[zachogden]

Story, then pictures. I set up this tank in October of 2016. For most of 2017 it was completely empty minus rock and a couple LPS during a terrible algae outbreak...cyano, diatoms, dinos, bubble algae, and GHA all at the SAME TIME. When 8 or so months of blackouts, water changes, and chemical treatments didn't work I decided to start restocking the tank and seeing if getting my nutrients up would help. I still have quite a bit of algae but it's receding every day.

Hardware:

- Marineland rimless 60 gallon cube (24x24x24)
- Trigger crystal 18 (20g) sump (18x18x15)
- Reef Octopus 110int skimmer
- Fuge w/ lots of live rock and some chaeto and home depot light fixture
- Radion Gen 3 Pro light @ 73%, blues 100%, white/red/green 10% but ramping up
- One MP40 in reefcrest, 20% overnight ramping to 70% peak
- Eheim Compact 5000+ return pump (I think...the label on the pump is gone)
- ReefKeeper Lite controlling heaters, dosers, ATO, fuge light, return pump

Vitals:

SG: 1.025
Temp: 78F
Ca: 430 (target 415)
Alk: 163ppm (target 160ppm)
Mg: 1350 (target 1300)
NO3: 1ppm (target 5)
PO4: 0/unreadable (target 0.05ppm)
PAR: Estimated ~200 at 12", 134 at 18" where most SPS are, 89 at sandbed. Slowly ramping with target of 200 @ 18"

Livestock:

- Female leopard wrasse
- Red fairy wrasse (unk m/f)
- African flameback angel
- Royal gramma
- Perc. Clown x 2

Corals:

--> Montipora
- Red capricornis
- Green cap
- Purple cap

--> Acropora
- Approx. 15 pieces, 2 millepora, otherwise species/lineage unknown

--> Seriatopora
- 2 types of green birdnest

--> Stylophora
- Neon green, unk name

--> Other
- Some sort of brown and green SPS, possibly cyphastrea. Can't get it to color up.

--> Acanthastrea
- 4 Acan. lordhowensis
- 2 Acan. echinata

--> Other LPS
- Purple tipped frogspawn
- What I believe is some sort of lobophyllia
- Red/green favia (I think)

--> Other
- Blue zoas
- Green palys

Pictures:

I suck at taking pictures under the actual tank lighting (super blue) so I turned the lights to 100% all channels so the corals look a lot more pale than in reality. Excuse the algae as well...it's getting better, I swear!

Unk SPS from McPuff...purple/blue flesh w/ green polyps. Some sort of Acropora sp.

Neon green Caulestrea

Purple Acanthastrea Lordhowensis

Purple tipped frogspawn from Trop, just grew a second head

The girls + cyano jungle

Unknown acropora.

Flameback guarding an acan. echinata also from Trop

Red/green acan lord probably in too much flow

What I believe is a favia from Trop...has survived 2 tank explosions on a previous system

front view

left side view

electronics panel (WIP)

sump

If you ever learn anything from me, it's this: I ran 0 nitrates/0 phosphates for almost a year in a completely fallow, blacked out tank and the entire thing was covered in every algae imaginable. It was not until I got my nitrates to 1ppm and my phosphates detectable (still "0" on my test kit but has a small color change) that the algae started receding. I also spent quite a bit of time blowing out the rocks and vacuuming the sand bed to free detritus into the water column where it can be skimmed out or make its way into the fuge.

 

[zachogden]

Started a fluconazole treatment today to try and get rid of the hair algae. It might be hard to see in the pictures but my cyano is actually clinging to clumps of GHA on the rocks. The cyano on the sand has been getting better since I started vacuuming all the nasty crap out of it over the last month. Supposedly it takes around 21 days to fully kill GHA but I'm already seeing small chunks of it fly off the rocks. I've been wondering if the cyano has been choking out the GHA and feeding off of it...hopefully directly attacking the nutrient source (GHA) while continuing to blow out the rocks and vacuum the sand will allow me to get those nutrients exported before the return to the algae cycle

 

[McPuff]

Don't be afraid to scrub the rocks with a toothbrush. This can be a very effective way to get rid of GHA. Cyano is more stubborn as you are aware. I am facing a similar issue right now with that garbage. Will probably nuke it with chemi clean, but this time I'll have microbacter on hand!

 

[zachogden]

Don't be afraid to scrub the rocks with a toothbrush. This can be a very effective way to get rid of GHA. Cyano is more stubborn as you are aware. I am facing a similar issue right now with that garbage. Will probably nuke it with chemi clean, but this time I'll have microbacter on hand!

I tried chemiclean twice and it did absolutely nothing except kill the head on my skimmer for almost a month, even with two 30% water changes. I used the liquid form which some folks say isn't as effective as the powder though so who knows. It's some sort of erythromycin which only works on gram+ bacteria and mine might be an atypical strain or not cyano at all.

