Lost in the fog

[kotlec]

Need help and ideas - all possible.

BACKGROND -
Always has corals that were growing rapidly. Except of mushies and zooas. SPS were hard to control. Colors were brownish though. N always 0.x and P - 0.0x
Big job to keep Ca and kH from dropping.


PROBLEM-
Corals slowed in growth dramatically. Acroporas lost their growth zones at all. Small PE. Only few SPS looks almost normal.
One zoas colony that used to look exceptionally good - followed neighbors path and not looks healthy anymore.

Stopped dosing Ca and Kh as it is not dropping anymore. kH rise before I noticed it climbing and now hovering at 10ish by itself.

P is steady 0.00 third week in a row !! , but N is climbing. Last week was below 1 - today 2.5. ATS screen stopped growing at all.


Tips used to be blue indicating grow zone, but now same color as a whole body.
Hardly noticeable polyp extension



One coral lost part of tissue at the bottom but strangely has nice PE (its on left side)
another is bleached (center right) and GSP has very bad PE (bottom right)


WHAT CHANGED -
Moved to bigger tank. Old sand disposed. What I find important - first month after move all looked good as never before.
New bigger light, but reduced power. New pump - Vortech for circulation, random modes. Bigger pump for return and ATS. Before was using assorted frozen foods. Now changed to minced raw shrimp+fish every other day. Fishes adore it.
During movement and some time after dosed Zeostart3 to keep bacteria population high. (Possibly they ate all P )


Ideas ?

[SantaMonica]

Moving causes a die-off of periphyton and live rock, which put nutrients into the water. It starts about a month after the move.

[kotlec]

Why P= 0.00 then ? Why screen is not growing anymore ? It was started green during first month after move.
Why corals looked better after move than before ? Birdsnests started hundreds of new grow zones week after move. Now all stopped...
Move was very smooth. Just took from one tank and put in to another. Like big water change Same with liverock.


If periphyton is dead now, how can I fix that ?

[SantaMonica]

P is not zero; you just are not measuring it.

After a move, bacteria and food particles are stirred up, feeding the corals more. After one month, the periphyton and LR life is starved and dies. Any change in rock position will kill the periphyton and resident internal sponges, even without changing tanks. It cannot be fixed; it has to regrow over months and years.

Best is to never move rocks, or change flow.

[kotlec]

Ok now is more clear.

Still why screen stoped growing ? And why P reduced while N rising ?

[Garf]

I think you've tried adding iron in your last tank, but it seems to fit the abstract here;
http://www.mendeley.com/research/iro...phytoplankton/

[kotlec]

Yes I added iron, when screen was growing yellow stuff and glass was dirty. Unfortunately iron addition has zero impact on those problems. I got algae in DT instead. Possibly it can help in initiating growth now. But anyway it is strange why screen become bald after one month of nice green growth even if periphyton is dead now.
I would not like trying it again if possible, as glass is clean now for weeks and last algae just died off from the rocks.

[Garf]

The lack of general growth sounds like a starvation issue, corals, algae etc etc. are you feeding enough ?

[kotlec]

Starvation come to my mind first . I just not wanted to throw it there and stop other ideas coming.
I feed a bit more than before. All live stock is same as in old tank. But I feel like fish is wanting much more food than used to. So I give some more ,but not much.

[Garf]

Starvation come to my mind first . I just not wanted to throw it there and stop other ideas coming.
I feed a bit more than before. All live stock is same as in old tank. But I feel like fish is wanting much more food than used to. So I give some more ,but not much.

Hungry work, swimming around in a larger tank !