Please help!!

[SaltH2OLover]

Ok to start off I have been getting water tested every couple weeks bc of some of my chalices receding. Water seems to test out pretty good, alk has been just a lil low between 7-8. Everything else is fine. Well I bought a sailfin tang (small), blue tuxedo urchin and some snails a couple weeks ago. Everything was fine, urchin was moving around good for about a week, went down back of glass and hasn't been seen since, it's MIA!! The sailfin died I think Monday, then my cleaner shrimp that I've had for about 2 years died yesterday. I've had numerous chalices that have receded and a favia that has started to die off. All my other corals are fine. Look good and growing. Any help would greatly b appreciated in advance!!
Nothing has changed as far as lighting or anything. I'm running a sol led. I'm at a loss for things to check. I tried a glass last night thinking maybe a hitchhiker came along from somewhere. No luck with that yet. I asked Richard today about all of it. He's just as confused as I am. He told me to try and see if there was an electric current in water somehow and to check with a voltage meter. Has anyone else tried this, if so how did u go about checking? What did you use for ground? Luckily my bro is in the hobby and he's helping me save a lot of my dying pieces. Thank god!!

Any help?!?! :uzi: :headwallblue:

 

[OneReef]

I think some sea urchins may put off toxins, not sure. Maybe his death caused a snowball effect?

 

[nam2212]

What is your salinity? Urchins are very sensitive to changes in salinity. They should be acclimated over many hours when first introduced to the tank. They also need a very steady salinity in a tank they inhabit. Do you have an ATO or does salinity fluctuate during the day? This might not be the problem but it is very possible. As for the chalices, how long have the LEDs been on the tank? In my experience they need to be acclimated slowly to high light intensity. Any chalice I have will start receding and die under my LEDs.

 

[SaltH2OLover]

The chalices started receding before I even got the urchin. So I don't think that's what caused the issues.
I don't have an ATO yet. Definitely in the near future that's for sure!! As far as light, next month will be a year it's been on tank. I have one chalice that is doing fine, lots of new growth and everything. 1 chalice I got from my bro was doing GREAT, TONS of new growth in a very short period of time. Then just outta nowhere started receding back a lil bit. Now it's back to full recovery. I start my chalices at sand bed or maybe about 2"s above. Idk what the deal is.
Tank size is (don't laugh) 40 gallon breeder, skimmer is great and doing its job well. I have moved a few chalices to more of a cave area now to see if that helps. If not time to move them to my bro's tank and get them back healthy and possibly sell at the Nashville swap. Haven't decided yet. As far as trying to keep sps, hahaha that's another headache. I've had several birds nest do great for a couple weeks some even months and then outta nowhere just die off. I'm curious if something was wrong with my heater, just changed it out last night to one I had from another tank. Maybe that'll help. :headwalls: hopefully I can figure something out SOON!!!! Lol.

 

[Blindside]

i keep a ground probe in my tank. Ive been told its useless, but its not hurting anything either. Check all paramaters carefully, then check again salinity, calc, mag, nitrates, phosphates. Then test water your gonna do a change with. You always need to make sure your not changeing salinity levels when doing a water change. Temp of water used for the change is also inmportant especially in winter. Sometimes things just die?

 

[OneReef]

i keep a ground probe in my tank. Ive been told its useless, but its not hurting anything either. Check all paramaters carefully, then check again salinity, calc, mag, nitrates, phosphates. Then test water your gonna do a change with. You always need to make sure your not changeing salinity levels when doing a water change. Temp of water used for the change is also inmportant especially in winter. Sometimes things just die?

I use a grounding probe too. I've read all the heated debates on if they're good or not, but to me, when I put a tester in the water and it shows stray voltage, and I put a ground probe in and it drops to 0, I'm inclined to use it to get rid of the voltage, ha. All equipment will put off a little stray, I like mine at 0. If its really high it out if whack, find the source by unplugging each one at a time and finding what's faulty to replace it.