My coral is dying

[tystxne1]

So about a month ago all the fish died in my reef tank have never really figured out what killed them. So when the fish started getting sick I took all the media out of the tank and started treating it with kick ick. I treated for about a week and then did a 30 gallon water change and added the media back in. I am having a really heavy algae bloom and the corals are not opening up and not looking happy. I have a canister filter and a wet dry filter with a protein skimmer. The tank is 70 gallons and the levels are pretty good the nitrate are at 5 the ammonia and nitrite are at 0, the ph is at 8.1, the phosphate is at .25. I know that there is something wrong I just can't figure out what. Oh I also have about 70 pounds of live rock in the tank

[Europhyllia]

how long has the tank been set up?

[tystxne1]

11 months

[Mr Cob]

if you were using Kick Ich you need to follow the instructions. It's a 13 day treatment. You should have only removed carbon....not sure what other media you removed but that could be your problem.

So...did all of the fish die? Do you have fish in the tank now? Did you stop treatment?

*edit, just noticed you did say all of the fish died...I assume you stopped treatment at the one week mark. How long has the system been running with oput fish? That's a problem too if you have coral.

I think the main problem for your coral is that you removed all of your media for treatment of Kick Ich. It's also a problem to run a coral tank without fish but you probably should not have stopped treating Kick Ich until you completed it's treatment because that would have helped to insure the ich was gone so you could add more fish.

Depending how long the tank has been without fish will determine in my opinion how long you wait before adding more fish. It would benefitial to wait it out so ich cannot reproduce...but that's like 4 weeks I believe.

[Europhyllia]

hm. how old are the test kits? what brand?
if there is a lot of algae they could be taking up the nutrients too.
Did anything die in your tank that couldn't get removed?

[tystxne1]

Everything was fine until the fish died there is a whole thread on that http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?67953-okay-i-just-woke-up-and-i-have-2-probems, but I didn't want to go into explaining the whole situation again. There also seems to be almost a brown slime going on in the tank. I did a water change and the water I pulled out was brown and I have never pulled that kind of water out of the tank before. I did the water change on Sunday and now it appears that the water is brown again.

[Texreefer]

if your phosphate readings are accurate, that is an absolute must to get under control as that is one of the main sources of you algae bloom... not sure what is in kick Ich, but you should NEVER medicate your disdplay tank. how long were your fish in there before they died? When you say corals,, what do you mean exactly. I think we need a better run down of your tanks history in order to give you any kind of meaningful help. in the mean time, carbon and large continuous water changes seem to be in order

[Europhyllia]

oh yikes. well you've really been through the wringer in the last few months!
I wonder what's causing the brown water. What corals are still in the tank and alive?

[Mr Cob]

I just used Kick Ich on a full treatment of over 350 gallons of water and loaded with coral. I removed carbon and treated this entire system. I did not lose one coral or invert. Kick Ich does not have copper and is reef safe. I spent a lot of time researching it before using it and if the directions are followed carefully it's a GREAT product. All signs of ich are gone in my system and the corals look great.

We had a bad outbreak of ich and lost a lot of fish but Kick Ich helped get things back in check.

[Mr Cob]

in the mean time, carbon and large continuous water changes seem to be in order

agree...especially if the water is brown as you said. You should also have all of your media back in line.

[Texreefer]

Thats Good Info Rob, Thanks!

I just used Kick Ich on a full treatment of over 350 gallons of water and loaded with coral. I removed carbon and treated this entire system. I did not lose one coral or invert. Kick Ich does not have copper and is reef safe. I spent a lot of time researching it before using it and if the directions are followed carefully it's a GREAT product. All signs of ich are gone in my system and the corals look great.

We had a bad outbreak of ich and lost a lot of fish but Kick Ich helped get things back in check.

[Mr Cob]

they recommend turning off the skimmer as well but I did not feel comfortable doing that so I skimmed SUPER SUPER dry, mainly kept the skimmer on to oxygenate the water. You can imagine how skeptical I was using it since we had thousands of dollars worth of coral at risk.

