Crashing Tank

[Danno]

Last night I discovered that my corals were looking like crap. I did a 50% water change and turned off the lights. This morning I Turned on the lights, the water smelled funny, and my corals aren't opening. My fish are swimming fine along with my crabs and snails and shrimp. My water parimeters are fine. Nothing is abnormal about them. What makes it worse, I went to move my mushroom and they are 'powdering'. Basically disintagrating. I am going to run to the store to get 20 gallons of distilled water since I ran out of RO.

Has this happened to anyone? What did you do?

How can I fix this before my entire tank crashes?!

 

[littleme1969]

Sorry I cant help but that sounds really bad I guess 100% water changes are your only option, but if all your stats are OK then Ive no idea. Maybe you have had something in the tank such as a nubibranch that had died and release toxins into the water that you cant detect. And if so then the large water would be most usefull.
I hope it turns out OK.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yikes, make sure you check out as many water parameters as possible (temp, pH, sg, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium). Something's drastically wrong. I'd do a 100% waterchange and run as much active carbon as possible. Good luck and dont be afraid to re-home the fish quickly if necessary.

 

[Danno]

Would it be a good idea to rehome the corals as well?

 

[SkiFletch]

Dunnno, what corals do you have? Those that may be too far gone should not be mixed with those that look like they still could make it. Disintegrating mushrooms is a very bad sign...

 

[Danno]

Well I seperated the corals. I lost 5 mushrooms and 3 zoas so far. Dammit...

The thing is, I do 40% water changes each week religiously using RO. Something must have released a toxin in the tank or something. The tank is stabilizing. The smell is gone and the water parimeters are still alright. While I was taking the water out for the water change I also swirled the sand bed around and washed that out as much as possible too. All of the live rock went under the light for an inspection and found nothing. I did wipe them off gently with a wash cloth. The fish are just as hppy as can be. The corals on the other hand are not at ease. They have started to come out again.

 

[Musho3210]

careful when stirring a live sand bed.

 

[sophos9]

Well I seperated the corals. I lost 5 mushrooms and 3 zoas so far. Dammit...The thing is, I do 40% water changes each week religiously using RO

Sorry to hear this

What are your water parameters, check your tank and your freshly made salt before it hits the tank, please post them here

Why are you changing 40% per week?

 

[AndyS]

Agreed, 40% is a lot to change each week, do you have a heavy bioload? You only really need to change 10% each week to replace trace elements if your nutrients are under control. What did the water smell like?

As for the sand comment, unless its a particularly deep sand bed, stirring it shouldnt cause any problems with nitrates or ammonia being released.

Andy

 

[Danno]

The bigger the water change the better. No, I don't have a heavy bioload. I swirled and cleaned the sand bed to check for any dead remains.

I'm still unsure of what is destroying my tank but I am not having any luck. It looks like I might lose my tank. I believe that sometime was living in my tank and died and nuked my tank. I have already done 3 100% water changes without and good outcome. Looks like I am fighting an uphill battle.

 

[Musho3210]

hey, be more optimistic, you could be fighting a saving private ryan battle where it seems all is lost but then reinforcements arrive and save the day.

 

[SkiFletch]

Ouch, sorry Danno . How are the quarantined corals doing? And are you running any fresh activated carbon in an attempt to remove toxins?

 

[Danno]

Indeed I could be in worse conditions but it still hits you in the wallet.

Ski, I saved about 1/3 of my corals, but the rest were gonners. It may look like I am going to have to start all over again. At least this was a learning experiance. I am running about 3 to 4 pounds of fresh carbon in my canister filter. I'm lucky I picked a bunch of coral out of my tank before it crashed to put it in my pico . So far the losses and costs hit a peak of $320. I got hose Johnny, I got hosed.

The tank still isn't stable but it is getting better. What makes the matter even more strange is that the macro algae in my tank turned pink. I have no idea why.

So....anyone got some spare change?
...chaaaange?

 

[littleme1969]

Sorry to hear that. It has to be everone who owns a marine tank nightmare. But it happens in freshwater too.
I lost over 200 babby bristle nose plecs and 2 adults the other week. Still have no idea why.. all water perameters where great etc.. good filtration Id not added and new fish in that tank for over a month. I pretty much lost the whole tank with the exception of 2 breeding females and 3 guppies about £300 quids worth of fish gone in 3 days

 

[sophos9]

The bigger the water change the better.

Do you have something to reference that against, I'm sure a lot of people would disagree. Heres an article by D. Wade Lehmann, may be worth a read....