I Have Lost Thousands....why?

[spoon25]

ok, here it goes...i need some support some suggestions, and i will answer any questions regarding my tank...my question would be why dont my corals survive, no mushrooms, no kenyas, no anenomes,no leathers, no brains no polyps,no snails, only bubblebee ones survive and fish, critters macro and micro feather dusters, and coraline algae thrives in this tank...this tank has cycled for about 6 months, now ii will list what i have, what type of lighting, type of water quality, and if you have any more questions plz ask i will answer thoughly to give you better idea to narrow it down to what the problem is....

1) 29 GAL MACRO TANK WITH 80 WATT ZOO MED BULBS, THRIVING WITH CRITTERS AND SNAILS AND BUGS..
2) 45 GAL SUMP WITH 1- MAG 24, 1 -MAG 7 ,1- MAG 2 , A 300GPG BERLIN SKIMMER THATS BEEN WORKED ON AND TWEAKED OUT(WORKS GREAT), ALSO THE SUMP HAS CERAMIC BIOMEDIA AND MARSHALL ISLAND LIVE ROCK IN THE BOTTOM
3) 75 GALLON TANK WITH 4 96 WATT PC'SS 2-10K & 2-20K BULBS,L GETTING 2X 250 MH 15 K BULBS THIS WEEK, HAVE ABOUT 100LBS MARSHALL ISLAND, 80 LBS FIGI LIVE ROCK, ABOUT 50LBS LIVE SAND, ANOTHER 50LBS REFUGIUM SNAILS AND RUBBLE LOADED WITH CRITTERS AND BUGS...
4) WATER QUALITY IS PERFECT..0 NITRATES, 0 NITRITES.0 AMMONIA, PH FLUCTUATES FROM MORNING TO NIGTH FROM 8.1 TO 8.2...CAL STAYS AT 480-520 , ALK IS VERY GOOD...O COPPER TESTED 2 TYPES...O PHOSHATES, USE OCEANIC SALT, TEMPERATURE STAYS AT 78 MORNING THROUGH NIGHT..I DO 10 GALLON WATEWR CHANGE EVERY WEEK...SALINITY STAYS AT 1024 IT NEVER CHANGES DUE TO EVAPORATION AND ADDING RO/DI EVERYDAY...I ADD ABOUT 1/2 GALLON A DAY...
5)I FEED A MIX OF CYCLO,FROZEN SHRIMP, DT PHYTO, DT ZOOPLANKTON, OYSTER EGGS, FROZEN CRABMEAT, AND MANY MANY MORE, TOO MANY TO LIST GREAT NUTRITIONAL MIXES ALL PUREED AND FROZEN...THE FISH LOVE IT AND SO DO THE CRITTERS.;..i feed once a week...THE FISH EAT THE ALGAE SO I BEEN TRYIN TO RID IT WITH THE MACRO, UNTILL THEN I FEED ONCE A WEEK



now i cant think of anything else you could be curious about , please ask me questions to try and narrow it down...why do my corals die?

 

[spoon25]

oh i forgot to mention i have an ecoaqualizer had it since i started the tank 6 months ago

 

[scrmbld33]

are all the corals from the same vendor, maybe a lfs that doenst acclimate them properly, or what are your acclimation procedures?

does your water change water have the same params and temp as the display?if not could becauseing undue stress to them

what fish? any possible non reef safe? or any possible hitchikers that you may not know about, a flashlight at night will amaze you at whats in there. theres a worm(cant think of the name but it eats corals)

 

[spoon25]

ok, acclimation process...i aclimate according to temp and salinity, usually about 1-2 hours depeding on what im tryingg to acclimate, using drip process...water changes i use heaters heat water to 78 and make salinity 1022 so when i add to 1024 in the tank it doesnt change at all..the salinity stays at 1024...and hitchikers i like em, my bristles keep detritus down, they dont eat my corals, none have been eaten the corals just dont come out the slime up and die or they just dont open or they open for 2 days and die....its weird...my fish are all reef safe...nothing to worry about, tangs clowns gobies.pj's, thats about all

 

[spoon25]

i use red, blue, and white light at when peeking at night...my flashlight has different color snap on peices, its nice..the only anenome that survives is the tube, he comes out at night to full capacity about 6 inches round...it never moves its burrowed through the rock and into the sand

 

[scrmbld33]

so far seems like your doing all the right things, what about the vendor, all from the same one, were they all mail orders? im running out of ideas,

i read your getting MH's. could be a slight chance of light trouble but i have seen tanks with alot less light then yours thrive,

oh the hitchiker worm i was thinking was a Eunicid

 

[scrmbld33]

oh could maybe be a coral desease brought in on one of your early corals too, no little red bugs on anything?

my only last guess would be ignore your tank for a while, may work?

 

[sidd129]

Maybe there is somthing that you get on you hands then into the tank. Like soap. Have you tried to ground you tank.

 

[spoon25]

well...i dont put my hands in the water its been awhile, and i get most my stuff from same people they get things in then they keep in there tanks before they sell things think they keep a week to rid any harmful parasites at our local pet store....im thinking my tank isnt cycled yet, is that possible after 5 months....? nope no little red bugs...i was at a pet store the other day and this one tank had them red bugs everywhere, talk about dead spots....it was distgusting how people leave tanks go like that

 

[mikenpam]

Have you had your water tested at your LFS? If not take some in to confirm your readings. Was your tank new or used? If used the previous owner may have used copper and your tests just aren't picking it up. How do you measure your salinity - hydrometer or refractometer? If by hydrometer I would suggest purchasing a refractometer or at the least double check your readings with the LFS. Do check for stray voltage as suggested previously.

