All my coral is Dieingg!! helpp

[tntfish]

parms are good salt is alil high on hydrometer because i heard there not really that accurate its been happening gradually my corals are all bleaching out all of my corals are white and or breaking off i dnt understand what is wrong calcium is 480 carbonate hardness is the vaule all the way to the left its like 12kh i did so many water changes and still nutting what could be worng diconnected heater last night see if mabey it was to warm but i dont think that would be the problem at all

 

[mrg02d]

Alright, we will need a little more information. Explain your setup (tank size, cycled or not, lighting, what kind of corals and their position).

Also post the actual numbers for your parameters. Any swings in temperature, alkalinity, pH, or salinity?

Any possibility of copper getting into the tank?

Id adivse you run carbon right now in case you have some chemicals in the water causing the trouble.

Are these corals new?How is the rest of the tank doing?
EDIT: Your alkalinity is high, how long has it been that high?
Matt

 

[tntfish]

ph- 8.0
carbonate harndess- 12kh
nitrate- 20 ppm
nitrite- 0 ppm
amonia- 20ppm
salinity 1.025ish 6ish
no swings that i know of they where going bad then better than bad than better now just straight bad my alk is high because i did a water change last night so its usually always high 8-12kh
tank is 135 gallons been cycled finger leather whats left of a green kenya xenia hand wave coral green cloves, star polyps button polyps bubble corall fish are doing great all that is dieing is my coral i have no clue what the heck is wrong had corals for over 4 mnths

 

[tntfish]

i did swicth salts from instant ocean salt regular stuff to ocean salt reef crystals

 

[mrg02d]

I hope the ammonia level is a mistake.

How close are the corals to each other? Possibly the leather coral let off some stink into the water to kill off the competition?

Alkalinity shouldn't vary from 8-12dKH between PWC, or so I believe. That may be whats making them good then bad then good, and so on. Try to figure out why its going up and down so much. Doesnt sound like you have any corals that should be pulling much alkalinity or calcium from the water, so I bet something is out of whack. Bad salt maybe? Does the pH swing like that?

Sounds like they are mad at the instability...
Matt

 

[melosu58]

amonia- 20ppm

This is what bothers me. Ammonia at any level is lethal. I would start with some frequent PWC`s and some GAC would be a good start.

 

[cmor1701d]

Get a Refractometer to check your SG. Swing arms are not to be trusted (unless you rinse in RO water after use and have preconditioned according to mfg instructions, etc., etc.).

Give us more info on your equipment;
1 item per line
tank dimensions
lighting (MH, T5, PC, etc.)
Lighting watts per bulb
how many bulbs
How old are the bulbs
what is your light on/off schedule
what additived are you using if any?

Basically give us the full rundown and please just put 1 item per line for readability.

 

[Jimbo7]

Yea, ammonia will demolish everything, seems weird that your fish would still be acting normal though if your ammonia was spiked.
Did you do a huge water change with the new salt when you got it? I know that can cause some problems. Do you use RO/DI water to mix?
I saw a forum once where a guy worked on his car then forgot to wash his hands, and messed with something in his tank, almost wiped out everything. Anything like that?

 

[mrg02d]

Im betting ammonia was a mistake. 20ppm would kill everything. Everything would have died long before anything could have brought it to 20ppm anyways...

He says its been up and down since he started, so I bet there is some issue he has that hasnt been addressed. Likely some bad habit he has. Up and down and up and down seems to suggest something isnt being done properly on his end.

Matt

 

[tntfish]

i have t5 bulbs about 5-6 mnths old
the lights turn on at 12:30ish then turn off at 7:00
12 bulbs
i use kent coral- vite iodine and mag strodium
amonnia is 0 - 0.25

 

[Jimbo7]

i use kent coral- vite iodine and mag strodium

There it is. Do you test iodine before you dose it? It can become extremely toxic if you overdose.
As a general rule, never dose anything you dont have a test for.

 

[tntfish]

no i don't that is probably it i never use to use that stuff then my my co workers father told me to use some u know what i think that is exaclly what it is dude i never though of that wow how do i get it out of the water now

 

[Jimbo7]

Start doing a lot of PWC. Really no other way. I would do like 100% change over a couple days, maybe more if you have the time/salt mix.

 

[tntfish]

im going to go get some poly filter they have this one in my lfs tha changhes color depending on what it is taking out of the water wow thanks u dont understand how much this thing was bothering me i was depressed but now i know a possible cause i will do the changes hopefully this is it

 

[Jimbo7]

NP man. Never heard of one of those filters, but it sounds like a good idea just in case i'm wrong. You'll have to see and check if it even takes iodine out, as it is a natural element in seawater. Water changes prevent and cure probably 75% of all ailments in this hobby. Assuming the water you start with is fine, starting to do frequent PWC at the first sign of a problem is almost never a bad thing. Good luck man.

 

[tntfish]

thank you i am reading all about overdosing and i am almost certain that this is the problem will do about 6 -7 PWC with in these weeks thanks again great help AA is the best

 

[Jimbo7]

I can't actually see this because my webfilter at work. But it may help.
IodFAQs

A protein skimmer is supposed to work wonders too, breaks it down really quickly.

 

[melosu58]

Even though you are probably right about the iodine the ammonia is a big player too.

 

[Jimbo7]

Even though you are probably right about the iodine the ammonia is a big player too.

Yea, I kind of dismissed it because first it was 20ppm then 0-.25ppm. It's prolly just a bad test kit or human error. Some of them are hard to read, and either way, PWC will take care of it.

 

[JustOneMore20]

The ammonia could be 0.25ppm now because of what has died already. I'm guessing the iodine is killing stuff.