tank is going DOWNHILL.!

[tsmitti99]

Jess and my tank has been going downhill over the past month or so. There has been a steady growth of some sort of deep red prickly/fluffy algea that looks like a fern. It is on the powerheads, rock, and corals. Starting to smother things. As well some corals are dieing off, and the coraline is pealing off the back of the tank when it never has before. Anyone have a clue to what could be going on. I'll retest our parameters, but they typically are negligable.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you,

Tyler

 

[ade]

Is the coraline turning white also? Can you get a pic of the algea.
If you can post your parameters of you tank and supply water we can all brainstorm.

 

[NbMaxx13]

Definetly post a pic of the algae so we can get an I.D. and go from there...

 

[dadyoj21]

are you sure its algae and not red cyanobacteria?, your description does not sound like cyano, but if it is cyano it can spread rapidly and get out of control in a hurry if not combatted
either way algae and cyano both feed on phosphates and nitrates so I would attack with water changes and manual removal. I have had cyano breakouts and this is the only way i have found for effective removal. they do make some cyano removal chemicals but i have been afraid to try any due to the impact they may have on the system and corals.

 

[NbMaxx13]

Just a shot in the dark ... look like this? Dictoya ...

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=792701

 

[tsmitti99]

it's more fluffy than that thread's pictures. but it grows fast. looks like a head of deep red hair. the coraline is peeling, and minorly turning white. the parameters are

ph - 7.8 maybe lower
nitrite - 0
ammonia - 0
nitrate - 0
kh/alk - 7.2/2.57
calcium - 420

those are all of my test kits. i'll tds the ro/di water tomorrow

only thing different with the tank is I started dosing kalkwasser a month or two ago, stopped for a few weeks, then started back up. Also our halides are real old, so we ordered new XM 10ks to replace them.

that's all I have for now.

let me know what you think.

i'm going to post the pic in a second.

t

 

[AIMFish]

From the coralline I was gonna guess kh, just a little low there but the ph is low also. I've seen the red algae you are describing, it is like some type of red hair algaealmost resembles cotton balls. I'm growing quite the green forest myself but I'm moving my tanks soon so I'm not going crazy to kill it yet. I'm guessing that my ph is low also, something plants/algae would like due to the potential to hold more co2. I would say keep doing partials, manually remove that algae and get that ph up and see what happens, oh and post back!

 

[tsmitti99]

ok, i'll work on that. my camera battery is dead, and my lights just went out, so i'll take a pic tomorrow after class when the lights are on.

thx
t

 

[tsmitti99]

i was planning on switching over to pro-reef once i used up all the corallife salt, but i'll just go straight to the tropic marin and do 20%s every few days

 

[ade]

Not sure why your PH is so low when you are dosing kalk. How are you using the kalk? top-off? Your PH shoildn't be that low. I know that it is warm out but does your PH go up when the window is open. I have a big differance when I can get some fresh air into the room. With newer houses they are a lot tighter and IMO don't let the house breath. In turn getting a higher co2 build up within the house which will lower your PH.
Just a thought.

 

[tsmitti99]

I keep the windows and doors open, my apartment gets hot real fast when the tank light is on, so the a/c has to be running to keep the temp on the tank down around 80 w/ the fans running as well. I dose w/ topoff, but not consistently, there has always been ph problems, it has never gotten above 8, which I don't understand either when the kalkwasser should increase it since i'm dosing about a gallon plus a day into an 80 gallon system

 

[tsmitti99]

correction on that last post, windows and doors CLOSED.

 

[tsmitti99]

here are some pics.

 

[ade]

Looks like you have a bunch of different algea. Cyano, turf and others that I don't know the name of. Do you have any tangs or algea eaters? As far as what to do. Well for sure you can take out the power heads and scrub them and any rocks that can be taken out without a land fall. Cyano is a bacteria and fresh water maracyn will take care of that without hurting your reef or inverts. Just turn off your protein skimmer and after dosing do a water change and run carbon. Turf algea, well a emerald crab will hit that. You could also try true scarlet hermit crabs for the other algea they seem to do a great job.
If you take the algea out by hand try and suck up any floating algea, or take it out by hand when you do a water change.
My 2c.
Ade

 

[tsmitti99]

yeah, i need to put some elbow grease into it. my zoos are dieing off just on their own. things are bad when zoos stop growing and die.

what is maracyn?
should i chemi clean or is that just for the red slime...not the tough turfy crap i've got.?

i'm thinking the phosphates are high. my ro/di unit is streaming water out the blue line, not dripping it anymore. will phosphates cause a sudden explosion of algea when there have never been problems? or just the badly purified water if that is the case.?

 

[ade]

I think you have found the root of your problem. Need to change the membrane. Cyano is not just from bad water quality, it is also from changes within your tank, lights, heat ...... Maracyn is a broad spectrum antibiotic and is used for things like pop-eye and fin rot and helps with infection. Works great on Cyano also.
If your tank can not absorb the po4 then the algea will grow I don't think that it can happen over night.