What's happening!

[dtapke]

Red cyano outbreak for two weeks now. Was annoyed. Checked parameters had some phosphates. Figured I'd just let it ride. Did a water change 30% or so.

Cleaned some out the other day by hand. Still baffled where it's coming from. Checked parameters
Salinity: 35ppt
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 4
Phosphates .1

Figured perhaps my lighting was partially to blame as I just got the kessil controller and it seemed to start after that (see other additions below). So I brought the lighting way down, and mostly blues.

Today: favia 80% dead. One euphyllia looks bad.

All this happened this month. Birthday additions (8/7) include: kessil spectral controller. VorTech mp10 pump. And I added a small plexi partition in the tank.

I just removed the plexi partition. Because nothing else makes sense to me.

HELP!

23 gallon nano cube. Relatively high bioload of 1 maroon clown (2") 1 yellowtail damsel, and 1 bicolor blenny.

Tons (30-50) of baby snails appeared a couple months ago. Tons (like 30+) of tiny brittle stars. A few nassarius snails, 1 emerald crab

Three euphyllia, one looks bad across 5-10% of it today. Others look ok.

Two birds nest. Look good. Polyps out color good

One monti looks healthy

Cluster of 4 lord acans/micro

Several chunks of Kenya tree, several various mushrooms. 1 Mushroom looks better than ever today!

Has a tunze 9001 in the back. Hasn't been pulling much.






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[dtapke]

This looked "œok" this morning. Over the last week it had stopped eating regularly. It was getting brine/mysis every other day supplemented with reefroids. But today it went from a still colorful, yet slightly unhappy coral. To mostly dead. Like, in 12 hours.


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[mcgyvr]

Cyano happens....simply siphon it out during water changes and go lights out for 3 days every couple weeks till its gone...
Repeat as needed...

 

[dtapke]

I definitely get "œcyano happens" which is why when it first popped up about 2 weeks ago I kind of ignored it. Figured it would run its course, eat whatever it was feeding on, die off, and go away.

But now my favia looks dead... and I've got some signs of stress on my torches. That I'm not as cool with. And my parameters seem fine.

I don't run any charcoal or reactors of any sort. I've got some cheap carbon impregnated filter pad material should I throw it in there just in case I'm missing something?


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[mcgyvr]

Nothing you are missing...just the knowledge to attack it before it smothers corals...I usually let it do its thing right up until it starts fo encroach on corals... Then the siphon comes out and on the attack you should go..

Cyano can happy even with what seems to be the best of parameters

 

[dtapke]

I hate this. I had this tank for several years. Aqua cultured tons of coral out of it. Then left it. After re-starting it I feel like an Alzheimer's patient lol. I remember some things and don't do worth a darn with others. I never recall having a cyano outbreak like this before (after cycling) I'm still concerned it's from the plexiglass, the addition of more flow (had a hydor 425 before, now mp10) , or the different lighting schedule/color/intensity.

And I'm kicking myself in the *** for doing all those things at once too lol.


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[ROlympia]

I did also let it grow until it was covering everything but coral. I didn't do lights out. It took more than a couple months to go away but everything that it covered was algae free after siphoning.

Kinda wish it would come back for a month or so

 

[dtapke]

so, can i ask folks to confirm that the plexi would've had NOTHING to do with this? I'd like to put that partition back in place as it let me add an extra 2-3 gallons to the system, i'm just concerned it was leaking some bad chemicals or something even though i know it shouldnt. It was optix brand if that makes any difference to peoples opinion.

i'm also going to add that carbon impregnated filter pad into the system just in case. cant hurt right?

 

[dtapke]

i really don't remember the cyano actually ever "Covering" the coral. I siphoned most of it out, and I'm going to go lights out three days and see what happens. I also did a 30% water change. my ro/di shows 0tds, water tests 0 across all parameters freshly mixed (ammonia, phosphates, nitrates etc.)

it's just so annoying, everything had been picture perfect for the last few months, the tank has only been running since April. So i get that its still relatively new, but I already HAD a giant cyano outbreak!

 

[mcgyvr]

The plexi is not a problem..putting it back is totally fine

 

[dtapke]

So. Pulled the fungia, sucked out all the cyano, put the plexi back in. Put in a carbon pad. Bought a sweet chalice at my lfs. Two days later, and it's not doing well.

PH 8.14
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 2
Phosphates .1
Alk 9.5
Mg1400
Ca450




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[dtapke]

I said fungia. I meant favia.


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[Uncle99]

Your current parameters look fine, phosphate is a bit high, how many months have these same parameters been repeated.

 

[jlmawp]

Bought a sweet chalice at my lfs. Two days later, and it’s not doing well.

While in the middle of a cyano outbreak that is killing other corals? What did you expect to happen to it?

 

[mcgyvr]

So. Pulled the fungia, sucked out all the cyano, put the plexi back in. Put in a carbon pad. Bought a sweet chalice at my lfs. Two days later, and it's not doing well.

I think this is a good lesson in learning to have patience...
When experiencing "problems" its not a good idea to just go out and buy more corals...

Give the tank time to adjust/adapt/correct,etc...

 

[dtapke]

So I suppose that assuming that the cyano contact killing the favia doesnt mean that removing the cyano via siphoning is sufficient? Everything else in the tank was looking great after siphoning the cyano. my seriatoporas, euphyllia, caulastraea, Micro Lord's, Monti, Kenya tree, and Mushrooms (That all i got) and the fishes all look great. crabs, snails (millions..) stars, etc all doing great. I figured this was just a one off odd case of the coral getting inadvertently covered in cyano (which had been slowly matting the bottom of the tank for two weeks). meaning that once that was out of the way everything would go back to normal.

My water has been picture perfect for awhile. the only variance i get is slight bounce between 2 and 4 nitrates, and phosphates sometimes go between .1 and whatever the next lowest is on the salifert test (.025 i think?)

 

[mcgyvr]

So I suppose that assuming that the cyano contact killing the favia doesnt mean that removing the cyano via siphoning is sufficient?

Its very common for the cyano to return even after siphoning it out as typically whatever reason it was growing there is usually not solved by siphoning off the cyano layer alone..

Of course there are plenty of reasons that this new coral addition is not doing well that could be 100% unrelated to this cyano outbreak..

 

[dtapke]

seemed as though the cyano was about "done" when this happened. I'd removed chunks of it before when it was looking like it was going to separate from its blanket, and it wasn't regrowing in those areas. I haven't seen any returning yet.

are any of the cyano killing chemicals any good? I'm wondering if the slightly elevated phosphate could be the issue. phosphates always seem to be between the .03 and .1 on the salifert test. nitrates 2 to 4. I don't do anything to reduce either as far as reactors go.

 

[jlmawp]

Chemi-Clean works great if the directions are followed exactly. It did not return in my tank after one application, and the outbreak was...large.