Need help with entire tank. Please, please help!

motlot77

New member
Had a O. Clown that had lymph and then began looking poor in general. Used Melafix and Pimafix for 4 days w/ skimmer off. Kept good water flow to ensure there was plenty of oxygen but critters acted drunk (for lack of a better description) and the corals pulled in.

The clown died on Tuesday. =o( We did a 5 gal water change yesterday, cleaned up some of the sand and added phytoplankton. We thought all the critters and corals would flourish but, instead, some of the snails on the glass have hidden their head-part (like they did when we added Mela and Pimafix). I thought they'd be happier today but about half still have their head pulled in.

The mushroom has only a few "blooms" but looks really bad overall. The torch coral is completely pulled in except for one head. The other heads are pushing out some type of reddish/brownish jelly. The xenia and hammerhead look to be recovering fine.

Skimmer is going back in tomorrow. What should I be doing today? Should I do another 5 gal water change -- it's been aerating since yesterday? (We normally do a 10% change each week.) Should I add anything? I want the tank to look like it did before we began using the mela and pimafix. Please tell me what to do.

(Side note: We've now invested in a QT tank now that we've learned our lesson.)

Water paramaters:
ammonia - .25
ph - 7.8
nitrate - 0
nitrite - 0
80 degrees
1.025

The tank critters:
2 cleaner shrimp
1 peppermint shrimp (we haven't seen him picking on the corals)
4 nassarius snails
4 astreas snails
5 ceriths snails
2 Turbo snails
1 Blue Stripe (?) Mushroom
1 Torch Coral
1 Xenia
1 Hammerhead

20 gallon tall
2 x 65w pc
38lbs of live rock
aqua c remora hang on skimmer
fluval for flow and carbon
 
Do another 5 gallon water change, and put the skimmer back in. Adding mes to display is always a bad thing......but you may be able to recover from this but it may take a week or so. Feed lightly next week, but doing another 5 gallon water change today cant hurt....what are you using to test your salinity etc?
 
Using Red Sea and Aqua Pharm for the tests and Instant Ocean Hydrometer. (Salifert tests and Captive Purity Refractometer should arrive any day.)
 
I just checked the water I'm wanting to do the change with. The salinity and temp are the same as the DT but the PH is 8.2.

Is it ok to change out 5 gals of the 7.8 PH water in the DT with the 8.2 PH water?
 
Should be fine, this will raise the overall PH in the DT but should not do so to a dangerous level, may take it up to 7.9, but again, not enough to shock the fish or corals.
 
I've used melafix/pimafix in tanks before. It takes a few water changes to cycle it out. Are you running carbon? That will help. When something goes wrong in your tank your corals will immediately react by closing and such. When the conditions improve, your corals won't immediately react and open back up. Instead, they'll slowly come back over a week or two. "Opening" too quickly could mean death for them, so they slowly reacclimate. Do the water change and leave it for a few days, then do another WC and go back to your weekly routine.
 
Finished water change and turned skimmer back on. There's a little foaming at the top (from the melafix and pimafix) but its not overflowing so I imagine that's ok.

Should I be testing for anything over the next few days?

Some of the torch coral heads are turning into just skeletons. =o(
 
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