Help My Corals Please.

[Bedroomgangsta]

I had an outbreak of cyanobacteria and I used chemiclean to try and tackle it and in doing so it seemed to work and I followed all the reccomendations and directions. Now that I have my skimmer back on and my carbon in line again it just seems like my corals arent taking well to the treatment or something...I am unsure what to do, Im ready to give up, give my corals to a good home before they die or find a means of getting them somewhere safe before they croak. Theres things I need such as a phosban reactor, RODI unit and etc... but until I can obtain these things I want my corals in the best health and conditions possible but I dont know what to do. My frogspawn looks like its on its last leg and this pretty much happened overnight. I noticed after a massive water change a few days after i did it my evap was pretty heavy due to the high temperatures and my heater going haywire and my evap was so extensive it pulled my salinity up to like 1.028 and I freaked out and pulled the heater and etc...I just want my corals to be healthy like they were initially and I NEED to know what I should do, pretty much ASAP. I would appreciate any input anyone has!

[spieszak]

Take a deep breath, and use some punctuation, your post is terribly hard to read. While I assume you are pretty freaked out about all of this, the information you give has to be readable and "precise" before anyone can help.

First thing I would suggest as far as the corals are concerned is that the salinity spike probably has a lot to do with it, and if you corrected it quickly rather than slowly, you added a second parameter spike to the mix. How long has it been since this happened? How long do you think you were at 1.028?

Post your current parameters (you should always do this as it avoids someone having to ask), and add a timeline to your post, and the experts will chime in with more info.

[Bedroomgangsta]

I also did notice that when my heater was screwed up i tried unplugging it and in doing so noticed when I touched the metal base to my stand i was getting shocked. I dont know if my corals are in rough shape because of voltage or because of the temp, a combo or what!? My ranges are ph 8.2-8.4 salinity between 1.025 and 1.026, Ca 500, alk 8.0, dont know my mag range and i know my phosphates are a little high due to the algae i have but i need a phosban reactor and cant afford one right now. Ive been doing multiple water changes with RODI but no help.

[pjcforpres2020]

If you can't keep them safe and healthy, then your idea of giving them to a good home until that day comes sounds like the best plan.

It would help if you gave a bit more detail, like lighting, tank size, levels of alk, cal, nitrite, nitrate, phos, etc.

[Bedroomgangsta]

Alright, yes I am freaked and that would be the cause of my bad punctuation. Two weeks ago I had a cyanobacteria issue that I had been battling for a month or so. I did water change after water change and it just wouldnt slow down, it kept growing and spreading. So I went to the LFS and the owner approached me with Chemiclean. He said to use it lightly and underdose rather then overdose, turn my skimmer off, keep an airstone in the tank and etc... So I gave it a shot, a week later and it did a tremendous job on killing off close to all of the bacteria (visually). So I did a 15 gal water change and crossed my fingers hoping that I could finally tackle this nuissance. I notice that I had a large amount of evap between about 36-48 hours after the water change and wondered why it was so extensive. It was a bit warmer outside where I live and I dont run a chiller so I figured no big deal Ill add fresh RO and level it out. I dont have an ATO unit which I should but I dont. The next day, once again, too much evap...pulled my heater out of the sump and it was set at 78 degrees and when pulled out of the tank it was smoking and felt like 1000 degrees. My tank was almost 88 degrees. Salinity back up to 1.028 again from before and I lost it and unplugged the heater and threw it on the floor. When going to unplug the heater I touched the metal base of my tank stand and i was getting shocked, once I unplugged the heater, no more shocks. So I added once more about 3 gal of fresh RO but my corals are very upset with me. My tank params are Nitrates 0 Nitrite 0, ammonia 0, Ca 500, dKH 8.0, P04 is still a little high because i still have some algae, i cant test mag because i dont have the test kit for it. My tank is a 55 DT with an 800 gph OB down to a 29 gal sump, in which is a filter sock w/carbon, octopus 1100 PS, and mag 7 return pump. In my tank is 1 koralia 4 PH and 1 Penguin 1140 PH because the two koralias were overkill and I needed more flow but cant tune the koralia without a controller. I also added on a HOB cheapy filter just to try and help with removal of the cyano. I have a quad bulb T5 fixture with two 10K and two actinic. right near the surface of the water and it is a topless tank. most of my corals are near the bottom of the tank. Any more information I can provide just ask, I really appreciate all your inputs! please help my corals! I have no Idea where to put them or take them until I can fix this!

