Need Advice

[jpgraft]

Hey all,

I wanted to ask for some advice. My 90 gal reef is crashing. I have not changed anything in quite a long time. I do regular maint, and check the parameters of the water often. I added a couple small fish and a few frags over 3 months ago with zero problems...until last night. Water is cloudy, all plating coral dead, all softies shriveled up, lps still looks good, even the 3 sps still look good. fish breathing heavy, most inverts dead.

ammonia: 1.0
NO2: -.25
NO3: 10
SG: 1.024
temp: 79.4
calcium: 425
phosphates: near 0

the ammonia and nitrates are high due to the die off. They were both near 0 for years.

I have done 2, 40 gal water changes. One last night, one at 5 this morning, and am getting ready to do a 50 gal change now.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Joe

 

[twizzlerman77]

Joe, sorry to hear this everything looked so good when i was there the last time.

Let me know if their is anything i can do to help.

 

[jpgraft]

Thank you Bryan, I appreciate that. I've done several water changes already. Getting to do 50 more gallons in an hour or so. Have carbon running and skimmer is working overtime. Levels are dropping, but the damage is done.

I just wish I knew what caused it in one day. Total bummer

 

[reefnut1]

Hows your alkalinity, an PH?

Did the cloudy water happen all at once?

You are on the right track with large water changes.

 

[jpgraft]

Sorry, I got in a hurry when posting...thought I posted that info.

PH is a bit low: 7.9
Alk: 2.7

I clouded up overnight. Perfect when the lights went out, completely cloudy and bleaching corals the next day.

The only thing that I can figure is that someone put something in the tank. My wife had a friend over, and there were kids involved. I hate to think they put something in the tank, but I really have no other explanation.

Right now:

ammonia: 0.25
NO2: 0 as best as I can tell
NO3: less than 5

Everything else is nearly the same.

I've lost a lot of livestock, but have spent the entire day with the tank. Off to do another 50 gal water change.

Thanks for the help!

 

[john90009]

Im not sure mabey someone else can correct me in this , but you might want to not change out so much water at a time, wouldn't that cause mostly all beneficial bacteria to be taken out, scaring the living corals even more?

 

[jpgraft]

I have thought of that as well. Unfortunately I'm stuck between the proverbial "rock and a hard place". If I don't change the water, everything is guaranteed to die. If I do, I'm harming the tank as well...hopefully not as bad!

I do want to let everyone know that I sent a friend to an LFS (name withheld, but they are on Gravois) to get me a 5 gal bucket of salt. My friend didn't know what to expect price wise, but they charged $69.98 for Crystal Sea...the only brand they said they carried. Needless to say, I will never step foot in that store again.

 

[john90009]

yeah hopefully neither will your friend. If you have any prized or expensive corals mabey a friend from a reef club near you would be able to house the corals you like the most in one of there tanks untill everything is stable again.

 

[john90009]

Or you can throw a lion fish in there and maybe if the kids come over again they might think twice about putting there hands or anything in the tank(if they did). Hah Just kidding. Also what plating coral are you talking about (sps??)

 

[jpgraft]

Not a bad idea as far as the kids are concerned!

Montis went first. I had two HUGE ones that I grew from frags the size of quarters. 5 montis in all have been lost. Flame Angel, Coral Beauty, watchman goby, 2 urchins, 3 stars, crabs and snails: too many to count. all rics, several shrooms, basically 3/4 gone.

What sucks is that all of the cheap coral that is annoying is about the only coral still alive.

Two clowns are still good...hardy little buggers. So is my year old cleaner wrasse, and of course the dang pajama cardinals that my wife just had to have. Go figure.

 

[john90009]

Hmm well maybe asking the mother of the children if they put anything in the tank maybe that will bring some closure. Thats the only thing i can think of, unless a power cord was putting out major electricity in the tank that you could feel. Or a Ph drop or rise took place so fast. What do you use that checks the temperature? Atleast your mushrooms get taken care of, after you have the mushrooms for so long they multiply and only way to get rid of them is selling the rock.

 

[jpgraft]

I have a grounding probe in the tank, so I wouldn't think that would be a problem. I use an Aqua Controller Jr, and another digital probe to check the temp. Again, I am at a loss.

 

[fazgood]

Man,

Not a good situation. Do you have another tank or tub you could set up short term? Take out some rocks and put new salt water in the tub. get the temp right and move everything in there that is still in good shape. Dont move any dead near dead coral intot he new system. If you have a canister filter ad some carbon.

Let the other tank settle for a few days to see what happens.

Did the kids maybe dump in some food? Maybe one of your corals did spawning?

I have a cycled sponge filter that you could use tha could offer some bio filteration.

GOod luck and hang in there.

Faz

 

[john90009]

I guess it was just bad luck, or a random problem somewhere. Good luck in repairing it, this gives you a chance to change how you want the tank to look and will give you a clean canvas to work with. Good luck

 

[reefslugs]

You've got chlorine in the water. This happed to me when I was buying RO water from one of the LFS stores, who just got a new RO unit with out running it for 24 hours and then throwing the water a way. Killed everything in my tank. Are you using tape water? Do you have your own RO unit? Or do you buy water at the fish store? In any case, add some chlorine remover. It will not hurt even if there's no chlorine in the tank.

 

[twizzlerman77]

He has his own r.o. unit and makes his own water.

 

[reefslugs]

OK but he better check it.

 

[twizzlerman77]

Joe, did you ever get the TDS meter calibration fluid that i told you to order for your tds meter?

Also, i would check for chlorine, and stray voltage like mentioned above.... even though you have a ground probe its worth a shot.

I have a voltmeter if you want to use it. Just let me know.

 

[julie180]

Are you measuring alk in dKH? If so, 2.7 is a serious problem.
I hope it was just a typo.

 

[jpgraft]

Hey all,

Just an update:

I found out that one of the kids fessed up and put "something" in the tank. He is 9, and claimed he didn't remember what it was. He just wanted to see if it would do anyghing. Most likely a household cleaner. Pretty depressing to say the least.

Bryan, yes, I did get the calibration fluid. My RO/DI unit is reading 5 ppm right now. Seems to be good.

I'm not sure how to test for chlorine...reefslugs, what do you recommend?

Everything that has lived so far, seems to be doing well. Polyps and zoos are opening up. Fish are swimming freely. Most shrooms look like they are coming back, except the large hairy shrooms...still look pretty bad. I did lose every single sps and lps. Even putting them in separate containers with pumps and running carbon didn't help.