Reef Discussion

[jashay]

gday reefers !

I am a little confused as to what is happening here with a few of my corals. as you can see there is some odd things happening and I dont not have a clue whats going on. the frogspawn was out and happy since I aquired it, I did move it from one spot in the tank to the other, just a little rearrange, it hasnt moved any higher or lower from the light and is in the same flow but it has retracted for a couple of days now and now has this bubble mucous looking stuff over it.
one of my other corals has also got this solid purple build up on it aswell which is different from the frogspawn aswell. any Ideas?

I know there will be questions of what the water conditions are like etc. and I have tested everything and all is normal, aswell as taking samples to the LFS, same results all in good parameter ranges. have been doing weekly water changes of around 10-15% so I am at a rather large loss as to what is going on. the other frog spawn I have is happy and out, heliofungia is fine aswell (these have been in the tank a lot longer). fish seem happy too.

any ideas?

 

[jashay]

the green algae looking stuff has only built up over the past couple of days since it has been retracted?

 

[Dr. Schell]

have you tested your water parameters, Phosphates? Carbonates? Silica? Looks like a diatom bloom. Hard to say much else without additional information.

 

[jashay]

hi mate,

yea all parameters are in a normal range, LFS couldnt find a prob either. no idea about silica though? I will go and retest all I can now and get back asap with results.

how would diatom blooms start and why after everything was stable?

 

[jashay]

ph - 8.1
temp - 25c
KH - 180ppm
NO2 - 0
NO3 - less than 10ppm
SG - 1.023-1.024

 

[Dr. Schell]

specific gravity is a bit low - I keep mine at 1.026. Do you use tap-water or RO water for top-ups. Only reason I ask is that tap water contains silica which will cause diatom blooms.

 

[Dr. Schell]

do you use natural seawater or synthetic seawater?

 

[jashay]

synthetic at the moment as my body isnt capable of collecting NSW and yea it is tap water that is nuetralised, salts added then left with an air pump running in it for atleast 2-3 days before use.

top up is a mix of neutralised tap water or distilled water bought from woolies. one or the other, not an actual mix up of the two

 

[Dr. Schell]

you may be introducing a nutrient in with teh tap water that you are mixing your salt with. That said, I also top up with tap water and just accept the diatom blooms. Strombs are FANTASTIC at removing the diatoms.

 

[firebird]

synthetic at the moment as my body isnt capable of collecting NSW and yea it is tap water that is nuetralised, salts added then left with an air pump running in it for atleast 2-3 days before use.

top up is a mix of neutralised tap water or distilled water bought from woolies. one or the other, not an actual mix up of the two

Jashay-how do you mean neutralised/ ? Prime or equivalent?.. having said this and I will probably get shouted down by all the RO/DI users out there- I also use tapwater as top up but I put it through a brita filter first so in a way is DI ( i don't care about going through filters this way as i need the same thing for some of my other animals) then I add Prime. i do use NSW though and only top up with the tap water. Haven't really had any problems doing it this way.

Are you also sure that the distilled water you use has not been distilled through copper pipes? need to make sure of this as apparently not good.

 

[firebird]

you may be introducing a nutrient in with teh tap water that you are mixing your salt with. That said, I also top up with tap water and just accept the diatom blooms. Strombs are FANTASTIC at removing the diatoms.

I read somewhere that anemones survive longer with tapwater top ups-in your experience is this true-(sorry to hijack Jashay)

 

[Dr. Schell]

yes, I have had my anemones for years. The reason that they say that they survive longer with the tap water is that tap water containse nutrients/minerals/trace elements that the RO water does not. In the aquarium, trace elements, minerals and nutrients often become depeleted via skimming, or metabolisation by organismw within the tank. If you dose your tank with trace elements/nutrients, etc that the organisms require, I would imagine that it would make little difference if you use RO water or Tap water.

 

[jashay]

hi firebird :)

nuetralised using a chlorine/ammonia etc. neutraliser. as for the distilled water that is a good question, I didn't think of that in regards to copper pipes.. will take a sample to get tested again.
I do have a couple of snails in the tank, not sure which they are theough, Matty might be able to pop up here :) I did the same with a brita filter for a while till the kids broke it...
not a hijack either, its all part of it ;) its good to learn these things that I dont know so is all good!
have to go out now unfortunately missus is crook as so will be back asap to try sort things out. diatom blooms arent to dangerous then? I think I need to work a way to collect NSW.

