I think I'm having a system crash

windcoast reefs · #1 09-23-2011, 06:52 AM

So I just added a blue sponge today and did a quarter dose of this stuff called sponge excel by brightwell and all of my corals appear to be suffering quite badly. They have all started to release a slime and the sponge is Turing white. Does anyone know what could be happening? The sponge was never exposed to the air as well.

phi delt reefer · #2 09-23-2011, 11:16 AM

start doing some water changes man. No clue as to whats happening though.

daniella3d · #3 09-23-2011, 11:36 AM

The sponge turning white means it's dying. It could be having a warfare with some of your other corals. I would do a water change and put a lot of carbon.

I doubt it's the product that caused it. It's silica and you only put 1/4 of the dose. Probably your sponge was exposed to air, or was not acclimated properly and it is dying and by doing so, it is releasing toxin.

I never had any negative reaction with any of my coral and this sponge though. I had a foxface that broke a few pieces and I glued those pieces and they are growing. If it's turning white it's a very bad sign.

Also it's photosynthetic so because of that it does need acclimatation to a new light and you are using LED, so maybe it has a light shock.

Also what size of tank is that?

windcoast reefs · #4 09-23-2011, 05:00 PM

Okay I am doing a few water changes and my clownfish is dead. Not really sure why.

Hawkaholic · #5 09-23-2011, 05:41 PM

Sorry about the problems...my guess is your sponge is dead. If its turning white it got exposed to air and is pretty much gone. I had the same thing happen to me. I chucked the sponge ASAP and did about a 50% water change. Within two to three days everything was back to normal. I did another 30% water change after the third day for safe measures.

Not sure if you seen how they bagged the sponge but the LFS should have bagged and tied it under water. The only acclimating you do at home is to get the water temps the same. Sponges are pretty cool IMO but you gotta be careful with them. I hope everything works out.

Coleus · #6 09-23-2011, 05:49 PM

well since you can't have the sponge exposed to the air so i assume some of water from LFS got into the tank?

TimT · #7 09-23-2011, 07:46 PM

If your sponge is turning white it is dying. Blue Sponge release an extremely toxic substance when dying. If you want to save your tank take it out immediately, do water changes and get as much carbon on tank as possible.

windcoast reefs · #8 09-23-2011, 09:02 PM

Okay, so I think things are under control at the moment. I did a 50 percent water change and stuck on 2 reactors full of carbon as well as changed out the filter sock. I watched the guy at the LFS bag the sponge and it never left the water and it was handled very gently. He gave me a full refund and is helping get the tank back to normal. I took the sponge out as well. I did cut a few small pieces that were still healthy off of it. They are sitting in a bag in. My sump, so you think these are okay or should they be thrown out?

TimT · #9 09-23-2011, 10:33 PM

Glad to hear things are under control and sorry about the clownfish. That was very nice of the LFS to give you a refund and help you out.

With that much carbon on the tank and the small size of the sponge frags any toxin that gets released should be absorbed by the carbon. Keep them in but keep a close watch on them. Any sign of white on the sponge take them out.

There is a lot of stress for these sponges in collection, packing and then shipping from overseas. Any one of those steps could have caused the problem. It could also have been caused by the rock having boring sponge that dies in transit and then starts to kill the blue sponge. It is very hard to try and figure out what happened as there is so many variables that no one in Canada has control over.