Guest The_Haunter August 20, 2004 Share August 20, 2004 I havnet been posting for a while.. but anyway.. One day several of my corals hade a bit of alge on them. I brushed it of at thought nothing of it. The next day all of my corals are closed in.. I test the water everything checks out fine. For the next 3 weeks thier al closed in but my testing keeps on saying everything is ok... The forth week every coral is dead.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ahhh what happend???? and why.... All my fish are fine a doing better than ever but all the corals are gone.. [tr] why?? ]]]hlp I thought everything was doing so good. Now im thinking about starting all over. Im keeping the fish im just gonna take the rocks out and buying a new filter and start over that way. Someone think they can help...? ]]]hlp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctreptow August 20, 2004 Share August 20, 2004 I am sooo sorry to hear this story.. I'm not sure what happened but I was wondering if something could have contaminated the tank like copper or a substance your not testing for. Any ideas from others.. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The_Haunter August 20, 2004 Share August 20, 2004 If it had been contaminated wouldnt my fish have at least some reaction?? I dont know..... (in deep morning of tank) [tr] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller August 20, 2004 Share August 20, 2004 Not if you used copper, the fish could appear fine if a low dose. Did you use anything (chemical- liguid) to try and rid the algae? You may have lost all your buffer bank and the KH (and then PH) dropped. Use "clean" water and add good salt and exchange 25% HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Stearns August 20, 2004 Share August 20, 2004 This may be a bit of a generality- but in fish only tanks in the dark ages we never checked for much other than salinity and temp- and could keep fish and some inverts as long as you did not put copper in the tank. The only real poison to fish was amonia, which with biofiltration is never much of a problem then or today with LR bio balls or UGF. However with Corals it is entirely different. PH, alk, Phos and Calcium are tremendously important to keep constant or at near zero- You mentioned all your water params were good- But did not list all the params. Phos affets many corals and is a precursor to algea blooms. There are a lot of smaller amounts of minerals that can affect the overall balance as well- such as magnesium, stonium and iodide, which is why so many folks just do at least partial water changes on a regular basis to keep adding these trace elements in a balanced way to their systems. You could try to add trace elents individually but there is a saying "do not add anything to your tank that you are not testing for". So most just do water changes- Adding iodide seems prudent for I have observed shrimp and other inverts perkup with it's addition- It may be me but I seem to notice a shrimp molting the day or two after adding Iodide. There are those few out there that swear by never doing a water change- For those - I can only say they have met some magic balance of the right corals, fish and feeding regime that was probably more luck than planned because we know so little about all the chem reactions taking place within a mixed reef system. the less you test the more inportant partial water changes are- so take your pick if you are keeping corals- Fish only are not nearly as demanding- though I am sure they live much healthier lives in pristine water. Ok Long winded but just want to say sorry for the crash, and if you get it going again - I will be happy to donate a frag or two to the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelg August 20, 2004 Share August 20, 2004 Did the sand bed get stirred up while doing some cleaning? I would suggest running a polyfilter and some carbon- it should pull out whatever is in the water, along with aggressive water changes (30% done 3 times over the next week). Most of the stuff that contaminates a tank, and ends up killing corals, we can't test for= and they just remain unidentified. Real sorry to hear about that Jesse. As you know, we have the frag workshop coming up in the fall, which should give you plenty of time to get the water issues straightened out, and help with re-stocking the tank. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The_Haunter August 20, 2004 Share August 20, 2004 IM trying my best to trace the cause of my crash. Im gonna use my whole paycheck this week to clean and purify the tank as best as I can. Thank you all for the help and I pray this never happens again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowrie August 21, 2004 Share August 21, 2004 I agree about water change, water change, water change. Hey, I will let you practice water changes at the Zoo this weekend! See you Saturday! Tamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowsingle August 27, 2004 Share August 27, 2004 I would check and monitor your alk and pH levels. How low does the pH drop overnight? good luck, Darren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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