Tank looking a little better

The tank seems to be a little happier today. Most of the coral have started to open up again which is good to see. Unfortunately, I believe the Asterospicularia Coral is dead because it was not on it's base when I came in. I'm wondering if a snail or something knocked it off. I kept the body of the coral itself in the tank for now just in case if just got detached but It's covered in sand and doesn't 'feel' alive. Bummer, that was a cool one. Also, I believe all the other SPS (aside from the Sylophora) are not going to make it because of all the water chemistry changes the past few weeks. They're pretty much completely white but I read not to remove them until algae grows on them as this is a guaranteed indicator that the coral has died.

Time will tell,

~ Keep on Swimming ~

Things are not well...

So the Dinos are pretty much all gone (woo) but I probably caused a tank cycle replacing all the filter media at once. I knew this isn't a good idea but I was hoping the live rock would compensate as a filter. But apparently, the filter was doing all the work because my water params are completely out of wack now (and deadly to the inhabitants). Gilbert, unfortunately, has perished.

Parameter

Value

Salinity

1.024

pH

8.4

Ammonia

0 ppm

Nitrite

0 ppm

Nitrate

160 ppm

Phosphate

.25 ppm

Calcium

340 ppm

Carbonate Harness

107.4 ppm

Alkalinity

6.1 ppm

Magnesium

975 ppm

Iron

.05 ppm

Potassium

440 ppm

Iodine

.06 ppm

      

       *Green*: Values are good 
*Orange*: Values are not ideal but are not bad 
*Red*: Values are lethal










Ugh, and all this before a weekend, too. I threw in some Algone yesterday to hopefully try and drive down the Nitrates and dosed some dKH buffer to raise the alkalinity a bit but still not enough to be a proper value. I really wish we were allowwed in the building over the weekends like the last building so I could check on the tank...

Hoping for the best.

~ Keep on Swimming ~

Battling Dinoflagellates

I've been battling a huge dinoflagellate outbreak for the past couple weeks; hence the lack of posts. They just popped up and exploded. I'm constantly siphoning them out and off the coral because it's suffocating them. I also had some cyanobacteria pop up but I think (read: hope) that issue has resolved itself. All the coral are closed, except for the plat coral that is about 80% open. My light is also not behaving properly; it doesn't seem to be throwing light like it used to as the corners of the tank no longer get light.

I believe I may lose a couple of the SPS coral. I did a blackout of the lights for 3 days to help take the dinos down but it didn't really seem to help. I noticed all my amphipods and copepods are gone which may have attributed to the dino explosion. I picked up 300 copepods to hopefully counteract the dinos and replaced the Purigen and Chemipure Elite. 

Today, the tank seems a bit better than it has been recently. I believe the media replacements have cleaned up a bunch of the phosphates but I'll have to test for this. I also didn't use the new Red Sea Coral Pro Salt my last water change as I have been using the past few weeks. Since I began using it my coral has not really opened. 

There may be an issue with the Koralia pump because it doesn't seem to be causing as strong a current as it used to. I may have to replace it.

I'm really hoping things begin to recover soon