Tank Crashing?

[emoore]

I am looking for ideas on why my tank seems to be dying. I have a 90 gallon with SPS and LPS corals. There are 8 fish: 3 fairy wrasses, kole tang, rabbitfish, 2 clowns, candy hogfish. For about a month I have been slowly loosing my SPS corals. I am getting very poor polyp extension. I have lost about 2/3 of my SPS. The only ones that are left are the hardier ones, montipora (I did lose a cap though) and my millipora (but the polyp extension is terrible).

I don't know what is going on. I have also lost many snails but my emerald crabs and hermit crabs are fine. My fish are doing well and my LPS and ricordia seem just fine. I have not added anything to the tank in 2 months. I was dosing AlgeaFix to try to get rid of some hair algae but it did not work so I stopped. All the corals seemed fine when I stopped dosing. Here are my tank parameters.

pH: 8.3 day 8.1 night
Alk: 9.9 degrees
Calcium: 490 ppm
Mag: 1380 ppm
Nitrate: 0.2 ppm
Phosphate: 0 ppm
Temperature: 80
Salinity: 35 ppt

I am at a loss here and would appreciate any suggestions.

 

[chilihedkc]

What kind of lighting do you have? When was your last water change? Might be low on trace elements.

 

[emoore]

I have a retro 6x54w overdriven T5 with individual reflectors. I change 10 gallons every week and just did a 30 gallon change yesterday. Most of the corals I have lost I have had for a year and a half and they were doing just fine.

 

[messiah023]

Have you checked for stray voltage in the tank? Could be a grounding issue.....

 

[emoore]

I have a grounding probe so my stray voltage is zero. I should disconnect the probe so I can see the real voltage.

 

[emoore]

I think I have also lost both of my fire shrimp. This is really frustrating! I appreciate the help.

 

[wrott]

Nutrients seem to be a problem. The AlgaeFix couldn't have helped the SPS. I would run GFO and carbon, and continue w/ larger weekly WCs. Snails dying?--could it be the hermits? Could the Rabbit have eaten the shrimp, I believe my Foxface ate my peps and banded coral shrimp.
A few more Turbo's would help the HA, and may be pull the larger hermits. I hope things turn around for you.

 

[r-balljunkie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15304080#post15304080 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wrott
Nutrients seem to be a problem. The AlgaeFix couldn't have helped the SPS. I would run GFO and carbon, and continue w/ larger weekly WCs.

+1


i have seen this time and time again. stop dosing the algaefix. it is throwing something off in your system, see if you can recover. might want to start pulling out the effected live rock and see if you can manually remove or isolate rock in darkeness, to kill off the algae issue.

GL


C

 

[emoore]

Thanks wrott. The snails started dying before I had any hermits. I got the hermits since I could not keep the snails alive. The foxface could have eaten the shrimp. I didn't even think about that. I manually removed most of the hair algae 2 weeks ago and it does not seem to be coming back. I did have some Turbo's that did a great job on the red hair algae but they have also been dying. The hermits are very small blue leg and there are plenty of empty shells (even more now that the snails have died).

I did a 30 gallon WC yesterday and hope that things stop dying. I am going to let the tank be for a month or 2 and see what happens. I will still keep up on maintenance and do large water changes every week. I do run carbon and GFO. I am not going to add anything until this passes, hopefully soon.

 

[emoore]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15304247#post15304247 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by r-balljunkie
+1


i have seen this time and time again. stop dosing the algaefix. it is throwing something off in your system, see if you can recover. might want to start pulling out the effected live rock and see if you can manually remove or isolate rock in darkeness, to kill off the algae issue.

GL
C

I have stopped the algaefix about a month ago. That is what's strange. My corals and inverts seemed fine while I was dosing but when I stopped then things started to go south. I think you are right in that something is off in my system. At least the fish seem fine. I am going to try to wait this out and do larger weekly water changes.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

what is your alkalinity? sounds like it's dropped quite a bit to me, sps seem to be the first affected by it

 

[emoore]

My alk is 9.9. It has been there for 6 months. I have a calcium reactor that keeps it there.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

something is off then, i'd double check your test kits and make sure non-have expired, or have a friend test it also.

IMO don't use any sort of chemicals or medications, those are basically just products that mask the real problem.

 

[emoore]

Well it looks like I am going to lose my two montiporas and I think my milli is next. I did notice an emerald crab picking at an SPS but the SPS is already almost dead. I have not seen anything picking on other corals during the day or at night. I really doubt that 2 emerald crabs could be causing all my corals to die. I think it is only a matter of time before my LPS and then ricordia start going. When that happens I may have to reconsider keeping a reef tank. It doesn't look like I have what it takes to be able to keep corals.

 

[r-balljunkie]

see if someone can hold ur sps for awhile.


dont give up. you have had a bad run....... stop thinking solution in a bottle, start taking new approaches. this hobby takes patience...i have A.D.D. its tough for me. hang tight, homie.


c

 

[wrott]

I really doubt you will lose any LPS or ricordia.
SPS can be so finicky, sometimes there is never a single answer as to why they all of the sudden die. I've had it happen to me as well.
Keep your head up, and keep doing WCs and running carbon on a regular basis. GL

 

[r-balljunkie]

i hate to say it........take your reactor off line for awhile.

dont ask why......just do it. your corals will be fine.

try to isolate what the problem is. it wont hurt your system. i dont run one, and i am SPS dominant on my tank.


give it a couple of weeks, till we can zero in on issue.
c

 

[tmz]

Could be a toxic metal ( copper /zinc ,etc) . I' do extra water changes and run some polypad.
Double check your phosphate and nitrate tests as well.
Check the tds from your source water post ro/di.

 

[njdevilsfan]

please add a poly filter or 2
also i have had something like this happen
it ended up a few REEF SAFE fish became not reefsafe
i was testing and testing and freaking
then my 5 year old asked me why the fish always ate on the corals before the lights came on ......

 

[emoore]

Thanks for all the advice. The first thing that came to mind is copper poisoning because most of my snails died. I need to get a copper test. I will try to get a poly filter and do some extra water changes.