adova
Premium Member
It's been a while since I have been able to post around here - kids, work ,etc., which is why this mess happened to begin with.
The tank had been looking pretty good considering the lack of time I had been putting into it. One of my leathers was starting to droop considerably, so I decided it was long overdue for a water change (about 5-6 weeks) so I set everything up with a fresh 70 gallons of water and mixed salt.
Within about a 1.5 days, my leather dropped off of the rock, and then dissolved. I chalked it up to a sad death of a creature that had never really been very strong (had him for about 1 year). I tested PH, dKH, Ca and Mg and everything was a bit low, but within acceptable params... I dosed a bit to raise things back up.
A couple of days later and everything started to recess (zoos & shrooms) and die (brains, etc). I tested again and things seemed a bit low again but nothing out of the ordinary. I added the test for NH4, Nitrates and Nitrites, but nothing. What was I missing.
Then it hit me - I wonder how the salinity is - bingo - 1.18 ouch!! I must have gotten a false reading somehow when I was doing the last water change on top of an already low tank salinity. I rarely check it because it rarely moves on the main tank.
So, I pumped up the numbers to about 1.21 and again to 1.24 the next day and finally to 1.27 the third day. Things continue to die off , but I am hoping the stronger items survive and the fish all seem happy. I am going to be running carbon and phos through the system to help clean out the dead stuff.
Anyway - just goes to show you that you can't ignore your tank in this hobby. Guess I will be in the market for some new coral after this gets stable.
Shawn
The tank had been looking pretty good considering the lack of time I had been putting into it. One of my leathers was starting to droop considerably, so I decided it was long overdue for a water change (about 5-6 weeks) so I set everything up with a fresh 70 gallons of water and mixed salt.
Within about a 1.5 days, my leather dropped off of the rock, and then dissolved. I chalked it up to a sad death of a creature that had never really been very strong (had him for about 1 year). I tested PH, dKH, Ca and Mg and everything was a bit low, but within acceptable params... I dosed a bit to raise things back up.
A couple of days later and everything started to recess (zoos & shrooms) and die (brains, etc). I tested again and things seemed a bit low again but nothing out of the ordinary. I added the test for NH4, Nitrates and Nitrites, but nothing. What was I missing.
Then it hit me - I wonder how the salinity is - bingo - 1.18 ouch!! I must have gotten a false reading somehow when I was doing the last water change on top of an already low tank salinity. I rarely check it because it rarely moves on the main tank.
So, I pumped up the numbers to about 1.21 and again to 1.24 the next day and finally to 1.27 the third day. Things continue to die off , but I am hoping the stronger items survive and the fish all seem happy. I am going to be running carbon and phos through the system to help clean out the dead stuff.
Anyway - just goes to show you that you can't ignore your tank in this hobby. Guess I will be in the market for some new coral after this gets stable.
Shawn
