falure then success?

[brad65ford]

Has any body fail at keeping zoa/palys and then found success? I've been running a 75g BB with tons of zoas/palys and they are slowly shrinking. I know I'm not the only one that has gone through this, I'm just wondering if there are other have have found their first faults and could share some advice

Thanks Brad

 

[DEEC77]

Tells us a little about your system. Also what do you mean by dissappearing? Melting? Or just gone?

~Dee~

 

[Jarred1]

Do you have other corals? How long have you had the zoas for?

 

[brad65ford]

Ok here is what I can test and know about my system. The system is over 2 years old, but it used to be FOWLR but I've been running for 6 months as a BB with live rock and skimmer as the only means of filtration.

PH = 8.4
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 0
Ammonia = 0
CA = 440
KH = 8.1
ALK = 2.9
MG = 1500
Temp = 79
Salinity - 1.26

Over a month ago I had coraline algae growing on the back wall but its stop and green fluffy algae has taken over but now slowing dieing off itself. I don't know if this is because I stop using purple up, I stop since I read it wasn't needed as long as I'm using Kalk. I keep up with weekly or every other week water changes about 10g just to remove the detritus from the bottom. I thought my issue was phosphates when I got my Hanna Checker I was at .15 now I'm at .02 so I know thats not my issue.

Water flow - I've been moving corals and power heads also changing Votech programming for different settings just to find what these zoa/palys like.

Lighting - I would have thought (4) 54watt T5 API lights would be enough? I always wonder if my issue is not having a MH lighting.

Corals - I have xennia (waving not plusing) which has shrunk up so much its weird nt waving at this point since they are just stubs. I also have a ducan, frogspawn, brain coral, kenai, candy cane, monti, and some green star polyps which are all doing fair/ok nothing unbelievalbe just sticking around but not much if any growth from them in the last few months. I recently had a few zoa's that melted which caused me to be alarmed and I'm noticing flat worms but I don't see any on the zoa's so I'm thinking its something else. I was hoping the 6 line would eat them.

Fish- 6 line wasser, hawk fish, lawn mower blenny.

Crabs - 1 emerald crab, 5 red/blue legs
Snail - 4 astera, 6 turbos

I feed the fish/coral New Life Spectrum Marine Fish Formula fish formula pellets twice a day only 10/15 pellets the most. Also I feed cyclops and mysis shrimp frozen but dethrawed then rinsed ever once a week.

Algaes - bubble algae is starting to grown in more spots which really sucks, hair algae on a few rocks that is very strong looks like a nice place to play scoccer LOL. This is the reason I got the Lawn Mower Blenny. Also green flim algae on the bottom and on all surfaces which I scrap every 3-4 days.

Make up water is Kalk+2 mixed with RO/DI water. Evaporation is about 3/4 gallons a day.

Things I have done the last few days to try and help what ever is going on with the tank. I have stopped skimming, moved power heads, moved a few corals and added a HOB filter with standard flose/carbon pad filter just to get the film off the surface (no over flow or sump, yes this sucks.)

 

[brad65ford]

this guys started melting last week

this guys started melting last week

I have already moved it to a quarinty tank to observe closer and she just melted away the past few days :sad2: This picutre was from the 24th

 

[brad65ford]

opps double post:uzi:

 

[Jarred1]

You have phosphates in your tank, that is why you have those kinds of algae. The algae is consuming the phosphates faster then they are being produced which is why you are getting readings of 0 phosphates. Your mag seems like it is on the high end should be around 1300-1400. You might want to get a few more snails to help with the algae because the blenny doesn't really eat that much of it. Do you run carbon, I ask this because I think your xenia is dying and could be releasing toxins.

 

[brad65ford]

So the hanna check isn't correct or its not checking a different type of phosphate?

Agree with you on the snails!

No carbon, just a skimmer. I remove as much algaes as I can't when I ido a water/change. I have watched the P04 go down with the hanna meter and as it goes down the quality of the zoas/palys seem to go down as well?

 

[carloschali]

I agree that you do have phosphates. It is impossible to be free of phosphates and to have algae growing at the same time, the algae needs the phosphates as a source of nutrients. Having said this, I don't think phosphates are the problem for your zoas, my brother had algae growing very healthy in his tank and he was still able to have acans and zoas living happily amongst all that algae. I have the same problem that you have, I think I found MY problem, it was a piece of tie made of metal which was used to tie the cords on my koralias was found on my sump, I suspect it was releasing deadly toxins into my tank. I will have to test for Iron, copper or other things. I suspect you have some other problem. your parameters are almost from the book of perfection, you don't tell us how many gallons you have, so it is difficult to say if it is too much or too little light. for zoas, 4 watts per gallon should be enough.

 

[carloschali]

The hanna is doing its job, it is checking for phosphates. The problem is, the algae has consumed the phosphates by the time you check, therefore, the hanna doesn't find nutrients (phosphates) because they have already been consumed by the algae. I would run some kind of phosphate remover, i personally use rowaphos and it works for me, I would start with a little bit, maybe two spoons for 20 gallons so the system is not shocked by phosphates being removed too fast, then change your phosphate removing media in two or three weeks. Slowly, the algae will die because the rowaphos takes the nutrients (phosphates) hope this helps and I didn't confuse you

 

[brad65ford]

carloschali, I agree having the algae in the display removing the phosphates is no different than having them in a sump/refuig IMO. Something else is a miss

I will post more pics of my 75g

 

[brad65ford]

Just a few pic's from the corner

Just a few pic's from the corner

Light just came on an hour ago they open up a bit more towards mid day.

 

[brad65ford]

I'll get some more pic's of the rest of the tank.

 

[carloschali]

You have said something that is obvious but I haven't heard before, we don't like algae in the show tanks because it looks unslightly, yet we have macro algea (more controllable) in our sumps to do precisely that, consume phosphates and nitrates, so the algae is not the problem, at least for your zoas. how many gallons?

carloschali, I agree having the algae in the display removing the phosphates is no different than having them in a sump/refuig IMO. Something else is a miss

I will post more pics of my 75g

 

[Jarred1]

Phosphates hinder coral growth...

 

[Zoalander]

I would run carbon and cut your feeding down to once a day.

 

[DEEC77]

What lighting and how old are your bulbs?

~Dee~

 

[Jarred1]

check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pha1h4ayCc

 

[brad65ford]

All that video did was make a statement the hair algea and macro algeas consum phosphate. Which is better? Most likely the one that's running with the light 24/7 (macro). If the water coluom is reading 0 whats it matter other than it looks ugly in the display tank. IMO algae is algae that's plumped through our system. So I really don't believe phasphates are my problem. I do think my zoas are starving from so type of nutrition be it may light, water column or direct feeding.

 

[brad65ford]

What lighting and how old are your bulbs?

~Dee~

T5ho 4 48" API bulbs. 1 month old.