tank crash?

[Acrowhora]

I'm in need of some advice.i did my weekly water change yesterday and cleaned my skimmer and whatnot,dose Zeovit additives and that was it.when i checked the tank this morning,the water is cloudy and my corals look calcified,and they seem to be covered in sand.im dumbfounded by this:cry: i dipped what frags i could dip in coral revive in hopes that it'll help.

[reefwars]

What did you dose?

Anything that can spawn snails clam etc?

[Acrowhora]

i have astrea snails...i dosed KZ amino acid,pohl's extra,macro elements and iron.it's just my acros and montis that are affected,my acans are perfectly fine.What did you dose?

Anything that can spawn snails clam etc?

[MitchM]

Can you post your water test numbers, or a picture?

[Acrowhora]

My water parameters are

N03 5 ppm
P04 0
Ammonia 0
Salinity 1.025
Ph 8.2
Cal 420
I haven't tested for alk and mag yet but will do after supper.

[Acrowhora]

Red planet

[MitchM]

The water doesn't look cloudy now so it must have cleared up a bit?
If the corals are suffering, I would do another water change now without any additives until this gets figured out.

[MitchM]

I couldn't find a tank journal for you. Can you tell us about your setup?

[Acrowhora]

Hey Mitch.i just did a 4 gallon water change today,it's starting to clear up a little.i have a 33 gallon tank with no sump and with HOB skimmer and refugium.i have about 25 lbs of live rock and a 2" sandbed.i currently have four fish,five astrea snail,brittle stars and an army of collonista snails.

Accessories:

MP10wes x2
Tunze 6015 x2
Ecotech Radion Pro
LIghtbox par38 full spectrum x2
CPR Aeroforce2 skimmer
CPR HOB refugium(medium)

I dose
KZ amino acid(one drop) Pohl's xtra 1ml daily
sponge power,coral vitalizer 1 drop each every two days
B and K potassium 1ml each every two days
Iron and Macro elements once a week
Instant ocean salt
Prodibio Biodigest and bioptim every 15 day

I guess that's about it...

[MitchM]

When did you start the system up?

[canadianbudz604]

Any expired bottles of stuff?

[Acrowhora]

I forget to mention that.i started the system back in 2010 and it was an LPS and zoa tank and i converted to an SPS tank last October.my first attempt at keeping sticks:wink: also this wasn't not my first crash.the first one was i think five-six weeks ago.the wife overdosed alk and raised the temp up cuz she said the water was cold.i've since corrected those issues and now this!hard times...hard times:cry:

[Acrowhora]

a few KZ additives expires 2014 and a few are good til 2015.i should check my salt though...thank you for bringing that upAny expired bottles of stuff?

[MitchM]

The system's old enough that a sudden change overnight means something went wrong with your routine.
You can do another water change or not, but I would not dose anything else until you figure out what could have gone wrong. I would do another water change.
Monitor the parameters, keep them steady. Alk swings are pretty hard on SPS.

Have you always been dosing Probido plus Zeo?
Is anyone advising you on dosing what you are dosing?

[Acrowhora]

I will do another water change.i just recently started dosing prodibio about 7 weeks ago to control P04.with Zeovit additives, started dosing when i decided to keep SPS.i will closely monitor my water parameters and will post any changes that might/will occur down the road.it's just frustrating to lose almost everything over night.or maybe it's time to upgrade to a bigger?thank you,Mitch...The system's old enough that a sudden change overnight means something went wrong with your routine.
You can do another water change or not, but I would not dose anything else until you figure out what could have gone wrong. I would do another water change.
Monitor the parameters, keep them steady. Alk swings are pretty hard on SPS.

Have you always been dosing Probido plus Zeo?
Is anyone advising you on dosing what you are dosing?

[MitchM]

I would work on getting your SPS healthy again, after that problem a month ago. Work on tweaking the colors with Zeo or Probido after things have settled down.
If you're having PO4 issues, it could be from your sandbed. You might want to think about thinning it down to a half inch or so.
Sandbeds will work for a while while they're new and depending on your cleanliness routine can be left alone for up to a few years. After that PO4 will continually leach out.
IO is a basic salt, so you will need to add some things - Mg, Ca, Alk.
There's no guarantee that the SPS will come back.
Good luck!:smile:

[Acrowhora]

i was fortunate that when the first crash occured i only lost a few frags,but this time i do not think so.i do dose Kent marine nano about 7.5 ml everyday.it think it's pretty clear that even though my tank is ready for SPS but i am not.so,i think i'll switch back to LPS and Zoas for the time being and start collecting sticks again,once i have enough experience with them.it was a gamble and a costly one too.thanks Mitch

[MitchM]

LPS and zoas come from a different environment than SPS.

SPS need the faster water flow to massage their membrane tissue and help them process their waste products while LPS can expand and contract dramatically on their own in a slower, dirtier environment to accomplish that.

In larger tanks you can perhaps create both environments, but it's near impossible to do in smaller ones.

If you want to keep SPS in the future, I would suggest a separate tank set up specifically for that.

[daniella3d]

Any swing in alkalinity recetly? on the pic the coral look like it has some burnt tips?

hard to see on that photo though. What is wrong with the coral? is it only the tips or the base or something else?

[TimT]

and they seem to be covered in sand.

Since the water went cloudy after the water change and you say there seems to be sand all over the corals I would suspect that there was an imbalance in the Alk/Ca and some precipitation happened.

Other possible causes of cloudy water are bacterial blooms and spawning events.

Recommended course of action would be water changes and test your Alk.

Cheers,
Tim

[Madreefer]

Thought i'd chime in.
Why dont you stop dosing everything? All that stuff is'nt necessary. I've tried most of it and found that it's all a waste of money. Just concentrate on your water parameters and a good maintenance program.

Tinkering=Crash

[Aquattro]

Thought i'd chime in.
Why dont you stop dosing everything? All that stuff is'nt necessary. I've tried most of it and found that it's all a waste of money. Just concentrate on your water parameters and a good maintenance program.

Tinkering=Crash

This is my favorite advice for pretty much every problem. But nobody likes this advice -lol