Thanks for the offer, Eric
unfortunatly, the more I recollect about the cause, there were too mainy variables to point to just one. the fact is after years of not having any problems, I neglected to pay attention to the details. I forgot that our tanks should not be taken for granted no mater how stable ones system has become there is a very subtle balance of life in there.
now I'll admit my guilt:
#1 in the past 1.5 wk the tank was neglected ( we recently had a second child, and my wife is recovering from surgery at my parents I"ve ben traveling back and forth) instead of daily top off water/food/calcium etc.. I switched to every 4-5 days. (large salinity change and chemical fluctuations)
#2 due to low water in the sump/fuge I had to harvest most of my cheato (it was dry) and the calerpa "went sexual" and some live rock was exposed (lhe live rock and calerpa probably caused a small amonia spike and lowered the o2)(also defeated the stability added to the sustem by having a fuge)
#3 For thr swap I fraged a large leather and a 8"+ zoanthid rock (could have released excessive toxins)
#4 recently replaced the mh bulb and added vho's (every thing was stressed a little from the new 100k xm)
#5 verry likely I disturbred deep in the dsb when I fraged two large rocks one was the large zoa rock the other was to remove a bta I promised some one. (dsb are a good thing, but they must be used with some caution!!! and an understanding of there pitfalls.) this was proobably the major cause of my situation.
#6 my T.maxima 5.5" decided it was a good time to try to procreate and was spawning large white pufs 2-3 thmes a min for hours. (not a major issueThis could not have helped this can lead to a large amonia spike and depresed levels of o2)
every thing is seteling down now.
lots of dead coral. all mointipora sp, all pocilipora sp. are bleached. (rather sad as the pocilipora spawned around december. I had dozens of small 1/2" colonies growing at every avaliable spot)
curiously one newer frag of m.cap. did survive it is a bright orange/pink collor variant.
all acroporas seem unaffected.
all brain coral related lps are severly stressed (blasto, calestera, lobo.)
most of the softies are un- happy but will be ok
frog spawn is po'd
challace's seem unaffected
xinia not happy but in tact.
all new frags are ok (this is good but, puzzles me a bit) I did loose the tips on a pocilipora frag though. I did not add the frags till midnight after I did what mantnance I could for the tank. lost one new pepermint shrimp (unrelated to this as it was not looking good by the time it got home)
fish are slightly stressed but ok (clowns still tending there spawn)
snails were all playing dead last night but are active now.
I think i am over the worst now
to this point I've changed 30% of the water
added as mutch carbon as I can fit.
added particulate filter pad (changed every 8 hrs or so)
added some puragen
cleaned the skimmer and its pump pulling 3-4 cups of nasty sludge every 8 hrs.
increased flow in the tank
the water is clearing up, things are looking beter.
I figured I'd document this so others can learn from my neglect.
Steve,
