Nothing good happens quickly

[chris89861]

I have to corals who appear to be falling apart (rapid tissue necrosis?) and a green growth up the base of my hammer. What do I do?

Context & Tank info:
My tank has been up for a few months without much incident. I did a 2 month shrimp cycle w/ live rock in blackout... some algae but nothing exciting there. I added a refugium (full of happy pods) with a ball of chaeto that I cut in half about every other week so there's still enough room there for water flow. I perform weekly 10% water changes like clockwork and have never missed one by more than a day or two. Current water parameters as follows:

Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite all very near 0
Alk - 6.5-7
Calc - ~420
Magnesium - ~1300
Temp: 78
pH : 8.3 night - 8.1 day (like clockwork)

Lighting:
Pictures attached for lighting routine

Flow:
Picture attached w/ powerhead schedule - return pump is set to 40% constant flow. I have to HOB E-Shoppe overflows, one flows to the fuge which returns to the sump (all gravity fed) and the other goes through a filter sock down to the sump. I have 2x MP40 powerheads in a 72 gallon bowfront tank with a Vectra M1 return.

I dose calc / 2 part every 48 hours to stay between 380 & 450 as needed. The skimmer (Octo 150) is tuned pretty lean, and is emptied once / week when I do water changes. I empty the mesh filter sock every 2-3 days once it starts getting clogged up. I've got a lot of pineapple sponges which I was told are a sign of good water conditions, but I'm feeling like something is wrong here.

 

[chris89861]

 

[Sk8r]

If you've got green growing you've got phosphate, no matter what the tests say, and corals don't like it---only plants do. Run GFO in a reactor changing media monthly until relief.

 

[Reincarnate]

If this green algae that your seeing is hard to remove then it's probably just a prelude to the purple Coralline algae that tends to show up in our tanks. I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point. As far as your corals go if your referring to the white areas along the base then my guess would be a fluctuation in your Alkalinity. Sps corals do not like it when this is bouncing around all the time. You might want to bring it up to about 8 and try to keep it stable.

 

[chris89861]

If you've got green growing you've got phosphate, no matter what the tests say, and corals don't like it---only plants do. Run GFO in a reactor changing media monthly until relief.

Thanks! I snagged a reactor and media from my LFS and have it running now. I showed them the pictures and they also recommended I use some chemi-pure in the sump while I ease into adding more resin. Reactor is about 20% full now at a slow tumble w/ no resin coming out of the reactor (that I can see).

 

[chris89861]

If this green algae that your seeing is hard to remove then it's probably just a prelude to the purple Coralline algae that tends to show up in our tanks. I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point. As far as your corals go if your referring to the white areas along the base then my guess would be a fluctuation in your Alkalinity. Sps corals do not like it when this is bouncing around all the time. You might want to bring it up to about 8 and try to keep it stable.

Thanks! I'm keeping my fingers crossed I'll have coralline algae soon, but I haven't seen the alk drop yet (been super stable) which I've heard is a precursor to getting coralline algae in.

The white at the bottom of that acro is RTN - and I just fragged the clean parts off and did a quick iodine soak before putting them back in the tank. Hope it doesn't spread to the rest of the colony. When I got it off the rock, a lot of the back side had already died off... just couldn't see it :-(

 

[RobZilla04]

Alk looks a bit low. 7.9-9.5 is better. The green stage could be irritating things as already mentioned. Use caution and don't go throwing tons of money and products searching for a miracle over night solution. As your title suggests, patience.