I need some help with sps

[pancake]

My current tank is a 180 with a 50 gallon sump and 20 gallon fuge.
lights: 3 400 watt mh 20k radiums( just changed) 4 t5 actinics(about 1 year old)
4 mp40s running NTM
rock 200+ pounds
calcium Reactor
Skimmer: MRC orca pro2
heaters and fans
RO and DI

I have had this tank up and running for a little over a year.
everything has been growing great I have a number of sps frags mostly and small colonies about 10 or so fish. the sps has been growing with great ply extension i probably had the tank up and running about 3 months before adding the first frag. I added a new trigger and was feeding a lot of food recently to keep him happy and get him eating and had a nitrate spike up to about 15-20. some cyano has now covered my sand. my corals showed their immediate dislike. The corals plyps retracted over the next few days to no extension. I did several water changes several times a week over the next few weeks. kept testing my water and showed higher than good levels so i took the water to my LFS and had them test and all params looked great. got some more test kits and now.

current test
nitrate 0.1-0.2
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
ph 7.88-8.12
temp 78-79
DKH 8
calcium 440
phosphate 0.2

my corals have gone from pissed looking to downright sad some have turned brown and 1 has started STN in a few spots. a couple of corals have just 0 polyp extension a few have turned brown. even the zoas have little extension. and the frogspawn looks sriveled
The cyano has remained.
I am at a loss on what to do at this time.

I have two theories that caused cyano and coral problems

1) my actinics have reached the end of their life and caused a cyano breakout and this is adversly affecting my corals.
solution: new bulbs on order
2) I caused a spike with my addition of a new fish and feedings. my levels are really higher than i think because the cyano is eating the nutrients.

solution: i am thinking of adding a reactor with carbon and GFO and slowly starting a biopellet reactor.
I know there are a lot of risks with the biopellets but i have to do something soon or my corals will surely die.

any help would be great thanks

 

[ff337]

I'm confident nutrients are causing this. I personally like gfo. I would start with one cup of gfo and 2 cups of carbon and change it out every week along with a water change. No more. If you strip the nutrients too fast likely you'll have a crash.
Your photo period especial the new radiums. I would have then on a max at 6 hours per day now. 5 to start.

Change socks every 2 days if you run socks.

I believe triggers arent reef safe. But some folks have them.

Cut back your feedings. Just because your fish eat the food doesn't mean they need the food.

Always, always, always make slow changes.

And keep your water parameters as stabile as possible.

Edit: What are you using to test parameters? With cyano I think your phosphates would be higher.

Edit: And I also like microbelift special blend. I use it twice a month sometimes every water change.

 

[ralph atl]

I'm confident nutrients are causing this. I personally like gfo. I would start with one cup of gfo and 2 cups of carbon and change it out every week along with a water change. No more. If you strip the nutrients too fast likely you'll have a crash.
Your photo period especial the new radiums. I would have then on a max at 6 hours per day now. 5 to start.

Change socks every 2 days if you run socks.

I believe triggers arent reef safe. But some folks have them.

Cut back your feedings. Just because your fish eat the food doesn't mean they need the food. (or more nutritiously beneficial)

Always, always, always make slow changes.

And keep your water parameters as stable as possible.

Edit: What are you using to test parameters? With cyano I think your phosphates would be higher.

pretty much agree....

 

[nholderried65]

I'm confident nutrients are causing this. I personally like gfo. I would start with one cup of gfo and 2 cups of carbon and change it out every week along with a water change. No more. If you strip the nutrients too fast likely you'll have a crash.
Your photo period especial the new radiums. I would have then on a max at 6 hours per day now. 5 to start.

Change socks every 2 days if you run socks.

I believe triggers arent reef safe. But some folks have them.

Cut back your feedings. Just because your fish eat the food doesn't mean they need the food. (or more nutritiously beneficial)

Always, always, always make slow changes.

And keep your water parameters as stable as possible.

Edit: What are you using to test parameters? With cyano I think your phosphates would be higher.

pretty much agree....

+1 on phos

 

[snowmansnow]

I would work in the GFO, but use caution w the bio pellets .. You'll read just as many positive as negative reviews on the effects.. IMO bio pellets are still "in development" and a risky proposition.

 

[schwaggs]

How did you get your nitrates from 20 to less than 1?

