I am having a problem.

[im_buford]

Since downgrading my tank from 110 to 75 things have went to crap. In the beginning things looked good. When I added the seio I thought things looked GREAT for a few days. Then my fiji leather just DIED over nite. Then one of my hammers started receding and has shriveld up into the skeleton. It NEVER showed any bleaching or stress other that goin in and not coming out. Then my beautiful torch started the same thing. it is progressively getting worse. I have checked all my parameters severl times and had a small ammonia, and nitrate spike. I am guessing a cycle since I changed tanks. However I used most of the 110 water and ALL 150 lbs of rock. I did not feel that I would have much of a cycle. But i guess I did. To combat this I began doing 25% water changes twice a week from the second week when I started seeing issues. Now my parameters are OK but still only my hammer, torch, and frogspawn is affected. My frogspawn just doesnt look right. I acclimated the light since the tank was shallower and all. There was few days the my salt got a little high. I think that is what got the leather. But it is just getting worse. I agressively skim. This is going on four weeks now. Now my toadstool is shedding layer of skin. HMMM I dont k now what to do besides the water changes. Yall I am just out of energy on this.
HELP

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Hi,

Cycling may not have been the cause of your problem. It's been a while since you set up the 75 gallon tank, isn't it? Besides, you used everything from an already established tank to set up the 75G.

I don't know how big your leather was, but its death can cause an ammonia spike which might have subsequently affected the rest of the tank. I wonder what other toxins the dying leather oozed out into the water. Hammer, torch and fragspawn are all Euphyllias. They act poorly when the water quality is less than perfect. They don't like to have a lot of soft corals nearby, either. Water changes should help to dilute the toxins in the water. I'd keep an eye on the water quality - ph, NH3, NO2, NO3, salinity, alkalinity, and calcium levels at least. Try to keep them very stable. The Euphillias may recover, but it will take time for them to start looking nice.

It's quite normal for toadstools to shed their tunics. They do this from time to time anyways. They may shrivel up and look terrible for a few days. Just make sure the shed skin does not land on other corals (a cause of irritation.)

Just be patient and keep the tank condition as stable as possible. In an emergency, the product to detoxify ammonia such as Amquel helps, provided the problem is not a cycling issue. If the tank is still cycling, it has to take its course, but I doubt it's your problem.

Good luck,

Tomoko

 

[Sk8r]

You also had a sandbed turnover, I'm guessing, in the move, and lost the layering of the bacteria and such, which may have collapsed part of the waste-disposal system. You don't give water parameters. Perhaps try testing every day for at least alk, cal and mg plus ammonia and nitrite/trate to see what the trends are, whether improving or floating up and down.

 

[Mariner]

I'd guess that the problems with the leathers are contributing to the problems with the Euphyllias. Running fresh carbon and changing it frequently will remove the leather toxins and might help your Euphyllias perk up.
FWIW,
Mariner

 

[lemonhead]

i agree with the other members comments. the leather dying so quickly does sound like ammonia. here at the store when leathers arrive in bags with high ammonia readings they dissolve quickly. if the leather disolved overnight it would have release a large amount of toxic substances quickly. while the 150lb. of live rock in a 75gal with strong water flow is goog for biological filteration it displaces a large amount of water. with the lower water volume the toxic substances would have polluted the water heavily. with the water changes and using a good carbon should remove most of the toxins. test tank conditions often mainly kh (11dkh), ph (8.3), and calcium(440ppm) and keep them stable. the fresh saltwater for large water charges should be mixed for at least 24hrs. and have the same conditions as the tank water (temp., ph, S.G.).
good luck,
matt