Weird tank issues

[ReefTron5000]

I'm having issues with my tank and at this point I need some troubleshooting help.

ISSUE:

For the last 3 or 4 weeks, my tank has not been doing well. I've got three main things that are very out of the ordinary:

1) I have air bubbles gathering all over the rocks and equipment. I've never seen this before. These do not seem like microbubbles, more like larger air bubbles.

2) Many of my corals look very unhappy. In particular, I have a blue Aussie torch that has always done well, extended and has been very happy. For the last few weeks it has looked very recessed. The tentacles look fat because it is not extending. Zoas don't look good. Fungias look terrible. Encrusting montis have no polyp extension. Other corals are doing fine like my largish chalice and my blasto colony. I even have a couple very basic SPS that seem to be doing okay with their polyps extended. The Aussie torch is obviously looking the most distressed just because its so noticeable when it doesn't extend.

3) I have some kind of light algae growth that is new.


BACKGROUND

Tank has been up for a couple years. Overall things ran fine, but not great. My corals were overall healthy but I didn't have great colors on my SPS. I also had an ongoing bubble algae issue that frustrated me.

In January of this year I decided to try some new things:

1) The main upgrade was to install a calcium reactor fed by a peristaltic pump. It took forever to troubleshoot but ultimately with forum help I was able to get it set up. Even though it seemed to me like I was using a lot of two part to keep my levels where I thought they needed to be, I found that with the calcium reactor, I only needed to have it just barely running. So I've got the flow at 30 ml/sec and the tank pressure is very low. Ph is like 6.85 in the chamber. This seems to be running okay.

2) I added more flow to the tank. Used to have just one large Icecap Gyre. Added a couple smaller powerheads.

3) Decided to try Vibrant to combat the bubble algae. I have only dosed twice, two weeks apart. The vibrant definitely affected the bubble algae. Weekly, I would be pulling out like 50 of the bubbles during my water change, but after using vibrant it mostly went away.

_______________________

Unfortunately, about 3 or 4 weeks after first using Vibrant is when I started noticing my weird issues. The first thing I noticed was the air bubbles all over the place. They won't go away with increased flow either. Like I said I have lots of flow in the tank but they are not dissipating.

I've been testing my parameters and everything is checking out. Nitrates and Phosphates are at 0. Alk is at 8 and calcium at 430. Magnesium at 1365. Salinity 1.026. I've been doing weekly water changes.

I'm so frustrated at this point. Seems like no matter what I do, I can't dial the tank in just right. After I finally got the calcium reactor up and running, it seemed like things were going okay. Then this crap started.

I should note that through all this all of my fish are perfectly happy. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[solitude127]

the start of cyano?
Can you blow the bubbles off?

 

[CNGH]

also looks to me like the start of cyano... which is pretty common after using vibrant, from my own experience and also from reading up on the various forums.

i didn't have cyano until after using vibrant. but to me it was worth the trade-off...it eradicated the bubble algae i had, and then took out the dinos that followed.

i was getting those air bubbles on my rocks, but not my equipment from some bright red and green cyano. the last month or so i've been brushing the rocks and doing large water changes (10%-20%) every week or two, and shortening my white lighting period, and i started uv in the display. i skim and use filter floss in the sump. it seems like the cyano is diminishing.

i also still do a maintenance dose of vibrant every 3-4 weeks.

 

[rorroreef]

the start of cyano?
Can you blow the bubbles off?

Hey mike, when you were little, did you blow bubbles?
Mike: yeah, as a matter of fact i did..
Well, he's back in town and wants you to give him a call.

Sorry, couldn't help myself. :headwally:

 

[ReefTron5000]

the start of cyano?
Can you blow the bubbles off?

I guess I don't know where the cyano came from if I never had it before? The only algae issue I had was the bubble algae.

Yes I can blow the bubbles off but they accumulate again.

 

[Daddi0]

I had bubble issues when I switched over to LED. In the morning there was no bubbles, then as the day progressed the bubbles would start to form everywhere. After a couple weeks they completely disappeared.
Cheers! Mark

 

[wishntoboutside]

I like the way you presented everything. The issue, the history and photos to boot. great job on that and those that are helping you now I will agree with.

 

[All Delight]

Looks like dinoflagellates. Suck some out, stir it up, put it in a container, if they are dinos they will congregate back together.

Bad news if it's dinos, they are a major pia to get rid of. They are toxic so if you have snails that eat it, they will die.

I had it several years ago, I tried micro bubble treatment, some other chemical treatment, neither worked. Mysteriously after a few months, it just disappeared. I'm not even sure how I got it in the first place, but it's one of the worse things to deal with.

Additionally, nutrients get sucked up and like yours nitrates and phosphates read 0. The longer it goes on, LPS and softies will bleach out, sps will get semi bleach get a translucent color and growth will be non existent.

Google dinos, you'll find a bunch of information on them. The difficult thing is there are different strains so what works for one person may not work for another. I believe the root of the problem with dinos is a bacterial imbalance.


Here's a good read on them.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2531708

 

[BeanMachine]

Weird tank issues

I've never had dinos but dosing good bacteria to combat the cyano works. Most recently I used MicroBacter7. I dumped a 12 oz bottle in over the course of a week and no more cyano. I have a larger water volume and honestly did not measure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ReefTron5000]

Bad news if it's dinos, they are a major pia to get rid of. They are toxic so if you have snails that eat it, they will die.

Okay this stands out. Slightly before when this started I bought a large clean up crew. I think I bought like 30 hermits and something like 10 snails. I forget what kind. Fast forward a couple weeks and I noticed that pretty much every single snail died. I noticed the snails deaths a few days after I first noticed the air bubbles everywhere.

