I have been fighting cyano and diatoms for a few months in my DT. Now I am also fighting popeye, fungal, and bacteria infections - and some ich. I have had to dispose of 13 fish and cannot find 3. I have not counted in a couple of days, but by the last count, I have lost many corals, not counting the small barely larger than frag corals. I need help and I cannot come back from another total system crash again. I am writing a summary of the past couple month's efforts.
The system has been up and running for about 1.5 years, a little longer if you count the rock curing. I have had a little over 30 fish in it since 2 Thanksgivings ago. About 660 gallons total volume in a 210, 240 rock fuge, 60 cheato fuge, 30 frag, and 120 sump.
Process has been to reduce feeding, do a couple small wc's weekly by vacuuming off the rocks and sometimes the sand, followed by blowing everything off with a pumphead so the wc gets anything left. I also added a phosban reactor back. The cyano started returning within a couple of days to start with, later lasting over a week before returning. I was gaining ground and thought I had about won for a couple weeks then it all started coming back again, only faster.
At this point I started a more thorough cleaning regimen on the rest of my system, starting by removing and swishing the rock from my 240 rock fuge in clean saltwater and storing in a separate tank for a few days, keeping the 240 offline. I added an ammonia alert dial and started dosing prime since I reduced my bio filter by removing the rock and taking the 240 off line. At this point, I noticed my ORP drop from the upper 300's to under 100 very fast, so I swished the rock off again and moved the rock to my sump and cheato fuge. The ORP came back up almost overnight. There were only minimal cyano and diatoms through this process.
By the following weekend, the cyano and diatoms returned again, so I did a little research and decided to try ChemiClean. I watched some videos, read the instructions, and took every precaution I found. I added air stones, turned off my UV, turned off my reactors, made sure I had a supply of clean filter socks, did a 20% wc, then added the ChemiClean a couple hours later. I ran the first dose for 4 days, did a 20% WC, then a second dose for another 4 days followed by a 20% WC. The second dose made huge difference in the cyano, practically wiping it out.
At this point, I started noticing some white "fuzz" on a few of the fish. I turned my carbon back on and replaced the carbon 2 days later. About this time I started losing fish. I was having no success at keeping my skimmer controlled at this point, which was expected. With the air stones and skimmer overflowing, the Ph had crept up a bit, but it was still well below 8.3 so I was not really worried too much. I decided to calibrate my probes and learned they were registering lower than they should have been.
The Ph likely got over 8.5, maybe 8.6-7 during the peaks each day before I realized they were out of calibration. I turned off my skimmer and all lights and started thinking of ways to drop the Ph. When the Ph did not drop back to normal over the next day without lights, I started to worry more. I have since reprogrammed my apex to shut off more than just the kalk doser at 8.35. The Ph still hit 8.43 a couple of days but it started coming down enough that my lights would come on for a few hours each day. At this point I turned off the carbon and started running Melafix since over half the fish had infections.
The Ph is now dropping to more historical levels for my tank and the lights are running their normal cycle.
I have pulled no less than 13 fish from the tank for disposal, some landed in QT and did not make it, two are holding up well in the QT with Metroplex. I am pretty sure the pajama cardinal that has survived in QT thus far is blind from popeye but is looking much better.
I have lost all hammerheads, all encrusting, some other sps, an some hairy mushrooms. My other softies are very receded and have algae covering all of the tips.
I have been testing my water periodically throughout this as well, and thus far the only one that has been alarming was the Ph. The Alk has jumped around a bit while the Ph was doing the same, but the but not too far outside normal or alarming. As of a few minutes before this entry, my water parameters are:
1.026 salinity - Milwakee
9.3 Alk, Hanna.
8.06-8.18 was today's pH, Apex probe.
403 Ca, Hanna
0.00 Phos, Hanna
1470 Mg, Seifert (I rarely check this)
0 Ammonia, API
0 Ammonia, Seachem Ammonia Alert dial
0 Nitrite, API
0 Nitrate, API
Alk is higher than normal but well within the normal Alk range online, I normally run in the low 8's. I attribute this to the big pH swings I was having, or vice versa
Ph is now in the normal range for this tank. Ph has been steadily dropping every day, so I am waiting to see what happens next. I put the tube back into my kalk today, so the pH should not drop much lower now that it is back to normal.
