while you were sleeping

Brian, I'm really sorry to hear about this man.
I'll hook you up with some frags when you're ready...


Were all of your pumps working?
Did a pump melt and release oil?
Were you painting near by?
Using chemicals near by?
Recent plumbing?
Stray voltage?
Overactive ozonizer?
Accidental or Intentional Poisoning?
Accidental mass feeding?
Find any foreign objects in the tank?
Pesticides?
Broken Heater?
Did a fish go "missing" before the crash?
Any Holuthorins in there? Cukes? Sea Apples?
New Rock additions?
Did you add any atlantic corals / fish/ rock/ inverts?


I really hope you can figure it out Brian...

Good luck

Steve
 
Brian that really sucks. Glad you had some survivors though.


NwRogers:
I'm almost positive Melanie does not. I don't know about Brian.
 
No refugium on mine, not sure about Brian's.

My issue seemed to be triggered by using plain old treated tap water as I believe mine is high in silicates. After the crash last fall I've been using deionized water with no further problems. Except, I had a cuke die a few months back and did a quick 50% water change w/ plain treated tap and it started to rear its ugly head again but a bunch of syphoning and deionized water changes spread out after that made it disappear again, along w/ some Pura Phos for good measure added recently just to make sure.
 
na no fuge on mine either...

s helinski In a couple of weeks I have to get more of that blue milli and some tort from you unbelieveable pieces!!!! they were a blessing in my tank!

I added a closed loop all on flex (no glue) 3 weeks ago. added a frag 4 days ago but it was from a highly respected member of the URS. Im SURE it is not from there.

I do wear a cheep watch but it has only been in the tank once for like 30 seconds 3 weeks ago.

the scaries part is 3 days ago I was looking at the blue milli and noticed 2 new branches starting...

I did loose a sand cuke 2 months ago ran about 1 lb carbon and did a %30 change out. Im also on RO/DI with good readings on a TDS I know that silicate may still be there but the DI resin looks great !! Id love to scrape the tank and look at it under a real microscope. But I dont have those resources.

" the only thing we can agree on is that mother nature does it right and we often do not" - E. borneman (corals)

keep the Ideas and thoughts coming.
mel what is your water change schedule? I do 10-15 % monthly am wondering if that was not enough considering the ammount of Randy's 2 part I was using.

I was also thinking that it may be excessive sulfides from Mg buffering over the past 6 months. But I dont think that would carry over to the 55g.

Brian
 
Brian, Your 10-15% monthly would normally beat me out. I used to only change about 20% 3-4 times per year. However since my tank crash last fall and buying a tap water deionization unit I'd say my water changes average out to more like 20% per month now. Now that I have a way to clear my water before use I'm more comfortable doing the changes. Ever since starting this hobby and initially using tap, I noticed the dreaded brown gunk after every water change so I limited how many I did. Now the only time I get that gunk is when tap makes it in the tank. (only in emergency) Even more reason why I think initially my issue is silicates (or possibly some other tap water nasty) and then maybe once they make it in they fester and pH or oxygen levels get all screwy. I'm no chemist so I'm not sure what the chain reaction steps are there but I know I don't like the end result.

I also top off about 5 gallons FW per week w/ deionized water FWIW.

The thing that confuses me is this: I thought that silicates always = phosphates which always = poor growth but I also had good growth of corals before the crash last fall... ?
 
Sorry to hear about the tank crash. When you get back going again I will hook you up.

The Dinoflaggetlates sound like the most plausable explaination to me. However there usually needs to be a large source of energy to fuel a bloom. The elpaination of the smell you give would be inline as well. One good way to tell you be to autopsy any fish causualtys to see if there is a build up in the gill tissue. When we would dissect fish that washed up on shore during redtide there gills would be loaded...As for the other fish is there any increase in there respiration? They will react similar to freshwater fish with a bad planaria problem. Also I didn't notice did you test for Silica?

Best of luck
Scott
 
yah member i had a total friggin crash from a broken heater.. new tank though so not nearly in the same ballpark.. I feel for ya man.
 
Crashes over the long-term are very likely. Just look at the bright side, you got yours out of the way and just in time for a move. strap up, chin high, and in proper time get back in the game.

I'll give you frags too.
 
Brian, You might want to use one of those tests at the store and check your silica. I bought one when I was there this morning and the result is somewhere between 25 and 50 ppm, color is in between those two... so I'm thinking that explains the minor brown bloom I'm dealing with right now (from that huge emergency water change...). Never had this problem w/ tap water until moving up here from Bloomfield so I'd say the water around here is a "bit" different.
 
did test for silica and very little was present although if truely dinoflag's they would have consumed alot of the silica.

thanks again for the kind words and the suggestions ...

Current status is that all corals are dead with 2 exceptions Micromussa from randyO and todds torch.

what ever this is carried over into a friends 180 and my wifes 55 g and is wreaking havoc in both tanks. Fish seem unaffected. quite baffling really.

Brian
 
Brian -

Any commonalities between the tanks? Unless you're sharing things between the tanks you've just ruled out all the equipment and water parameter stuff.

Grasping at straws here: Are you all on Monroe County Water Authority system? Using a common salt mix/same batch?

If you have something to look at (brown slime) and want to bring a sample to the store I'll pick it up and see if I see anything useful under the microscope.

You have quite the mystery here.... symptoms still don't make sense to me. Did you test copper levels?

What a shame...

- Mark
 
Seems really strange to hop around like that.
Chemicals in the house in prep to move?
Maybe bad food?
 
Did you leave any water inside any skimmer sit idle for a length of time recently? When you swapped skimmers did you discharge any old water inside a skimmer into your aquarium?

I would not recommend placing any hands or arms with open cuts or wounds in the affected aquariums until you figure out what's going on.
If anyone in contact with any of these systems gets ill suddenly I would immediately seek medical attention.
If this sounds crazy maybe it's because I'm getting more cautious as I age.
 
I did not test for Copper .

I cant remember If I dumped old skimmer water into sump.
The skimmer seemed to be working fine with no time off except durring water changes.

I'll deffinately be extra careful and pass along the info. to those in contact with the systems. I already owe a friend a bucket I told him he can NOT have it back until I figure out what is going on.

Thanks guys
Putter where is the shop?
Brian
 
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