Tank is crashing, help (long)

[Squado]

withing the past couple of days I have noticed that I am having cyano problems. I am forming a lot of red and blue-green algae. It is spreading all of the tank and now my sandbed is turning brown as well. My water parameters are as follows: Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, Nitrate = 0, phosphate = 0, calium = 480, and kh = 8, temp is 78, and salinity = 1.025. So last night I dosed the tank with a chemical called chemi-clean red slime remover(which I had used before and had success). This morning I got up and their are a massive amount of problems arising. My royal gramma all of a sudden (overnight) has developed white shades all over his body and a white ring around his left eye and is lookin sluggish while hiding constantly. The Ph when I got up went from yesterdays reading of 8.1 to 7.2. After realizing that the ph had dropped so much, I added proper ph into three glasses filled with my aquarium water and added it to the tank after turning the lights off. Withing five minutes my flower pot closed (has not yet opened in 20 minutes), my bubble is growing huge (not the good green though) and my mushrooms are shrivelling up and expelling a white long stringy substance from the center of the shroom. All corals are closed besides the bubble, the royal gramma looks really bad, and the rest of the tank members look fine (angel, inverts). The onyl difference I made in my mechanical pieces is that i turned off my skimmer (directed to by chemiclean) and placed an airstone in the tank to improve o2 levels. By the way, feather dusters keep opening and closing. I have no idea what could have happened as I have used both products in the past and had no problems whats so ever. Please help me as I am losing my mind watching all of these things change so rapidly. TIA.............

 

[roka64]

and placed an airstone in the tank to improve o2 levels.

This won't help in SW tanks. It causes problems with the fish's eyes. Hopefully some one else can be of more assistance here.

Have you retested the water since dosing? The huge drop in pH and then you dosing to make it go back up might be a factor and stressed the fish. Do you have any pics of the gramma?

Do you have a QT?

 

[Hara]

First, ph readings are always much lower in the morning then after the lights have been on for several hours. Second, you adding three treatments of ph up at once is too much at once. Ph needs to be changed slowly. You are stresing the tank out by overcompensating for what you are seeing.

Make sure that there is good surface agitation, siphon out the cyano and you need to start doing some water changes to get the calcium levels down. What are the Alk readings? They need to be in balance with each other.

 

[roka64]

Here is a more descriptive directions:
For best results, turn off UV sterilizer or Ozonizer and Protein Skimmer. Remove Chemi-Pure or Carbon Filtration for 24 hours following each treatment.

It is advisable to do at least a 20% water change after full treatment.

You must use an air stone when using Chemi-Clean. Place airstone in the aquarium prior to and during treatment.

* Removes disease causing red cyanobacteria (red slime) from live coral.
* Removes red slime, black, blue-green and bubble producing algae.
* Oxidizes trapped organic sludge and sediment.
* Clarifies aquarium water to crystal clear.
* Promotes ideal enzyme balance.
* Contains no phosphates, algaecides or erythromycin succinate.
* Safe for reef tanks, all invertebrates, desirable macro algaes, nitrifying bacteria and fish.
* Treats up to 300 Gallons.

Still not sure why they want you to add the air stone...I agree with hara, too much dosing, too quickly. PWCs are in order.

 

[Squado]

Thanks for all the help, I was skepitcal about using two products at once so fast, I guess I should lost it and triued to fix it to fast. Im gonna do a wate change today (need to get some water). Do you guys think that everything should be ok, whats up with the shrooms and what about the gramma. All of this happened literally overnight. Ill post some pics in a little when i have access to a camera. Thanks so much..........

 

[Hara]

Hard to say if everything will be ok. You have stressed them all mightily. Only time and alot of effort will tell now.

 

[Squado]

OK, its been a couple of hours and the corals have opened up and everything looks some what normal. The only thing that still looks kind of bad is the gramma. Is it possible that he developed ich over night? Is looks like ich besides the line around his eyes. Im doing a water change at about 9 o clock tonight (20%, want the water to aerate a little before I do it). If something was really bad would the corals still open up? They look like they did yesterday before all of this happened. Ill post some pics when I get back from class of the royal gramma. Thanks once again...........

 

[roka64]

Is it possible the RG scratched himself?

 

[melosu58]

it`s a little late now but just remember that instead of chems do some PWC`s and you`ll get more natural results.

 

[FishFrik]

I believe by dosing too much PH buffer, u stressed out the corals. Happened to me once and my shrooms did released some kind of stringy stuff from its mouth then sucked it back in once the water is stable again. Ur corals should recover

I don't know what's up with ur gramma. Maybe he swam to a "chemi-clear concentrated area"?

 

[Scoot]

Gramma's get white patches on them with poor water quality. Any time my Nitrates used to climb, or pH would get off of normal, he'd start fading to pale purple in areas, mostly on top of his head. Kind of like the canary in the coalmine.

 

[Squado]

Thats really interesting. Ive been fighting high nitrates for quite some time now, cant seem to kick them though. The first day that I noticed him like that, he had white patches all over his body (especially the face) and around the eyes. I mean my nitrates arent terrible (20) but they ahve been that way for a while now. I cant lower them, partial water changes (20%) every three days and nothing. The only thing is now he almost looks like the white patches may be truning into ich, not sure though. Thanks for the comment and if you know good ways to get rid of nitrate please help. Thanks.........

 

[demodiki]

Lots of LR/LS help to get rid of nitrates. Lower bioload/feedings. Diligent water changes and detritus removal.

 

[roka64]

You might think about taking out that bio wheel, when you have enough LR in the system....I would get some other opinions first...