Major Problems with Corals, Puzzled and need assistance!

[scooterbundy]

This is the synopsis and I am totally puzzled!!! 110 gallon reef setup. All fish and most inverts are fine!!! 2 Weeks ago my specific gravity was around .030 reason being my plastic hydrometer wasn't reading properly. Actually what lead me to believe specific gravity was off was I was getting 2 different readings with different plastic hydrometers, so I purchased a refractometer to get more acurate readings. Reading with refractometer was .030. Now, at this point I wasn't experiencing any problems with any corals or my anemones (2) or anything really. Now here is when the problem started. I did some water changes to bring down the specific gravity to .026, which I did with (2) 15% water changes in a 3 day span. It was time for a water change anyway. Well, right now as I am typing this my (2) anemones have went from being well open and thriving to basically shriveled up in a ball maybe the size of a quarter (definite problem) and not attached to any rock. My feather duster lost its crown and the worm does come out of the tube a definite sign of distress. All of my corals are not right either. The mushrooms are small, none of the polyps on the leathers are coming out (Figi, Toadstool, and two singularias and cabbage) the sun coral (black type) polyps are not coming out and the brown/black hard tubes are turning white!! The pumping Zenia are really not pumping and basically the best way to discribe the corals would be everything looks droopy like something is lacking. Now these are the parameters of the tank and I even tested the water from the reverse osmosis system to see if something was wrong. Specific Gravity 1.025, Calcium 450, Ph 8.4, DKH 11.8, Alk 4.23, Nitrate >5, (although they were a little higher about 10 when I first started the water changes). Temp around 77-78 consistant. I thought it might be the Nitrate, but why would everything be doing great before I even tried lowering the Specific Gravity. Plus all fish are doing fine (no stress) and other than the anemones and feather duster my shrimp, crabs and snails are fine. even my yellow gorgonia is fine (actually at night the polyps come out and it seems to be fine) So basically the gorgonia is the only thing now that the polyps are coming out on. Actually my star polyps only half are out too. Oh my other 2 hard corals Galaxia and Hammer are not extending out both seem bothered. Could the change in speciic gravity going from 1.030 to 1.026 have that effect especially the anemones and corals. Feedings I use Zooplex and Chromoplex and my routine doses of Strontium, Iodine, Mag, DKH buffer,Coral Vite and Essential elements. I just changed my Carbon and Protein skimmer running fine (not unusually high amounts of waste). Oh lights I run 4 Power Compacts 8 hrs from 1-9 they have 96 watts each (2) 10k and 2 actinic bulb each compact. The bulbs are 8 months old. I don't know if it could be the lighting. So I am puzzled and if anyone could offer any help other than taking the next flight to Bensalem, PA I would appreciate it. Lastly the only other thing I could think of was I just received an order last week for some corals the Figi and one Finger leather, they both opened up right away and looked good for a day and now like the rest look really bad. Sorry this is so long but that is the synopsis. Thanks Mike

 

[nmprisons]

It seems like it was one of two things:

1) There was some type of contaminate in the water you used during the water changes.

2) The sudden change in salinity really hurt your corals.

If it was the latter, just keep things as constant as possible now in order to, hopefully, let them acclimate (don't change the salinity again).

If it was the former, you may need to keep doing water changes every other day or so and put in some carbon and change frequently.

I could be totally off base though, just my thoughts.

 

[Pico Keeper]

Sounds like one of those difficult problems to solve.

nmprisons sounds right with #1, I dont believe that the sg changes would cause those problems, maybe for a few days, but everything acclimates for me really quick. Even at my work pico, a 3 gallon, where one day my ato died and was out for 3 days. I went from 1.032 to 1.025 in 3 days, and nothing even flinched. It had various lps and softies...

I would think contaminate too.

I dont want to give anymore advice since I really dont have any clue. But I would definately say that keeping the tank at where it's at right now would be good. See if there is any improvement over the next few days, and if things continue bad..Then think about doing a huge water change w/ a different salt mix or nsw supplier.

 

[scooterbundy]

I did go from Tropic Marine salt regular to Tropic Marine reef. As far as contanimates, I don't know why wouldn't the snails, shrimp and starfish, crabs be effected. I know the corals are sensitive, but something just isn't right here. Do all my parameters seem in order? I am going to change my RO filter and make another water change tomorrow. Does anyone think a 20% change will hurt, I probably did about a 40% in the past 7 days. Thanks Mike

 

[swimboy123]

Get a TDS meter and check if your filters need replacing. If you have a probelm with that, contamination could be a big factor

 

[jdieck]

Also I would check the calibration of the refractometer and double check the Alkaliniy level at the LFS just in case, Tropic Marin is usually low in alkalinity, if you have not buffered it then the Alk reading might be off.

 

[scooterbundy]

Reaching out for suggestions?

Reaching out for suggestions?

