i think i figured out finally what is wrong with the 220 gallon reef tank and it is totally not
what we expected i know i've been gone a really really long time and i left y'all on the biggest
cliffhanger ever but i really needed to take a break from social media i was feeling super
overwhelmed with everything that's going on in both my life and in the hobby with my tank
so i kind of just needed a little a little pause there so as you guys know i've had a lot of issues
with my 220 gallon reef tank recently to say the least right started off with my chaeto oddly
withering away and i thought it was because of my refugium light schedule which for some reason was
set on the wrong settings it was set on something for corals so i thought hey okay you know whatever
but then i also started to get some macro deaths and this was absolutely devastating it happened
on christmas i just i was very distraught and i never really narrowed down the problem behind
what happened but i did figure out that my nitrate and phosphate were super low like salifert detects
nitrate and phosphate at so i suspected that this had to be the cause behind all of the chaos
but contrary to all logic the water changes i did during this time surprisingly helped and
a few of y'all mentioned in the comments that something's off here something's whack because
they actually help the water changes actually help this is totally weird if you're having low
nutrient problems right because it shouldn't be helped by a water change at all so all this is
looking really sass you know since my last video i have been you know not thinking that nitrate and
phosphate is the problem here because you know the problem didn't even seem to be getting much better
despite the actions i had taken to increase the nutrients coming into the tank feeding more
reefroids being dumped in the tank you know etc etc and uh gradually as the days went by though
the water started becoming more and more cloudy more and more cloudy and then it clicked it
clicked it's a bacteria bloom in the water column a bacteria bloom in the freaking water
column y'all that would really explain things right i mean the bacteria bloom was hurting all
my corals and sucking up all of the nutrients i mean right but now i'm even more confused because
you see this isn't the first water column bacteria bloom that i've had with this tank a little bit of
a story time here about six months ago i also had a bacteria bloom and it scared me to death because
i've never actually dealt with one before and it really truly was a traumatic chain of events
honestly my tank water started becoming cloudy and the corals became really angry so at that point
i did get a uv sterilizer and i set it in this this temporary position on the side of my tank
and use this little pump this little siche pump uh to you know pump it through and the water cleared
up really quickly and the corals bounced back happy as larry which is good obviously but it was
a bit of a dramatic time afterwards after the fact trying to reconfigure my light schedule you know
uv sterilizers mean crystal clear water which is all well and good but with a lowish nutrient load
that water becomes really crystal clear really crystal clear water my corals were obviously
not going to enjoy that and i was a bit nervous about changing up the light schedule too much
but all was well no losses at this point no losses at this point six months ago but the low nutrients
meant my corals especially my sps at the time were not all that bright and colorful but they
gradually did color back up and the tank was really shaping up it was looking good and just
when ironically enough i started to become really proud of my growth and coloration bam here we are
yet again here we are today yet another bacteria bloom when it happened the first time i was way
more understanding you know fairly new tank this stuff happens you know not enough you know good
bacteria in the tank you know okay we'll deal with it right now now a little bit year in what
is going on y'all what is going on i am scratching my head about what the cause is i mean yet again
i mean something is fueling this bacteria bloom you know the only thing that would really cause
this bacteria bloom is an accidental addition of a carbon source and something is adding carbon to my
tank the only thing i can think of is that maybe some vinegar got into the tank from cleaning my
glass maybe but honestly that's a bit too much of a stretch for a whole bacteria bloom in the column
i think it's a bit too much of a stretch for my liking this is all very strange very very strange
and i'm still on edge and i'm still super stressed out and i just haven't really been able to look at
my tank since now that we've established that it's a bacteria bloom my uv sterilizer is hooked up
again and the water is clear the corals seem to be recovering okay the sbs that are left are coming
back my lps were always fine because you know lps and i got my icp tests i have to submit them
here in a few days and when the results come in we're gonna look at that together and we're gonna
figure out what the heck is the situation on this tank i am so frustrated truly i'm questioning i'm
questioning the hobby you know is the hobby really supposed to drive you crazy i mean isn't that like
not the point you know it'll be really interesting to do that icp test though you know i've never
actually done one before so it should be should be fine should be exciting what else i've been really
generous with my fish feeding and adding reefroids in a couple of times a week i've kind of stopped
doing that i keep my skimmer on now but i do not have plans to restart that refugium anytime soon
it's just not necessary i thought it was really funny when a few of y'all pointed
out in my comments that why did you even start the refugium in the first place stephanie and i mean i
agree like i literally started the refugium for no good reason just that oh i should have
a refugium in this area totally backwards logic and i can't believe i even thought that like it's
so embarrassing you know like i i would never give that advice you know so i don't know why
i gave that own advice like i i proceeded that way and did things that way don't ask me why but
that's what happened and um i did order pre-quarantined fishies y'all i ordered
pre-quarantined fishies i did record the process but then lost my sd card which was really annoying
the quarantine fishies have arrived unfortunately one did not make it in the qt process i did get a
copperband but i was refunded on that hopefully i'll get my my copperband one day soon but these
few little additions arrived i have three liar tail anthias one male and two females honestly
they're gorgeous they were eating straight out of the bag you know of course because anthias
are fatties and they're really beautiful really healthy just gorgeous fish i'm waiting for the
male to color up a bit more but even he's already sexy i mean he's a big fellow too he's quite a
big fellow uh anyway they've made really great additions i love them i love them i love them
i'm just i'm generally a really big fan of anthias now and i do want to add more in the future maybe
once things settle down more i also still regrettably depend on my water changes but
i'm going to do the aminos here soon i really hate doing those water changes i really if if i
could like cut that back to like every two weeks i would be really happy you know i have some seachem
aqua vitro fuel that i plan to use i did use this in my 40 gallon a while back and i do
really love it i accidentally got the smallest size from amazon so gotta definitely gotta get
more of that you know but yes trying to figure out the root cause of my bacteria bloom here uh it's
gone away and honestly i'm i i fear that it would come back if i were to take off that uv sterilizer
so my plan moving forward is to definitely attach that uv permanently and and and i would not be the
one to do that typically but this i'm sick of this i am at the end of my stick here with this
hobby and if that means that i have to install a uv sterilizer permanently that's what we got to
do y'all that's what we got to do i mean i'm still really devastated i honestly can't look at my tank
i mean i i take care of it do the water changes but i'm not looking at my tank with fascination
and with love and with you know curious eyes i i am no longer doing that i'm honestly frankly
depressed that's what took me so long to record this video and get back on youtube
and it might i don't know i don't know i'm i'm really having a hard time looking my tank still
so hopefully this stuff can clear up soon and i can fall in love with the hobby again i apologize
i couldn't respond to everybody's comments in the last video i mean y'all really helped me out there
i was really kind of overwhelmed at the time after posting that video because it was still kind of
happening in real time but i do i did read every comment and everyone's advice was really useful
it made me think a lot about the situation a bit differently so thank you y'all i always appreciate
your advice and if y'all have any other tips on bacteria blooms what could possibly be the
cause behind having a bacteria bloom and a year in and am i missing something you know
am i missing something what carbon source could be entering into my tank at this point in time
you know i'm i'm i'm driving myself crazy i really hate having problems with my tanks so send me all
of the good vibes that you can i really need the good vibes y'all need those good vibes