Corals dying

Hellybell80

Reefing newb
Morning all,

I need a little advice.
My tank had massive issues with algae which ice been battling with, with some help and advice from people on here and the lfs.
Parameters have been ok. Apart from the obvious false negative on my PO4, since I had algae.
I found a dead fish on the morning after noticing my clown fish acting strangely on the bottom. So fished out the dead mandarin and watched the clown. The clown got worse so I put him in a different set up incase he had got toxic poisoning from the mandarin.
Refreshed my carbon. Then all my fish started showing the same issue quite quickly. So I did a 60% water change incase it was toxic release. But still lost all the fish. Apart from the clown I had transferred out.
That night I found a type of sea slug of sorts lying in the sand bed i never knew I had (hitchhiker) . I did grab it with some tweezers to see what it was as it looked like floating plastic at first. It was alive.
The next morning I go down to the whole sand bed covered in dying bristle worms and other worms. Apart from my hermits everything was dead. Including my mushrooms ,acans and leather coral peeling away and rotting. So I do a big water change clean all the dead out.
After a couple of days I put the clown back in to test it as all parameters were reading good.
Hes doing fine and my zoas have finally opened after several weeks of being closed due to algae. But the toadstools half has rotted so will cut out the bad parts. And my acan is skeletal. With only a small part still fleshy. My Duncan is just covered in brown slime. (Probably disease due to stress)
20190630_221405.jpg
15623954145078588700974727012467.jpg
15623954503723208929788490965031.jpg
15623954779371161247114418565863.jpg
15623954993224589625002065499932.jpg
20190630_221405.jpg
20190701_064422.jpg
20190701_191526.jpg

So do you thing the corals will pick back up?
Obviously it was something toxic that wiped my tank out. Devastating.
 
Wow. Sorry you've had such a rough time of it. This hobby can be frustrating. I think if your parameters are all good the remaining coral have a good chance of making a recovery. Your hitchhiker slug may be the culprit of your wipeout. They can be quite toxic if excited. I had a friend that bought a sea apple and put it in his tank. It looked awesome. Then about a week later it stressed out killing all the tank inhabitants including himself.
If you are still battling algae you could try using a product named vibrant. You can find it on Amazon.

(https://www.amazon.com/Vibrant-Liqu...words=vibrant&qid=1565202208&s=gateway&sr=8-2 )

It is reef safe and everyone raves about it. I have used it on some stubborn bubble algae and to my surprise it worked great. Takes about a week or two but it will have you algae free.
Good luck. Wendell
 
Last edited:
Okay I haven't been on in years, but I have started (inherited) my 2nd tank (90 gallon) last year, so I'll take a stab at this. I know it's been a month, so if you are still here and still have a tank set up, could you post a brief status report on where you are at with the tank?
 
Okay I haven't been on in years, but I have started (inherited) my 2nd tank (90 gallon) last year, so I'll take a stab at this. I know it's been a month, so if you are still here and still have a tank set up, could you post a brief status report on where you are at with the tank?
Hi thanks for the reply.
Well after doing a 80+ water change after the massacre it all stabilised. My levels are all in good range. But my P04 is a little high at 0.1.
Which since I've still got a massive green hair algae problem its obviously higher then that but is just being taken up with the algae.
Last week I got a sea urchin (blue tuxedo) and a lawnmower blenny. Which had definitely helped.
Also two cleaner shrimp to help with any detritus. I've added some soft corals and a hammer and it's all been good so far.
I've added Lanthanum Chloride on a weekly basis, but hasn't worked so far for the algae.
So at the moment it's just the hair algae I'm battling everything else seemes to have settled after the main event.
 
Sure no problem.

So if I understand:
24 gallon tank. No nutrient export (out of the tank) other than water changes?
Any skimmers, sumps, canisters, filters, or anything else attached to the tank?
What is your water change amount and schedule now?
Livestock: 1 clown, 1 blenny, 1 urchin, 2 shrimp, some softies and a hammer?
All livestock appears happy, you just have a bunch of hair algae?

Do you have a current picture of the tank? (A single picture, straight through the front glass, same point of view an observer would have, would help give me some context with respect to the algae.)
 
I'm running a canister filter which gets cleaned every week alongside a 20% water change. Same as I've always done. I run carbon as well.
I use a surface skimmer at the moment as I'm struggling to find a good small protein skimmer for the tank,(been like that since I started it) as it doesn't have a sump and not worth setting one up. (Would have to drill glass etc). The pic is of it not as bad as the agae can be unless I remove it weekly. But it gets about 2-3inches a week. I cant get a clear pic tonight as its lights off time. But I'll get a pic in the morning.
Lighting is blues from 8am to 8pm whited 12pm-4am.
.
 

