What am I missing? I thought I was a dab hand at reef keeping.

[Livingjewels]

To cut a long story short, I started keeping sps after setting up a calcium reactor, an few biopearls, and a bit of gfo.
Things was great and appeared really easy to muster, really good colouration, growth.. Thought I'd sit back and watch them grow..

In October 15 I finally caught a cold, I got a really bad, persistant dose of Dinoflagelletes which in all honesty has turned my tank upside down..

I'd tried blackouts and the like to try to shake them off but it never worked, all my sps discoloured and they went pale..after a while some have coloured back up perfectly, but others seem to have not recovered like I'd originally seen.

In order to get rid of the dinos, I was advised to try and get a bit of nutrient back in the tank,p in order to build some competition to play of the dinos.

I've now shook the dinos off, and it's been about 6 weeks since i last caught sight of them; however the corals that are in my tank appear to be struggling to come back to their former glory.

I'm not really doing much different, but the only thing is I'm battling hair algae and phos and nitrate are a little high 32ppm and 0.3ppm.

Acros such as my Bali slimer look fine.. Lovely long extended polyps...although it's colour is a little darker green and not as fluorescent.

I have a humilis too which looks less metallic green, and it has darkened/ shaded looking areas around its new growth coralites.

There's a weirder side to this too, I have varying montipora varieties which clearly show polyps but have underlying issues with its tissue.. I'm referring here to a rainbow monti.. It had a sky blue tissue with red and green polyps, now the basing layer is dark and looks like it's gone. There are orange polyps though so it's still alive.

There's a green plating monti which again was striking green, but now the basing looks grey and the green polyps can be clearly seen.

I run a calcium reactor, no enhancers like aminos, or traces..can anyone advise how you'd go about fixing my issues..
I'm obviously tackling the phos and nitrate hard to get them down, and Gha is starting to fall away everyday..

What else would you look at..?

 

[reefmutt]

I think you need to get nutrients properly in check before you do anything else.
What's your fish load like?
Sounds like most corals are just stressed form the roller coaster ride of the past few months.
Once nutrients and algae are under control, you see some corralline algae growing and things are stable, then start planning on future actions for the tank..
That's how I would proceed.

 

[Livingjewels]

I have quite a few fish, although my current stocking level is structured so that when nutrients are in check, there's enough life in the tank to support a sustainable a mound of feed going in to I turn support the coral life.
Obviously, I see where your coming from in reagards to over feeding a already 'over nutrient' abundant tank

I had Gha before and had to be quite heavy handed on the gfo to get ahead of the game..I'm trying to be careful on the other hand to ensure I don't shock my sps and strip it to quick...
The othe r thing I'm wanting to avoid is removing all phos and nitrate, I need to bring it down so I can manage nitrar around 5 ppm and phos 0.04 ish..

Do you think I'll see changes once they come down then?

 

[Piper27]

Make sure your potassium and magnesium hasn't fallen out of range, I have had trouble with montipora when that happens.

 

[Reef Frog]

.3ppm phosphates or .03 ppm? The former could have lots of bad consequences, especially in the presence of 30+ ppm nitrates.

 

[Livingjewels]

.3ppm phosphates or .03 ppm? The former could have lots of bad consequences, especially in the presence of 30+ ppm nitrates.

Yes they are at 0.3 ppm (I ran them longterm at around 0.08 ppm which I had no real issues with, infact fairly Good growth and colouration.)

My p04 levels have risen to the current 0.3 ppm since removing my gfo; I was advised as a way of introducing new competition against my Dinoflagelletes that I'd need to encourage some nutrients/ nartuatal alagae growth.

I've been adding gfo and phosguard frequently to soak up and take a hold on Gha growth in the tank. It's starting to go (fall off the rocks) but levels remain the same..

 

[kevlow]

I would start by doing some large water changes, perhaps twice weekly and see what happens. That would be your fastest form of nutrient export.

I would be wanting to know what was the cause of the high nutrients.

I do not see mention of a skimmer.

I wish you well. Dinos are horrible, I fought them years ago myself. If you got past them I am sure you can overcome the GHA.

Best wishes.

 

[Jim Z.]

It may take a while for your tank to recover full. I had a major tank crash this Summer and water changes are helping the tank recover. I was at 1ppm for phosphate and 20ppm for nitrate 3 weeks ago. The results of the crash were not pretty--dinos and brown hair algae everywhere. Remove as much of the algae as possible during water changes. You may want to invest in a skimmer as well. Potassium deficiency can be an issue especially for tanks that have a zeolite bio-filter and undergo heavy skimming. You can test for potassium to see whether or not that could be a problem. My guess is that potassium may not be an issue based on your current setup. Your high level of phosphate is the main culprit. With water changes and weekly changes of GfO, the phosphate concentration should come down to acceptable levels. Go slowly with your prescribed plan of attack and your corals will recover. Keep track of your alkalinity and calcium levels. You will notice that the level of these 2 components will drop when your corals have recovered enough to start growing. ..................Jim

 

[Livingjewels]

Thanks gents for the advice so far it's a big help getting some other people's thoughts.

I do run a skimmer, I have a bm c5.5, I connected a ozone to it last weekend ( not that that is the cause) I added it so I can remove some yellowing of my water. I only have it on low for a hour or so every 4 hours.

When I had dinos, I noticed they proliferated once a fresh batch of salted water got added, I therefore virtually dropped my water change regimen.
The green hair algae arrived once the bio pearl reactor and phos reactor got switched off.

Now the dinos have gone it's my challenge to get all phos and no3 back to manageable levels.. I have been in this situation before so kind of know what I need to do.

The last time I dealt with it I just added lots of removing media, in frequent hits.. Once I had levels coming back down, it literally went away.

My calcium reactor as you mention jim z is giving me fluctuations at the moment, like you say if they arnt growing the kh rises.. It had got to 11 dkh over a period of 3 weeks, I've since lowered it over time back to 8.4.. I have to keep my eye on levels whilst in this situation..

I'll give the potassium a looking at, I'm sure I'm deficient in something..you maybe right.