In the future....I WILL NEVER add new fish to my systems again whether personal or business related without proper quarantine and treatment.

[tystxne1]

I am sure that the test kits are right because I took the water to the LFS and they got the same results. I am not sure about the phosphate this is the only thing that they do not test for at the LFS, it is hard to determine with the liquid test, but I have been getting the same results for about 3 months and no algae blooms and since the fish died the phosphate have gone down to what I think is almost zero. I did have one damsel that died that I was never able to find. Also I am not even sure if it was ich that killed my fish, but the LFS said this was the only product that they would recommend to treat the tank if it was a parasite that attacked the fish. I only stopped one treatment short on the kick ich because I ran out and all the fish had died. It has been about a month since I stopped treating the tank with the kick ich and a little longer since all the fish died. None of my corals have died that just seem really unhappy my button polyps are not really opening up anymore and my hammer and frogspawn are just not opening up like the use too. I added a plate coral about 3 weeks ago and it seems the worst off, if anything is close to dying it is. The shrimps and anemones seem ok. I was thinking about moving everything over to my 120 gallon tank, with the eel, but not sure how reef safe he is since he is rather large. I will hate to loose my coral since I just lost all of my fish.

[Mike]

Could lighting be contributing to the algae issue? What kind of lighting and how old are the bulbs? Is if cyano? Is the water itself brown or brown on sand/rocks?

[Mike]

Unsure quantity or amount of corals, but could you set up a temp holding tank until you get things under control?

[Mr Cob]

I think you just need to "stabilize", get the system back on a routine. Do another large water change and run carbon.

As Mike suggested possibly cut your lighting back an hour or two until your system stabilizes. Once your system has been fishless for 4-6 weeks I think all of the ich would be gone. I'm not an ich expert though and as soon as you add another fish that has not been quarantined or treated with copper then the ich could be back in your system.

Your 120 would need to go fishless as well if you do attempt to be "ich free" since it's likely that you would at some point cross contaminate.

[FireWater]

Did you use the same media to go back into your filter system? Possible recycle of the tank? The description you are giving sounds like your tank is going through a cycle again.

[Mr Cob]

how about a pic of your water or tank? I'd like to know what kind of brown water you are talking about....seems to me like it's probably just a little discolored as a result of the cyano which could easily be controlled with the water changes, lack of fish and cutting back on the light schedule. Replacing old bulbs helps as well...you said the tank is 11 months. New bulbs might be in need.

[Mr Cob]

Did you use the same media to go back into your filter system? Possible recycle of the tank? The description you are giving sounds like your tank is going through a cycle again.

good catch

[justahobby]

I totally agree with Mr Cob that you need to get your tank stabilized. Get back to the very basics. Do regular, weekly water changes. Make sure your salinity is within target range and allow new SW to mix thoroughly with a good powerhead for 24hrs. Don't worry about feeding since you don't have fish. Your tank will correct itself with some TLC and more importantly...Patience

Don't add any coral or fish until your system has been running smoothly for 2-3 months. Research coral before you buy it. Plate Corals are better suited for advanced reefers.

[tystxne1]

I used new media and the metal halide bulb was changed about 6 months ago, but I have never changed the T5. Do you think it would be a bad idea to put the corals into the 120g. When I get home tonight I will take a picture of the tank and post it so you will have a better idea of what the brown algae looks like. It is almost stringy and hangs off of the corals and just today has started to cover pretty much the entire sand bed. Sorry it's just so frustrating to not know what is wrong with the tank, I just want to fix it.

[Mr Cob]

sounds like your system is going through a cycle as already mentioned. You could move the corals to the 120...is it suitable for corals though? Lighting, flow, salinity etc...no coral eaters?

[tystxne1]

The tank should be fine, but I only have florescent and t5s on that tank, so I thought I might just switch the lights around on the tanks and I don't think I will be able to move my shrimp over because I am scared that the eel will eat them, but other then that I think the 120 gallon tank will be fine. To be honest The 120 gallon tank has better flow then the 70g because the 70g is a bow front and can be a nightmare to get the flow set up correctly.