Help: SPS bleaching and STN

[Myka]

I was just looking at your pictures again...

I see some algae growth on the back glass and the pumps, are those the only places in the tank that have algae? How long since you cleaned it off last? I notice also that you have few fish and run BB. You do feed the corals some, but what I'm getting at with these new questions is maybe the corals are starving. The nutrient level is really low. Do you feed the Reef Roids at night when the SPS have their feeding polyps out? Are you getting a good feeding response when you feed the Reef Roids?

[gregzz4]

Besides Myka's good thoughts, I'll add my similar issues from the last few months (or maybe a bit longer)

It sounds like you may be having similar issues to mine and your tank is 'too' clean. I found out our corals need food, or they will bleach

My corals were bleaching pretty badly
I had zero nitrates and phosphates, so some fellow reefers helped me out
Our thoughts are that I wasn't feeding my fish enough, and not feeding my corals, so the corals expelled their zooxanthellae. Once the zoox are gone, there's nothing to protect the corals from my 8x54w light, so bleach away

I turned off half my lights, started feeding the fish double-time, and also started using coral frenzy, phyto plan and coral vitalizer
A couple of weeks and the corals were coming back
Now all are looking much better, and I'm getting the new algae under control
I've also started playing with my lights to get a happy medium between the corals and our viewing times

I see your lights are a total of 15 hours for 3 pairs
I knocked mine down from 27 hours for 4 pairs, to 19 hours for 2 pairs for a couple months. This worked very well for me and I don't think your lights are on too much
I'm currently running a total of (I think) 20 hours total with 4 pairs and all is looking good. It's been many months since I started making changes, so don't expect a quick fix

I also see you wash your socks daily. Do they plug up this fast, or are you just cleaning them 'cause ? I wash mine once a week. Maybe you're removing more nutrients here than you need to

And you run your skimmer very wet. Maybe it's of no consequence, but I run mine dry and only remove a few hundred ml/week, and the nog is very dark

Hope this helps some

[daniella3d]

Running a skimmer wet will remove more DOC from the water I think.

I would also feed amino acids from zeovit as well. A little bottle goes a long way and make the colors great for the corals that are bleached.

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Besides Myka's good thoughts, I'll add my similar issues from the last few months (or maybe a bit longer)

It sounds like you may be having similar issues to mine and your tank is 'too' clean. I found out our corals need food, or they will bleach

My corals were bleaching pretty badly
I had zero nitrates and phosphates, so some fellow reefers helped me out
Our thoughts are that I wasn't feeding my fish enough, and not feeding my corals, so the corals expelled their zooxanthellae. Once the zoox are gone, there's nothing to protect the corals from my 8x54w light, so bleach away

I turned off half my lights, started feeding the fish double-time, and also started using coral frenzy, phyto plan and coral vitalizer
A couple of weeks and the corals were coming back
Now all are looking much better, and I'm getting the new algae under control
I've also started playing with my lights to get a happy medium between the corals and our viewing times

I see your lights are a total of 15 hours for 3 pairs
I knocked mine down from 27 hours for 4 pairs, to 19 hours for 2 pairs for a couple months. This worked very well for me and I don't think your lights are on too much
I'm currently running a total of (I think) 20 hours total with 4 pairs and all is looking good. It's been many months since I started making changes, so don't expect a quick fix

I also see you wash your socks daily. Do they plug up this fast, or are you just cleaning them 'cause ? I wash mine once a week. Maybe you're removing more nutrients here than you need to

And you run your skimmer very wet. Maybe it's of no consequence, but I run mine dry and only remove a few hundred ml/week, and the nog is very dark

Hope this helps some

Originally Posted by Myka

I was just looking at your pictures again...

I see some algae growth on the back glass and the pumps, are those the only places in the tank that have algae? How long since you cleaned it off last?

The algae on the back wall is very short. I leave it on there for the lawnmower blenny and tail spot blenny to munch on. When the turbo snails go over it, it's completely clean.

I used to be on top if it by wiping it down, but when the algae started growing, I couldn't get it off. It's an acrylic backing and takes so much scraping to even remove. I do wipe that wall down almost daily, using a sponge.

Originally Posted by Myka

I notice also that you have few fish and run BB. You do feed the corals some, but what I'm getting at with these new questions is maybe the corals are starving. The nutrient level is really low.

I started running barebottom about 3 months ago. Do you remember commenting on my build thread that I would hate Oolite sand? We'll I did. The cyano started to appear on the sand bed at that time, so I siphoned a bit out with each weekly water change.

For feeding, I give my fish NLS pellets/flakes. Then I alternate on other days with Ocean Fresh Pacifica Plankton or Cyclopeeze. I try to feed every single day, but some days are skipped based on my schedule.

The nutrient levels are very low. On Thursday I performed a 4 gallon water change using IORC.

Nitrate (API) - 0
Phosphate (Hanna ULR) - 9 ppb (0.027 ppm)
Calcium (Salifert) - 475 ppm
Alkalinity (Hanna) - 7.8 dkH

I know they are not balanced. You had mentioned before. How do I get them balanced? I am not dosing in equal parts. I am currently only dosing:

Alkalinity (Arm and Hammer) - 25 ML (8 times per day)

Calcium Chloride (got it free from another member, maybe it is downflake but they don't remember the brand) - 20 ML (8 times per day)

This is dosed through an auto doser. I'll dial the Calcium down a bit.

Part of the problem I think is that the salt mix is so high in it's levels that it raises everything up. Then it slowly drops down, but doesn't ever balance as by the end of the week, I do another water change.

