Staaan's Tank Problem! HELP SOUGHT!

Staaan

Staaan

The Maaan
Alright guys.. I'm going nuts right now. I'll type this out....

So the problem?

2 days ago Sunday (5/1), after the LEDs were on for about 5-6 hours.. I noticed a good amount of my zoanthids, ALL my pulsing xenia, green nepthea, duncans, weren't opening.

Found that strange because..

I tested my water..

NO3 - 0
PO4 - .02
Ca - 380
Alk - 7 dKH
Mag - 1050

I also noticed that my (normally) glowing green slimer has become quite pale.

So that lit a fire under my butt (because Alk, Ca, and Mag are pretty low)... and I ran to CVS bought all I needed to create my own Alk, Mag, and Cal supplements.

Got home.. created my first batches... and after mixing and letting it settle

About 3 hours later I initiated my first dosing session.

The next day after dosing, Monday (5/2) the slimer started looking greener.. still on the pale side, but much better.


So...I started to think my corals not opening was because of light intensity.

Why?

My 2 australomussa (LPS), neon green candy cane, and ricordeas in the past 2 weeks have started to have tissue recession.. basically rapid tissue necrosis.
I put majority of the frags underneath an overhang in complete shade, which slowed down the tissue recession... but ultimately they all died. The most recent being one of my favorite australomussa frags.

Today, Tuesday (5/3).. I was planning on leaving the lights off for 2 days.. so I just came downstairs to the tank, to turn on the lights for a second just give everything a quick look.. and then turn them right off.

Upon inspection... I noticed my tiny small orange cap's tissue was gone, the frag looks like it was licked clean or dipped in bleach... its bright white and bony.
(Just FYI - the cap the day before was bright orange and had not one sign of RTN or anything of the like.)

And as looked around further I noticed this brownish slime covering almost every single xenia I have in the tank (and they are all in various locations in the tank).

It almost looks like diatom and cyanobacteria had a baby.

So after some googling, and searching on RC...

It seems that I may have Brown Jelly Disease...

And to make matters worse... as I observed the tank further on... I noticed I have planaria (red flatworms) which I know were most probably introduced from LR that was from my previous tank which has flatworms as well.

Is this something that happened because of the planaria? Or is it something else in the tank?

Just another FYI - 70% of the pulsing xenia in my tank I have owned for about 1.5 years... I received some new frags from a friend about a week ago but they were placed in totally different locations.

Now the more and more I think.. what could be causing this.

My salinity is a bit low 1.022 - 1.023, so I'm going to add some SW to my top-off to bring it up.

The only change that happened to the tank was about 2 weeks ago on Sunday (4/24), I did ~18g water change (I have a 46g Bowfront, so rather large WC) with a new salt (ESV Salt)... could it have taken this long for some kind of reaction to happen? Or was this just something that was waiting to happen?

Are the levels of Ca, Alk and Mag independent of this problem? Since majority of the "affected" corals seem to be softies?

I'm going nuts..

Here's a quick video showing each frag of xenia that has been "infected" or is not opening.

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Start with the basics
ck and recalibrate your refractometer
ck the tank temp
ck and recalibrate your pH probe
do a 10% water change
ck for any foreign bodies (ie anything that may have falling into the tank, or sump)
remove magnets from inside the system
Test for copper
 
i know the esv will not do this, as for brown jelly from your video that looks like brown jelly. If they xenia is dieing off then remove it, it will pollute the tank even futher.

Also check the rodi filters, run carbon alot and change it out every week.

Do water changes per week and ajust the cal and mag and alk with the agents in the salt.

If it does get bad i will hold the corals for you until you are back on your feet with some new ones attached to your rock.

I am thinking stan and I know this is going to sound crazy butttt IT could be the pellets.


I say this cause you have no bacteria in the tank right now or bio load. It is all new and you never run pellets on a new tank. I rember you saying that you ran the pellets in a reactor now / or are running them.

I would take them off and see from there. How is the skimmer is it pulling. Also check for stray voltage in the tank. Do you get a shock when you up your hand in the tank or is it a small shock.


Did you mix all the right ammounts correct for the alk and so on. That is why I use esv. Better off just using what ppl have used for a while then try on your own. I know you probly mixed everytihng correct and your levels are very good but something esle to think about.

Also run a polly pad in the tank. I do not think for any reason it is the lights. So do not worrie about that.


Please keep me and every one esle informed with the turn outs, and if you need help I will drive over on sat.
 
one your leds should be higher than 12inc it should be 24inch if not dimmable . you just killed all your stuff most likely because of your leds that to much par for the corals to handle and lps dont like alot of light. And 36led is way to much for a 46g 24 leds would have been fine. The green slimmer is pale do to to much light . The xenia, green nepthea, duncans are all low light lps .
 
Last edited:
batt600 said:
one your leds should be higher than 12inc it should be 24inch if not dimmable . you just killed all your stuff most likely because of your leds that to much par for the corals to handle and lps dont like alot of light. And 36led is way to much for a 46g 24 leds would have been fine. The green slimmer is pale do to to much light . The xenia, green nepthea, duncans are all low light lps .
Click to expand...

Batt... I had 36... I added 12 Blue LEDs for a 20,000K (cause I didn't have a dimmable drivers)... and now I have 48 LEDs 12" off the water... L M F A O.

I was contemplating hanging the lights higher... looks like I'm going to have to go 1.5ft higher... I'm friggin baking my corals... aren't I? haha. Thanks for the info man.. I appreciate it.