[Bedroomgangsta]

I have an empty 29 just sitting in my bedroom but I dont know if it wold be a good idea to take them and stick them in there with water from my current DT or what? I just want them to survive, and my fish seem A OKAY.

[pjcforpres2020]

The 88 degree water temp and electrical current probably is the root of your problems. I would do my best to stablize the tank at near perfect conditions for a bit and see what happens. Give those corals some extra TLC, even if it means singing to them and playing their favorite movies that you can't stand to watch.

Were the corals doing well before all this happened?

[Bedroomgangsta]

yes the corals were doing great before even with the fact that I hadn't used RODI at first. My hammer used to be about the size of two baseballs and now its about the size of 1 if not less and its two heads, my frogspawn was close to the same size and its on its last leg, barely any of the tentacles are even showing, pretty much just skeleton. my GSP seems to be doing okay, just not as colorful, my one colony of zoas is completely shrunk and looks dead and the rest of them seem okay. my wagon wheel palys dont seem too hot, they averaged the size of a nickel + and now about the size of a dime. my kenya trees are completely leaned over and look close to dead.

[pjcforpres2020]

yeah, just get the tank levels back to where it was before all of this happend and hope for the best! The extreme temp for that period of time is not good. I wouldn't do any chemical treatments for awhile, either, just run all natural and use WC's to keep nitrates, etc. in check.

Also, get a new heater! What model was it, BTW?

[Bedroomgangsta]

Im pretty sure it is a marineland stealth heater. Im not even using it currently. The cyano is starting to come back and I feel like If i dont get a phosban reactor like ASAP im going to have the same issue all over again. I keep doing WC's but my damn tank keeps getting this really hard green algae all over my glass, and i have to scrape it off with a damn razor blade. My sand isnt as white as it used to be and my corals just look like they have been through hell and I really dont want them to die. I neeeeeed an ATO unit so I dont have to keep lowering my salinity back to .025 because I get about a gallon of evap everyday. With an ATO i could maintain better consistant salinity and with a phosban reactor I could eliminate the Po4 as best as possible with GFO media, and I neeeeeed an RODI unit but all that will cost me around 400$ and I just dont have the money right now. I really still feel like I should seclude my corals somehow to a quarantine tank or something but I just dont know how or where to begin. I dont have time to cycle a tank with new RO and fresh SW, I dont know anyone with a tank that I trust enough to put my corals into for the time being, and I have an empty tank but I donnt know if a HOB filter would be good enough combined with WC's to keep them in good health. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[pjcforpres2020]

Those stealth heaters are notorious for that.

Don't worry about the cyano right now, just worry about giving your corals the most stable environment possible, that means keeping your tank at the levels, etc. it was before this all went down. You can keep the cyano down by removing it, and then once the coral has recovered a bit try tackling it again with proven techniques (reduce lighting, reduce feeding, increase WC's, add to the clean up crew... want to say there are a couple reef safe shrimp that will eat the stuff).

[Captainfester]

Your punctuation is fine. If that guy doesn't have the attention span to read a paragraph he's should check his "specific gravity".

Good luck with the corals

[Sk8r]

Definitely an ATO will make your corals much happier very fast: they don't like change.
Avoid chemical treatments.

If you will match the params in my sig line you'll likely do very well with corals. My own secret to happy corals is cheap Tetra Jumbo Krill ground to powder in a mortar & pestle thingie and fed to fish and corals alike. Just the next time you get cyano, just turn the lights out for 3 days once a month and keep your skimmer tuned. The chemical cures are more trouble than cure.

[funkejj]

Ok cyano can be beat with doing a lights off for 3 days once a month. So worry about that later. So first off take a breath. I know you have listed parameters but post removal of the heater what are they? Since you took out the faulty heater what is the temp? Is the evaporation still high? Do you still have any stray voltage?

A RODI unit can be had as cheap as $125 on the net. ATO is a must have and can be done cheap too. Just take a breath and think things out before you do them. Any drastic change right now might be worse than better. So As long as your parameters are on and with in normal limits then sit back for a day and watch things. Cyano is the last thing to worry about right now.

[Bedroomgangsta]

Param's are normal, heater is out, evap is less, from what I can tell there is no stray voltage. I found a couple nice RO units I just need to arrange the time and money. I thinkk everything is alright for the time being, I just really hope that my Frogspawn and Wagon wheel palys come through....