Tank problem would love any ideas....

[DaisyDo]

I have had a 72 gallon bow front reef set up for 5+ years.  I came Saturday afternoon and glanced at my tank and was shocked to see one of my SPS totally bleached out and the lights haven't even come on yet.  I then looked hard at my tank and lots of things look dead- or at least closed up tightly.  I looked in the sump and the heater was on which I quickly unplugged and took out.  As the tank was reading a temp of 82 all ready.  I'm think the heater malfunctioned.  Of course, my chiller was sitting right next to the pump for me to hook up that afternoon. 

 

I quickly started running test and at the same time called Ben at Petland and asked his advice.  I ended up taking him a water sample to see if he could figure out what happened.  He said all my water parameters were fine.  Please don't ask me what they were because I didn't write them down and I was so stressed out I don't remember.  His only thought was maybe there was an equipment failure.  I only have the return pump, a skimmer and I'm running carbon also.  I do have a doser but that appears to be fine, plus if it dosed too much then the water test would have shown that.  I'm thinking it must have been the heater.  Could it have spike the temperature overnight and in the am to the point that it would kill so many things? 

 

I did change 15 gallons of water immediately hoping that this would correct any thing that was off with the water.

 

It is now 2 days later and the zoanthids are starting to open a little, the mushrooms never looked affected.  However some of the snails died but some of the smaller ones did not.  My fire shrimp and 5 fish are all fine.  However I'm thinking my big red anemone is having issues.  It did not look bad until late last night.  It seems to be expelling a big blob of brown mucas...about the size of a golf ball..maybe a little bigger and it is not spread out like usual.  Does this mean it is dying?  Is there anything I can do for it?  This is my favorite thing  in the tank.

 

I am just so confused at this point and don't know what to do.  I'm hoping to stop anymore things from dying but If I lose my entire tank...it may just be time for me to take a break.  Thanks for any help that anyone can provide.

 

                                                      Karen

 

PS.  A big thank you goes to Ben at Petland for all his help....

[Origami]

82 is not all that high of a temperature. Did Ben test for copper? Do you have a poly filter pad that you can run the water through to take up contaminants? Do you have a controller that records the temperature profile of the tank? Could there have been a power loss that went by unnoticed?

[DaisyDo]

Neither Ben nor I have a test for copper...so we didn't test for that.  No power outage, as I would have been able to tell by other things in the house.  I do not have any equipment that records temp or anything else.  I do have a filter bag in the sump that the water goes through when coming from the main tank to the summer.  The skimmer was pulling some nasty smelling stuff but I think that was from all the stuff dying in the tank. 

[Muddy357]

You might have some stray voltage in the tank that could be causing your issue.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Muddy357

[Origami]

You may want to consider running a polyfilter for a few days. Also, have their been any changes to the tank lately?

[DaisyDo]

No changes to the tank in over a year.  What do you mean run a polyfilter?  Is this something I put media in to remove something? 

 

Ben mentioned the stray current...however I have a ground probe in the sump.  I also put my hand in the tank and tried touching several metal objects to see if I received a shock.  I did not....thanks to Ben for suggesting I shock myself....    I actually tried to get my 20 year old to do it....he was smart and said no!

[Origami]

It's a product, Karen.

 

Here it is at Marine Depot, for example. Somebody local is bound to have it.

[DaisyDo]

Thanks...just found it locally at a store, so I'm on my way out to get it.  Hopefully this will help.....I'm still very concerned about the anemone....thanks.

 

                                              Karen

[Origami]

Good luck. Follow up with an update when you've got time.

[Orion]

Just a heads up - Watch your skimmer when using a poly-filter.  Every time I put a new one in my tank the skimmer bubbles like crazy for a few hours.

Good luck!

[Coral Hind]

I'm sorry to hear this happened. It sounds like something caused an issue which snowballed into several things dying. Inverts are sensitive to ammonia and even sudden rises in temperature so once something dies it causes others to also take a hit. A coral might have waged war with another coral which caused a larger issue. I've had that happen and the slime from the corals almost crashed my tank. Do a nice water change to try to balance the tank back out and remove as much of the dead stuff as you can. I would buy some test kits so you can perform those test right away. I also try to keep the poly-filter or charcoal on hand for emergencies. Adding a grounding probe would help rule out the stray voltage that was mentioned.

