My reef is dying

[neptune7]

Hi,

I am a little desperate. I have kept a reef aquarium (80 gallons) for 3 years. Started slowly with well cured liverocks. Life emmerged everywhere: mushrooms,fireworms, feathers dusters worms grew to almost 2 inches in that time, have a green anemone, polyps...and a few fish (total of 6 : 3 damsels, 1 big yellow tang, flame angelfish and a blue girdle angel, and one hermit crab. All those for at least 2 years. Then suddenly (over the last month) the feather duster worms died, than the polyps remained closed on themself. Huge quantities of brown algae started to grow, the caulerpa even disappeared! I made a big change of water (2/3 of the aquarium 4 days ago) but nothing seems to work. The algae are growing as fast, the rocks are covered with a brownish velvet with bubbles and now my nice and expensive blue girdle angel looks pretty sick. The ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are all perfect (at least that what my testing kit is saying...), temperature as usual 26°C. Any suggestions?

Neptune7


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[JohnO]

Hi Neptune7,

Just a couple of questions.

Do you have a DSB?

Do you do regular water changes?

I would check the water for Phosphates first and if the levels are highish would run some phosphate remover and also some chemi-pure or good quality activated carbon.

John

[reiple]

some kind of toxic poisoning? try running an activated carbon filter first. more importantly find the possible source especially if it's metal based! good luck dude.

[neptune7]

Hi John,

Water change: usually once a month 20 gallons but skiped a month (went to Galapagos Islands for a diving trip).
I'll test for phosphate early tomorow and run a new activated carbon cartridge asap.

Thanks for the advices. Ill keep you posted.

Sorry for my ignorance what is a DSB?

Pierre (Neptune7)

[Jay]

DSB Deep Sand Bed.

Jay

Good Luck.

[JohnO]

Pierre,

A DSB is a Deep Sand Bed, normally a sand bed that is more than 4 inches deep.

Running some GOOD carbon certainly will not do any harm but be prepared as I think you might find your Phosphates could be quite high which I think is causing the dinofalgellates ( brown stuff ) you are seeing at the moment.

Cheers

John

[neptune7]

John,
I do have a DSB (about 4 inches of crushed coral sand).

And I find high level of phosphates what is the best way to get rid of those?

Thanks again

Pierre

[JohnO]

Pierre,

There a a lot of Phosphate removers on the market.
Just get a granular type that you can put into your existing filter system. Don't expect immediate results though as it may take some time to have a visible effect.

Let us all know what the readings are and we can take it from there.

John

[Birdlady]

Hey there Neptune...how are you making out with the tank?

JohnO,
Nice call!!!

[Matt Rogers]

Ditto everyone else here.. something is feeding that stuff. In addition to the other questions, are your lights really old? In my experience, when the lights get old and shift spectrum, the nasty stuff appears.