Will H.
New Member
Thank you all for your continuing advice. After alot of reading about Nitogen cycles I have finally got a food hold against that turf algae. The more I am learning the more i am understanding how all of that was my own fault. I did a serious cleaning in the begining of feburary (when i last wrote, see above), i cleaned all the equipment in the tank, changed the carbon filter, trimmed the chaeto algae along with a 30% water change. I did this becuase i couldnt figure out why the algae was growing so rapidly. Unfortunately after doing this not only did the algae grow more rapidly but i also started seeing cyno forming a thin film along the majority of my substrate. I was at my wits end and made a last ditch effort, If it didnt work i was just going to say enough with this hobby.
1st I did a better job cleaning my chaeto algae and removing the dead parts. I then took a tooth brush and brushed as much of that thick turf algae off of my rocks, in fact i brushed off every single rock in my tank. After much debate and no deffinitive answers from the sources i read, i decided to dispose of my extremely sick/probably dying spotted mushrooms (read previous comments, they had been retracted for over a month, and for the two weeks preceding this cleaning they actually had there mesenterial filaments expelled, a few of them were barely attached to the rock anymore). I questioned the possibility of mushrooms expelling their toxin while dying, i knew that they did when i added that pH adjuster in december, but i wondered if they could be doing this continually since. My main reason for thinking this was because my star polyps were completely retracted and had been so for about 2 weeks... since the mushrooms expelled there filaments. Thus I removed all but 1 very small one in the hopes that if i was wrong, that small one would heal, grow, and eventually reproduce. Since my rock work was in shambles from me scrubbing all of it, i decided that i needed to rearange it so that i could take PEGASUS's Advice and get a variety of snails (i did not have large snails because i knew that turbo's will destroy unsecured rock work. After doing this i glued my ricordea to the rock that previously had the green spotted mushrooms. I then did a 30% water change and called it a day.
2nd thing: The next day I noticed filaments of what would be the begining of a Cyno outbreak growing from the substrate. I began racking my brain thinking of what causes algae and cyno and how it could grow without it. I was considering writing on here again, but I was honestly embarrassed about my inability to get a handle on my tank and didnt want to seem stupid by asking everyone about it again. While doing that i read Silvarado61's Comment about "what type of test kits are you using". And it occured to me.... HE'S RIGHT! I can't have a constant ammonia level of .25 and have a Nitrate level of 0, if the ammonia is being broken down completely then i should be seeing some Nitrates, and that Algae cant be spreading unless there is more nitrate in the tank that it is currently consuming. ... I called my LFS and took them a water sample... My Nitrate was 120!!!!!! and i am assuming it had been this way for quite some time, which would explain why my mushrooms were only getting worse, and why my star polyps retracted. I also found out my Ammonia level was not .25 but a little over .50 . I reduced my feedings to 1 time every other day, I Temporarily quit feeding them the mysis shrimp and kept it strictly brine shrimp. (I read that if the fish eat more protein than they can use they expel the excess it through their gills into the water which would result in increased nitrates as it breaks down, and mysis has a significantly higher protien percentage that brine). Instead of the normal 10-20% water change weekly, (its hard to do any less than 20 as 5 gallons would be 20%), i did 2x weekly (Wed and Sunday). I also figured with all the cleanings i had done that month i must have done alot of damage to my Biological filtration, so i bough a bottle of Nitrifying bacteria (Nite-Out®) and i added more Chaeto algae to my Fuge to help with the Nitrates. Sure as shit not even a week later my ammonia was down to 0 and my nitrates were at 40. Oh ya i also added 1 sand sifting star, 10 astrea, 5 scarlet hermits, 5 regular small hermits, 1 Turbo, 5 more (for a total of 7) nassirus snails. Over the next 2 weeks My tank continued to improve significantly, my star polyps have began opening (not all, 1 one day, 3 the next, then 7, then 15ish, now theres about 25 open, every day more open). My ricordea mushroom which had three mouths very close together has almost completely devided into two mushrooms. My Miami Vice Zoa's are spreding (there are now 2 new polyps) and i no longer have any filamentous algae.
