Sick corals help

[Frseanmaloney]

Hey everyone, I am relatively new to the hobby, but have moved very slow and very meticulously.

Until recently everything was going very very well. Then my wife and I had to be out of town for nearly three weeks. We were adopting a baby ( he is great!!!) The basic tank maintenance got done but very little else.

I returned home to find a wicked diatom bloom and a anemone and prism brain that looked pretty bad. after a couple weeks I was able to get the diatoms under control and returned the anemone to looking great! The brain, not so much. Can it be saved/what the hell is going on. Its almost like its melting?

I also have some sort of red hair algae growing. at first I thought it was coraline growing as I had just reduced the time my halides were on and it was starting to grow elsewhere. But then the hairs started to show up. How do I get rid of it?

Finally I had a great looking chili and in the course of epoxying him down he has stopped blooming entirely. He still expands and contracts but no blooms at night. He is pretty saggy. Just gone dormant, give it a couple weeks?

Just looking for some advise from some seasoned pros on all three issues.

 

[Smitty]

Hello and welcome to the site...glad to have you aboard. We would need to know more info on the tank...particularly the water parameters. For now, if you aren't already doing so, start doing weekly water changes of 10-20%.

 

[salt_for_brains]

Hello, welcome to the boards! Looks like you have a little cyano bacteria (red slime) issue. Regular water changes and directing some flow to that area should help. I would suck out as much as you can when doing your water changes. Without knowing any specifics on your water chemistry it is hard to say about your brain coral. The chili coral on the other hand is a fickle coral, IME. It likes shade. Give some more info on water parameters, lighting, etc...

 

[ErinCahir]

Congratulations on the new addition to your family!

If you could tell us how many fish you have, how often you are a feeding and how many powerheads you have, that would be helpful information as well.

Welcome to the site!!

 

[chichimom79]

Welcome aboard! That first picture looks suspiciously like dinoflagellates to me. What are your water parameters? How long are you running your Halides? What kind of water movement do you have (powerheads, etc..)? Are you running a protein skimmer?

The brain may be getting too much light. Try putting it on the sandbed in a lower light area for a while if it isn't too far gone.

 

[Frseanmaloney]

Thanks for the welcome everyone. I will try and answer all the questions

1) water parameters.

With the diatom bloom I was getting spikes of ammonia so I was doing 20% water change every three days. After that it settled down pretty good. 10-20% water changes on every Friday. Chemistry for the last couple of weeks has been very stable.

Salinity 1.026
PH 8.2
Nitrate 0
Nitrite. 0
Ammonia 0
Calcium. 440
Alkalinity 11
Magnesium 1350

Like I said numbers have been pretty stable. Ammonia never got above .25. I dose ph/ alk every 3 days so it can very from 8.2 to 8 and 11-9

2 inhabitants

Fish: 2 small clowns
1 blue fin goby
Pistol shrimp
1 flame angel
1 yellow tang

Corrals

Xenia
Rose bubble tip anemone
Prism brain
Chilli
Orange short tentacle plate

lots of snails and hermits

3. Right now I am not running a protein skimmer. It's on order, just waiting for it to get here. Reef dynamics ins135

4 feed twice a day, morning and evening. Probably a little heavy, but trying to keep it down

5 halides were originally running 9-10 hours, but my coralline was getting burned out so I dialed it back. Right now they run about 6 - 7. Coraline is up.

6 running one powerhead at the moment opposite the pump return. Koralia head
Think that answers everything

Thanks again

 

[salt_for_brains]

Feeding twice a day is a bit much and I would definitely cut back on that. Another powerhead or two for more circulation in the tank would also be beneficial, IMO. The first pic could be "dino" as chicimom said but I am still leaning towards cyano.