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Congrats on getting the upper hand on the Dino!!!!!!!
You have some very nice frags.
Ouch! I think I can replace a few of the lost frags for you (or at least should be able to in time).Some basic maintenance today and found my holy grail T5 combo.
Dino's still gone, but tank seems to be going through a post-dinos case of the uglies.. I've got some branching algae that seems to sprout up everywhere. I don't see any runners from it, and it hasn't taken over. It's semi-slow growing and easy to manually remove. It seems like a type of Bryopsis -- It doesn't look like bryopsis, but my gut is telling me it's some species of this algae type..
Algae: In case it IS some slow growing bryopsis acquired from a frag plug somewhere I've been raising Magnesium -- I'm currently at 1700 mag.
Corals: So corals are holding weak colors right now. After 6-8 weeks of Dinos and me changing all the water params while killing said Dinos, corals became unhappy. What can you do, it's expected -- Some corals initially colored back up a tiny bit, but I noticed instead of my corals turning brown, they've begun to turn purple. The only thing I could find on this was potentially photo inhibition. Coincidentally, this issue began right when I added my reef brite fixture. So I turned off the RB to see what happens. The RB is okay, but it's not what I was looking for so no loss turning it off for a bit.
We'll see how the coral shapes up as time goes on.
T5 Bulb Combo: Finally found a bulb combo I truly enjoy -- in my 6x24 fixture, without RB, I'm really enjoying the color I get from 3 Blue+, 1 Coral+, 1 Purple+, 1 ABS. It's more than blue enough for me, the spectrum is nice and rounded out visually, coral color (while still unhappy) looks the best it has in awhile.. So i'm pretty happy with it.
And Sadly: Finally came to terms with the frags / mini colonies I've lost during the dinos. It was much more than I thought initially, as some of them were a real slow STN process... I ripped out the following;
- Mini colonies lost: Banana / 20k Leagues Lokani, Softball Sized Birdsnest (First SPS), Red Dragon, Green & Purple Aussie Table, 3 tone purple Aussie acro, GARF Bonsai
- Frags lost: 2x Sunset Mille, 2x ASD Rainbow Mille, JF Fox Flame, PC Rainbow, RRA Aussie Gold, WWC Red Shortcake, Strawberry Lemonade, 3x Green Slimer
The lost Mini Colonies were a complete loss -- Thankfully, the frags lost were just frags -- I still have the mothers of those corals, not that they're large mothers -_-
The list of stuff I'm doing to beat dinos is convoluted[...]
- Feed nutrients
- Dose bacterias
- Added Fuge
- OverfeedingJust feed the right amount for everything and try to be as controlled with the amount and frequency as you can be.....get an auto-feeder to help! (Eheim's is best IMO)
- CARBON (completely stalls my Sp. of dinos growth, allowing other stuff to out compete it)If anything, this is actually feeding the wrong tendency in your whole phytoplankton community.
- Reduced main lights from 8 hours to 4 hours, increased ReefBrite hours to make up for it.Not helpful to your corals at all, and not necessary vs the dino's.
- Turn off all flow -- Blow off Rocks/Corals 2-4x daily -- scoop out dinos by net
- Quick and constant replacement of polyfilter / socksI don't know if/how this will help. Diatom filtration or UV filtration may help.
what seemed to be a big game changer for me was re-establishing bacteria, running heavy Carbon
Dino's still gone, but tank seems to be going through a post-dinos case of the uglies.. I've got some branching algae that seems to sprout up everywhere. I don't see any runners from it, and it hasn't taken over. It's semi-slow growing and easy to manually remove. It seems like a type of Bryopsis -- It doesn't look like bryopsis, but my gut is telling me it's some species of this algae type..
Algae: In case it IS some slow growing bryopsis acquired from a frag plug somewhere I've been raising Magnesium -- I'm currently at 1700 mag.
Corals: So corals are holding weak colors right now. After 6-8 weeks of Dinos and me changing all the water params while killing said Dinos, corals became unhappy. What can you do,
0.1) Can you post a complete set of current test results?
1) Have either NO3 and/or PO4 been testing zero or near-zero a lot, or all the time?
2) The good you did in blue, thebad crossed off, and the comments in orange.
3) Actually no, it was almost surely the added nutrients. Can you be specific about what you were adding?
Unfortunately this situation is somewhat predictable. Fortunately, it's also fixable!
4) High-Mg is not a cure, even if what you are seeing is bryopsis, so I'd let Mg levels naturally return to normal. Posting a good photo of your algae for diagnosis would be very recommended.
5) Your corals are weak due to the 6-8 weeks of stresses mounting up on them, yes.....on top of the effects of the dino's and now algae, you've been kinda starving the tank, then you cut back their light source and forced them to start adapting to that as well.
6) Thankfully you've been feeding some and maybe dosing some liquid N and P nutrients to make up for it, but it sounds a lot like your tank is at least PO4-starved.
No reason this whole situation can't be turned around though!!! Let's see those tests!
So NO3 has been zero at least recently in the timeframe of the dinos/bryopsis/weird algae syndrome. Correct?
But you haven't had near-zero PO4 at all?
(Just to make sure I'm clear.)
From the current test results you're on the right track! But definitely get the extra bio-media out of there...and any other nutrient-reduction activity too.
Depending on how much of the load you think the siporax is carrying, I'd pull out 1/4 or 1/2 and continue to monitor both NO3 and PO4 closely. If all goes well, pull another 1/4 or the other 1/2 in a week or two, etc until it's gone.
Since you've pretty much confirmed it's Bryopsis, make sure you work this in with the overall treatment plan for that so your tank has a healthy rebound this time!
So after you dose, are NO3 and PO4 both still returning to zero by the time you're testing, or does the tank water have any of either in reserve yet?
Rakie,
I found ya!!!!!