Any help would be appreciated....

[Sliver_moon]

OK, so beginning back about 3 months ago, I noticed some of the frags i received from Ade started to go downhill. Not thinking anything of it, before i knew it all of my soft corals were gone and i lost my coral banded shrimp, my hawkfish and yesterday i lost my starfish. So i took a look at my lighting situation about 3 weeks ago and one of my t5's decided it wanted to self destruct so i replaced it, and there was no change. Now i have a PC on order, i have tried to replace my shrimp, but they all die within 24 hours of being put in the tanks even after a 2 hour acclimation period. I checked all my levels and had them checked again. they are all fine. i had copper levels checked just in case. im at my wits ends with this because i want to get my tank back to its previous condition and yet, no one can tell me why my fish and a few of the inverts and the coral are dying...... ANY SUGGESTIONS?

 

[NbMaxx13]

I think you should describe your set up..All equiptment used.. Also
Salinty?
Temp?
Ph?
Nitrates?

Do you have a skimmer? If so what kind .... How old is the live rock ? Was it cured ?

I think if we can figure it out , it would not be a problem to re-stock your frags... We just need to find a solution ... Have you had any of the ocal reefers over to take a look?

 

[ade]

What coral did I give you? do you have anything else in the tank that died? anemone by any chance. If all you test seem to be OK, I would run carbon on the system and do a water change.
As Eric said a bit more info on your system would help.
Depending on what corals I gave you, there are always more.
Keep us posted, or if you want I could swing by and take a look and give my 2c.

 

[NbMaxx13]

Thought about this problem today .... So I have a few questions ...

What kind of substrate do you have ? and how deep?
Also What type of cover is on the tank ? if any at all? ...
Is it drilled? Do you have an over flow/sump? Hang on the back filters?... The reason I ask is , that over the last year I have read thread after thread about fish and corals unexpectedly dying off... A few of the most common things that I have noticed are these ...

A) Deep Sand bed
B) Covers on tanks and/or filters
C) lack of surface disruption ...
I guess basically I am saying that quite often people don't have or allow for proper oxygen exchange ... A deep sandbed obsorbs a lot of oxygen and depletes the oxygen level in the tank .. If a tank is covered and has poor surface disruption then oxygen levels remain low....

Just a guess , and maybe completely useless...but worth a shot...

 

[Sliver_moon]

Eric #1 -- I have a 30 gal that has been set up since Aug 06 and doing wonderfully being my first tank since then (well up to this point), I have a magnum canister filter with a Prism skimmer on it. I also have a 10 gph pump in the tank to help circulate the water a bit more. Light wise i have a LO T-5 with a 10K florescent strip on until my Power compact comes in. live rock is as old as the tank, maybe a few weeks younger, and it was cured prior to purchase. Latest level readings which were taken this past Mon showed all at zero, salinity is between 1.021 and 1.023. I am having issues maintaining my temperature even after buying a brand new heater - during the day it seems to hover around 79-80 but then drops to 76 at night. and pardon my ignorance, but what is an ocal reefer?

Ade - I apologize, it was actually dooleyb who gave me all of the frags. I did have an anemone that did die and since then i have done several water changes, approx 10% every week.

Eric #2 -- I have a crushed coral substrate that isnt more then 1 inch in depth. i did have a cover on my tank after my T5's self destructed, but when the problem started the tank was not covered. my tank is not drilled and i do not have a sump/ overflow and i have the water return line placed (imo) as to keep surface disruption up

OK, i know that was a lot to digest, but i hope that it helps with any brain storming.... any other info i can give you guys just let me know!

 

[AIMFish]

Is anything living through all of this? Was anything sprayed near the tank, cleaners, air fresheners, or how about burning candles?

ocal reefer is Local missing the L! He's from boston so sometimes his accent doesn't translate well into typing!! :lol: Do you know why the temp swinging 4 degrees? That's not huge and may not be the problem but if you can fix that I would. If the heater isn't near good flow that would help along with making sure you have about 5 watts per gallon.

 

[ade]

?

?

I have read so many stories about people who loose their entire tank and don't know why. There is even a recent one in the Richmond club. All tests seen to be fine but there is always an anemone that has died prior to the death of there tank mates.
I keep a lot of different anemones and after some of them split I try to find homes for them. Any way whenever they are stressed they release a mucous that you need to scrub to get off if you get any on your hands. Stick like glue.
I have had a many small tanks that I have kept Rose or other fancy anemones in and from time to time the like to get real close to power heads and the end result if I don't catch it in time is dead tank mates.
The arm of an amemone will still sting even if it is not attachted. After meeting with a power head you get milked anemone. Realy hard to get all that mucous and milked anemone out of your tank
That would be my guess
Run carbon to help rid with any toxins in the water.
Also where does your top off or make-up water come from? Store or home RO/DI. Check that also.
I hope that everthing turns out OK.
I have some frags if you need a jump start.
Ade

 

[NbMaxx13]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11282560#post11282560 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AIMFish


ocal reefer is Local missing the L! He's from boston so sometimes his accent doesn't translate well into typing!! :lol:

HAHA ... Very funny! Yes I am from Bahstan ,, and I do pahk the cah in the yahd! ****AH!