 

[MagicJ]

jashay , I looked at your pictures yesterday and was waiting to see what others said :). A severe case of hair algae, or something similar, can encroach on a coral and irritate it to the stage where it retracts and eventually dies. An alternative is that the coral dies, for whatever reason, and the algae grows from the nutrients being released by the dieing coral - this looks to be what is happening in your case.

I would remove the coral from your tank and clean off the algae etc in a seperate bucket of tank water - the water stream generated by a small powerhead can be useful in removing this stuff, just be careful it is not too strong. You can also use a turkey baster. You are trying to remove all the algae and any dieing part of the coral.

The third photo looks like cyno - I would also clean this off in the seperate bucket, it should come off quite easily if it is cyno. Cyno can sometimes be a sign of not enough water movement - you might want to look at increasing your turnover ;)

 

[Luke]

jashay , I looked at your pictures yesterday and was waiting to see what others said :). A severe case of hair algae, or something similar, can encroach on a coral and irritate it to the stage where it retracts and eventually dies. An alternative is that the coral dies, for whatever reason, and the algae grows from the nutrients being released by the dieing coral - this looks to be what is happening in your case.

I would remove the coral from your tank and clean off the algae etc in a seperate bucket of tank water - the water stream generated by a small powerhead can be useful in removing this stuff, just be careful it is not too strong. You can also use a turkey baster. You are trying to remove all the algae and any dieing part of the coral.

The third photo looks like cyno - I would also clean this off in the seperate bucket, it should come off quite easily if it is cyno. Cyno can sometimes be a sign of not enough water movement - you might want to look at increasing your turnover ;)

The Hair algae in the Pictures are usually a good indication of high phosphate , Maybe ask the LFS what he considers a safe zone for this ?
I know the one that Was near me said it was 1ppm and under :eek: , Which is far too high for coral and will produce lots of hair algae , Also if the LFS is using cheap test kits ( id say they are ) It wont be accurate .
What test kits are you using mate ? Still the API ?
I think some of it may be Cyno bacteria some Hair algae and as the doc said some diatoms , How long has the tank been running for ?
I also just read you haven't got a skimmer ? Take that into account and that your using tap water as top up / water changes, Id not take a lot of notice of the test kit your using mate .

 

[slin1977]

Hey mate,

I would avoid using the brita filter as this is a water softner device and removes calcium carbonates. I would not use distilled water too. Use your tap water and add your prime to neutralise chemicals.
Are you running a phosphate absorbing chemical? If so remove that for a week to see what happens.
It can take two weeks for coral to open after they have been moved around.
Also test for copper as this is a harmfull chemical that is used to purify drinking water.
All the best.

 

[MagicJ]

jashay , any updates?

 

[MTG]

How's everything looking now mate?

 

[jashay]

hi guys!

sorry for the lateness of this reply. I explained in the other post where people were wondering what happened.

anyways in regards to my tank, I did have some serious problems. one phosphates was a killer, massive high readings so I went to the LFS and got a product that I cant think of the name but it was a fine stone looking material that looked like zeolite but was dark brown, that went into the filter and within a week or so phosphate levels dropped bigtime and all hair algae was gone. unfortunately this was to late and I lost all of my corals, softies and lps.
the calcium levels have reduced considerably to around the 500 mark, I also bought a skimmer at the LFS with the phosphate remover and that has been working pretty well although could use either one more or a bigger one.

I still want to get a sump tank going but havent been able to organise this, it will need to run into a nearby cupboard to have one of any decent size or I would need to get one custom made that would be twice as high as it would long, cash is to tifht for this right now. I have considered using one of the storage containers from the likes of the ware house (like a 2 dollar shop) as I have seen these used pretty well in another system. once again time and coin is a prob but I am getting there.

on a positive my clowns have bred, not that I am hoping to raise the spwan it would just be a natural food source for what is left in my tank. the clowns, chromis and the new aneneome.

so from here it is time to rebuild the tank inhabitants, luckily my birthday is coming up and christmas aswell so I might be able to fill it quicker than I normally would.

hope everyone is well :D

jamie :D

 

[Agent M]

Looks like brown jelly disease to me, but I could be wrong as I haven't had the chance to see it very often. What does everyone think?