Carbon Dosing...

[hfp75]

Well,

My nitrates are higher than I'd like (about 80) and with a water change I get them down to a 40 only to have them jump right back to about an 80. They dont go higher than an 80 but I cant get them to stay lower - despite regular cleaning of filter floss, sand, ect. My tank is over stocked a bit so I understand the problem, looks like my second tank might need to get going....

I figured I'd try to dose sugar. I dosed for 3 days and things did not look so happy, so I stopped. My sugar dose was low (4ml for 65g). My luck being what it is, this was also the day it got hot and my tank temp spiked. My controller is now more fine tuned and the temp spikes shouldnt happen again.

This is day 5 since stopping the sugar and the temp spike. My tank overall appears healthy but I have noticed 3 things....

1 - My red sea star had the center fall out and he crumpled to the corner and then disappeared - it did not look health! I wonder if there is a chance he could have made it - since I cannot find him, or maybe my pistol shrimp has decided to eat him.

2 - My nice Torch coral (yellow tips with long tenacles) randomly lost a head due to RTN - it was an over night death.

3 - My nice Aussie Gold Torch (one head) looks to suffering a slow death right now. This frusterates me as I really liked it alot!!!!!!!!!!!

I cant help but wonder if this is due to the heat wave and temp spike or the F'ing sugar that I tried - maybe both combined.

I guess loosing a starfish and 2 torch heads isnt to bad, I have no plans to dose any carbon anytime soon though.

Anyone else dosed Vodka / sugar / ect and had bad outcomes?

I think it was due to the sugar and the oxygen demands of the bacteria & then the bacterial die off.... but I am not 100% sure.

Thoughts? (besides how stupid a move the sugar was)

[Cal_stir]

if you have a good skimmer i wouldn't think it was the carbon dosing although i have never dosed sugar, only vodka and vinegar.
i would be more inclined to think the temp spike was the cause.