No one can tell me what is going on with my reef tank. This is a puzzle for the very experienced reefer! I have talked to 4 of the LFS here, other online people, very knowledgable friends and everyone does not know what the problem is. I have 180 gal reef which is mostly a fish only tank now. it's been up for about 3 years. I have lost all of the corals, clams, and snails. The fish and crabs are doing great and have never had a problem. The parametrs are as follows: temp-77, Sg-1.025, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 40 nitrates, calcium 500 ( I know it's a bit high), phosphates .2, and Ph 8.4. There are 6- 72" VHO lights and 4 250 watt mh lights. The water is clear and the 30 gal sump is clean. I have been doing 1/3 water changes every week for 3 weeks. I just put a large turbo snail in yesterday (after acclamating him) to see if it was better and he is totally still on the bottom today. He is still alive but not moving at all. I have a small star pollop rock and a clam that has been in for a week and they seem to be doing ok so far. Why don't the snails last a day? I'm at a loss on what to check or what to do.
For every possible reason mentioned I have an answer why it isn't that problem. Here are some of them.
1. Lighting problems................I have enough light, 9 watts per gal, (maybe too much) why would any light, more or less, kill the snails? And is there such a thing as too much light for corals?
2. Bad water from the RO/DI (heavy metals or cloramine)......... I test it myself but also took samples of my house water (which is soft) and a RO/DI water sample to a lab and they said it was very good. 001 tds, no metals or chemicals
3. Protein skimmer not keeping up......... I see crud in the collection but I have been doing so many water changes there isn't much there. Would that kill snails?
4. Something died and poisened the entire tank.................like what? What would have been that contaminated? I didn't have anything die but a sea slug and that was over a year ago.
5. Bad bacteria of some unknown origin................ya right, what kind........give me an example?
6. Pumps leaking copper in the sump...........I tested for copper twice and it was negitive.
7. Stray voltage in the water............this may have some merit. I was told it wouldn't bother fish because they swim around and don't touch the glass or rock. This sounds reasonable. Since the corals and snails are always touching something, they don't like it. So I tested the water with a Fluke meter. I tested it a bunch of ways but I'm not sure if its the right way. I put both probes in the tank water and checked ac voltage and it read 3 volts. The sump read the same. Then I put one probe in the hot side of an outlet and the other on the tank and unplugged the heater/pump/skimmer pump seperately and they changed about 10 volts each. But then I checked it again and it wasn't consistant. I also unplugged everything from the wall and found it to be less than a regular glass of water. If anyone knows the correct way to check it please let me know.
Can anyone help me please? Any thoughts or suggestions will be helpfull no matter what they are.
For every possible reason mentioned I have an answer why it isn't that problem. Here are some of them.
1. Lighting problems................I have enough light, 9 watts per gal, (maybe too much) why would any light, more or less, kill the snails? And is there such a thing as too much light for corals?
2. Bad water from the RO/DI (heavy metals or cloramine)......... I test it myself but also took samples of my house water (which is soft) and a RO/DI water sample to a lab and they said it was very good. 001 tds, no metals or chemicals
3. Protein skimmer not keeping up......... I see crud in the collection but I have been doing so many water changes there isn't much there. Would that kill snails?
4. Something died and poisened the entire tank.................like what? What would have been that contaminated? I didn't have anything die but a sea slug and that was over a year ago.
5. Bad bacteria of some unknown origin................ya right, what kind........give me an example?
6. Pumps leaking copper in the sump...........I tested for copper twice and it was negitive.
7. Stray voltage in the water............this may have some merit. I was told it wouldn't bother fish because they swim around and don't touch the glass or rock. This sounds reasonable. Since the corals and snails are always touching something, they don't like it. So I tested the water with a Fluke meter. I tested it a bunch of ways but I'm not sure if its the right way. I put both probes in the tank water and checked ac voltage and it read 3 volts. The sump read the same. Then I put one probe in the hot side of an outlet and the other on the tank and unplugged the heater/pump/skimmer pump seperately and they changed about 10 volts each. But then I checked it again and it wasn't consistant. I also unplugged everything from the wall and found it to be less than a regular glass of water. If anyone knows the correct way to check it please let me know.
Can anyone help me please? Any thoughts or suggestions will be helpfull no matter what they are.