So that sounds like dinos. What the hell man?

If I didn't have them before, where would they have come from all of a sudden? Did the bubble algae dying off cause the dinos? I'm so confused.

This sucks. I have the worst luck with tanks. I feel like I'm doing everything right and then boom some other issue to deal with.

 

[murphreef]

I'm going to second dinos..... I had a horrible experience stuf them too a while back..... same as posted above no clue how I got them and they finally just went away on their own but the tank did suffer for a while and threw other things out of whack, especially my dosing schedule due to the corals lack of growth then my alk spiked etc.

 

[five.five-six]

Looks like dinoflagellates. Suck some out, stir it up, put it in a container, if they are dinos they will congregate back together.

Bad news if it's dinos, they are a major pia to get rid of. They are toxic so if you have snails that eat it, they will die.

I had it several years ago, I tried micro bubble treatment, some other chemical treatment, neither worked. Mysteriously after a few months, it just disappeared. I'm not even sure how I got it in the first place, but it's one of the worse things to deal with.

Additionally, nutrients get sucked up and like yours nitrates and phosphates read 0. The longer it goes on, LPS and softies will bleach out, sps will get semi bleach get a translucent color and growth will be non existent.

Google dinos, you'll find a bunch of information on them. The difficult thing is there are different strains so what works for one person may not work for another. I believe the root of the problem with dinos is a bacterial imbalance.


Here's a good read on them.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2531708

What I was thinking. The issue with Dino's is there are a Brazilian versions of them and what works on one version won't work on others.

UV sterilizer kept mine down and it works for a lot of pepople but my UV seralizer was a cheeabo and ended up poising my tank. Ozone in my skimmer keeps them vanquished in my tank currently

The thing that makes me thingk Dino's is the low nutreants. Do the bubbles grow when the lights are on and dissipate when they are off?

Bring a sample to the SCMAS meeting and I'll bring my microscope and we can check for sure. Or you can give the sample to steve who has a better microscope.

 

[five.five-six]

I believe the root of the problem with dinos is a bacterial imbalance.

I believe it to be a lack of bacterial diversity due to the popularity of dry rock.

Back when everyone use live rock pulled from the ocean, you almost never heard of anyone with Dino's

 

[ReefTron5000]

The thing that makes me thingk Dino's is the low nutreants. Do the bubbles grow when the lights are on and dissipate when they are off?

Bring a sample to the SCMAS meeting and I'll bring my microscope and we can check for sure. Or you can give the sample to steve who has a better microscope.

No the bubbles don't dissipate unless unless I blow them off. Wish i could make it to the meeting.

 

[ReefTron5000]

I'm still very curious about where the dino outbreak came from if it wasn't an issue before. It had to have been the vibrant. Whats interesting is, like I said, I dosed vibrant twice, two weeks apart as per the instructions. After the first dose I noticed that it had a dramatic affect on the bubble algae. A couple of weeks later I did a follow up dose. It was a week or two after that second dose that I noticed this issue.

At this point, should I try Vibrant again or stop with that?

 

[All Delight]

Okay this stands out. Slightly before when this started I bought a large clean up crew. I think I bought like 30 hermits and something like 10 snails. I forget what kind. Fast forward a couple weeks and I noticed that pretty much every single snail died. I noticed the snails deaths a few days after I first noticed the air bubbles everywhere.

So that sounds like dinos. What the hell man?

If I didn't have them before, where would they have come from all of a sudden? Did the bubble algae dying off cause the dinos? I'm so confused.

This sucks. I have the worst luck with tanks. I feel like I'm doing everything right and then boom some other issue to deal with.

Maybe came from a frag or something you purchased from someone. Or something caused an imbalance. IDK...

 

[All Delight]

I'm still very curious about where the dino outbreak came from if it wasn't an issue before. It had to have been the vibrant. Whats interesting is, like I said, I dosed vibrant twice, two weeks apart as per the instructions. After the first dose I noticed that it had a dramatic affect on the bubble algae. A couple of weeks later I did a follow up dose. It was a week or two after that second dose that I noticed this issue.

At this point, should I try Vibrant again or stop with that?

I have no personal experience with Vibrant. From postings I've read it's good for some but not all.

If it is dinos do think upping the water changes helps. It's actually fuels dinos. I learned the hard way, lol. I started doing water changes every 3 days at 25%, problem got worse. Then I started to doing heavy research and found that was consistent with many others.

I still have some left over chemicals from a couple years ago. I'll go look up what it is. I did dose that and do the micro bubble treatment for a few weeks. It didn't hurt, but I can't say it cured it. However, I did stop the treatment because it was costing a lot money and it didn't appear to be "fixing" the problem. After stopping a few weeks the dinos went away without me doing anything. So did it just take a while....?

 

[five.five-six]

No the bubbles don't dissipate unless unless I blow them off. Wish i could make it to the meeting.

Bring a sample by this weekend, I'm in corona and we can post photos of what we find.

 

[five.five-six]

If I didn't have them before, where would they have come from all of a sudden? Did the bubble algae dying off cause the dinos? I'm so confused.

As far as we know they are just floating around in the air, it's not a matter of where the came from it's a matter of the conditions were right for them to flourish in your tank.


I'm sure you can find them in every tank and it's not a problem. It's when they bloom that they are a problem.

 

[fixmgood]

If it is the start of a Dino infection there is a huge thread on the other forum that will point you in the right direction. Dino's come in various strains,educate yourself because they are a major pain. I went through it so I talk from experience,be patient there is no quick fix. I dosed Dr Tim's Probiotic eco-balance bacteria which really helped. I still use it as a maintenance additive. If I can be of any further help please feel free to ask.