SYS7EMATIC
New member
Ok, so last night my girlfriend and I got back to the house a little late. We decided to feed the fish/corals etc before going to bed. My girlfriend did the feeding. In my opinion, she fed them way too much. Our water quality is usually perfect though so I figured maybe it would give some of our night owls a chance to do some extra scavenging. At this time, the corals and everybody were all in great shape. Our fire shrimp likes to come out of his hiding spot and reach his hands inside the turkey baster to pull food out. He did that as normal.
When I woke up in the morning, the water was cloudy and all of the corals were shrunken, and oozing. The fire shrimp was dead, all of our snails had come out of the sand and were in some kind of comatose state (not actually dead suprisingly, but certainly not their usual selves.) I immediately tested the water. Everything seemed to be fine (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite...ph was the only thing off, it was around 8.0 perhaps a bit lower). I performed a 20-25% water change immediately and added buffer until the ph stabilized around 8.3. I figured that although it sucked losing the fire shrimp, I had done all that I could do and that after a couple of hours everything would settle down and return to normal. It's been almost all day, and things are only getting worse.
Now I'm afraid that my corals have died. Despite the water change, corals are looking worse, and now ammonia is up to .25 ppm. Should I perform another water change in such a short amount of time? How will I know if a coral has actually died and isnt just stunned, or stressed out? All of the fish seem to be doing fine. For the most part, everything has been accounted for. I'm having trouble finding our fire goby, but that isnt anything new.
Any ideas as to what might have sparked all of this? Could one round or excessive feeding cause this in such a short amount of time (8 hours?) More importantly, what should I do now to restore things back to normal. If corals have died, should I take the rocks out so that the water isnt spoiled even further? The tank has always been very very healthy. Everything is quite literally covered in zooanthids and what not. If the corals have died, I cant imagine how bad the water could become when they start to decay.
oh, and the temperature was fine. 78.4 degrees.
Specs are as follows:
technical: 29g biocube with at least 40 lbs of live rock, refugium mod with chaeto under fluorescent lighting. Two koralia pumps (not sure how many gph it is, flow seems to be quite good in the tank though.) on a wave maker system. 20 lbs of live sand. 2 36 watt pc lamps (10,000k and actinic). I forgot what type of heater, but it's nice and consistent.
livestock: A bazillion zooanthids...I couldnt even give you a rough estimate, but theres alot, everything is virtually covered in various zooanthids. Clove polyps, green star polyps, galaxea, a green senularis (spelling?), gbta, a bunch of frogspawn, pipe organ, and probably 10-12 ricordia
Had a fire shrimp, probably 15 nacarius snails, 15 blue legged hermit crabs, red starfish, six line wrasse, black and white clown fish, small yellow tang (yes I know, it was in there temporarily until my 72 gallon tank was done cycling.) lawnmower blenny, a fire fish, and a flame angel. All of the fish are still juveniles. It's a fairly heavy bioload I know, but up until this point, we've never ever had any problem with water quality at all. The tank has been amazingly healthy.
I wish I could upload pictures and show you. It's so sad though, I really hope this is a situation we can remedy. I've been quite proud of this setup and have invested alot of time and money into it. I would hate to see everythign die.
Advice would be greatly appreciated.
When I woke up in the morning, the water was cloudy and all of the corals were shrunken, and oozing. The fire shrimp was dead, all of our snails had come out of the sand and were in some kind of comatose state (not actually dead suprisingly, but certainly not their usual selves.) I immediately tested the water. Everything seemed to be fine (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite...ph was the only thing off, it was around 8.0 perhaps a bit lower). I performed a 20-25% water change immediately and added buffer until the ph stabilized around 8.3. I figured that although it sucked losing the fire shrimp, I had done all that I could do and that after a couple of hours everything would settle down and return to normal. It's been almost all day, and things are only getting worse.
Now I'm afraid that my corals have died. Despite the water change, corals are looking worse, and now ammonia is up to .25 ppm. Should I perform another water change in such a short amount of time? How will I know if a coral has actually died and isnt just stunned, or stressed out? All of the fish seem to be doing fine. For the most part, everything has been accounted for. I'm having trouble finding our fire goby, but that isnt anything new.
Any ideas as to what might have sparked all of this? Could one round or excessive feeding cause this in such a short amount of time (8 hours?) More importantly, what should I do now to restore things back to normal. If corals have died, should I take the rocks out so that the water isnt spoiled even further? The tank has always been very very healthy. Everything is quite literally covered in zooanthids and what not. If the corals have died, I cant imagine how bad the water could become when they start to decay.
oh, and the temperature was fine. 78.4 degrees.
Specs are as follows:
technical: 29g biocube with at least 40 lbs of live rock, refugium mod with chaeto under fluorescent lighting. Two koralia pumps (not sure how many gph it is, flow seems to be quite good in the tank though.) on a wave maker system. 20 lbs of live sand. 2 36 watt pc lamps (10,000k and actinic). I forgot what type of heater, but it's nice and consistent.
livestock: A bazillion zooanthids...I couldnt even give you a rough estimate, but theres alot, everything is virtually covered in various zooanthids. Clove polyps, green star polyps, galaxea, a green senularis (spelling?), gbta, a bunch of frogspawn, pipe organ, and probably 10-12 ricordia
Had a fire shrimp, probably 15 nacarius snails, 15 blue legged hermit crabs, red starfish, six line wrasse, black and white clown fish, small yellow tang (yes I know, it was in there temporarily until my 72 gallon tank was done cycling.) lawnmower blenny, a fire fish, and a flame angel. All of the fish are still juveniles. It's a fairly heavy bioload I know, but up until this point, we've never ever had any problem with water quality at all. The tank has been amazingly healthy.
I wish I could upload pictures and show you. It's so sad though, I really hope this is a situation we can remedy. I've been quite proud of this setup and have invested alot of time and money into it. I would hate to see everythign die.
Advice would be greatly appreciated.