Your tank is so close to my set-up and I have had little problem with any corals I have added.

 

[stewie24]

My question for you is this:
If you've really lost thousands like the title says - then why not simply spend say A thousand and buy a used setup with rocks/corals/etc already included. If they die, then you know it must be something YOU are doing.
Stewie

 

[da_freak]

You say that youre water is good but you have a 0 ALK and a very high CA. You should have a Alk around 2.5 to 4 and the high cal tells me you have been adding it and dropping you alk by doing so. Or was all that a typo?

 

[da_freak]

Oh buy the way if that is your problem check the reef chem section of this forum, Randy has some great links listed for issues like this. These are some of them hope it helps you.

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

Calcium and Alkalinity Balance Issues
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-...ature/index.htm

What is Alkalinity
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/iss...2/chemistry.htm

 

[ACBlinky]

I think it says 'alk is very good', then ...0 copper tested. The zero applies to the Cu, there's no value listed for alk. I'd guess alk is okay since pH doesn't fluctuate much.
I'm stumped, I would have said copper poisoning but you've got pods and snails in the refugium are fine (I'm assuming the two are connected).
Can you describe exactly what happens when corals die? Are they disappearing bit by bit, melting away, detaching from the rock, bleaching? I'd still suspect some sort of hitchhiker or parasite; it's the only thing I can think of since the main tank is having trouble but the 'fuge is fine. If you want to experiment, you could try keeping an inexpensive coral/frag in the refugium to see what happens.

 

[graveyardworm]

mikenpam has a point with the refracto/hydrometer which do you use?

water changes i use heaters heat water to 78 and make salinity 1022 so when i add to 1024 in the tank it doesnt change at all..the salinity stays at 1024...

Why would your change water be a different salinity than your tank water? Sounds like you may be using a hydrometer either that or you have fluctuating salinity.

Also how long do you allow your change water to mix prior to using it? It should mix for atleast 24 hours.

 

[spoon25]

ok, i have lots to answers... the alk on my test kit doesnt have numbers it just says normal, low, or high...and its at normal.... the calcium is so high cuz i have no corals....i dont add anything to the tank except ro water and salt...i have both hydrometer and refractometer.....and somehow my hydrometer reads perfect with the refractometer, thats unusual to see...anyhows...i let my water sit for a 5-7days with the mix, then before i do the change i throw in heaters so cold water doesnt come up through my rocks where my spray bars are....and depending what corals they are they all do different things when dieing.....the plate coral bleached in one day...the kenyas stayed closed and dissappeared...the mushrooms, just wither to nothing and red slime covers them same with zenias just a red slime...my huge brain just never came out and it didnt create as much red slime as the hammers i had that died...no i also have a gonapora rock...its lookin good...i dont understand cuz there hard to keep..its about the size of a soccer ball, its huge...pink in color its pretty....but nothing else survives..just the other day i added 4 kenyas nice sized frags, only one survived...now these are supposed to be easy to keep...all my zoos, orange pink centered, blue, all of them died, just covered in a slime and never came alive again...algae grew over them cuz they came open...and the reason for change water salinity different than tank water salinity is because of evaporation, if i use 1024 water all the time then within 2 weeks the salinity will shoot way high..., so i use 1022-1023 change water this way by the time i do water change it reads 1024.5 and when i add 1022-1023, it goes to 1024 perfectly...but its my understanding that salinity isnt gonna kill all my corals, maybe some snails or starfish or something, but not certain corals, unless i do dramatic salinity drops or something... thank you all for asking me questions......
i have never had this problem with any tank...im stumped...of course i never used an eco aqualizer either like i am this tank, do you think that could be the problem...afraid to remove it actually dont wanna see any swings in anything....thats the only thing im using different than my last tanks....hey graveyard worm do you loike the 14kbulbs, there not too blue are they?i just ordered 15k and im gettin nervous about seein what they look like...wondering if i sould run mine with 10k PC's or 420nm PC's when they come in?

 

[spoon25]

i also have 3 temperature guages...2 drop in suction ones and a digital one....the digi is off 1 degree but never goes below 77 and never above 79...usually stays at 78 degrees constant..even obvernight...im ordering a chiller to remove that therory of death in my tank..

 

[spoon25]

i also figured the bulbs were getting old so i spend 200 more dollars on new PC's and was shocked that i didnt need them, now i have extra bulbs layin around, collecting dust...i was mad tast day...

 

[reverendmaynard]

On the salinity...

If you are replacing exactly what is removed by evaporation, the SG shouldn't rise between water changes. Are you just not replacing the evap water on days you do water changes?

Also, I don't think this would cause deaths but, most reef tanks are kept at 1.025 or 1.026.

About Alk...Oceanic is known for high calcium/low alk. Does the test kit tell you what range is normal? I would get a real test kit so you can get an actual number. I would think that to balance the level of calcium you have, it should be reading high, but without a real number, you have no way of knowing. Again, Ii don't think this would cause corals to die in days, but it could be growth-limiting factor if you can ever keep them alive.

What's an ecoaqualizer and why are running it?

 

[bkwudzjeep]

Is this a new tank or did you buy it used? Copper can cause problems and is very hard to remove from tanks from what I've heard.