I certainly appreciate recommendations or suggestions. My build thread can be found here, the last couple pages are more details on this issue.
atlantareefclub.org
The system has been up and running for about 1.5 years, a little longer if you count the rock curing. I have had a little over 30 fish in it since 2 Thanksgivings ago. About 660 gallons total volume in a 210, 240 rock fuge, 60 cheato fuge, 30 frag, and 120 sump.
Process has been to reduce feeding, do a couple small wc's weekly by vacuuming off the rocks and sometimes the sand, followed by blowing everything off with a pumphead so the wc gets anything left. I also added a phosban reactor back. The cyano started returning within a couple of days to start with, later lasting over a week before returning. I was gaining ground and thought I had about won for a couple weeks then it all started coming back again, only faster.
At this point I started a more thorough cleaning regimen on the rest of my system, starting by removing and swishing the rock from my 240 rock fuge in clean saltwater and storing in a separate tank for a few days, keeping the 240 offline. I added an ammonia alert dial and started dosing prime since I reduced my bio filter by removing the rock and taking the 240 off line. At this point, I noticed my ORP drop from the upper 300's to under 100 very fast, so I swished the rock off again and moved the rock to my sump and cheato fuge. The ORP came back up almost overnight. There were only minimal cyano and diatoms through this process.
By the following weekend, the cyano and diatoms returned again, so I did a little research and decided to try ChemiClean. I watched some videos, read the instructions, and took every precaution I found. I added air stones, turned off my UV, turned off my reactors, made sure I had a supply of clean filter socks, did a 20% wc, then added the ChemiClean a couple hours later. I ran the first dose for 4 days, did a 20% WC, then a second dose for another 4 days followed by a 20% WC. The second dose made huge difference in the cyano, practically wiping it out.
At this point, I started noticing some white "fuzz" on a few of the fish. I turned my carbon back on and replaced the carbon 2 days later. About this time I started losing fish. I was having no success at keeping my skimmer controlled at this point, which was expected. With the air stones and skimmer overflowing, the Ph had crept up a bit, but it was still well below 8.3 so I was not really worried too much. I decided to calibrate my probes and learned they were registering lower than they should have been.
The Ph likely got over 8.5, maybe 8.6-7 during the peaks each day before I realized they were out of calibration. I turned off my skimmer and all lights and started thinking of ways to drop the Ph. When the Ph did not drop back to normal over the next day without lights, I started to worry more. I have since reprogrammed my apex to shut off more than just the kalk doser at 8.35. The Ph still hit 8.43 a couple of days but it started coming down enough that my lights would come on for a few hours each day. At this point I turned off the carbon and started running Melafix since over half the fish had infections.
The Ph is now dropping to more historical levels for my tank and the lights are running their normal cycle.
I have pulled no less than 13 fish from the tank for disposal, some landed in QT and did not make it, two are holding up well in the QT with Metroplex. I am pretty sure the pajama cardinal that has survived in QT thus far is blind from popeye but is looking much better.
I have lost all hammerheads, all encrusting, some other sps, an some hairy mushrooms. My other softies are very receded and have algae covering all of the tips.
I have been testing my water periodically throughout this as well, and thus far the only one that has been alarming was the Ph. The Alk has jumped around a bit while the Ph was doing the same, but the but not too far outside normal or alarming. As of a few minutes before this entry, my water parameters are:
1.026 salinity - Milwakee
9.3 Alk, Hanna.
8.06-8.18 was today's pH, Apex probe.
403 Ca, Hanna
0.00 Phos, Hanna
1470 Mg, Seifert (I rarely check this)
0 Ammonia, API
0 Ammonia, Seachem Ammonia Alert dial
0 Nitrite, API
0 Nitrate, API
Alk is higher than normal but well within the normal Alk range online, I normally run in the low 8's. I attribute this to the big pH swings I was having, or vice versa
Ph is now in the normal range for this tank. Ph has been steadily dropping every day, so I am waiting to see what happens next. I put the tube back into my kalk today, so the pH should not drop much lower now that it is back to normal.
I certainly appreciate recommendations or suggestions. My build thread can be found here, the last couple pages are more details on this issue.
Dan's 210 Build
Oh, and I forgot to add that I am jealous of your high pH situation. Mine hovers around 8 unless I add Kalk. I’d kill for 8 without a scrubber. Much less two part.
atlantareefclub.org
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. Hope that your hard work will pay off and that what you have left will recover soon. I feel your pain as we had some similar losses due to stress- although we know our cause. Everything you have done to fix seems sound and should help. Good luck!