Attachments

  • 20190726_173000.jpg
    20190726_173000.jpg
    205.5 KB · Views: 289
  • 20190727_155323.jpg
    20190727_155323.jpg
    163.9 KB · Views: 311
Sounds like your water change and canister cleaning schedule is good.

Some things I can think of:

Blasting the rocks:
Also even if you aren't over-feeding now, the rocks could be releasing phosphate now into the water that they have been accumulating in the past. If so this will continue for many months. Before you do your water change (or if your canister filter is catching it anyway) you could blast your rocks with a turkey baster every so often to remove any detritus (waste/debris) that may be accumulating on them.

Reducing the light cycle:
It seems to me you have your lights on quite a long time (20 hours a day). Does the tank get direct or indirect sunlight at any point during the day? Is there a particular time range you would like your lights on for viewing/enjoyment purposes? I would consider dialing back the time the whites are on from your current 16 hours to 8 or 10 hours. You can leave the blues on for 12 hours. I'm not sure if your corals are used to your current light schedule so you could make this change slowly, maybe reduce the light 1 hour each week.

Adding a HOB (hang on back) skimmer:
I would take a little time to do some research on this. It sounds like you have already started looking. You can do some web searching and searching on other forums for reviews of specific skimmers. For example it seems like people like this one:
https://www.marinedepot.com/aquamaxx-hob-1-5-hang-on-back-protein-skimmer-w-bubble-stopper
and maybe this one might work as well:
https://www.marinedepot.com/aquamaxx-hf-m-hang-on-back-multi-filter-with-protein-skimmer

These are just examples. I don't have experience with either of them or the aquamaxx brand.
 
Sounds like your water change and canister cleaning schedule is good.

Some things I can think of:

Blasting the rocks:
Also even if you aren't over-feeding now, the rocks could be releasing phosphate now into the water that they have been accumulating in the past. If so this will continue for many months. Before you do your water change (or if your canister filter is catching it anyway) you could blast your rocks with a turkey baster every so often to remove any detritus (waste/debris) that may be accumulating on them.

Reducing the light cycle:
It seems to me you have your lights on quite a long time (20 hours a day). Does the tank get direct or indirect sunlight at any point during the day? Is there a particular time range you would like your lights on for viewing/enjoyment purposes? I would consider dialing back the time the whites are on from your current 16 hours to 8 or 10 hours. You can leave the blues on for 12 hours. I'm not sure if your corals are used to your current light schedule so you could make this change slowly, maybe reduce the light 1 hour each week.

Adding a HOB (hang on back) skimmer:
I would take a little time to do some research on this. It sounds like you have already started looking. You can do some web searching and searching on other forums for reviews of specific skimmers. For example it seems like people like this one:
https://www.marinedepot.com/aquamaxx-hob-1-5-hang-on-back-protein-skimmer-w-bubble-stopper
and maybe this one might work as well:
https://www.marinedepot.com/aquamaxx-hf-m-hang-on-back-multi-filter-with-protein-skimmer

These are just examples. I don't have experience with either of them or the aquamaxx brand.
My lights over all are on for 12 hours a day in total just a miss type :) 4 hrs of white and 12 of blue crossing over.so dark for 12 lit for 12.8am to 8pm blue 12pm-4pm whites.
Cant blast the rocks out side the tank as I seem to have Zoas spread in different places on them. And I do Turkey baste and target syphon the algae up, also use a tooth brush to get at it all.
I agree about the rocks leaching phostphate, I do believe when I added some new rock a while ago it was only growing on the knew so I knew it is leaching. So yea got a long wait on that one....
I'll have a look at those skimmers. The surface skimmer I use is pretty good catches and cleans an amazing amount out of the tank. But it's not a protein skimmer.
 

Attachments

  • 20190808_063757.jpg
    20190808_063757.jpg
    199.9 KB · Views: 322
  • 20190808_063814.jpg
    20190808_063814.jpg
    234.3 KB · Views: 300
  • 20190808_063746.jpg
    20190808_063746.jpg
    232.4 KB · Views: 366
Last edited:
Wow. Sorry you've had such a rough time of it. This hobby can be frustrating. I think if your parameters are all good the remaining coral have a good chance of making a recovery. Your hitchhiker slug may be the culprit of your wipeout. They can be quite toxic if excited. I had a friend that bought a sea apple and put it in his tank. It looked awesome. Then about a week later it stressed out killing all the tank inhabitants including himself.
If you are still battling algae you could try using a product named vibrant. You can find it on Amazon.

