Would a rusting hose clamp cause massive SPS die off?

[rbp 4 135]

I am tagging along on this. I have a VERY similar problem with my SPS (Monti Spongodes and Cap). I did drop 2 small screws in my sump, that were likely zinc plated, while installing some wiring and control modules. I was able to retrieve them but not before they had begun to corode. Like you my LPS and even BTA anemones seem to be doing well. My system also tests 0 for PO4 (hannah) and 0 for nitrate (various kits).

 

[waverz]

I took my inline heater offline as sort of a last ditch effort thinking that it might be leeching something in the tank. I took it apart and it seemed clean. There were no electronics exposed and no signs of contamination.

I sent a water sample in to get tested. If it comes back with no obvious problems I guess I will be getting rid of all my fish and coral, let the tank dry out, and start over.

 

[Sensei ClamMan]

I agree with PaulB. 15y old SPS tank has had all sorts of metal things in it at times including clamps and whatever screws fallen into the sump. I've never had any issues or coral loss EVER (ok maybe 1 or 2 things the LFS killed 1st) until I tried bio pellets. Everything you described is what happened to my tank, the weird pastel colors were the first sign, die off was minor but all my SPS were hurting. It's been about 6 months and the recovery is still in process and really just starting to look good again, & I only ran them for 3 months. The problems continued for long after I took it offline. It seems the best luck people have had with biopellets is with new tanks. Good luck whatever the cause is.

 

[Sensei ClamMan]

How long you been dosing vodka for, I always assumed it was for really heavily stocked tanks. Your stock is what I consider really low. I thought that vodka just lowers nitrates and actually drives up P04. Never was interested in anything but double screwdrivers when it came to vodka do don't know much there. Just something else to consider.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

well. it may look like your having a alk swing, have you ever tested your every day? please do so and get back. also please test at the same time every day. i know it may be a bit fustrating but we are here to help! and stop using rox carbon and run regular and get back with some updated info. please do so!

 

[Sensei ClamMan]

Sorry, one more question. Were you dosing vodka and using biopellets at the same time? I just hoping someone here with some carbon dosing experience will have some alarm bells going off there.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

also try lowering your lights intensity. it might be 300 par but it can shock them when they were in their previous home.

 

[waverz]

How long you been dosing vodka for, I always assumed it was for really heavily stocked tanks. Your stock is what I consider really low. I thought that vodka just lowers nitrates and actually drives up P04. Never was interested in anything but double screwdrivers when it came to vodka do don't know much there. Just something else to consider.

I'm dosing vinegar not vodka. I started after I lost most of my colonies because nitrates were always 15+.

I wouldn't consider my stocking to be low some of my wrasses are quite large. At one point I had over 50 corals and twice as many fish.

 

[tmz]

I've been using vodka and viegar for over4 years with very good results in a heavily stocked system( over 40 healthy fish an hudreds of healthy corals). It lowers both phosphate and nitrate to a point where I no longer need gfo with moderate dosing. PO4 consistently .03ppm or less, N03 consistently 0.2ppm or less ;good enough for me een with testing kit and meter inaccuracy variables.

If you'd like more info on it this thread may be of interest:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2134105

It's a bit off topic for this thread though.

 

[Sensei ClamMan]

Yea sorry, i meant vinegar, the vodka clouded my brain. Were you dosing it at the same time as using biopellets? Or did you start after you took the biopellets ofline. I agree it works i never heard of someone using it while using biopellets. I did a ton of research on biopellets in my 2 failed experimenations on it. What was your Alk while you used biopellets? One reply to my thread when my problems began was high Alk & biopellets were really bad news, beleive me my tank looked just like yours. I used Kalk topoff as well and my Alk was at 10 or 11 at the time when my troubles began. I lowered my Alk and pulled the pellets and the slow road to recovery began.

