What the heck am I doing wrong!!

[Carpentersreef]

I think it may have something to with moving your old sandbed. Did you vacuum it first? I think moving an existing sandbed can be very tricky, even potentially dangerous. Try searching this board for the recent DSB threads. As for what action to take, I would stop all chemical additions and start running some carbon, (as you're doing) along with a couple of 25% water changes over the next month or so. I would also start vacuuming off that algae that you describe. I'm assuming that it's a slime algae.
Also was the lighting changed much from the old tank to the new? The corals may be having a hard time adjusting to new light conditions.
Don't throw in the towel!

Mitch

 

[SPC]

I agree with Mitch's thoughts but just wanted to emphasize how important water changes are during these kinds of problems. If it were me, I would do a 10% water change every 3 or 4 days until I began to see some improvement. I would also make sure that my skimmer was running at peak performance. Can you siphon this algae out, if so I would do this.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Just one other note. I too became very impatient with a toadstool and by moving it too many times I may have been as responsible for its demise as any other reason.

You should put these corals in the area they do best and be very patient, some can take two weeks to perk up.

The shrooms sounded like they were just adjusting to lighting. I also murdered a shroom with this situation. I moved one of my blue metalic shrooms in partial shade when I added my metal hilade, very carefuly upped the hours of the MH being one and evryone was adjusting well. I had more growth taking place with all my shrooms. I got cocky and moved my blue into the direct light. After one day it was apparent he was not doing well. I moved him back to the partial shade but the damage was done and he slowly shriveled and died.

 

[2poor2reef]

I agree. There's no possible way you could tell if the coral was happy in any particular location after two or three days. The corals start to adjust and then you're moving them again. You will eventually kill them if you keep doing that. I'd personally stop dosing iodine completely. It is very easy to overdrose and I have been told that iodine is toxic at levels not that far above those found in nsw, particularly to snails. Do frequent water changes instead. That will maintain all your levels properly and help dilute any toxins in the water.

 

[esmithiii]

I have to agree w/ fishaholic & 2Poor, stop moving them around for a while. I also would suggest that in the future you add one coral at a time until you get the hang of things. It is easier to concentrate and ask specific questions about one coral as opposed to three or four.

Also, you didn't mention a protien skimmer. There is some debate about this, but I am convinced that they aer the way to go. In addition to pulling gunk (DOCs) out of the water, it also ensures that the water is oxygenated well.

Give the corals some time. I seemed to find that most of my corals did better when I finally stopped moving them.

E

 

[LeeT]

OK guys I need some help. I've had a reef tank for about a year and a half. I recently moved and went from a 100 to a 125 gal. I used my existing aragonite sand and live rock and added more sand to make a 4-5 inch sand bed. I had been fish only but was ready to try corals. The new tank has been up for 2 months and the move went off without a hitch. I made sure all params were normal: ammonia nitrite & nitrate = 0. pH of 8.2, Ca of 450, Alk normal. temp of 80 - 82. I purchased several corals and have been having difficulties. I got some shrooms, a colt, a fox, a meat coral and a tooth coral. I have 3-175 watt MH with 2 55w pc actinics. The corals are just not happy. I've tried moving them every 2-3 days to diff. areas of the tank, but they remain droopy and the shrooms seem to have lost all their pigment. I have 4 maxi jet 1200's for circ and a red sea berlin skimmer. I havent been feeding them directly but have some DT's on order for next week. I've checked everywhere for a source of possible contamination. I'm going to start running carbon in a filter tomorrow. I dose 2 part, and iodine and stronium, molyb. once weekly at half the dose. SG is 1.025. Also, I have developed a weird algae in the tank that is covering the rocks and sand but not the glass. It looks black or greyish like soot. Pretty sure it's not diatoms. Just got a clean up crew and they havent dented it. Also several of the turbos that took off around the tank after introduction are now just suddenly fell over and dead today. (possible contamination?) I was really careful with my acclimation. The scarlets are all fine. I use a kent high-S RO filter for all water. It is only about 3 months old so I cant see how it's possible to even have an algae outbreak with theoretically no silicates. I don't have a silicate kit but am going to get one just to make sure. Am I just missing something here? This new bigger tank has been nothing but a headache so far. All fish are doing great and I feed very sparingly. Any and all far out suggestions are greatly appreciated and sorry for the long post, but I just feel like throwing in the towel and I need some ideas. Thanks.

 

[KenH]

Hi LeeT,

I would recommend stopping all additives period, at least until your tank settles down. None are really required with what you have in your tank and they are easy to overdose and some, like the iodine, will tend to promote excessive algae growth. For now, water changes of 5% a week or so will be more than adequate for maintaining your tank.

