Tank is crashing :(

[tang daddy]

It's gotta be something else than the fish....

When I neglected my tank for 5 months I basically let it run to shit, and it was a chain reaction acros went then Lps and finally I told friends to come save the rest and gave the tank away. However it took a really long time for the tank to be in a death state.

Maybe you added something that was toxic, stray voltage, sudden rise in temp, not enough oxygen, or maybe the bacteria died caused a huge spike that stressed the corals to the point they released skin....

Just thinking out loud

[iceman86]

Got home last night and went to the basement where my tank is and it smelled terrible like something was rotting and sure enough it was coming from the tank. Im guessing hydrogen sulphide releasing from the sand bed. My sandbed is only 2" thick but its really coarse sand and easy for detritus to trap itself in there. All fish and inverts are alive. The glass was also covered in green dust algae.

I'm guessing the sand bed needs replacing? I poked a couple spot and detritus like dust come out. I know it's normal to have a little but this seems more than I've ever had in my years of reefing.

[DKoKoMan]

Did you start with live rock or dead rock. I don't think it should be releasing that kind of odour from the sand bed. If I had to guess I would think there is some sort of contaminant(s) in your water.

[iceman86]

Originally Posted by DKoKoMan

Did you start with live rock or dead rock. I don't think it should be releasing that kind of odour from the sand bed. If I had to guess I would think there is some sort of contaminant(s) in your water.

I started with both. I used the old rock from my old tank and added new dead rock. It's getting to the point that all my corals are dead and if it happens, I'll siphon out the sanded and do a massive water change and start over

[DKoKoMan]

I would take your water in to a LFS in Edmonton and have them do a massive test. This way you can compare to previous tests you have done. Worth a shot IMO, sucks to hear that most of the corals are toast.

[MitchM]

A few years ago I posted a link to a study done that demonstrated corals are more resiliant when raised in an environment that had varying temperature.
The takeaway from the study was that corals need to be raised in varying conditions from the start if they are to survive varying conditions in the future.
Established corals raised in tight parameters did not survive when subjected to the new varying conditions.

One of the consequenses of aquarists trying to maintain long term success with corals by maintaining rock steady lighting, water chemistry and temperature is that when corals raised in a steady environment are subject to changes in those parameters, the corals are not strong enough to survive those changes.

In nature, corals are subject to environmental changes including lighting, salinity and temperature.
Our commitment to keeping corals within tight parameters produces fragile corals.

The best you can do for your corals is learn what conditions they were kept in previously and don't let your tank conditions wander too far from those conditions.
It's neither easy nor simple to do.

[MitchM]

Here's a link to the study:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...199.x/abstract

The title of the study is "Effect of fluctuating thermal regime on adult and larval reef corals" Putnam 2010 Invertebrate Biology


And a free article from Dr. Shimek on the subject:
http://www.ronshimek.com/salinity_temperature.html

.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by MitchM

A few years ago I posted a link to a study done that demonstrated corals are more resiliant when raised in an environment that had varying temperature.
The takeaway from the study was that corals need to be raised in varying conditions from the start if they are to survive varying conditions in the future.
Established corals raised in tight parameters did not survive when subjected to the new varying conditions.

I've definitely noticed this over the years. My old 90-gallon reef with halides over it used to fluctuate from 79-80F at night to 84-85F during the day. It did great. Would it have done better if I tightened up that temperature swing and kept the peak lower? Probably. However, the corals were very resilient.

I think this also true of other parameter swings too, such as KH.