Tank dying out!

[bubbly]

Which corals are dying back and how much?

You may just have a predator in the tank eating your corals -- maybe a large worm of some kind hidden in the rocks.

 

[fishtk75]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14799691#post14799691 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bubbly
Which corals are dying back and how much?

You may just have a predator in the tank eating your corals -- maybe a large worm of some kind hidden in the rocks.

Has from the pic of 2002 all the zenias. The devil hand is there. 90% zoos gone. Had star polyp covered the return box gone. Mushrooms big one gone and green strip 50% gone.

I was changing my carbon and is there shelf life for carbon and other media?

 

[otrlynn]

Have you checked the TDS of your RO/DI water? Also, I don't think there is a shelf life on carbon. Just make sure you rinse it well (preferably in RODI) before using it. If you don't have a reactor, you can but it in a filter bag in a simple hang-on-back filter such as would be used on a small freshwater tank. Do you know what is in Kent Coral Accel and Coral Vital? Are these food or some kind of supplement supposedly formulated to stimulate coral growth? I am not familiar with either product, but I wonder if they have some un-helpful ingredients that have built up over time in your tank. Generally, with frequent water changes, good parameters, and decent light, corals do not need any special supplementation--and maybe light feeding of a food like frozen cyclopeeze.

 

[ludnix]

That doesn't seem like that dramatic a change considering it's a 6 year interval.

 

[MileHighFish]

Do you think the DSB is starting to crash? I see you have nitrates of 10, after 7 years has this # gone up or down? I don't trust DSB every time I have ran one I have dealt with nitrate issues. I have a friend going through the same thing you are and he is running a DSB he had great success at the beginning but has slowly had issues over the years (tanks been up 8 years) I'm not looking to spark a debate between SSB & DSB but once I switched to a SSB I have never had nitrates.

 

[noahm]

One thing you may or may not have done is looked at long term flow issues. Plug all your returns except one at a time to help blow anything out, clean powerheads, and more importantly blow all the crud out from in/under/around the rockpile if you haven't already.

Looking at your pics, I can see that the rocks haven't moved. You may be very surprised at what has accumulated under them and inside their pores. I would do small sections at a time as you are going to open up some real dead spots and release who knows what. Get a powerhead and really blow out each rock and vacuum up anything under.

Not that that is the cause, but while you are looking for stuff, why not. As above, run carbon, check your RO/DI for 0 tds etc. etc.

 

[fishtk75]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14804799#post14804799 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by noahm
One thing you may or may not have done is looked at long term flow issues. Plug all your returns except one at a time to help blow anything out, clean powerheads, and more importantly blow all the crud out from in/under/around the rockpile if you haven't already.

Looking at your pics, I can see that the rocks haven't moved. You may be very surprised at what has accumulated under them and inside their pores. I would do small sections at a time as you are going to open up some real dead spots and release who knows what. Get a powerhead and really blow out each rock and vacuum up anything under.

Not that that is the cause, but while you are looking for stuff, why not. As above, run carbon, check your RO/DI for 0 tds etc. etc.

Ro/DI is zero tds and have changed carbon.
Cleaned power heads and returns. Used turkey baster to blow rocks.