I agree with everyone else that moving corals too much is not a good thing. Your lighting is moderate and should not be too much or too little for your current livestock. Just make sure that your powerheads are not blasting the corals since none of these specimens like a lot of water current. I know someone who has the same tank and lighting and he has the most spectacular mushrooms and other soft and LPS coral I have seen. He even keeps a few hardy SPS corals.

I would recommend getting some Marc Weiss Phosphate/Silicate remover and add this to your sump. I am generally not a Marc Weiss fan, but this stuff works very well for removing any excess phosphates and silicates and controlling problem algae. Some of the other brands tend to leach aluminum into the water which upsets some of the soft corals. The Marc Weiss stuff seems to have no such downside. Even if you buy a test kit and do not measure any silicates or phosphates, that does not mean that you don't have a considerable amount tied up in the algae, etc. Even with a Kent Hi-S DI unit, some amount will still get into the tank and get bound up by the growing algae.

Good luck,
--- Ken

 

[2poor2reef]

In terms of the algae it's been my experience that any time you move a sand bed you wind up getting an algae bloom. It seems inevitable. I just doubled the depth of a dsb in one of my tanks and all I did was combine two long-established beds into one new tank. I moved the beds a total distance of five feet in less than ten minutes, always fully submerged in tank-temp water. Skimmed like crazy and fed sparingly, and I still got a huge diatom bloom. I think these established beds are very sensitive and any disruption will throw them out of whack. But they always recover and the algae always subsides in my experience. I wouldn't worry about the algae so much. I keep queen conchs (strombus gigas) and they love these events anyway. If you don't have one and have the room I would highly recommend one. Good luck.

 

[Anonymous]

It may be a silly question, but it was posed to me before when I was having trouble - when your rock was in the FO tank, did you ever use any kind of medicine for the fish that may still be in the rock?

 

[LeeT]

Thanks for all the great ideas guys. I never used any meds in my tank as I knew I would eventually add corals. I've been trying to get a queen conch but no-one has any in stock right now that i know of. I'm ordering a tiger tail cuke and some turbos from ffexpress this week. I was told the colt likes a lot of water flow so I have him about half way up with a powerhead "sweeping" over the top of him. He seems happier today than he has been & was terrible looking down in my sand bed. I've got a little over 5 watts per gal right now. Is this considered a medium amt of light? Tell my lightbill that lol. I have the shrooms low in the tank partially under some rockwork and they seem to be opening up some now but like I said they have lost most of their color. (They're frilly green ones btw.) I still need to dose the 2 part B Ionic right to keep alk and CA up dont I? I'll stop all other additives. I was dosing the stronium, molyb. b/c I have absolutely no coraline growth on my rocks even though they've been in there for a year & a half. I used to have some purple but this black algae stuff has choked it out and its almost all gone now. Thanks again you guys for all the great suggestions.

 

[LeeT]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I had about a 2-3 inch sand bed in the 100 gal, and I added about 100 lbs of fresh aragonite in the bottom of the new 125 and put my old sand on top of that to get my DSB up to 4-5 inches. My skimmer has been a little "weird" lately. It produces alot of large bubbles out the top and I cant adjust it to get a stream of very small bubbles to come out. I totally dismantled it and cleaned it during the move. It still is removing some gunk though, just not as much. My bulbs arent but about 6 mo. old, so I dont think that's the algae problem. Also, the algae on the rocks is really on there. You can barely blow it off with a power head it's so stuck to the rocks. It has killed most of my corraline. I have been doing 25% water changes every 2 weeks for the last month. I guess I'll try a 10% change weekly until the problem clears up. I'll stop dosing the iodine. Can I dose coral vite to help the corals? Thanks again for all the tips guys. Keep em coming.

 

[Glenn]

It sounds like the black/gray soot may be cynobacteria (sp). I've had it in some new tanks and once in a fish tank w/ poor circulation. Lot's of water flow has always gotten rid if this gunk for me (sounds like you have plenty).
You're parameters seem great, my best advise is to stay away from the fish store (so you won't buy any more chemicals), keep your hands out of the tank, and let things settle down. It's not uncommon for soft corals to be in a funk for 3 or 4 weeks. Lastly skim very aggresively.

 

[Gatortailale1]

If LFS has a decent light setup, you could see if they can harbor your corals for a few weeks until you get things under control. May want to cut back on light photo period for a bit. May also want to switch to BIonic solution. I did. Takes guess out of how much trace elements to add. I read that too much iodine can cause algae blooms.

How old are MH Bulbs? and accent blues? The blues could be old and the cause of bloom. I let my PC blues run 9 months and during that last month I had a bloom that is going away now that I replaced the bulbs.

 

[kjb]

Hey, I didn't see any mention that you tried this, but I would be tempted to yank one of the rocks out and see exactly what that grey stuff is and try to scrape some of it off with a stiff toothbrush in a bucket of salt water.
Does it smell fresh and growing like an algea, or all nasty like dead stuff?

JMHO

[ September 24, 2001: Message edited by: kjb ]