My Green Slimer went from this...... To this..... PICS--Acro Help Please

[JDK]

Hope this is the righ place to post this.....Any help/advice would be much appreciated... System Specs are-


A. Total water volume ( Please include sump, etc.)
29 Gallon Biocube (rimless)

B. What are your parameters? ( CA, ALK, PO4,Salinity, etc.)
ALK-8.5
CA-425
MG- 1300
NO3- <1 about .2-.5
PO4- .04 (Hanna Checker)
Salinity- 1.026

C. Type of lighting. Please include age, watts, and bulb/ballast name.
AI Nano Blue LED- 4.5 inches from water surface
Light comes on at 11 AM ramps up to 90% all 3 channels W/B/RB over 180 mins. It holds there til 8 PM then ramps down to moonlights for 180 mins. Just today turned the lights down to 75% to see if it helps the lightening of colors. When colors were best I was in the process of acclimating the corals in question to the AI NANO LED and started at 40% and slowly increased.

D. Filtration method (Skimmer, GFO, DSB, etc.)
Aquamaxx HOB-1 Skimmer
BRS GFO in Reactor
BRS ROX carbon in bag place in InTank media basket
Chaeto in InTank media basket

E. What types of corals do you keep other than SPS?
Acans,Zoas,Palys,Shrooms, Cyphastrea

F. How long has the tank been running?
8 Months

G. What are you dosing? Dosing schedule?
BRS 2 Part Recipe 1
Bubble Magus Dosing pump both ALK and CA every two hours automatically spread an hour apart from one another.
MG every once and a while by hand
Every once in a while I will add some Salifert aminos and BA KoralColor
Also added some Dr Tims waste away the past couple weeks to help cyano on back wall (worked for me in the past)

H. Which brand of salt are you using?
Red Sea Coral Salt- NOT CORAL PRO SALT the regular Red Sea salt

I. What brand of test kits are you employing?
Salifert for everything except Phosphates which are checked with Hanna Green egg ULR checker phosporous checker then converted to phosphate.

J. What are you using for CA/ALK supplementation?
BRS Recipe 1

K. What are you using for flow? (Pump names, how many, placement, etc.)
Vortech MP10 on ReefCrest mode, Hydor EVO Nano 425. MP10 is on side of tank Koralia is on opposite side and blows behind rocks (just added the koralia this week) Plan on adding another Hydor nano 425 and placing it on opposite wall of MP10

For the Past couple months my acros colors have been fading with the exception of my Garf Bonsai, Neptune Blue Mille, and rainbow monti. Purple is holding well on the Garf and the blue is great on the mille and the rainbow monti looks better than ever. I am losing color primarily on my green slimer, J Fox Unknown acro, and Nicks purple green acro. Coralline algae in the tank is also turning white in the centers with purple edges. I am also experiencing retracted polyps on slimer (barely any) and the blue mille (no PE at all). Both the blue mille and green slimer used to have amazing PE about 2 months ago day and night and it has slowly faded about the same time the colors began to fade. One day the polyps were retracted and have not come out since. That was about a month ago maybe 3 weeks. There is no PE now at night or day. The garf bonsai still puts its polyps out but not as much as it used to.... it is definately reduced extension. I recently added 3 frags- Tyree Rainbow Stylo, Pink lemonade, Superman Mille that all are currently being light acclimated about 1/3 of the ways up in the tank. They all have good PE especially the Stylo. I feel like all this started when I switched from Kent Reef Salt to Red Sea Salt about 2 months ago began dosing with the bubble magus and running GFO in a reactor. A Cyano outbreak is what lead to the GFO reactor purchase. The only reason I switched salts was the CA was soooo high in kent and was much more expensive than the big bucket of Red Sea salt which had much more desirable levels.


Zoas, Palys, Acans all are growing and colored but the growth on the zoas has slowed down. Acans all show great extension on feeder tentacles.