(https://www.amazon.com/Vibrant-Liqu...words=vibrant&qid=1565202208&s=gateway&sr=8-2 )

It is reef safe and everyone raves about it. I have used it on some stubborn bubble algae and to my surprise it worked great. Takes about a week or two but it will have you algae free.
Good luck. Wendell
I think you are right on the toxicity issue, that's what I believed happened. It's not something I would have added myself. But he still got in lol
 
Half a cube of mysth shrimp twice a week and literally a pinch once a day. I target feed everything in .y tank so less debris floating about.
 
Wow! That tank is awesome at algae growing. What, how much, and how often are you feeding?
The tank wasnt fully scrubbed as I have too much other life under it all. But it does grow an impressive amount each week. Luckily the glass isnt a major issue just the rocks.
 
I'm not sure how large a pinch is, or what food you are using, and unfortunately I'm not an expert on coral feeding (I usually don't directly feed mine at all), but if you are feeding your corals daily then you may be feeding them a lot more than necessary and it could definitely be contributing to algae growth. You could cut it back to once or twice a week and then do the water change the next day after one of the feedings. I think this is the change most likely to reduce the algae growth.

As for feeding the fish, I'm not sure how big your fish are, or how big the cube is, but 1/2 cube at a time might be a lot if the fish are small. You could consider 1/4 cube every other day. Clown fish are more than happy to eat as much as you'll give them and anything that doesn't go into fish growth goes right back into the water. Or if you stick with your current routine of half a cube twice a week then feed the corals the same day as one of the fish feedings and do your water change the next day.

Also a little variety might be good. For example I feed my fish this:
https://www.petsmart.com/fish/food-...water-multi-packandtrade-fish-food-18090.html

You can thaw and rise the food in salt water (or RO water) with a shrimp net before feeding (which is what I am doing), but I'm not sure if that makes much of a difference (and the metal part of the tool tends to rust).

If you stick with feeding your fish just mysis shrimp I would add a little flake or pellet once a week for some nutrition. (ocean nutrition formula one and new life spectrum marine are ones I use.) I would swap out one of your current frozen feedings if you do this. I wouldn't increase the total amount that you are currently feeding your fish by adding flake or pellet.
 
Last edited:
Sorry I seemed to have missed our a large part of the last message.
I use marine pellets and kind of hand feed the clown as hes pretty tame so not much gets away from him. The shrimp are quick at catching it too. The mysis shrimp is a small cube which I cut up and use a baster to target feed. Its rinsed off in salt water first. So literally most of the cube isnt used. As for the coral I target feed any that may need it with very small amounts of marine snow. Probably once a month.Again using a baster. And like you said I already change the water the next day after the snow. I'm very much a scrooge when it comes to feeding my fish :)
 
Sounds like you are doing everything right. Assuming the canister isn't causing any problems, you are cleaning it weekly after all, then the only think i can think of other than the passage of time is adding a skimmer. If you add a skimmer I would try and adjust it so it at least fills half the skimmer cup every day or two. You should probably have an ATO to keep the water level constant so the skimmer works consistently.
 
Thanks for the help Captain Ron.
I managed to eventually control the hair green algae somewhat. Unfortunately this gave rise to dinoflagellatus which happened so fast. In hindsight the mass of hair algae was taking any nutrients before the dino could get it and multiply. As soon as I reduced the hair algae it arouse on mass.
Managed to get a UV steriliser and started to filter the tank water through a very fine sock and put it back in. Raising the phostphate levels a little so the hair algae would grow enough to take the nutrients from the dino . As I was told to dirty the water a bit. I did this for 2 weeks and low and behold it worked :).
It all looked good. Then with in a few days I got hit be bryopsis. I had reached the stage where I was going to give up and just grow algae . But kept going.
Took the affected rock out and hand removed it. Took a while over several days. By then the phostphate had got to 0.5ppm hair algae had grown on mass and back to square one.......
So back to reducing the phostphate a small amount at a time. Lawnmower blenny is getting fat and urchin is doing a great job, but I believe that it's just to much for them to keep down.
I'm looking at a young fox face. I'm aware my tank is too small but I'm thinking that he may help the algae issue as in theory he should munch away.
I should have my 5ft tank up and running within 4 months. So either eventually he would go in there or I could sell him on. Not ideal but it would probably help with the algae in the short term. As I'm struggling to find anything else I can add that will naturally help control the algae.
 
Back
Top