Are vacations worth the trouble???

[Sweetpea]

We made a last minute trip to NY this week to see my husband's family while the kids were out of school for spring break.

[Side note: It was sunny here in Atlanta with temps in the upper 70's when we left. We had the pleasure of snow and high temps in the 40's in good old NY!]

My tank is a mess. I am in a fit... we drove straight through from NY to GA yesterday/today (got in at 5am)... I am exhausted and trying to rescue my poor little nano. First of all, there is a layer of green algae all over the glass (the kind that is a PITA to get off). I don't know what kind it is, but I am going to move everything over to the new tank briefly so I can get in the 10g for an aggressive cleaning.

Secondly, my sun coral isn't looking too good. There is a whitish-gray patch at the base of one "tube". According to what I read on wetwebmedia.com, it sounds like it is starving. The other tubes look a bit shriveled but seem okay otherwise. I have placed the entire coral into a breeding net hanging from the edge of the tank to make it easier to be absolutely certain that each polyp gets fed adequately tonight (and for however long it takes to get it looking healthy again). Is it possible for the starving one to recover?

Third, my rics are dying. One green ric is not much more than a blob, and the other one is looking really funky. The tiny orange & purple one has faded to almost clear. I don't know what happened to them. (The big orange & purple one is fine.)

And now for the kicker... what in the world is the white sh...tuff growing out of the powerhead sponge??? (see pic below) It has grown out onto the powerhead itself, forming an almost web-like pattern. I apologize for the poor quality of the photo, but the glass is nasty and will take some elbow grease to clean up.

I am so discouraged... I was away for less than a week! My poor mother was terrified to look after the tank for me. The last time she "babysat" for us my daughter's guppies died. It was NOT her fault, but she won't ever forget it. I guess I didn't realize just how much I do every day to keep my little tank going strong.

Any comments and suggestions are most heartily welcomed...

[RWalston]

I would not recomend keep the sun coral in the net that might just agitate more. Tubastrea do not have zooxanthellea algea so they do not benifit from photosynthesis. So feeding every day or every other day is a must. Get a plastic cup and turkey baster. Fill the cup up with some water from the tank and put some mysis or brine shrimp in it to thaw out (add some selco if you have it) then suck up the water and food in the turkey baster, turn off all pumps to the tank and feed each polyp gentally with the food. Give them good flow and water quality, feed and they will recover. Just make sure the fish are fed first so that they dont attack the coral for the food.

Rich

[davejnz]

Did you mean there's a sponge on the powerheads intake Tracy?If so,I would advise removing it immediately.The white stringy stuff sounds to me like decomposing food/organics that have been trapped in the sponge prefilter.The white cottony stuff very well could be fungus given that it has spread this rapidly.Sponge looks like that too but it doesn't grow that fast.Do a series of 50% waterchanges over the next 2 days and take the advice given above for your sun coral and you'll be fine.I'd also recommend useing active carbon filtration this week until things get better(i use carbon all the time)

[RWalston]

As far as the white stuff . Take the sponge off the ph and wash it real good (should be doing that weekly any way) Check all of the water parameters and do a 20% water change if any thing is out of wack like

Ammonia/ammonium
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate

[Sweetpea]

Did you mean there's a sponge on the powerheads intake Tracy?

I apologize for not describing it better... the stuff is growing IN (and around) the powerhead pre-filter sponge. The stuff actually looks just like the sponge material (same web-like structure) except that it is white. It doesn't "look" like trapped food, but since I don't know what it is I wouldn't say that it's not. It will get cleaned out today!

Check all of the water parameters and do a 20% water change if any thing is out of wack like

Ammonia/ammonium
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate

Thank you for your comments, Rich! I do feed the coral in the manner you suggested, and since I moved the crabs out of the tank, it is much easier to feed him! My nitrates are a little high at 10...

I will be doing a fairly large water change today when I get in and scrub all the hard green algae off the glass, and I will throw in some carbon (thanks David).

[Fatman]

I think you get those problems only with a Nano and depends how long the vacation is. Anything over 3 or 4 days, is alot to leave a tank alone imo, and should have someone with experience to take care of it. I just left to FSU for the weekend, and I fed everything before I left and topped off the tank, and I have my best friend on call (he's got a 200) incase something happens. Good luck and hope everything gets well.