Small amount of brown slimy algae and cyano on the back wall but none on the rocks or sand. Sand is very clean.

Here are some pics of the Slimer in question to help... Thanks again anyone who can lend some advice. I can not figure out what is out of whack.

Bali Slimer 2-3 months ago

Bali Slimer Now

 

[tmc1313]

My guess would be your lighting or the addition of the GFO or both. Lighting, I would say depends on what kind of lighting the frags came from originally (maybe halides). A 29 biocube is rather shallow and running the LED's at 90% only 4 inches from the surface was probably way too much even if the frags were started lower in the tank. Also, what were your phosphate levels before the addition of GFO? If you dropped them too fast this could make for unhappy SPS too.

 

[veloboy]

SPS love continuity and consistency. Always avoid sudden and/or quick changes. Your fading color and loss of PE could have been the result of too much GFO too suddenly as tmc mentioned. Also, you did not mention what percentage of the water was changed when you switched salt brands -slowly make the change. What about your tank temp. - consistent? Has the bubble magnus changed the dosing regime resulting in higher/lower alk levels?

I would start by lowering GFO amount and troubleshoot the rest from there. Remember slow and steady changes for SPS and only when absolutely necessary!

 

[Bugger]

Do you put your unclean hands in the tank alot. that can do it. the light appears to be over your bonsia. Which looks to have encrusted for many months. Did you ever think the slimmer is not getting enough light

 

[jcw]

Something is making that slimer sick. I have a bali slimer and I can't get it not to grow.

It almost looks like the undersurface of mine were it doesn't get much light.

Could it be pests? I have redbugs and my slimer is basically unaffected by it.

Any fish nipping?

 

[JDK]

SPS love continuity and consistency. Always avoid sudden and/or quick changes. Your fading color and loss of PE could have been the result of too much GFO too suddenly as tmc mentioned.

I use 2 tbsp of GFO in a reactor. BRS calculator suggest 5 tbsp but I only use 2.

Also, you did not mention what percentage of the water was changed when you switched salt brands -slowly make the change. What about your tank temp. - consistent? Has the bubble magnus changed the dosing regime resulting in higher/lower alk levels?

I have always changed 3 gallons every sunday since the tank was set up. Never more never less. When I had a small cyano break out months ago I did 3 changes in one week to helf fight it. Bubble magus has been the same. I raised the alk amount dosed once to account for a higher need but other than that it has been the same. Think I raised it about 3ml per day. It holds steady on both.

 

[JDK]

My guess would be your lighting or the addition of the GFO or both. Lighting, I would say depends on what kind of lighting the frags came from originally (maybe halides). A 29 biocube is rather shallow and running the LED's at 90% only 4 inches from the surface was probably way too much even if the frags were started lower in the tank. Also, what were your phosphate levels before the addition of GFO? If you dropped them too fast this could make for unhappy SPS too.

4 inches above surface is what the specs for an AI nano are. To achieve the par levels from AI that is the recommended height. My phosphates were high before I added GFO. That is why I added it. It was high enough to melt a few zoas and sps frags. It was at the peak of the cyano
outbreak which I successfully beat. If the drop in phosphates was too fast it was months ago. I actually stopped running GFO for about 3 weeks after I beat the cyano and nothing really changed.

 

[JDK]

Do you put your unclean hands in the tank alot. that can do it. the light appears to be over your bonsia. Which looks to have encrusted for many months. Did you ever think the slimmer is not getting enough light

I have put my hands in the tank recently to adjust things but I always rinse them thoroughly. This problem started well before I was putting my hands in more than usual. I have considered this myself.

The bonsai is in the highest light spot of the entire tank. That is what makes me think it is not a light problem. From what I understand garf bonsai likes a dirty tank. I feel like if my tank was too clean the bonsai would show before the others. The slimer gets tons of light. It is literally 3-4 inches away from the bonsai. The bonsai has grown and encrusted well since day one.

