Just lost half my colonies to RTN. What Gives?

[bmiller1234]

I may have missed but what do you use to filter new water? If rodi how old are your filters? I wiped out fifty percent of my tank due to a major spike of chloramine in my public water that my pre filters weren't removing and was pushing thru membrane. It sounds very similar to your problem. See if you can find a low range chlorrine teat kit at a pool supply store and test your new water.

Good luck

 

[ghostman]

Do you check TDS on your RO/Di water? What is it at? Maybe your filters need to be changed as just mentioned above Any work being done on your house? Painting walls? Carpets cleaned? Anything that could put a contaminant in the tank that we don't test for?

 

[Roll221]

I may have missed but what do you use to filter new water? If rodi how old are your filters? I wiped out fifty percent of my tank due to a major spike of chloramine in my public water that my pre filters weren't removing and was pushing thru membrane. It sounds very similar to your problem. See if you can find a low range chlorrine teat kit at a pool supply store and test your new water.

Good luck

+1 on the chloramines, call you city water treatment facility and see if they up'ed thier chloramines in the past week. I had huge issues with all my SPS until I found out my city was treating with chloramines. If so call the guys at BRS they can set you up with everything you need to get rid of them.

Ed

 

[Grant W]

Definitely check your water supply. In our area they started adding more stuff to the water supply, found this out when my TDS went from 175 to over 300. Do you run carbon? If not you should do so.

 

[bassking16]

Now there is something I haven't thought of yet. My RODI is in good shape right now. I could probably stand to renew my DI, but TDS reads only 2 PPM right now, and I have some more DI material coming in this week sometime. However, if something is getting through my filter, maybe that could be it. I'll call my city to find out.

No work on the house lately, so I don't think anything was introduce. Unless my 3yo dumped something into my sump. I doubt it, but it's possible, I suppose.

I do run carbon in a reactor. It's about a month old, so I'll change that out as well this evening.

I should also mention that I dose vodka everyday. I dose 2mil every morning, and have been doing so for the last 6 months or so. However, I stopped dosing a couple days ago when everthing went crazy.

Thanks you all for the tips. I really appreciate it. I'll post more this evening, when I get home from work, and access the damage.

 

[stevedola]

Ive heard that running carbon in a reactor can strip the water too quickly. Try running passively.

Also I would do a large water change but just make sure to match the Alk, Sg, and temp so that it doesnt cause any additional stress.

Are your bulbs old? did you change A N Y T H I N G at all in the tank>? has a doser pump (if you use) gone haywire? Is your

 

[tcmfish]

Sounds like a temp issue to me. I didn't read everyone suggestions, but from reading your posts, with the hot weather and the tank running even a degree warmer than normal, your tank is already kind of warm. And you said it was only the corals at the top. And now some are hanging in there, did the temp happen to go down even slightly now? Seems like heat to me especially if everything has been stable for a long time like you say.

 

[mike810]

If you suspect it's chloramines. Test your ro/DI water for ammonia. If there is any present then you most likely have some chloramines getting through. Brs can convert your current system to filter chloramines out by simply changing a couple filters. That's what I did cause my city upped the chloramines in my water supply

 

[bassking16]

Well, I'm still not sure what killed my colonies, but I know it wasn't chlormines. I called the city and was told that nothing has been changed lately.

However, the RTN seems to have stopped. My remaining colonies look fine, and are doin will. I ended up losing a total of eight colonies all together. They were a Hawkins, Purple Slimer, Palmers Blue Millie, Crayola Plana, Blue Tip Bottle Brush, Miami Orchid, Pink Lemonade, and a Blue Tip Green Table. My Red Planet, and Green Birdsnest look terrible, but may pull through.

The only thing I can think of was the temp. I use fans that were timed with my T5 lights, but have since put them on full time. I also noticed my TDS was at 3 PPM, so I changed my DI resin. Neither one of these things should have done what they did, but maybe together, the corals just got too stressed, and couldn't take it. I'm still a little baffeled though. I have never seen healthy SPS melt away so quickly, and in such numbers. There were no indicating signs at all. Everything was happy, then all of a sudden, Bam! Eight colonies were completely dead within 48 hours.

Well, I suppose on the bright side, I now have some room again in my tank to start working on my wish list again.

Thank you very much to all who contributed on this thread. I really appreciate it. I wish I could tell you what happened for sure.

Thanks Again,
Ski

 

[stevedola]

did you close up your house and put the AC on? Sometimes with season changes and fresh air the PH drops and can cause chaos. It just seems funny, something had to change. Was the wifey spraying airfreshner?

Well either way, best of luck with the recovery. Maybe someone in the area will hook you up with some frags to get back the colonies you lost. I know a lot of us out here tend to spread the wealth of frags to friends so that incase of situations like yours the reefer can get peices back and not get killed in the pocket. Youve no doubt felt like someone punched you in the stomach from loosing peices youve taken time and effort to grow. Just keep your chin up and know it will get better.

 

[SaltwaterAdict]

I was reading through the thread and really feel for you. Sry to hear what happened. That must've been very frustrating considering you really didn't change anything.

My guess would be something foreign went in your tank or your filters were not changed enough. It seems like the majority of peoples problems with corals is linked to the source water. Also, striping your water with excess carbon/gfo are largely overlooked. I keep my tds at 0 so I don't risk anything from happening. Changing out the prefilters like the sponge and carbon regularly will go along way and help make your membrane and di resin last longer! Best of luck, hopefully things turn around!

 

[NyReefNoob]

what brand of salt are you using ? in case i missed it

 

[ginrin]

I friend of mine had purple xenia growing on his overflow box and decided to cut some off to prevent them from plugging his overflow and within a day he lost some very big colonies of SPS.There maybe some correalation.Sorry to hear about your lost but learning and rebuilding helps ease the dissappointments at times.

 

[reefmanmatt]

i dont blame you a bit for putting a hold on the dosing , and i would definitely do a huge water change . sps are out of the water for very long periods in the wild with no ill effects , check out some fiji video on youtube youll be shocked . this is very saddening , we all feel for you .

 

[timmytank]

I would test for Iodide because you are saying corals at the top are hit worse than the lower ones. Good luck and sorry for your loses.

 

[bobbychullo]

I forgot to mention that I have a little bit Xenia coral as well, and it has started to wilt, and not look so happy over the last few days as well.

I friend of mine had purple xenia growing on his overflow box and decided to cut some off to prevent them from plugging his overflow and within a day he lost some very big colonies of SPS.There maybe some correalation.Sorry to hear about your lost but learning and rebuilding helps ease the dissappointments at times.

i've read that soft corals can pack some pretty potent chemicals. just an idea of something to look into...

 

[Sullyman]

I've lost large colonies due to touching or a piece of a stronger(sting wise) coral fell onto it. Sometimes they don't have to touch but if they slime up the strongest slime wins.
One other possibility, could a piece of salt creep fallen into these corals. I use clear netting over my tank to keep fish in. Sometimes small balls form over a long period of time, the lights dry out the salt and it gets wet again, the lights dry again. We're talking small little pieces of salt creep cured into a rock salt type of thing. A small/tiny piece can be a corals demise as it takes a while to dissolve, burning into the coral as it does.
I clean the screen a lot. any vermitid snails up in the area of the dead sps?