Mass Coral Death

[ScubaGirl]

Having a hell of a time lately trying to figure out what is going on in my tank. I have had a costly loss of corals including: duncan, 2 trumpets, hammerhead, some mystery agro, yellow polyps, torch coral, brain and now my green palys appear to be next.

Water parameters have been off, nitrates and nitrites plus ammonia elevated. Been water changing like crazy and it does appear to be settling down.

Have some dynos and cyano. Fish are all ok and eating well. Yellow tang, rabbit fish, 2 wrasses, 2 clowns, blue cheek trigger and a file fish.

Tons of snail die off and lost my cleaner shrimp (had him for 3 years).

Had a huge infestation of aptasia and was treating with Kalk. Got all new lights in April. Lights are on timers, 12 hours blues, 11 hours whites. No sump. 75 gallons.

Just at a loss and sitting and waiting things out, I'm just seeing more and more die off. I'm starting to want out of the hobby. This has all happened pretty fast -- in the last 4 months probably so I'm pretty bummed about it.

Any thoughts? Any suggestions is greatly appreciated.

[neoh]

snail die off is a good indicator of heavy metals being introduced. Do you use rodi water? Whats your salinity/ph/phosphates/alk/calc/mg/temp sitting at?

[gregzz4]

Have you been keeping param records ?
What are you test results right now ?
Give us lots of results

Think back real hard about what has changed with anything you do/don't do since this all started. Have you changed anything ? Different brands of stuff ? Something failed/got neglected ?
Different water source ?

Die off of snails is a big indicator, but your shrimp was probably just old

[naesco]

Originally Posted by ScubaGirl

Having a hell of a time lately trying to figure out what is going on in my tank. I have had a costly loss of corals including: duncan, 2 trumpets, hammerhead, some mystery agro, yellow polyps, torch coral, brain and now my green palys appear to be next.

Water parameters have been off, nitrates and nitrites plus ammonia elevated. Been water changing like crazy and it does appear to be settling down.

Have some dynos and cyano. Fish are all ok and eating well. Yellow tang, rabbit fish, 2 wrasses, 2 clowns, blue cheek trigger and a file fish.

Tons of snail die off and lost my cleaner shrimp (had him for 3 years).

Had a huge infestation of aptasia and was treating with Kalk. Got all new lights in April. Lights are on timers, 12 hours blues, 11 hours whites. No sump. 75 gallons.

Just at a loss and sitting and waiting things out, I'm just seeing more and more die off. I'm starting to want out of the hobby. This has all happened pretty fast -- in the last 4 months probably so I'm pretty bummed about it.

Any thoughts? Any suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Elevated ammonia and nitrites will cause the gills of the fish to burn and eventually the fish will suffocate. Continue with the daily water changes but please re-home the fish immediately

[AquaAddict]

What a bummer! I feel for you.

Are you using a canister filter? A hang-on- back protein skimmer would help as canisters can be nitrates producers in a salt water system.

Did you introduce something new into the tank just as the problems started?

Don't do too many big water changes too close togethers. Twice month, I think, is max.

I have found Instant Ocean Nitrater reducera big help. Brightwell Reef Fuel (which is really a safer commercial verson of Vodka Dosing) is also very effective but you MUST

A ball of Chaeto Macro Algae stuffed into a corner where it will stay put is also extremely effective. This is all I use in my sump.

Everything mentioned in the previous thread is very important advice to follow.

Good Luck - hang in there. Once you get through this, you will be a hardened seasoned Reef Warrior.

AquaAddict

[reeferious]

do you have a copper test kit sure killer of your inverts might be time to change your r/o membranes.

[ScubaGirl]

Yes, I keep a log of everything.

pH is between 7 and 7.5
dkh is usually around 8
Ca has been a little higher because of the Kalk at 450ish
Mg has been around 1300-1400
nitrates up to 0.5
nitrites up to 0.25
ammonia up to 0.5 (now less than 0.25)
temp (without the a/c) hovering between 80 and 82. Have had a fan blowing on it. Just last weekend we put the a/c in so the ambient room temp has been cooler. Now around 80 consistently. Tank is 3.5 years old here but was cycled already when we got it, just moved it 4 houses down the road.

The snails that died off were the nassarius snails. I also had tons of spaghetti worms and they are pretty much gone now. Now I have lots of sponges, serpent stars and bristle worms. My astrea snails are breeding like crazy. I have a ton of babies. Tube worms are making a come back.

I use tap water, usually made up the night before, with vanquish, heated, with powerhead. h2ocean salt. Basically the same process for 3.5 years.

I will test again tomorrow when I get home from work and post exact levels.

[reeferfulton]

Did you just move the tank recently? Or am I misunderstanding.
If so. Did you disturbed a deep sand bed?

Just a thought

[ScubaGirl]

Been watching the gills of the fish closely and looking for labored respiration, etc. but all is well.

My green Hawaiian palys have been closed for 3 weeks now and have white flecks on them. It kind of looks like bubbles to me so I'm thinking dynos. I have had them before so no surprise there. I will do the blackout again once I know I'm a little more stable system wide. Been scouring the "coral pests" online too and have had no luck with possibilities. I just don't have a trained eye, I guess. Everything is so friggin' tiny, LOL.

[ScubaGirl]

No, the move was 3.5 years ago. Been stable since.