 

[JDK]

My guess would be your lighting or the addition of the GFO or both. Lighting, I would say depends on what kind of lighting the frags came from originally (maybe halides). A 29 biocube is rather shallow and running the LED's at 90% only 4 inches from the surface was probably way too much even if the frags were started lower in the tank. Also, what were your phosphate levels before the addition of GFO? If you dropped them too fast this could make for unhappy SPS too.

Phosphates were high befor GFO additoin but this was months ago. I had cyano and melted a couple zoas. I also had 3 frags RTN/STN on me from what I believe to be phosphates.


Frags in the pics came from 400 w 20K halides, Jason Fox's tank (halides?), and SunnyX tank. All high lighting tanks.

Lights are lowered now so we will see.

 

[JDK]

Something is making that slimer sick. I have a bali slimer and I can't get it not to grow.

It almost looks like the undersurface of mine were it doesn't get much light.

Could it be pests? I have redbugs and my slimer is basically unaffected by it.

Any fish nipping?

I am thinking not enough light before too much. I do not believe it is too much light. The tank may be too sterile but I just dont think the corals are bleaching. A rainbow monti 3 inches away is thriving. It would be bleached if it was a lighting issue I believe. I have considered it may be red bugs and am seriously thinking about the intercpetor treatment. I cant see any bugs but that does not mean much my eyes are not so good and I dont have a crazy macro lens to spot them. Considering intercpetor but I can only get the "soft chew" version not the tablets. I have heard mixed things about the soft chewy rectangle shaped interceptor. I am getting to the point where I just might try it.

 

[jcw]

I am thinking not enough light before too much. I do not believe it is too much light. The tank may be too sterile but I just dont think the corals are bleaching. A rainbow monti 3 inches away is thriving. It would be bleached if it was a lighting issue I believe. I have considered it may be red bugs and am seriously thinking about the intercpetor treatment. I cant see any bugs but that does not mean much my eyes are not so good and I dont have a crazy macro lens to spot them. Considering intercpetor but I can only get the "soft chew" version not the tablets. I have heard mixed things about the soft chewy rectangle shaped interceptor. I am getting to the point where I just might try it.

I have a rainbow monti at the bottom of my tank. Too high and it bleaches. My slimer on the other hand is growing within a couple inches of the surface.

Best way i've found to see if you have bugs is take a quality picture and mag it up. Then the bugs are obvious. Fwiw, my slimer seems immune to redbugs.

I used 1/2 the recommended gfo as well on my system and haven't had detectable phosphate for months. Corals started turning pale to white. I stopped it and the corals are still trying to recover. But again, my slimer was unaffected by all this.

I'm starting to suspect light as well.

 

[REEF SMAC]

I am thinking not enough light before too much. I do not believe it is too much light. The tank may be too sterile but I just dont think the corals are bleaching. A rainbow monti 3 inches away is thriving. It would be bleached if it was a lighting issue I believe. I have considered it may be red bugs and am seriously thinking about the intercpetor treatment. I cant see any bugs but that does not mean much my eyes are not so good and I dont have a crazy macro lens to spot them. Considering intercpetor but I can only get the "soft chew" version not the tablets. I have heard mixed things about the soft chewy rectangle shaped interceptor. I am getting to the point where I just might try it.

Just a thought.
I bought some ten dollar magnifying "readers" at the drug store. Works great you can see those little buggers just fine if they are there. Lot cheaper than that crazy macro.

That said, Green slimer seems like it is almost immune to red bugs IME. Last one to show any stress from them.

My rainbow and slimer are side by side and if anything, the rainbow seems to be more susceptible to bleaching.

What is Dr. Tims waste away? Some kind of antibiotic?

What kind and how much food do you add to your tank?

That slimer does look stressed for some reason. Like something or some change has shocked it. Might just need some time and stability to recover.
I can see why you would be concerned, cause that is a pretty tough coral usually.
Hope you can get this figured out.