[DaisyDo]

Just put in a poly filter so hopefully that will help.  I do have a grounding probe in the sump.  I just found my fire shrimp dead...which was alive yesterday.  This is so frustrating....the not knowing.  I have a feeling my anemone is on his last legs by the look of him.....my clowns are not looking happy.

[YHSublime]

Do a nice water change to try to balance the tank back out and remove as much of the dead stuff as you can. I would buy some test kits so you can perform those test right away. I also try to keep the poly-filter or charcoal on hand for emergencies. Adding a grounding probe would help rule out the stray voltage that was mentioned.

 

+1

[DaisyDo]

I did a 15 gallon water change and I have almost all the test kits....just not a copper one.  Ben tested for me on Saturday, as I was so stressed out.  I will test again to see if anything changed but I doubt it.  Other then things slimming....I just took out the toad stool and dead frogspan.  And anemone is spitting our more globs of brown stuff, so I think he won't make it through the night.  Fish are all fine...mushrooms okay, 2 SPS still alive for now.  We'll see what happens ....

[surf&turf]

Sorry to hear, I hope it turns around for you.

[YHSublime]

That's weird that your frogspawn and toadstool are not doing well, and your nem is dying, and you've lost shrimp and snails. You would think there would be a blaring solution or problem. I am interested to see what the answer/problem is.

[Coral Hind]

Did the sand bed look like it had recently been stirred up by something in the tank the day this happened?

[howaboutme]

In addition to the above question, do you have a DSB? If so, how many inches and have you ever cleaned it or is it untouched in those 5+ years?

[taiscici]

Sound like a chemical warfare between corals since all your testing were normal. Do you by chance have flatworm or caulerpa grape algea?

[DaisyDo]

I have a normal, couple of inches sand bed.  It didn't look stirred up on that day.  The wrasse sleeps in the sand bed every night, so this is always a little stirring from him.  I have not added anything new to this tank in over a year, so why would there all of a sudden be coral warfare?  As for algea, I have some in my overflow and every month climb up and try to pull the stuff that I can reach out.  I have no idea what type it is...just long green and yucky....

[DaisyDo]

So just looked at the anemone again...as I really thought he was a goner....he had spit out another huge ball of brown mucas which I sucked up with a turkey baster to get out of my tank around 5 pm.  He also shriveled up to basically nothing from a full expended 10" size and is hiding back under a rock.  I just looked at him and his tentacles are looking a little better and then I noticed that it looks like he is coming out behind the rock....but now can that be.  I'm think he split into 2.  He's done this 3 times before but never like this.  He has always just ripped himself in half and not looked bad doing it.  I'm afraid to move the rock at this point to see if it really is 2 anemones now.  I'm just praying that he will bounce back and die.  He is my favorite back of the tank...as he houses my black clown pair.  My ducans are peaking out a little...so I'm hoping for the best.  It just drives me nuts that I don't know what happened.  I also took my carbon reactor off line, so I could check it out and see if it is working properly...pump and all.  I'll let you guys know what the tank looks like tomorrow.  It is just so bare looking with all the corals that I had to throw away....  :(

[Origami]

Stress can induce splitting in BTA's, so this may be related to whatever happened.

 

Sorry for the losses.

[Coral Hind]

I have not added anything new to this tank in over a year, so why would there all of a sudden be coral warfare?

As the corals are growing they get larger and start to get closer to each until they wage war over real estate. It's how they prevent ofther corals from growing over top of them on the reef.

[DaisyDo]

I'm thinking it must have been the coral warfare...as I really don't see anything else wrong.  I am pretty careful about my corals not touching and will move something if they get too close...but maybe they don't have to touch to wage war.  I was also wrong about the anemone splitting last night.  It is just back to it's big size again and the clowns are sleeping happy in it.  Hopefully things will be getting back to normal soon.  Thanks to everyone for all their suggestions/ideas.  It's just so frustrating when you don't why something is happening. 

Edited June 5, 2013 by DaisyDo

[Neto]

Just curious.. Did you check your salinity? Also how is your skimmer acting? is it expelling more waste than normal? I suggest you adjust the skimmer to skim wet so that you can remove your tank's waste faster, however you might need to monitor your salinity daily if you do this.