smother zoas n sps etc but the colours were still vibrant none he less. I bought more larger sps and had no room to place it so I have to put it at the end of my tank but I'm only running 1 16" led fixture on a 4' tank so I decided to raise my lights about 5-6" higher to make sure my new colonies had light shine on them. The very next day most of my sps all browned out right away due to the shock of light I'm sure. I lowered it a few days later back to the original height but my vibrant sps colours didn't rly come back and I was stuck with an ugly brown tank filled with long hair algae. So after seeking for advice here I tried getting a reactor n filled it with about 2" of rowaphos. Then few weeks later is when I had my semi tank sps crash. I'm thinking there's something in my rocks. I did purchase a bunch of base rock and bleach/ muriatic acid bath and put my tank water in it so it will cycle faster. I'm planning to swap all the rocks in my tank with my new rocks when it's done cycling. I'm not sure if using my old tank water is a good idea to cycle the new rocks or not but so far I only did it once and didn't change the water yet. I'm planning to drain the water and fill it with my tank water again tomorrow when I change the water or should I just make new clean saltwater for my new rocks?

I don't think there's anything in your rocks. Nutrients have to be incredibly low to inhibit the growth of some kinds of "hair" algae, much lower than most people can or want to run their tanks at. It's why it's an invasive species in large parts of the world to which it has been introduced by humans.

In nature, it's not low nutrients that keep it in check (thought that can help), but a massive cohort of herbivores that suppress it enough to favour stony corals.

Hair algae, like most things in the ocean that need to compete for limited substrate, wage chemical war on their competition. They emit all sorts of nasty alellopathic chemicals that range from halting the growth of corals, to outright killing them.

If I were a betting man, I'd say you introduced spores of a particularly nasty kind of hair algae on a coral or frag, conditions were favourable for it, you don't have anything that eats it, and now it's killing your coral. Yes, you should keep nutrients within the range of the reef you're trying to keep - something that is hard to measure with rampant growth of a problem algae as it will mask your inputs while being a better competitor for nutrients than your gfo reactor - but you also need to kill that algae.

When weeds start growing in your garden, it doesn't necessarily mean there is something wrong with your soil. It means weed seeds have made it in to the garden. You wouldn't try to leach the soil of all nitrogen and phosphorous to get them out - you'd weed it.

My suggestion is to find some AlgaefixMarine, and nuke the heck out of that algae. Nutrients aside, I bet your surviving corals will see near instant improvement once the majority of that algae is dead. Even if you do have a nutrient 'problem', you're never going to be able to properly diagnose it, or put in a system that's better at competing for them with a lush growth of hair algae in the tank. It's always the tanks with the worst algae problems that measure '0' nitrate and phosphate, which, for the record means there's not a whole of anything for GFO to suck out of the water column.

[Masonjames]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

I don't think there's anything in your rocks. Nutrients have to be incredibly low to inhibit the growth of some kinds of "hair" algae, much lower than most people can or want to run their tanks at. It's why it's an invasive species in large parts of the world to which it has been introduced by humans.

In nature, it's not low nutrients that keep it in check (thought that can help), but a massive cohort of herbivores that suppress it enough to favour stony corals.

Hair algae, like most things in the ocean that need to compete for limited substrate, wage chemical war on their competition. They emit all sorts of nasty alellopathic chemicals that range from halting the growth of corals, to outright killing them.

If I were a betting man, I'd say you introduced spores of a particularly nasty kind of hair algae on a coral or frag, conditions were favourable for it, you don't have anything that eats it, and now it's killing your coral. Yes, you should keep nutrients within the range of the reef you're trying to keep - something that is hard to measure with rampant growth of a problem algae as it will mask your inputs while being a better competitor for nutrients than your gfo reactor - but you also need to kill that algae.

When weeds start growing in your garden, it doesn't necessarily mean there is something wrong with your soil. It means weed seeds have made it in to the garden. You wouldn't try to leach the soil of all nitrogen and phosphorous to get them out - you'd weed it.

My suggestion is to find some AlgaefixMarine, and nuke the heck out of that algae. Nutrients aside, I bet your surviving corals will see near instant improvement once the majority of that algae is dead. Even if you do have a nutrient 'problem', you're never going to be able to properly diagnose it, or put in a system that's better at competing for them with a lush growth of hair algae in the tank. It's always the tanks with the worst algae problems that measure '0' nitrate and phosphate, which, for the record means there's not a whole of anything for GFO to suck out of the water column.

Okay? Seems like backwards thinking to me. I again will say, go after the root cause. You've said already you have an issue with debris buildup. It's very simple. Get it out. And work to keep it out. If you want to keep poo as a pet then by all means, invest in all the livestock, all the equipment and medias and chemicals, all the frustration, to properly house this pet. We have some very ingenious practices to successful house these poo pets in our system so this may in deed be your best approach if you wish to keep them. But keeping these poo pets has led you to the place you are today. So ask yourself if keeping poo is part of the practices you wish to continue to engage in.

Again, there are allot of great means to help you control nutrients within your system and I myself would encourage you to run gfo and you may in fact want to include some livestock to help you control it. But you have to remember these approaches are all a day late to the party. They do not address the root cause. Get the crap out before it even becomes an issue.