What is your sg and how are you measuring it?

What is in your fuge and how is it growing?

Need to get the phosphates down like the others have said. I'm surprised you got nitrates down but the phosphates didn't follow.

 

[pancake]

To get the nitrates down I started skimming a little wetter. And did about 100 gallons of water changes over the last two weeks. Started feeding every two days and reduced amount of food I was feeding. But the corals still look sick and the cyano remains maybe even increased.

I have calerpa and some cheato. It has been growing pretty steady. But not exploded. The chaeto is about the size of a softball. And the calerpa is the size of you head.

Sg 1.028 measured by refractometer.

Edit: Ordered a dual reactor today. Going to go by what y'all said 1 cup of gfo and 2 of carbon in one side.

Seeing what the thoughts were using bio pellets in the other side and start with a very small amount of pellets. And increasing slowly every two weeks. I would plump the return from the pellets into a t that my skimmer uptakes.

Thinking also of getting a swabbie skimmer cleaner to help keep my skimmer working to the max.

Edit: My corals have no polyp extension at all and the flesh has not come off like Atn. But has taken on a grainy appearance.

My red planet turned from green body with red polyps to red with green small polyps. Weird.

The only thing that looks good is my clam and my fish and anemone.

 

[pancake]

got my reactor set up today.

used only 50 gallons worth of biopellets. Im gonna take it really slow with this.

Do you think some thing could be coming in past my RO unit? I just replaced the carbon filters again and am going to replace the membranes when they come in. they have been in about 1 year so far.

 

[pancake]

Got my new test kits today. And changed out my ro membranes just to be on the safe side.

Salifert tests.
Phosphate 0.01
Nitrate undetected
Dkh 7.8
Cal 490
Mg 1100


Ph 8.02 ph probe
Sal 1.025 refractometer

Cyano still raging. What else can I do?

 

[ripped tide]

Bring up that mag!!! It's too low. With those numbers, there is an imbalance. Cyano will flourish if there is an imbalance.

I like keeping my numbers around:

Alk: 3.5mg/l
Ca: 420
Mag:1350-1400

Edit: Also, if you have cyano at the moment, and the po4 and no3 are that low, the pellets will feed the cyano.

 

[ralph atl]

dkh at 9.0 and >1250 mag

 

[pancake]

update.

After about 6 weeks I have some updates.
ph 1.026
calcium 450
DKH 9.2
MG 1350
Nitrate 0.02
Ph 7.9-8.2
temp 78-80.5
Iodide 0.01
Phospate 0.02

I have done every other week changes to the carbon and gfo reactor. and have been blowing off the cyano from the rocks and my sleeper goby has filtered out the sand. there is still a small amount of cyano still clinging to life but for the most part I have beaten it back.

My corals are still alive( not bleached. They show very small amounts of polyp extension and the Zoas are still cupped up and not spread out all the like they were before all of this happened. Fish are fine. My SPS are not looking near what they did before either. Any ideas on what could still be going on in my tank? this has been a frustrating couple months. I feel like its looking up but my corals say otherwise.

Thanks
Chris

 

[pancake]

Here is my tank

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[snowmansnow]

hey i didn't notice at first, but thats a LOT of light.. you may be baking the corals!

 

[pancake]

Here are the zoas

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Red planet faded

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[snowmansnow]

Hmm u know what...
It may b a lil trouble, but double check your DKH w another kit. My Zoas do that when my alk is off

B

 

[ralph atl]

Stonies will take time to adjust. Keep it up! Do large weekly water changes and might consider dosing vodka/vinegar...

Might even change GFO and carbon weekly.

Phates get absorbed in rock and sand until saturated, so you might still have leaching, albeit your numbers look good...

It's going to take time.


Lights and flow are perfect.

 

[ripped tide]

SnowManSnow;802827 wrote: Hmm u know what...
It may b a lil trouble, but double check your DKH w another kit. My Zoas do that when my alk is off

B

I think they will do that with any imbalance. I've seen them respond that way if the ca or mg is off too.

 

[pancake]

Thanks for the help.
All my parameters look good. I am watching the zoas most closely as I think that they would be the first to show recovery. So it still worries me that they are still cupped up.

Is there anything else I could be checking?

 

[heathlindner25]

they talk a lot about stray voltage on Rc, just a thought.