 

[NbMaxx13]

Ditto what Ade said ... We all have some frags to get you started when you get going... It is horrible to lose everything like that ...

 

[Sliver_moon]

my two clowns, hippo tang, chromis, and an assortment of snails and crabs are still alive through all of this. the anemone i did have dies after everything started declining and i think that was more to due with the lighting issue...... but if anyone in bburg would like to sto pby and look at the tank itself, just let me know..... as for the frags that would be awesome, but i would want to wait till the good light comes.....

 

[AIMFish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11282560#post11282560 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AIMFish
Was anything sprayed near the tank, cleaners, air fresheners, or how about burning candles?

I forgot to mention smoking. A person I knew in Indiana could tell a difference in the health of the tank when they stopped smoking in that part of the house.

 

[NbMaxx13]

"I am having issues maintaining my temperature even after buying a brand new heater - during the day it seems to hover around 79-80 but then drops to 76 at night."

Some heaters are just not very good ... Expensive or not ... My advice to anyone using a new heater is to do a kind of calibration... I usually will fill a 5-10 gal. tank... with a few thermometers ...A lot of times a heater will read one thing and be another... I know the heater I have in my sump reads 76 and leaves my tank at 78 ... Just an FYI

 

[turbois300]

Yeah I had a visitherm that did that too...

Eric. I had to pull my heater due to the new light. I get a bit of flux on the temp but not more than 2-4 deg. Which...I imagine is the same on a natural reef. Temp has to flux a bit after the sun goes down espically in the shallow areas.

Good advise yall!! Sorry to hear about your "crash" that definately sux!!

 

[dooleyb]

Check for stray electrical currents. I recently had a visitherm heater break in my sump. It caused quite a bit of damage to the inhabitants before I discovered it.

 

[NbMaxx13]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11310412#post11310412 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dooleyb
Check for stray electrical currents. I recently had a visitherm heater break in my sump. It caused quite a bit of damage to the inhabitants before I discovered it.

Excellent suggestion! ... This is a likely cause to most problems that go undetected ...

 

[Sliver_moon]

So yesterday i bought a few cheap frags and a pep and coral banded shrimp to test out the waters (again)..... after a 3 hour acclimation process, i released the shrimp and monitored them for another 2 hours. they seemed perfectly happy in their new home when i went to bed. When i woke up this morning, i found my CB shrimp being eaten by the snails, but the peppermint was alive and ate when i fed everyone else (YAY). Is there something that i am doing wrong, are CBs sensitive to something we havent discussed here? any ideas guys?

 

[J. Montgomery]

IME, that sounds normal for shrimp. I think I've added about 6 peppermint shrimp to my display tank and nano tank, and only one or two lasted more than a few days and are still alive.

 

[seafood luver]

How long were the shrimps in their bags total, from store to release? Was there anything in the bag for the shrimp to hold onto?

Back to your tank...

Lighting would not directly effect the health of your Hawkfish, Shrimp or Starfish. If it did effect the health of the coral, you would have noticed them dying slowly and could have removed them before they died and possibly fowled your water. Have you been getting an increased amount of foam produced in your skimmer over the past three months? Also, how much time do you dedicate to observing and performing maintenance on the aquarium?

Just a few more questions;

1. What type of Starfish was it? It could have starved.
2. Did you find the body of the first Coral Banded Shrimp? The Hawkfish could have eaten him.
3. What type of Hawkfish was it? Did you find it's body in the tank? It could have jumped out. Do you have cats, dogs, kids? They could have found the evidence...
4. Was there ever a time when the Magnum was shut down due to a power outage or for any other reason for more than two or three hours? Do you run the carbon basket in the Magnum w/the pad or just the micron cartridge?
5. How close together were the deaths? If they were more than a week apart and all occuring at seperate times, it would be rash to assume that they were all caused by the same problem.
6. Were you testing Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH frequently (bi-weekly) during the time when you were losing these animals?

 

[Sliver_moon]

ABout the shrimp - they were in the bag approx 3 hours, with the top open to add water, and yes they had something to hold onto. now everything else -
1. it was a serpent starfish
2. i found the body of the CB shrimp and my hawkfish died before the shrimp did
3.it was a red spotted hawkfish, never found the body, but i did see my starfish eating something away from his normal hiding place, and didnt see the hawkfish after that night.
4.the magnum has never been off for more then 20 mins while i clean the pad and change the carbon
5. my CB and the hawkfish died in the same week, but the starfish was about 2 weeks after
6. i was testing on a weekly basis and all levels were normal.