Getting discouraged

[rja]

So my tank (Biocube 29) has been up since last march. I am running into various issues. I had dinos for a second that went away. Bubble algae that killed a couple zoas. red cyano that also probably killed some zoas. I also lost a torch, two hammers, and 6/8 heads of a frogspawn. More recently one of my duncans started bailing too. virtually 80% of all my zoas have melted away. I do not know what the issue is other than maybe my params.

pH: 8.2
Alk: 7.0
Mag: 1170
Ca: 300

I try to do weekly water changes but i’m afraid of bottoming out my nitrates and phos. I use Coral Pro and do not dose anything.

How can I bring my tank back? should i feed more and do more water changes on an actual set weekly basis?

I actually beat all the uglies i think. Beat the cyano, dinos, bubble algae. So I do not want to give up yet because I think my tank is finally “ripe”

Please give me some advice.

I have 2 clowns, a firefish, 3 emerald crabs, 3 hermits, 3 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, and a conch if that helps. So my bioload is probably pretty normal for a 29g biocube.

 

[Bucs20fan]

So my tank (Biocube 29) has been up since last march. I am running into various issues. I had dinos for a second that went away. Bubble algae that killed a couple zoas. red cyano that also probably killed some zoas. I also lost a torch, two hammers, and 6/8 heads of a frogspawn. More recently one of my duncans started bailing too. virtually 80% of all my zoas have melted away. I do not know what the issue is other than maybe my params.

pH: 8.2
Alk: 7.0
Mag: 1170
Ca: 300

I try to do weekly water changes but i’m afraid of bottoming out my nitrates and phos. I use Coral Pro and do not dose anything.

How can I bring my tank back? should i feed more and do more water changes on an actual set weekly basis?

I actually beat all the uglies i think. Beat the cyano, dinos, bubble algae. So I do not want to give up yet because I think my tank is finally “ripe”

Please give me some advice.

I have 2 clowns, a firefish, 3 emerald crabs, 3 hermits, 3 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, and a conch if that helps. So my bioload is probably pretty normal for a 29g biocube

During all of these issues, what methods did you use to beat them? Did you use algeacides, dinox or other chemical treatments?

 

[Bucs20fan]

During all of these issues, what methods did you use to beat them? Did you use algeacides, dinox or other chemical treatments?

You probably lost the torch, hammers and most of the frogspawn to bacterial infection. Bacterial infections kill euphyllia really really fast.

 

[joefishtank]

What kind of light? I can't really think of anything that could cause all your symptoms so perfectly besides not enough par.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Im guessing its the stock 29 cube light. But that is fine for most all zoas, and lots of softies, torches and hammers would be happy in the mid high areas.

 

[Tamberav]

Numbers on low side...

What test kits do you use?

Do you test for nitrate and po4? You said you are afraid to bottom them out but didn't list any tests.

What is your salinity and what do you use to test salinity? Is it calibrated?

Your numbers are way off for advertised Coral Pro numbers. If you are doing regular water changes, I would not expect them to be this low, something seems off.

 

[Dburr1014]

+1 to tamberav
Numbers all low.

I also ask, how did you beat all the things?
Why do you think bubble algae killed zoas?
What are nutrients numbers?
How are you measuring sg? And is it calibrated and to what standards?

 

[nothing_fancy]

If this is your first system I wouldn't get discouraged. It is a bummer to lose corals and fish but it is going to happen even in the most dialed in systems. If you're asking about doing set weekly water changes I think you already know the answer is yes. Some folks can maintain larger systems with minimal to no water changes and there are plenty of novel examples of this in practice however in your situation with a 29g IMO I would start doing 10% changes weekly and test your salinity in the tank first and if your salinity is low, start mixing up salt in relation to that and bring it up. If its high bring it down etc. If indeed you have a bacterial issue this will help and you might even start with a larger water change at first. Check you sump section and clean that if necessary. Once a month media change and sump cleaning in my AIO works for me. Test your no3 and po4 and address those. Having some phosphate reducing media in a tank that size is probably necessary at this point. Frogspawn and Duncans are some of the hardiest corals around but in my experience do not agree with the use of algaecides especially chemiclean I would stay away from any of this stuff and deal with any algae blooms you get manually. Lastly, levels are low, after the water changes you might look into dosing something, easiest thing to dose would be AFR. After a month or so send out a test like ATI for example.

 

[Jekyl]

Agreed. Full list of parameters and testing devices will help out. Full tank shot with white lighting and what lighting you're using. Everything can be fixed and the first year in this hobby usually has dead loss as you did.

 

[rja]

During all of these issues, what methods did you use to beat them? Did you use algeacides, dinox or other chemical treatments?