Just out of curiosity - where did you find that out from?

anthony27 said:
i know the esv will not do this, as for brown jelly from your video that looks like brown jelly. If they xenia is dieing off then remove it, it will pollute the tank even futher.

Also check the rodi filters, run carbon alot and change it out every week.

Do water changes per week and ajust the cal and mag and alk with the agents in the salt.

If it does get bad i will hold the corals for you until you are back on your feet with some new ones attached to your rock.

I am thinking stan and I know this is going to sound crazy butttt IT could be the pellets.


I say this cause you have no bacteria in the tank right now or bio load. It is all new and you never run pellets on a new tank. I rember you saying that you ran the pellets in a reactor now / or are running them.

I would take them off and see from there. How is the skimmer is it pulling. Also check for stray voltage in the tank. Do you get a shock when you up your hand in the tank or is it a small shock.


Did you mix all the right ammounts correct for the alk and so on. That is why I use esv. Better off just using what ppl have used for a while then try on your own. I know you probly mixed everytihng correct and your levels are very good but something esle to think about.

Also run a polly pad in the tank. I do not think for any reason it is the lights. So do not worrie about that.


Please keep me and every one esle informed with the turn outs, and if you need help I will drive over on sat.
Click to expand...


DrHarryLopez said:
Start with the basics
ck and recalibrate your refractometer
ck the tank temp
ck and recalibrate your pH probe
do a 10% water change
ck for any foreign bodies (ie anything that may have falling into the tank, or sump)
remove magnets from inside the system
Test for copper
Click to expand...

Changed out filter sock.. calibrated refractometer.

Wanted to hook up the PinPoint pH probe.. but I gotta go out and get AAA batteries... :lol:

I really don't think any "foreign bodies" got into the tank... no one goes near my stuff...lol.

I put in a little extra cal and alk into the ESV fresh saltwater batch to give my parameters a little boost.

Thanks for the tips and support guys.. I really... REALLY appreciate it.

-Anthony, I might take you up on the offer for some help! :lol: ... I'm going nuts over here.


Just on a side note...

Something that I find so freakin funny is that..

My previous tank (6g Nanocube), had no "advanced filtration" i.e. - protein skimmer & biopellets..

Just ran a sponge (mechanical filter), and just carbon (most of the time without even GFO) and my pulsing xenia and other various softies grew without a problem.

I really hope I can get what is unstable to be stable within the next few days.

I think I'm just going throw out the "infected" xenia frags before anything gets worse...

*Oh and I checked water with TDS meter.. still reading 0ppm. So its not that...
 
I have leds .Built my led my self did alot of reading for 8m on leds before i made my move to them and spoke to the owner at reefleds alot about them
 
Will Donovan? Yeah I spoke to him...he said it'd be fine... maybe he misunderstood something I said.

Really thanks though...I appreciate it.

Going to hang them up higher tomorrow.

1ft off the water now... how much higher you think I should go?
 
I don't know man... the biopellets have proved to be nothing but effective.

My huge diatom outbreak cleared up exactly 3.5 weeks after the biopellets were set up.. and the tank is crystal clear right now (in terms of algae, besides the brown jelly crap).
 
Dam man I hate when that Sh.. happens to me too.... When it happens to me it is due to new corals added to my tank or new chemical Im useing for the frist time.
 
stan the bio pellets just killed the cycle that is all im thinking it could be the leds and turning off the lights might harm the clam or not be good
 
Don't go crazy changing n taking stuff offline. Locate the obvious n easiest. The strong will survive. The weak will be stress even more and die quicker. Listen to all the advise and make reasonable choices.
 
Are you running you Led's at full power on the Blues and Whites? If So How Many MA are your Drivers rated at? That may be the Issue more so than them being 12" off the Water. Mine are right @ 12" and I have 115 Led's over a 48" x 24" area but only run them @ 750MA tops and 3 hrs of my total time Is from 0% to 100% Sunrise/Sunset.
You may just have them running full blast and If you have 1050MA Drivers or higher you may be burning everything, I would cut them down and shorten the Time they are on and see if that helps. JMO
Bill
 
batt600 said:
one your leds should be higher than 12inc it should be 24inch if not dimmable . you just killed all your stuff most likely because of your leds that to much par for the corals to handle and lps dont like alot of light. And 36led is way to much for a 46g 24 leds would have been fine. The green slimmer is pale do to to much light . The xenia, green nepthea, duncans are all low light lps .
Click to expand...
Batt's coral place is accurate as we had discussed this yesterday.

poolkeeper1 said:
Are you running you Led's at full power on the Blues and Whites? If So How Many MA are your Drivers rated at? That may be the Issue more so than them being 12" off the Water. Mine are right @ 12" and I have 115 Led's over a 48" x 24" area but only run them @ 750MA tops and 3 hrs of my total time Is from 0% to 100% Sunrise/Sunset.
You may just have them running full blast and If you have 1050MA Drivers or higher you may be burning everything, I would cut them down and shorten the Time they are on and see if that helps. JMO
Bill
Click to expand...

Both Bill n Batt IMO are on point with the leds. I'd go that route first.

Sorry Ant, the BioPell's arent going to kill bacteria as BP is just a carbon source limited to the reactor.
 
Plans for tomorrow..

-10g WC

-Raise LEDs higher (i'll go up another 6")

-Changing carbon in reactor

Hopefully that'll stabilize things somewhat.
 
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