Originally Posted by Myka

Do you feed the Reef Roids at night when the SPS have their feeding polyps out? Are you getting a good feeding response when you feed the Reef Roids?

I dose twice a week with a heaping spoonful from the Salifert Calcium test kit. This is probably 1/4 tsp? The polyps are out but I don't see much of a response to the feeding. I turn the return pump/protein skimmer off. But leave all the Vortech's turned on (they are at 100% now BTW).

I also dose 1 drop of Pohls CV every so often. Maybe 2 times a week?

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Besides Myka's good thoughts, I'll add my similar issues from the last few months (or maybe a bit longer)

It sounds like you may be having similar issues to mine and your tank is 'too' clean. I found out our corals need food, or they will bleach

My corals were bleaching pretty badly
I had zero nitrates and phosphates, so some fellow reefers helped me out
Our thoughts are that I wasn't feeding my fish enough, and not feeding my corals, so the corals expelled their zooxanthellae. Once the zoox are gone, there's nothing to protect the corals from my 8x54w light, so bleach away

I turned off half my lights, started feeding the fish double-time, and also started using coral frenzy, phyto plan and coral vitalizer
A couple of weeks and the corals were coming back
Now all are looking much better, and I'm getting the new algae under control
I've also started playing with my lights to get a happy medium between the corals and our viewing times

I see your lights are a total of 15 hours for 3 pairs
I knocked mine down from 27 hours for 4 pairs, to 19 hours for 2 pairs for a couple months. This worked very well for me and I don't think your lights are on too much

I'm currently running a total of (I think) 20 hours total with 4 pairs and all is looking good. It's been many months since I started making changes, so don't expect a quick fix

Thanks Greg. I'll set the timers to turn the lights on for another 30 minutes this week and perhaps bump it up to a total of 6 hours next week. Dependent on how things go that is.

Originally Posted by gregzz4

I also see you wash your socks daily. Do they plug up this fast, or are you just cleaning them 'cause ? I wash mine once a week. Maybe you're removing more nutrients here than you need to

They plug up every 8 hours. I find that I need to clean it once in the morning and then at night. Depending on how often I turkey baster blast the live rock, it could gunk up every 6 hours.

Originally Posted by gregzz4

And you run your skimmer very wet. Maybe it's of no consequence, but I run mine dry and only remove a few hundred ml/week, and the nog is very dark

Hope this helps some

I have the stupid Bubble Magus skimmer open all the way and the water level is overflowing. I'll try lowering the water level in the sump to less than 9" to see if that helps a difference. It's a HOB protein skimmer that I adapted to use a in sump.

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Running a skimmer wet will remove more DOC from the water I think.

I would also feed amino acids from zeovit as well. A little bottle goes a long way and make the colors great for the corals that are bleached.

Would Zeovit CV act as a replacement for the AA? How often should I be feeding per week? Follow the instructions via the bottle?

So I have even more bad news. I did a poor mans iodine dip for the one affected coral that had the dying tips and can confirm that I have AEFW.

I'm going to contact John (Rice Reef) for some help.

Here is the picture of the algae that I have on the live rock. This appeared after the cyano got under control.





And this shot shows some black algae. It's almost like black beard algae in the freshwater world.

Originally Posted by ChizerBunoi

So I have even more bad news. I did a poor mans iodine dip for the one affected coral that had the dying tips and can confirm that I have AEFW.

I'm going to contact John (Rice Reef) for some help.

Originally Posted by Rice Reef

Hi Donny,

Sorry to hear that your tank is infected with AEFW. First of all, I would suggest you to dip corals from several areas of your tank to get an idea of the infestation. After this do not panic as I did... If It is minimal then focus on the areas affected by dipping and blowing the rocks with a turkey basted. I hope you have wrasses as they are your best friends right now and I would recommend 6 line, yellow coris and melanuris. I would also check your corals with a magnify glass to see if there are any eggs. If is frag it and just throw away the infected parts. I would check once a week and re dip your corals again and do spot checks in other areas to be sure that it has not spread. I would also encourage you to set up a quarantine tank for your sps. If your main tank has no sps then the AEFW wil eventually die over time. If you plan to remove your sps kalk or apply glue or epoxy to kill off the base of the sps. Note: AEFW will generally go after the smooth skinned acros first. They don't like slimers but if there are no other sps they will go after them too. If there are minimal AEFW then I would also suggest you add zeovit flatworm stop. This does not eliminate them but will help your sps to build that slime coating which AEFW do not like.

If it is a bad infestation do all of the above but more frequently and esp if you are unable to set a quarantine tank.
I can truly understand what you are going thru and can only suggest that you do not keep the old frag plugs and cut off the base rock in your future purchases and dip. I have no exp with dipping I iodine but I do recmd rps or at least revive.

Good luck and hope you can save your sps.

Wayne

Sorry Wayne, not sure why I called you John. Thank you again for the advice.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by ChizerBunoi

and perhaps bump it up to a total of 6 hours next week

I didn't mean for you to boost your lighting at this point. I'm just pointing out that it's not as extreme as mine was. I'd suggest you leave it be for now, or even turn them down a bit until things recover
Then slowly, and I mean over weeks, turn them back up to where you want them. All the while watch for new signs of bleaching/color changes etc

Originally Posted by ChizerBunoi

They plug up every 8 hours

Are they poly, or felt ? I had the poly ones and had the same problem as you
Since I've switched to felt they last longer than I need before washing

Originally Posted by ChizerBunoi

I'll try lowering the water level in the sump to less than 9" to see if that helps

Perhaps you could find a way to lift the skimmer a bit, rather than remove water from the sump ? Either way, sounds like you get the idea