Chemiclean for cyano,
dinos: raised nutrients
bubble: emerald crabs
now bryopsis which i can just manually remove

 

[rja]

Agreed. Full list of parameters and testing devices will help out. Full tank shot with white lighting and what lighting you're using. Everything can be fixed and the first year in this hobby usually has dead loss as you did.

thank you,
I use a kessil a160we at max 60% intensity for 11 hours a day. usually keep it almost full blue spectrum. I cannot provide a full tank shot currently.

 

[rja]

+1 to tamberav
Numbers all low.

I also ask, how did you beat all the things?
Why do you think bubble algae killed zoas?
What are nutrients numbers?
How are you measuring sg? And is it calibrated and to what standards?

Bubble just simply suffocated a couple frags of zoas. No3 is usually around 10ppm. I use a refractometer calibrated pretty much every time i use it to measure sg at 1.025.

 

[rja]

Numbers on low side...

What test kits do you use?

Do you test for nitrate and po4? You said you are afraid to bottom them out but didn't list any tests.

What is your salinity and what do you use to test salinity? Is it calibrated?

Your numbers are way off for advertised Coral Pro numbers. If you are doing regular water changes, I would not expect them to be this low, something seems off.

No3: 10-15ppm
i do not test phos unfortunately.

i use salifert for all tests. need to get a phos kit.

sg is 1.025 per hydrometer and refractometer.

i do not think i am doing water changes frequently enough

 

[Dburr1014]

Bubble just simply suffocated a couple frags of zoas. No3 is usually around 10ppm. I use a refractometer calibrated pretty much every time i use it to measure sg at 1.025.

How are you calibrating it? To rodi or a sg standard?

 

[Tamberav]

Have you tested newly freshed mixed salt for alk/ca/mg?

One thing that can happen with salt is it settles so if you just take scoops off the top, you can get incorrect parameters. Generally since nano's only change 5-10g at a time, you want to roll the bucket or bag around a bit before use.

Just a thought to rule out another thing.

How often are you doing water changes?

Do you have a lot of fast growing coralline algae?

 

[rja]

How are you calibrating it? To rodi or a sg standard?

1.026 sg standard solution. but i cross check with a hydrometer

 

[rja]

Have you tested newly freshed mixed salt for alk/ca/mg?

One thing that can happen with salt is it settles so if you just take scoops off the top, you can get incorrect parameters. Generally since nano's only change 5-10g at a time, you want to roll the bucket or bag around a bit before use.

Just a thought to rule out another thing.

How often are you doing water changes?

Do you have a lot of fast growing coralline algae?

i actually get my water from my LFS instead of making it myself since im only dealing in 5 gallon buckets. perhaps they went off of coral pro and went to instant ocean or something. if that’s the case, I have AFR i can add. I think my main problem is that i wasn’t changing water frequently enough. if i run into nutrient issues i will simply add another fish.

around the time i lost the torch my water changes were at a minimum.

if in fact i have some sort of zoa pest or disease how do i fix it?

my rastas are okay as well as utter chaos. the only zoas that died were from one LFS. i wish i dipped them but did not.

 

[Jekyl]

No3: 10-15ppm
i do not test phos unfortunately.

i use salifert for all tests. need to get a phos kit.

sg is 1.025 per hydrometer and refractometer.

i do not think i am doing water changes frequently enough

Start by getting a phosphate test. As long as testing and dosing as needed, water changes aren't that big of a deal. I've only changed water in my tank twice in the last year or so

 

[nothing_fancy]

i actually get my water from my LFS instead of making it myself since im only dealing in 5 gallon buckets. perhaps they went off of coral pro and went to instant ocean or something. if that’s the case, I have AFR i can add. I think my main problem is that i wasn’t changing water frequently enough. if i run into nutrient issues i will simply add another fish.

around the time i lost the torch my water changes were at a minimum.

Do the containers of SW from your LFS sit around for a while before you use them or do you mix them up and heat them prior to adding in? I used to get SW from my LFS too and I would let the jugs sit for a while before I would get to them. Even a week of still SW can cause things to settle in the bucket and make for a bad mix. This was something I found myself a while back before mixing my own salt.

 

[Tamberav]

i actually get my water from my LFS instead of making it myself since im only dealing in 5 gallon buckets. perhaps they went off of coral pro and went to instant ocean or something. if that’s the case, I have AFR i can add. I think my main problem is that i wasn’t changing water frequently enough. if i run into nutrient issues i will simply add another fish.

around the time i lost the torch my water changes were at a minimum.

instant ocean is not that low either. IO is all I use. It is very much a reef salt. Alk around 9-9.5 and Ca around 390 for IO.

They sell bottled phosphate and nitrate to dose but your no3 is 10-15 which is perfect.

You didn't say how often you are doing water changes but given enough time, alk/ca/mg can be used up. More so if you have heathlty coralline algae.

If you let them dip too low then decide to do a larger water change to make up for the missed time and say your LFS has a salt mix with an alk of 11/12 but your's is 7... you can see where I am going... we now have a parameter swing.

The time to buy a PO4 test kit, is now.