Kaporeef
New member
Hello everyone,
Some Background:
My name is Nick and I have been lurking through the threads of reefcentral for a little over three years now. Two years ago I took the plunge and purchased a standard 90 gallon reef-ready tank with the hopes of running a successful reef aquarium. The tank was set up 6 months later (once I moved into my apartment) and has been running for roughly 18 months. I have recently encountered some problems and could use some advice.
The Problem:
Over the past 6 months i've been experiencing excessive algae growth and coral loss. To add to the mix, I noticed ich on my foxface today (more on this in a bit). I understand that usually uncontrolled algae growth is indicative of poor parameters, but I have been testing mine and getting consistent results within the normal recommended range. The parameters of the tank (tests taken today) are:
Salinity: 1.025 (refractometer)
Ammonia: 0ppm (API)
Nitrite: 0ppm (API)
Nitrate: 5ppm (Red Sea)
Calcium: 440ppm (Red Sea)
Alkalinity: 8.5 (Hannah Checker) and 8.3 (Red Sea)
Magnesium: 1300ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphate: 0ppm (Hannah)---I understand this may be misleading because of excessive algae growth.
Equipment:
Lights: Pacific Sun Metis Hyperion R2 LEDs
Skimmer: SWC 180 Cone Skimmer
Water Movement: 1 MP40wes and 2 Koralia 1400
Controller: GHL Profilux III
Dosers: 2x BRS 1.1 mL/min Dosers--controlled by Profilux
Reactors: I use a BRS dual reactor filled with BRS high capacity GFO and Carbon ROX-changed once a month
RO/DI- BRS 5 stage delux--always reads 0 TDS, filters changed regularly every 2-4 months or as necessary.
Sump- custom built 30gal with ~15 gallon refugium filled with live rock and chaeto
ATO-JBJ and aqualifter
NOTE: I have roughly 80 pounds of live rock~70 of which was BRS dry reef saver rock and 10 pounds were live rock added to the refugium to seed coralline and bacteria.
20 gallons of water are changed roughly every two weeks.
More on my ich situation:
**7 months ago**
All fish that were added to the DT were quarantined in a separate 20gal QT for 6 weeks to ensure they were eating and free of disease. This rule was ignored for a CBB that was added to the display tank to encourage eating of live pods on the live rock. Well, the inevitable happened roughly 1 month later and I lost several fish due to ich. I removed the CBB, foxface, the last surviving anthia and the royal gramma back to the quarantine tank for copper treatment and observation while the tank went fallow. The tank was left fallow for 4 months (intention was 2 months but I took 18 credits of classes over the summer and become a wee bit busy). So, after the two weeks of copper treatment (I used cupramine and ensured my copper levels were at 0.5 mg/L with a red sea copper test kit) and a 4 month fallow period, the fish were added back into the display tank.
During the fallow period, I continued to feed my RBT anemone frozen mysis once a week. Roughly one month into the fallow period, I began to notice diatoms growing on the sand and live rock. I reduced my photo period and changed my gfo media. This didn't solve the problem. The diatoms continued to grow and eventually covered most of my rock and sand.
My logic:
Even though the fish were removed, the system was still being fed due to the larger RBT that I was still feeding once a week, which should prevent excessive die off that would cause phosphates. The only thing I was adding to the tank was my 0 TDS topoff water, but I suspected possible phosphate leaching anyways. I tested my RO/DI water (stored in a 32g BRUTE can) and felt closure once the phosphates were measured to be 0.08-0.1ppm (I performed the test 3 times). I proceeded to buy another reactor from BRS and filled it with GFO to set the phosphates back to 0. Now all topoff water measured 0 phosphates when added to my topoff reservoir.
**Present Time**
Still battling the diatoms and as mentioned earlier, I noticed ich on my foxface again this morning.
I have refilled my quarantine with salinity-matched saltwater and plan on pulling the fish this weekend to begin another treatment of copper and another fallow period.
My Questions and Options:
1)Any ideas on what could be causing my algae outbreak? If I am missing any information that may be necessary to help with my situation please alert me. One idea I have is that perhaps my dry rock has reached a layer rich with dead organisms that are now leaching phosphates into my water.
2)What caused the second round of Ich? My only suspicion is a small frag of duncans I added about 2 weeks ago to test the stability of my water parameters. For the record, the duncans look great but my small $10 test frag of sps does not. Perhaps the Ich was on the frag mount as a protomont or tomont?
3)A plan of action. Hopefully, with the help of this community, I can find the underlying cause of this problem and address it appropriately. I have considered pulling the fish, sterilizing my rock and replacing the sand...essentially restarting but this is something that would have to be a last resort option.
Not sure where to put this...but I feed my fish three times a day. In the morning I feed them pellets. In the afternoon I feed them LIVE blackworms kept in a blackworm keeper in my fridge (water changed daily with de-chlorinated water). In the evening, I feed them pellets again. All servings of food are small and I can see them eat 90-95% of the food (some gets away and is presumed eaten by CUC or pulled out by my skimmer).
I truly appreciate you spending your time reading this thread and am open to any suggestions.