Specific gravity today checks at 1.025 with another water change. Lost Singularia today and my 2 anemones yesterday also Hammer coral is about done, probably tomorrow. Figi leather today has major necrosis and turning black, will probably remove that tomorrow. Checked parameters and all are about the same Nitrate >5 Ph 8.4 DKH 11.4 Alk 4.3 Cal 450. Can't understand it. At this rate by next week all my corals will be wiped out. I am thinking of moving the good ones to my buddies tank, so they don't die. The only thing I could think of was sometimes when I am making water, the dog might sneek in the room and drink some water, do you think by him drinking the water his bacteria could cause a reaction? Just reaching for anything now. Mike

 

[anabolic_1]

I am no pro, but I have seen some strange stuff in my 20 years in this hobby. Your salt at 1.025 should be fine. Move all thats alive to your friends tank until you figure this out. Here comes the strange part..........did you happen to have a party recently where there were small children??? (or children of your own???)...who decided to drop a copper penny in your tank and "make a wish"? I have seen a whole LFS store wiped out due to just that! Run a Poly Filter in your tank to see if it changes color, then go from there. BTW, do you have a DSB in this tank? You do know you need to change 1/4 of the DSB over the course of a year? I wish you all the best with your tank and I hope this helped.
GL
Mike.

 

[scooterbundy]

Could dogs saliva/bacteria have an effect on corals

Could dogs saliva/bacteria have an effect on corals

No Penny did another change and vaccumed out the bottom pretty well! At this point I have probably 50% new water which is not good. If I had any copper (good thought though) my snails and shrimp and crabs would have died. I just looked at tank in dark and worms and snails, crabs, starfish and shrimp all active. I even have a ton of stomato snails and starfish and peanut worms and amphipods and other bugs. I can't figure this one out. Like I mentioned before my dog sometimes sneeks in when I am making water and I know he drinks some-----Does anyone think a dogs saliva/bacteria could have an effect? I know I am reaching------but this is like an unsolved mystery. I will check parameters again tomorrow and post. Thanks Mike

 

[jdieck]

Have you read any Ammonia?
also I am thinking that Strontium and Iodine can be very harmful if overdosed.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree that with organisms dying, ammonia may be the trigger for more.

What type of water was used to make these changes?

 

[scooterbundy]

Water changes are made with a Aquarium Pharm RO filter. After making new water with Tropic Marine Reef salt I checked to make sure nitrates were 0, which they were to make sure it is working okay and salinity adjusted to 1.025. Thinking of possible causes would disturbing the sand bed (my Queen Angel and Tangs kind of made a pretty big mound over some time, I did disturb that area to make it level again, could that release ammonia or interfer with the cycle? I will check ammonia level now.

 

[anabolic_1]

First off, your dog is stupid!!! It drinks saltwater? Maybe put a salt lick in the backyard!!! (BTW, no offense to yourself or your dog). Oh, and my dog prefers the toilet! Anyway, the sand bed disturbance could have been the culprit, you should not have sand in the back of the tank, you should use sea shells or eggcrate material back there, its too hard to clean if you don't, aim your power heads to the bottom back of your tank and it will keep all the cr** in the front, easy to clean. Back to the dog, a dogs saliva is cleaner than a humans, and, if you think about it, fish swin in their own toilets!!! I don't think that would have any thing to do with your problem. How old is your sand bed? it should only be 1-2 inches deep and only in the front of the tank. When I was fish only, I coppered my tank all the time, everytime someone farted my purple tang would get ick! I had shrimp and all sorts of inverts live thru the copper. Did you happen to have a sea cucumber in your tank? That is the next route I would go.
HTH
Mike.

 

[scooterbundy]

The dog does usually go for the toilet too, when the kids leave the door open. Actually with the water, he prefers to drink the water before the salt is added!!!!! LOL. A couple reef keepers did mention about the sand bed. Since I didn't test for ammonia when this all began (my error) I just tested it now and the result was 0.25 but it could have been higher at first. I probably changed out 50-60% of the water in the past week now. Parameters today ph 8.4, dkh11.0, alk 4.0, nitrate up some from yesterday 10 now. CA 400 from 450 yesterday. Lost Hammer coral today and Fugi leather. The Figi turned yellow to black overnight major necrosis. Zenia still not pumping and Toadstool not opening up. Yellow Gorgonia polys out as soon as the light goes off and look to be fine. All inverts seem to be fine. I did have to discard my two anemones, do you think that they started dying and may have added to the problem. Thanks Mike

 

[just dave]

Is it possible that the water changes with your new water caused your alkalinity to go up? I think that your readings are a bit high ( I know plenty of people keep it as high) but I ran into an incident that caused me to make some large water changes and my alkalinity went up and problems started to arise amongst many of my corals. I caught it and started to lower it and as soon as it started going back down things started to show improvement until things were back to normal but not without the loss of a few things.

 

[dragonladylea]

Seems to me I read something about a bad batch of salt on the market?? Was it Tropic Marin??

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Aquarium Pharm RO filter[?B]

Ro only? Might there be chloramine in the tap water? RO only lets through chloramine or ammonia.

 

[Ciarán]

Water changes are made with a Aquarium Pharm RO filter

Did you add a new membrane recently? The first 5 gallons at least of production water with a new membrane should be discarded due to a preservative in the membrane that may be toxic/harmful to living things - and there are few things more sensitive than corals and anemones.