Reef nutrition

Not looking good: caulastraea with tissue necrosis?

I'll check Mg again, but every time I've checked it has been slightly high. I use Fritz blue box, and Mg always runs a bit high in my tank.

As far as feeding, I spot feed reef roids, so it's not broadcast and a ton I put in. I also occasionally feed some mysis to the acans and blasto.
 
So an update here. The brown algae has reduced quite a bit, but there's still some around. Did a water cup test last week and saw very small strands reform after a handful of hours but not much. Going to try it again today. Green hair algae seems like it's what is coming back to take over.

Have been dosing NO3 and PO4 and have NO3 steady around 5-7ppm. PO4 has gone up and down but now has been .03-.05 ppm for a few days now. Alk has been steady around 8.2-8.4. Zoas have never looked better. Getting chaeto to finally grow. Have a small amount but looks healthy. Coralline has been growing in different areas and refugium for the first time. That's all good news, I think.

Bad news. Candy cane is almost completely gone. Now I have a few favias and cyphastrea having tissue recession. Acans look ok though maybe not as happy as in the past. Chalices and Blastos are looking normal.

Not sure what to do now.

Larry
 
Everything is on the sand, and I only have my LEDs running. Probably range from 120-180 par. Not too different than what they were under during quarantine. These are all frags and noticing green algae growth on the edges of the frag plug and now some are starting to have algae on the frag itself.
 
Dino cup test below

Before

Algaebefore.jpg


After
Algaeafter.jpg


Can't see any reforming of anything. Was this way after a few hours and overnight.

Here's a photo of algae in the tank. Is this cyano? And what is the green algae. It's harder to get off than hair algae. Not as slimy and seems to have rooted into the rock.

Cyano.jpg
 
Hang in there! The tank often takes its sweet time establishing with good bio diversity. Mine did. I lost a lot of sleep during that period (and sps) and I learned to be a lot more patient than I ever was
 
@bp123987 I have had the tank up for 9 months. It was used so came with live rock and sand that i added to, but with the pandemic and all-around being busy with two young kids, it has been slow going getting much into the tank. It had gone through an ugly phase earlier, and i thought i had gotten through it. With coral frags looking decent, I thought things were ok. I just couldn't grow any chaeto despite plenty of hair algae. Didn't see many pods or coralline either.

Then I learned NO3 being zero all the time wasn't actually a good thing long term. I started fussing with parameters, and that's where I am. Now there's chaeto growing healthily, way more pods, and coralline growing in the tank. I take that as a good sign. Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything as some of the coral seem to be struggling.

Latest tests as of last night:

Ca 435
Alk 8.8 (I am going to double check this. Slightly higher than where it's been. So going to double check today.)
NO3 5 ppm
PO4 .02 ppm (I lowered my dosing so will bring it back up.)
pH 8.1-8.2
Temp 78
 
lhuynh said:
@bp123987 I have had the tank up for 9 months. It was used so came with live rock and sand that i added to, but with the pandemic and all-around being busy with two young kids, it has been slow going getting much into the tank. It had gone through an ugly phase earlier, and i thought i had gotten through it. With coral frags looking decent, I thought things were ok. I just couldn't grow any chaeto despite plenty of hair algae. Didn't see many pods or coralline either.

Then I learned NO3 being zero all the time wasn't actually a good thing long term. I started fussing with parameters, and that's where I am. Now there's chaeto growing healthily, way more pods, and coralline growing in the tank. I take that as a good sign. Just want to make sure I'm not missing anything as some of the coral seem to be struggling.

Latest tests as of last night:

Ca 435
Alk 8.8 (I am going to double check this. Slightly higher than where it's been. So going to double check today.)
NO3 5 ppm
PO4 .02 ppm (I lowered my dosing so will bring it back up.)
pH 8.1-8.2
Temp 78
Click to expand...