Now i know this update is long, i am sorry, its late and i have deleted and rewriten this 3 times now, so i also may have forgotten to put some of the info into this update but i think i got the majority of it (oh ya ... my pod population is crazy now, if i look closely at the spots left by the astrea snail where it cleans the glass, i can see the tisbe and tangerine pods eating the microalgae the astrea missed, atleast thats what i think their doing)
So My Current problem, I went on Vacation this week and i had a friend feed my fish every day, i taught her how to check my ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and phosphates, and how to feed the fish. Well Thursday she texted me pictures and i noticed THICK mats of Cyno growing on the rock by the mushroom, ontop of the starpolyps, and a corner of my tank. I had her check the levels, and oddly my Ammonia was 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, and phosphates 0. I also tested them when i came home Friday (yesterday, and sure enough they were all 0). I went ahead blew all the cyno off the Star polyps, moved them into a stronger current, cleaned off the mushroom, and moved it into a slightly higher low current, but away from that dead spot. I did the water change, rinsed off my carbon filter (which was NASTY) with fresh water and added another 30ml of Nite-Out® as i have learned through my last F up that i need to add more nitrifying bacteria anytime i clean or change carbon filters, or do a water change. I also moved the circulating pump to the back wall (although it is still blowing into the same spot as before) and changed the angle of the power head to hit the glass above where the dead spot was. I really cant figure out why this is happening though. Cynobacteria grows in the presence of Phosphates and Nitrates, I am using red sea tests for Nitrates now, but still using API for the rest (as they were new sets and i got the about same readings on the rest of the tests as the LFS got with the pH, Nitrite, Ammonia, and Phosphates. I do plan to switch to a diff brand after these are gone though). I am not over feeding as I only feed 1x a day now and no more than they can eat within 3 min. And i feed my corals only 1 to 2 times/ week. Does anyone have any ideas on how that Cyno bacteria could be growing so rapidly, and how i can rid myself of it. Everything i am reading is saying "maintain superior water quality" but im doing water changes weekly, and all my levels have been close to 0 for almost 2 weeks. . . . I'm having a hard time figuring this out. Thanks again for all your advice!
1st I did a better job cleaning my chaeto algae and removing the dead parts. I then took a tooth brush and brushed as much of that thick turf algae off of my rocks, in fact i brushed off every single rock in my tank. After much debate and no deffinitive answers from the sources i read, i decided to dispose of my extremely sick/probably dying spotted mushrooms (read previous comments, they had been retracted for over a month, and for the two weeks preceding this cleaning they actually had there mesenterial filaments expelled, a few of them were barely attached to the rock anymore). I questioned the possibility of mushrooms expelling their toxin while dying, i knew that they did when i added that pH adjuster in december, but i wondered if they could be doing this continually since. My main reason for thinking this was because my star polyps were completely retracted and had been so for about 2 weeks... since the mushrooms expelled there filaments. Thus I removed all but 1 very small one in the hopes that if i was wrong, that small one would heal, grow, and eventually reproduce. Since my rock work was in shambles from me scrubbing all of it, i decided that i needed to rearange it so that i could take PEGASUS's Advice and get a variety of snails (i did not have large snails because i knew that turbo's will destroy unsecured rock work. After doing this i glued my ricordea to the rock that previously had the green spotted mushrooms. I then did a 30% water change and called it a day.