I've been considering the toothbrush route and have one on hand for that purpose. I think I'll wait the 21 day fluconazole treatment period and make a decision from there. I'm just hesitant about pulling the rocks and damaging the corals on the rocks, though I suppose I could do it in a bucket or something.

We're 24 hours post fluc. now and still seeing small chunks of cyano and GHA flying off the rocks. My chaeto has also doubled in size this week (first growth in over a month) and I'm getting nice thick skimmate so I'm optimistic that a lot of the nutrients getting released and making their way to export

 

[McPuff]

No need to remove the rocks to scrub them. Cyano comes off so easily anyway that you don't have to use much force. The toothbrush also works well to "grab" the pieces so you can pull that stuff out of the tank. But then it's a good idea to perform a water change too and try to get as much of it out of the water as you can.

Chemi clean powder is all I've ever used. You have to make sure to take the skimmer collection cup off and also put the air intake hose underwater so it's not creating a ton of foam. I have found that leaving the airline above water (and making foam) the medication is MUCH less, or not effective at all. So this is an important point - do not follow the instructions on the medication regarding the skimmer as they do NOT work. Then, after the 48 hour treatment, you'll want to do a 25% water change and maybe add some carbon to try and remove whatever medication remains.

Also be careful to use the correct amount of powder as I have experienced a bacterial bloom that I attribute to overdosing (I used heaping scoops). I'm planning to dose my tank again, which scares me, but I've done it successfully a couple other times by using the actual recommended dosage and caring for the airline properly. Still, for this reason, I'll have mibrobacter on hand.

 

[zachogden]

Good tips, thanks. I'll give it another round at some point after the 21 days of fluconazole treatment is up. I accidentally overdosed a bit by putting more in my ATO reservoir, thinking it would balance with what the skimmer is pulling out. the ATO ended up putting in 2gal of fluconazole infused RO/DI, which had about an extra 20gal worth of medicine in it. SPS immediately got mad and one's flesh started sloughing off. Did a quick 3gal water change and everything's back to normal.

Currently on day 4 of the treatment and bigger pieces of GHA are coming off the rocks when I do my daily turkey baster routine. Cyano is continuing to come off in small pieces throughout the day as before. Nitrates are reading between 1 and 3ppm (vs. 1ppm pre-treatment) and PO4 is reading near 0.025ppm (vs. 0ppm pre-treatment). I'm interpreting this, combined with my macroalgae exploding and the skimmer pulling thick tar-colored skimmate, as the medicine actually killing the algae and nutrients being released into the water column. Good news so far.

 

[zachogden]

10 days into 21 day fluconazole treatment and things are still slowly improving. Nearly all the GHA in the tank is now gray/dead and lots of cyano blowing off the algae. Patches of algae-free rock are starting to show through. Skimmer still pulling out lots of thick sludge and macroalgae flourishing. Calcium and alkalinity consumption has also increased quite a bit (~50%), though in absolute terms in still low (1.2ppm Ca, 4.7ppm Alk per day) and imbalanced. I'm hoping this is a reflection of coralline growth as I'm not seeing any changes in coral growth or signs of abiotic precipitation. Also of note, NO3/PO4 both 0ppm which is new. Pics tomorrow

 

[zachogden]

Quick update:

Fluconazole treatment complete. Sandbed is now completely algae free and rocks are much, much better. Not completely algae free but 100x better than when I started. I had thought that the algae on the rocks was GHA w/ cyano and the sandbed algae was exclusively red cyano but based on the treatment results I'm thinking otherwise. I"ll work on getting some comparison pics this weekend, my new work schedule prevents me from getting good daytime pics.

I had one acro RTN during the first day or two (overdosed like a dummy) and a mille RTN immediately following the 30% post-treatment WC. I did a full test battery that showed a big alk swing (~160-~180ppm) following the WC so I'd imagine the mille didn't like that. The first acro is still alive (I think) and it's too early for me to tell how the mille will do.

 

[zachogden]

New photos post-treatment. Still bad at taking tank shots but the improvement should be pretty clear. Sandbed 95% algae free, rocks much better but still have some algae on them. Acans all starting to sprout new heads, SPS doing okay. Still ramping up my lighting (75% intensity, 100% UV/blue/RB, 10% W/G/R). Calculated PAR is ~200 at the rocks, 100 at the sandbed.

FTS (front)

FTS (right)

FTS (left)

closer shots

the mille in the last image looks dead but may possibly be still alive. I spot fed it today and saw some mesenterial filaments form. time will tell. my red fairy wrasse is also MIA since yesterday. it was refusing to eat for a couple days and looking kind of skinny. hopefully just taking a vacation in the sand