That context makes a lot of sense. It’s still a new tank chasing health. Hair algae is a sign obviously. If I were you I’d probably frag that piece and hope for the Best while continuing to keep things stable. I’d personally dose some microbacter 7, but that’s me.

Clean up crew? I just think this is a tank that wants to mature and many corals will struggle until it’s cleaned up and healthy.

The helix coraline in a bottle worked great for me.

If Chaeto grows poorly try red ogo - it’s less fussy in my experience
 
Chaeto is actually doing great now. Was basically down to a small strand that is now a loose baseball size ball. Coralline is definitely growing now too. Pods are really taking off. That's what gives me hope things are going in the right direction despite some corals struggling. Hoping this is just a necessary process vs some death spiral.

I don't have a huge cleanup crew, but I have 4 urchins (2 tuxedo 2 pincushion), about 10 total of a mix of trochus, cerith, and astrea snails. Think there's an emerald crab I haven't seen in a while. 3 hermits. 3 nassarius, and 1 conch (I think).

bp123987 said:
That context makes a lot of sense. It’s still a new tank chasing health. Hair algae is a sign obviously. If I were you I’d probably frag that piece and hope for the Best while continuing to keep things stable. I’d personally dose some microbacter 7, but that’s me.

Clean up crew? I just think this is a tank that wants to mature and many corals will struggle until it’s cleaned up and healthy.

The helix coraline in a bottle worked great for me.

If Chaeto grows poorly try red ogo - it’s less fussy in my experience
Click to expand...
 
So latest update. Parameters have been steady for about a week

NO3 5-7 ppm
PO4 .08-.14 ppm
Alk 8.8-9.1
Ca 430-450

Chaeto continues to grow well. Seeing more coralline. Zoas look good. Porites frag and Monti frag look OK, though I wouldn't say flourishing.

Now the bad news. Most LPS are looking bad. Tissue recession on most favia, cyphastrea, and now chalices. Blastos look fine. Acans are in between. Still seeing feeders come out, but I wouldn't say they look fully inflated.

Cyano is still around and hair algae has really taken off. And now bubble algae is taking off too.

Not sure what to do at this point other than hoping the stable parameters helps everything come around. I started doing a continuous water change via DOS to keep things more stable (vs doing it over the course of 24-48 hours). My instinct is to just stabilize things and ride it out. Not sure if other folks think I should do something else.

Larry
 
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lhuynh said:
Photoperiod: https://www.aquaillumination.com/signature_series/david-saxby

The PO4 was an unusual spike of a reading of 1.4 last night. I am using Hanna ULR. I had been in the range of .08-.11 before then. I have been dosing Na3PO4 to get PO4.
Click to expand...
Then something happen, a spike from 0.08 to 1.4ppm is huge jump.
My guess is you overdosed po4 snd shook the coral.
Sudden spike or sudden sharo reduction in po4 shock coral...
If your levels used to be 0.08 to 0.1, why did you dose na3po4?
 
I had zero NO3, so started dosing that. Then the phosphate bottomed out. So had to dose phosphate to get any kind of reading. The phosphate was around .08 finally for a handful of days. And sorry it went from .08 to .14 ppm. I missed a decimal point, which is no small thing here. Edited the previous post. So not a huge jump.
 
lhuynh said:
I had zero NO3, so started dosing that. Then the phosphate bottomed out. So had to dose phosphate to get any kind of reading. The phosphate was around .08 finally for a handful of days. And sorry it went from .08 to .14 ppm. I missed a decimal point, which is no small thing here. Edited the previous post. So not a huge jump.
Click to expand...
Oh, 0.14 is diffrent.
Yeh then your parameters are not that wacky. Maybe reducing the po4 to below 0.1 but that's about it.
Any chance you have contaminates like al, copper or zinc? LPS struggle when there is iron, copper or al im the system. They do not handle metals well.. any chance u have something rusting near water?
Silicon tubing?
..etc?
 
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