Tank Of Death

[stabruciandosi]

Ok so not only has every fish that ive put in this tank died since it began in september 2005, now it seems the corals are deciding to leave as well. I just changed 80 percent of the water yesterday and am hoping for a recovery of some sort, but for right now all my params seem decent if not great. tank specs are 175w 14k Hamilton over 30 gallons. Water params:

ammonia - 0 ppm
nitrate - 0ppm
nitrite - 0ppm

pH ~ 8.0 - 8.2
dKH - 6
Calcium is ~ 400 ppm

1.024 salt.

As far as the corals go they are bleaching from their base up. Is there anything i can do to save them? i have since moved them to the bottom of the tank and made sure they have tons of flow with 2 seio 620s. I was thinking about breaking off the coral above the bleaching and re-attaching it to another rock.. would this be a good idea? thanks for any input and hopefully i can get something to stay alive in my tank in the near future.

 

[Sk8r]

alkalinity should be 8.3 on the middle Salifert scale, 2.94 on the other one.

Check for parasites, flatworm, etc.

 

[stabruciandosi]

i see nothing surrounding any of the corals parasitic wise, what am i looking for concerning flat worms? and how do i make my tank more basic?

 

[The Marmot]

do you use a swing arm hydrometer to check specific gravity?. I have noticed my hydrometer reads about 0.005 low...if it reads 1.024, you may actaully be at 1.029...of course if you use a refractometer, then the reading is most likely correct.

 

[xia]

My corals were bleaching like that on a major scale. Cut off the dead ends, but I wouldn't bother reattaching until I knew that they were going to stop bleaching. I just laid mine on eggcrate so that they'd get good flow. Took a good three weeks before the corals started recovering. I also tried using Natural salt water, that seemed to help. My problem was that I added too much livestock all at once. Then there was the heat. You're not letting your tank get too hot are you? Also there was my lighting upgrade. How long ago did you install your lights?

 

[BBishop]

What's your temp?

 

[brentp]

Do you have an open or closed top aquarium? Low oxygen levels will kill fish pretty quickly IME.

 

[MandM]

If the temp is OK, it sounds like something toxic got in there. Copper? Did you put any kind of medication in the tank? I had a nudi die and kill off my fish but it didn't affect the coral. Any "little helpers" around the house that may have added something?

 

[dots]

I am going to say, its a new tank....and you are still learning husbandry techniques. Give it time, keep trying and check, double check and triple check your dosages, maintenance, and water quality.

I would assume, since you are having a lot of fish deaths, you are quickly replacing them.....each time you are adding something, you throw it into a "mini cycle", then the fish dies and has a "mini crash" as the load decreases....and this roller coaster.

I could also be your parameters.....are they STABLE? That is the key.........

Patience and time, it will work out.

 

[Nu2SW]

his tank is newer then mine, but i didnt put fish in for the first month and a half.

When did you first put fish in?

what kind of water do you use?

what test kits are you using.

if he has 0 of everything then i dont think it would be mini-cycles....

i wonder the same as MandM, toxic.

a 80 % water change is very large, I wouldnt go past 50 that may start a cycle couldnt it?