Tank is dead

[yellowtruck75]

I am currently living in southwest FLorida so I am 1200 miles away from my tank. The last time I saw any pictures of my tank around July 4th it looked amazing. I finally got my mom to send me updated photos of my tank and this is what I received.

I am pretty sure the entire tank except the fish and clams is dead. Even the horrible polyps on the one rock died. I feel like just giving up.

The only thing that I changed since I was gone was upgrade my center bulb from a 10K to a 20K. I plan on changing them all but I didn't have the funds for all 3 at once. Any chance the bulb change did this? I had my dad raise the lights and slowly lower them over the course of a few weeks so I can't believe it is shock. Currently I don't have any water test results.

 

[CarlC]

Temps got very hot here for a week. I doubt the lights caused your problem.

How much longer are you away for school? It probably would be better if you take the tank down until you can be there to care for it. There is no reason to keep killing the inhabitants.

Carl

 

[yellowtruck75]

Temp is usually not an issue because there is an air conditioner right next to the tank but that might have been the issue. I will be away from home working until the end of the year with onyl 2 trips home. I honestly don't know what to do about this. I guess I could change over to a FOWLR.

 

[Sk8r]

You need an understanding that the airconditioner is not to be turned off. That's a big problem with anyone caretaking who doesn't understand the problem with heat. I don't think your tank is necessarily biologically dead, but the corals sure aren't happy. I'd let it ride on auto until you do get home: some things may come back, and the tank's chemistry may survive: if that does, then you may see a resurgence of coralline and microfauna. You don't mention if you've got a calcium reactor or what your params are.

 

[yellowtruck75]

I don't have a calcium reactor and don't know the parameter because I haven't been home in a few months to check them. A month ago everything was fantastic. When I say dead I basicly mean the corals are dead. I know the tank can be brought back but this is such a setback that I don't know if I can recover from. Anytime that it seems like things are going great something happens like this.

 

[tnyr5]

awww zach man that sux,
did you ask them what time this started happening? It could have happened during all the flooding we had ( just like me) which led to power outages = no ac = too hot. Do you have an ac that needs to be turned back on manually if the power goes out? other possible causes - rents forgot to refill sump & siphon broke or if it's ato pump broke & flooded the tank with freshwater.

 

[yellowtruck75]

No we never lost power during the flooding. I have no idea when it started becuase my parents don't realize what corals look like when they are stressed. I saw a picture near the end of June and the tank looked amazing. I am thinking that during July when it was so hot that the temp must have rised during the day and stressed the corals enough to bleach them out. I can only hope that some of them recover. I think that it is the heat because the clams even look stressed and then have servived some pretty streeful events over the years.

 

[cwegescheide]

Oh that really stinks. If your away from home that much and depend on your parents that don't know anything about corals I think your chance for success is slim to none. Only thing that I think could help your situation is possibly an Aquacontroller III that you can monitor your tank over the internet.

I work away from home m-f and it definatley gives me a sense of security. The only thing is the supplementation. Even with a reactor you have to keep an eye on your parameters. Its never rock solid. I typically have to correct every week or two with a little B-ionic.

Good luck you ya! Teach your dad how to test the water params and add the supplements and water changes.

Chris

 

[yellowtruck75]

I am looking into possibly getting a Neptune Jr with hookup to the internet so that I can monitor everything. Even if I am not able to add the stuff my self I can atleast tell my dad how much. Also I think this was because of the heat so I would like to be able to control the temp through the lights and fans.

 

[cwegescheide]

Yes that is a VERY nice feature.. Of course you can't monitor your Alk or Ca or anything but controlling the temp is nice and turning off lights if temp gets too high and controlling fans is a great feature. Mine is great. I think it is the single best investment in a reef tank.

Chris

 

[yellowtruck75]

After researching I realize that I could control Alk or CA but thats ok. Controling the temp would be find and being able to monitor the parameters.

Which model do you have cwegescheide?

 

[Sanjay]

This definately looks like heat or salinity related bleaching to me. More likely heat.

I don't think its easy to remotely manage a tank. There is something to be said for visual feedback and feel that you just cannot get from numbers and readings.

Having people who are not into reef aquariums look after the tank is not a good long term strategy. It may work for a few weeks but several months is just asking for trouble.

sanjay.

 

[yellowtruck75]

Thanks Sanjay, I think that when my parents were on vacation and the tank was being watched the temp might have spiked and stressed the corals. Even though the AC was on the entire time sometimes that isn't enough. I am looking into the Neptune units so that I can atleast monitor the parameters in my tank and possibly control the temp through fans and heaters. I also like the feature on some of the higher end units that will send e-mail alerts.

 

[was16803]

I believe Sanjay is correct. Looks like a heat related dye off to me. The coral bleaching was to the entire colonies and must have been relatively quick (no obvious sign of algae growth/discoloration to parts of colonies).

 

[yellowtruck75]

Well I was home this weekend for the first time since May. There are only a few corals that made it through this ordeal and they are severally bleached. I think that the problem might have been heat and a slip in salinity. I noticed that my Oceans Motions 4 way was slightly leaking and I think that my auto topoff has been replacing the water which has been slowly dropping the salinity also.

To try and fix the problems I changed 40 gallons, corrected the salinity, removed the dead corals and ordered a new upgrade for my OM 4 way. I can only hope that this was the problem and that I have corrected it.

The odd thing is that everything seems to be effected excempt for my large Deresa clam which seems to be in great shape.