2nd thing: The next day I noticed filaments of what would be the begining of a Cyno outbreak growing from the substrate. I began racking my brain thinking of what causes algae and cyno and how it could grow without it. I was considering writing on here again, but I was honestly embarrassed about my inability to get a handle on my tank and didnt want to seem stupid by asking everyone about it again. While doing that i read Silvarado61's Comment about "what type of test kits are you using". And it occured to me.... HE'S RIGHT! I can't have a constant ammonia level of .25 and have a Nitrate level of 0, if the ammonia is being broken down completely then i should be seeing some Nitrates, and that Algae cant be spreading unless there is more nitrate in the tank that it is currently consuming. ... I called my LFS and took them a water sample... My Nitrate was 120!!!!!! and i am assuming it had been this way for quite some time, which would explain why my mushrooms were only getting worse, and why my star polyps retracted. I also found out my Ammonia level was not .25 but a little over .50 . I reduced my feedings to 1 time every other day, I Temporarily quit feeding them the mysis shrimp and kept it strictly brine shrimp. (I read that if the fish eat more protein than they can use they expel the excess it through their gills into the water which would result in increased nitrates as it breaks down, and mysis has a significantly higher protien percentage that brine). Instead of the normal 10-20% water change weekly, (its hard to do any less than 20 as 5 gallons would be 20%), i did 2x weekly (Wed and Sunday). I also figured with all the cleanings i had done that month i must have done alot of damage to my Biological filtration, so i bough a bottle of Nitrifying bacteria (Nite-Out®) and i added more Chaeto algae to my Fuge to help with the Nitrates. Sure as shit not even a week later my ammonia was down to 0 and my nitrates were at 40. Oh ya i also added 1 sand sifting star, 10 astrea, 5 scarlet hermits, 5 regular small hermits, 1 Turbo, 5 more (for a total of 7) nassirus snails. Over the next 2 weeks My tank continued to improve significantly, my star polyps have began opening (not all, 1 one day, 3 the next, then 7, then 15ish, now theres about 25 open, every day more open). My ricordea mushroom which had three mouths very close together has almost completely devided into two mushrooms. My Miami Vice Zoa's are spreding (there are now 2 new polyps) and i no longer have any filamentous algae.
Now i know this update is long, i am sorry, its late and i have deleted and rewriten this 3 times now, so i also may have forgotten to put some of the info into this update but i think i got the majority of it (oh ya ... my pod population is crazy now, if i look closely at the spots left by the astrea snail where it cleans the glass, i can see the tisbe and tangerine pods eating the microalgae the astrea missed, atleast thats what i think their doing)
So My Current problem, I went on Vacation this week and i had a friend feed my fish every day, i taught her how to check my ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and phosphates, and how to feed the fish. Well Thursday she texted me pictures and i noticed THICK mats of Cyno growing on the rock by the mushroom, ontop of the starpolyps, and a corner of my tank. I had her check the levels, and oddly my Ammonia was 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, and phosphates 0. I also tested them when i came home Friday (yesterday, and sure enough they were all 0). I went ahead blew all the cyno off the Star polyps, moved them into a stronger current, cleaned off the mushroom, and moved it into a slightly higher low current, but away from that dead spot. I did the water change, rinsed off my carbon filter (which was NASTY) with fresh water and added another 30ml of Nite-Out® as i have learned through my last F up that i need to add more nitrifying bacteria anytime i clean or change carbon filters, or do a water change. I also moved the circulating pump to the back wall (although it is still blowing into the same spot as before) and changed the angle of the power head to hit the glass above where the dead spot was. I really cant figure out why this is happening though. Cynobacteria grows in the presence of Phosphates and Nitrates, I am using red sea tests for Nitrates now, but still using API for the rest (as they were new sets and i got the about same readings on the rest of the tests as the LFS got with the pH, Nitrite, Ammonia, and Phosphates. I do plan to switch to a diff brand after these are gone though). I am not over feeding as I only feed 1x a day now and no more than they can eat within 3 min. And i feed my corals only 1 to 2 times/ week. Does anyone have any ideas on how that Cyno bacteria could be growing so rapidly, and how i can rid myself of it. Everything i am reading is saying "maintain superior water quality" but im doing water changes weekly, and all my levels have been close to 0 for almost 2 weeks. . . . I'm having a hard time figuring this out. Thanks again for all your advice!
