Tank crashing?

[Xolsiion]

A week and 1/2 ago I had my salinity tested at an LFS and they said it was 1.027. When I got home and compared to my old hydrometer and the new one I just bought they were both lower than that. Going off what they said I slowly brought the salinity down to what I thought was 1.0245 (using both hydrometers and doing the math to get them to what the LFS said my salinity was). I had to bring the salinity down over 2.5 days because I was leaving for a week.

During this week I had someone else topping my water off and feeding my sixline. When I got back to the airport they picked me up with another water sample and both hydrometers. This time my salinity tested to 1.023 and my hydrometers were not as inaccurate as I had originally assumed. my water parameters were fine so I picked up a small favia frag.

When I get home I see that my 3 week old favia frag is almost completed melted down to its skeleton and my plate coral is looking like its on its last legs. I acclimated my new favia and added it to the tank.

Now, two days later I'm losing all my LPS. I have 3 sets of candycanes that are showing skeleton, my plate coral is pretty much gone and showing skeleton and both my new and old favia frags are showing skeleton (old one is 80% gone). All my softies look fine (and my duncan is ok as well).

So, my question is: what's happening? My friend was overfeeding, I think I brought my salinity down too quickly, but why would everything hit a week after the salinity change? And why only my LPS (excepting the duncan)?

Also - should I take these dying coral out? I only have a 20 gallon tank - could the first favia have starting a snowball effect that's taking all my other LPS and could eventually kill everything else too?

My parameters still test fine, and I'm making a water change now - but I'm not really sure what happened or what to do...

 

[kraze3]

1.027 was perfect, you should have left it where it was.

IMO hydrometers are pieces of crap. Throw it out and get a refractometer.

What are your other parameters?

 

[Xolsiion]

ammonia - 0
nitrate - undetectable
nitrite - 0
ph - 8.0
calcium - 420

 

[kraze3]

I would try a water change. 5 gallons maybe 10. You can start to bring the sg back up a little but you need to do it slowly. Im not sure the sg change would do this unless your hydrometer is way off and the sg is not what you think it is. If the fava is deff gone I would remove it. No sense letting it rot in there.

Was the favia acclimated correctly? how did you acclimate it?

 

[oldsaltman]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14719203#post14719203 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Xolsiion
ammonia - 0
nitrate - undetectable
nitrite - 0
ph - 8.0
calcium - 420

These figures are great, but what is your SG and temp? There are many other things that need to be mesured in a reef tank.

 

[Xolsiion]

I'm mixing water and I"ll be changing that tomorrow afternoon.

The first favia (which looked fine for 3 weeks or so) was acclimated by floating the bag for an hour and every 15 minutes adding some tank water.

The second favia was just floated for an hour because I was freaking out about my first favia (I wanted to save my first one so I was getting it higher in the tank thinking it was light)

 

[Xolsiion]

sg - 1.023
temp - 78

 

[Xolsiion]

Did a water change (20%) and removed both my favias. My candycanes look even worse.

Anyone else? Thoughts? I don't have a phosphate test - could a large number of phosphates from overfeeding be doing this?

 

[drummereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14727669#post14727669 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Xolsiion
Did a water change (20%) and removed both my favias. My candycanes look even worse.

Anyone else? Thoughts? I don't have a phosphate test - could a large number of phosphates from overfeeding be doing this?

High phosphate could definitely be caused from overfeeding, especially on a skimmer-less tank. But, to cause such a decline so fast is strange. I know you said the temp was 78F. Do you have a heater in the tank? I'm only asking because violent temp swings can do bad things.

 

[Xolsiion]

I do have a 100 watt heater and I've been watching the temp like mad since I noticed the problem, but I haven't seen it change. The only time I've seen my temp change is if I leave the window open and gets really cold that night - but I don't think that's happened in the last couple weeks.

 

[turretdr]

Running carbon may help to stave off any possible alleopathy that may be happening.

 

[chris4869]

What's your alk reading? It's the first thing I test nowadays.

 

[Xolsiion]

I just replaced my carbon with the water change and I think the die-off is slowing down - maybe between the new water, new carbon, and removing my favias I've helped some.

I just wish I knew what had happened...


I don't have an alkalinity test kit, nor do I think I've ever had an LFS test for it either. With my tank being stable for almost a year I would assume its ok. What could I have done to throw it off? Can bad alkalinity really start murdering corals all of a sudden?

 

[chris4869]

High alk can burn SPS and melt LPS. It might not be the cause of your problem, but you should definitely start testing for alk. Some people use alk to keep their pH at the 8.3-8.4 range and overuse it to maintain that level.

 

[drummereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14730723#post14730723 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Xolsiion
I just replaced my carbon with the water change and I think the die-off is slowing down - maybe between the new water, new carbon, and removing my favias I've helped some.

I just wish I knew what had happened...


I don't have an alkalinity test kit, nor do I think I've ever had an LFS test for it either. With my tank being stable for almost a year I would assume its ok. What could I have done to throw it off? Can bad alkalinity really start murdering corals all of a sudden?

Bingo. I'd get the alk checked asap. I dose diy 2-part and check it on a weekly basis. Large shifts in alkalinity can cause severe problems. Never try to control the pH by adjusting alkalinity, that's what fresh air is for.

 

[Fizz71]

Did you get a refractometer yet like somebody suggested? I'm sorry but if my reading and the lfs don't match...I'd rather get better equipment than try to do bogus math on unsure values. YOUR LFS COULD HAVE BEEN WRONG!

 

[Xolsiion]

Why would my alkalinity suddenly be off? I'll get a test for it, but that doesn't explain the greater problem of why it might suddenly go bad or why this suddenly happened.

While my salinity may be a problem it took a week to manifest, which seems unlikely to me - but I'd like to hear some other opinions on that.

If its phosphates from overfeeding I can have people be more careful about feeding when I can't do it myself.

If its alkalinity, then why the hell did it suddenly go bonkers. I have never dosed anything but flatworm eXit in my tank and that was 5 months ago.

While I obviously grew complacent with the hydrometer I don't think it invalidates it as a tool. Unless everyone saying I need to go out and buy a much more expensive tool is telling me this because they crashed their tank thanks to a hydrometer? I also don't run a skimmer (*gasp*). However, for 11 months I've kept a skimmerless tank with salinity measured by hydrometer. Something changed - and the only things I did different recently are the altering of salinity, the tank being overfed, and cleaning my dirty panel on my light.

Things don't just happen in this hobby, there was a catalyst. Most likely my own stupidity or ignorance. Based on what I've said I did is it any or all of what I said I did, or something else that I just don't know about?

 

[turretdr]

Dirty panel on your light, possible issue. If it were blocking a good deal of light, you clean it, then the corals are all hit with this new intensity.

 

[Xolsiion]

I hadn't mentioned cleaning the panel because I thought they would bleach?

I didn't realize excess light would make them melt. Actually, now that I think about it - I don't think that could be the issue as my brand-new favia (which was under MH) started dying within two days of being added. Also, same as the salt, I cleaned the light panel over a week ago.

Will corals melt with excess light or just bleach?