starionesir
New member
Ok I'll get the rest out. I'm hoping the coral don't die.
Corals bleached?
- Thread starter starionesir
- Start date
starionesir
New member
No real change as of this morning. I'll know more when I get home with the lights on. The skimmer has calmed down some. I can keep it running now without it overflowing everywhere. I do have carbon running now as well.
Your corals didn't look dead or bleached by any measure, FWIW.
They had their polyps contracted, but in the pics you attached, the birdsnest and montipora colony looked stressed but not bleached. Though your birdsnest colony was bleached white on the inside, which is more a function of not enough flow getting to it in normal day-to-day operations, not a function of anything you did in your sump.
The refugium looked nasty, but that's okay, that's what it is there for. The messier your sump, oftentimes the cleaner your display will be. I would just siphon off those dianoflagellates and any cyano in the sump, and ideally replace the caulerpa with some Chaeto, and then just let it do it's growing thing. I would even make sure to add extra flow in there so nothing settles, and it tumbles the chaeto (not necessary, but ideal for increased growth).
Though you could just let crud settle in there which makes it easier to siphon out. That's how my biocube is set up. High flow in the display makes detritus settle only in the low-flow sump, which is easy and an ideal location for me to siphon it out again later.
They had their polyps contracted, but in the pics you attached, the birdsnest and montipora colony looked stressed but not bleached. Though your birdsnest colony was bleached white on the inside, which is more a function of not enough flow getting to it in normal day-to-day operations, not a function of anything you did in your sump.
The refugium looked nasty, but that's okay, that's what it is there for. The messier your sump, oftentimes the cleaner your display will be. I would just siphon off those dianoflagellates and any cyano in the sump, and ideally replace the caulerpa with some Chaeto, and then just let it do it's growing thing. I would even make sure to add extra flow in there so nothing settles, and it tumbles the chaeto (not necessary, but ideal for increased growth).
Though you could just let crud settle in there which makes it easier to siphon out. That's how my biocube is set up. High flow in the display makes detritus settle only in the low-flow sump, which is easy and an ideal location for me to siphon it out again later.
starionesir
New member
So the annoying slimy algae in the DT is dino? I was thinking that myself. I've been battling with the stuff for a while now. Can't seem to beat it. I did notice that the coral did seem to open slightly when the lights went to blue only before shutting off. So I'm hoping they make a full recovery. Still not sure what I did that caused them to be so annoyed out of no where.
I did also talk about the white parts on my birdsnest to my LFS and they said it was pretty normal and there colony does it as well. It shades itself is what they told me. Not sure if adding some T5 lighting would help with that or not.
I did also talk about the white parts on my birdsnest to my LFS and they said it was pretty normal and there colony does it as well. It shades itself is what they told me. Not sure if adding some T5 lighting would help with that or not.
brownish/yellowish snot looking stuff is dinoflagellates. Cyano is either green/blue (hence cyano) or red/brown, and looks like cotton candy whisps.
Either light blocking or flow blocking, but yea it's common in most colonies. It's not ideal, but even with having high-light LEDs and a high-flow vortec MP10 in my biocube, my birdsnest still has dead branches in it's core. It's just a function of life. People see it a lot less in Acropora and Montipora because they don't tend to grow as bunched up as birdsnests and pocillaporas do.
Either light blocking or flow blocking, but yea it's common in most colonies. It's not ideal, but even with having high-light LEDs and a high-flow vortec MP10 in my biocube, my birdsnest still has dead branches in it's core. It's just a function of life. People see it a lot less in Acropora and Montipora because they don't tend to grow as bunched up as birdsnests and pocillaporas do.
starionesir
New member
Thanks for the response. Any ideas as to what may have caused the coral to close up after the fuge cleaning? Just the stirring up of the algae?
As for the dinoflagellates. Whats the best method of getting rid of them for good? I've been vacuuming them off which is pretty easy but they just come back again within a couple days or so. Should I black out the tank to starve the algae?
As for the dinoflagellates. Whats the best method of getting rid of them for good? I've been vacuuming them off which is pretty easy but they just come back again within a couple days or so. Should I black out the tank to starve the algae?
I'll leave it to a more qualified person to recommend how to get rid of it.
The coral probably closed up from either particulates being stirred up, or maybe a release of nutrients from the caulerpa (it doesn't like being disturbed, one of the many reasons that it isn't a great macro for use these days now that Chaeto is so widely available). They may have been closed up from turning the pumps off and reducing flow while you cleaned up the sump, or who knows what. Probably just the stirring up of particulates. It happens. Same with the skimmer overflow. You just released a lot of particulate matter into the water column, so it'll disrupt a lot of things. Not necessarily because they're adding a bunch of ammonia/nitrate/phosphate/etc at one time, but just because they're particulates. Like how we will cough if you kick up a lot of dust near us. Once it settles again, things will be good again.
The coral probably closed up from either particulates being stirred up, or maybe a release of nutrients from the caulerpa (it doesn't like being disturbed, one of the many reasons that it isn't a great macro for use these days now that Chaeto is so widely available). They may have been closed up from turning the pumps off and reducing flow while you cleaned up the sump, or who knows what. Probably just the stirring up of particulates. It happens. Same with the skimmer overflow. You just released a lot of particulate matter into the water column, so it'll disrupt a lot of things. Not necessarily because they're adding a bunch of ammonia/nitrate/phosphate/etc at one time, but just because they're particulates. Like how we will cough if you kick up a lot of dust near us. Once it settles again, things will be good again.
starionesir
New member
Okay thanks for the info. I'll check it out again when I get home this evening to see how everything looks.
cambo123
New member
Things to check for (sometimes caused directly or indirectly from maintenance)
1) Cracked heater
2) Seized/struggling pump
3) Voltage leak/exposed wiring (kind of applies to 1 and 2)
4) Improper timer reset for ALK doser. I have changed mine from 1 min to 2 hours by accident trying to go to 2 min.
1) Cracked heater
2) Seized/struggling pump
3) Voltage leak/exposed wiring (kind of applies to 1 and 2)
4) Improper timer reset for ALK doser. I have changed mine from 1 min to 2 hours by accident trying to go to 2 min.
starionesir
New member
So far all the corals are starting to open back up more and more each day. Not sure exactly what happened except then just didn't like my stirring up the fuge. Still dealing with the darn dino algae that I just can't seem to defeat. Ready to throw in the towel.