 

[waverz]

Yea sorry, i meant vinegar, the vodka clouded my brain. Were you dosing it at the same time as using biopellets? Or did you start after you took the biopellets ofline. I agree it works i never heard of someone using it while using biopellets. I did a ton of research on biopellets in my 2 failed experimenations on it. What was your Alk while you used biopellets? One reply to my thread when my problems began was high Alk & biopellets were really bad news, beleive me my tank looked just like yours. I used Kalk topoff as well and my Alk was at 10 or 11 at the time when my troubles began. I lowered my Alk and pulled the pellets and the slow road to recovery began.

The corals in the tank now weren't in the tank while I was running bio pellets.
And no I wasn't running bio pellets with vinegar.

I'm waiting to hear back from the water testing place. For now I have turned the lights down, stopped dosing vinegar and took the kalk stirrer off line. I have also pulled the GFO and ROX.

Back to the basics I guess.

I've started doing 15 gallon water changes. Was tempted to though all the SPS away but there's still some flesh left on a few of them so I'm going to see what happens.

 

[yeldarbj]

I hate to hear someone else suffering the same experiences that I have been working through. Mine started about last June and still continues without any answers. I lost about 95% of my sps and all my chalices over a 3-4 week period, probably ~30 pieces/colonies. I was down to a few encrusting monti's that were hanging in there. At the same time, my few LPS and zoas never looked better (the only exception being a candy cane colony - suffered with the sps but survived).

After about 4 months, the few montis started making a full recovery and looked as good as they ever had. I tried a few basic sps pieces, but within a few weeks, necrosis set in, destroying them all and the montis went down again. I can't explain it. I've kept sps for a long time and have never experienced anything like this. It would almost be easier if my LPS and zoas would crash as well.

 

[waverz]

Just replaced ALL RODI filters and membranes. Going to start doing massive weekly water changes and hopefully get this problem nipped in the bud.

If not, I'm not sure what I'll do. If I can't keep SPS I don't see the point in having a reef tank.

 

[allabarton]

What GFO do you use?
I had similar problems in my SPS tank starting 6-7 weeks ago. I had some Alk swings, stainless still parts in the water. I changed salt from Tropic Marine Bio Actif to Aquavitro Salinity. Stabilize Alk (dosing Kalkwasser via ATO). Also started to feed my corals not only fish and took GFO BRS HC 1.5 cup for 180g tank off line. The corals started to heal. They were doing great. I turned GFO reactor back on for a few hours. Next day SPS started to STN again and other started to loose their colors again with bad PE. GFO off line again. It could be a coincidence.

 

[waverz]

Whoa! Totally the same situation.

Alk swings
Changed from Tropic Marine to AV Salinity
Was using BRC HC GFO
Started dosing kalk via ATO

I took my GFO reactor offline a couple weeks ago but corals still had STN. I'm going to keep the reactor offline and do massive water changes for a bit.

I may let me tank go SPS free for a month or more before adding anymore.

 

[Sensei ClamMan]

Any progress?

 

[waverz]

I have been doing several 10-20% over the last few weeks.

I also vacuumed out my sump where I found a fairly large amount of HC GFO and carbon.
Because the sump is packed under my tank in a tiny stand it's hard to see inside of it. Apparently, the media blew through my reactor and was just laying in my sump for some time. I'm not really sure how long it's been in there but it's gone now.

I am seeing some PE on some older pieces that lived through the ordeal. I added a new small piece of green slimer yesterday and today it still looks fine so I am hoping the worst is behind me and I can move on.

Going to give these couple frags a month or so and then I may re stock the tank with frags.

I'll probably never know exactly what the problem was/is but hopefully it'll never happen again. This kind of loss almost made me take a break from the hobby.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Sensei ClamMan]

I lost a 100g mixed reef in 2 days, I know what you mean. It took thousands of dollars at the LFS to make me feel better. The store owner was pretty happy too good to hear things are looking up. Keep it simple, it's the one thing I've learned that tried and tested.

 

[BrentH]

Your tank doing better

 

[waverz]

Brent, the tank is doing much better. I'm not sure I'll ever know what the exact problem was but things are doing much better now. Even SPS is thriving.