Best Regards,
Nick
Some Background:
My name is Nick and I have been lurking through the threads of reefcentral for a little over three years now. Two years ago I took the plunge and purchased a standard 90 gallon reef-ready tank with the hopes of running a successful reef aquarium. The tank was set up 6 months later (once I moved into my apartment) and has been running for roughly 18 months. I have recently encountered some problems and could use some advice.
The Problem:
Over the past 6 months i've been experiencing excessive algae growth and coral loss. To add to the mix, I noticed ich on my foxface today (more on this in a bit). I understand that usually uncontrolled algae growth is indicative of poor parameters, but I have been testing mine and getting consistent results within the normal recommended range. The parameters of the tank (tests taken today) are:
Salinity: 1.025 (refractometer)
Ammonia: 0ppm (API)
Nitrite: 0ppm (API)
Nitrate: 5ppm (Red Sea)
Calcium: 440ppm (Red Sea)
Alkalinity: 8.5 (Hannah Checker) and 8.3 (Red Sea)
Magnesium: 1300ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphate: 0ppm (Hannah)---I understand this may be misleading because of excessive algae growth.
Equipment:
Lights: Pacific Sun Metis Hyperion R2 LEDs
Skimmer: SWC 180 Cone Skimmer
Water Movement: 1 MP40wes and 2 Koralia 1400
Controller: GHL Profilux III
Dosers: 2x BRS 1.1 mL/min Dosers--controlled by Profilux
Reactors: I use a BRS dual reactor filled with BRS high capacity GFO and Carbon ROX-changed once a month
RO/DI- BRS 5 stage delux--always reads 0 TDS, filters changed regularly every 2-4 months or as necessary.
Sump- custom built 30gal with ~15 gallon refugium filled with live rock and chaeto
ATO-JBJ and aqualifter
NOTE: I have roughly 80 pounds of live rock~70 of which was BRS dry reef saver rock and 10 pounds were live rock added to the refugium to seed coralline and bacteria.
20 gallons of water are changed roughly every two weeks.
More on my ich situation:
**7 months ago**
All fish that were added to the DT were quarantined in a separate 20gal QT for 6 weeks to ensure they were eating and free of disease. This rule was ignored for a CBB that was added to the display tank to encourage eating of live pods on the live rock. Well, the inevitable happened roughly 1 month later and I lost several fish due to ich. I removed the CBB, foxface, the last surviving anthia and the royal gramma back to the quarantine tank for copper treatment and observation while the tank went fallow. The tank was left fallow for 4 months (intention was 2 months but I took 18 credits of classes over the summer and become a wee bit busy). So, after the two weeks of copper treatment (I used cupramine and ensured my copper levels were at 0.5 mg/L with a red sea copper test kit) and a 4 month fallow period, the fish were added back into the display tank.
During the fallow period, I continued to feed my RBT anemone frozen mysis once a week. Roughly one month into the fallow period, I began to notice diatoms growing on the sand and live rock. I reduced my photo period and changed my gfo media. This didn't solve the problem. The diatoms continued to grow and eventually covered most of my rock and sand.
My logic:
Even though the fish were removed, the system was still being fed due to the larger RBT that I was still feeding once a week, which should prevent excessive die off that would cause phosphates. The only thing I was adding to the tank was my 0 TDS topoff water, but I suspected possible phosphate leaching anyways. I tested my RO/DI water (stored in a 32g BRUTE can) and felt closure once the phosphates were measured to be 0.08-0.1ppm (I performed the test 3 times). I proceeded to buy another reactor from BRS and filled it with GFO to set the phosphates back to 0. Now all topoff water measured 0 phosphates when added to my topoff reservoir.
**Present Time**
Still battling the diatoms and as mentioned earlier, I noticed ich on my foxface again this morning.
I have refilled my quarantine with salinity-matched saltwater and plan on pulling the fish this weekend to begin another treatment of copper and another fallow period. My Questions and Options:
1)Any ideas on what could be causing my algae outbreak? If I am missing any information that may be necessary to help with my situation please alert me. One idea I have is that perhaps my dry rock has reached a layer rich with dead organisms that are now leaching phosphates into my water.
2)What caused the second round of Ich? My only suspicion is a small frag of duncans I added about 2 weeks ago to test the stability of my water parameters. For the record, the duncans look great but my small $10 test frag of sps does not. Perhaps the Ich was on the frag mount as a protomont or tomont?
3)A plan of action. Hopefully, with the help of this community, I can find the underlying cause of this problem and address it appropriately. I have considered pulling the fish, sterilizing my rock and replacing the sand...essentially restarting but this is something that would have to be a last resort option.
Not sure where to put this...but I feed my fish three times a day. In the morning I feed them pellets. In the afternoon I feed them LIVE blackworms kept in a blackworm keeper in my fridge (water changed daily with de-chlorinated water). In the evening, I feed them pellets again. All servings of food are small and I can see them eat 90-95% of the food (some gets away and is presumed eaten by CUC or pulled out by my skimmer).
I truly appreciate you spending your time reading this thread and am open to any suggestions.
Best Regards,
Nick
