Corals Dying Fish OK

[Sir Ottis]

My tank crashed last July (Out of town) due to power outage. I had an overflow that did not regain it's siphon, which did not circulate the water through the chiller, and the timer never cut off the halides. All of my 90 gal tank of corals were melted. My fish survived the event.

I imediately purchased a reef ready tank to eliminate the siphon problem again, which I had before. I have waited for several (6) months now to try and re-start my reef. I transfered my 250 lbs of lr and fish to the new tank. I used new sand.

I still cannot get corals to stay alive - except for some green star polyps and bubble anemones which have re-grown.

I am running a 90 gal w/25 long sump. Sump has a fuge, and a recirc chamber with a Octopus skimmer, phosban reactor, and a UV light.

Numbers today:

Ph - 8.2
Kh - 1500
Amonia - 0
Po - .25
Ca - 600
No2 - 0
No3 - 0
SG - 1.024
78.9 degrees

I do 20 gallons water change every other week. Feed every other day.

Orange & Black Clowns
BLue Tang
Yellow Tang
Flame Angel
Royal Gramma

Cleanup crew


I also checked for any voltage leaking into the water - found none.


Any thoughts?

[melosu58]

Calcium is pretty high. It needs to be around 400-450. Are you adding a calcium supplement.

[sgc0286]

Could it be a lighting deficency? What type of lighting do you have? The green star polyps dont "require" High levels of lighting and you say it is doing ok. Most bubbles do, what kind do you have?

[Sir Ottis]

I have been putting in purple up, 2 caps every other day, for a month now. I put it in about 8 hours prior to testing. I usually use reef crystals and do not use purple up. I lost most of the coraline in July and couldn't get it to grow back. I bought a LR with it covered and having success seeding the rerst of the rock with it and some PU.

I am running 2 x 150 mh (8 hours per day) and 4 x 50 T5s (12 hours per day)

[melosu58]

Ok, The first thing you need to do is stop the Purple up. Your calcium is way to high. You need to realize that not just calcium is in the equation for coralline. Alk and magnesium are players also. Just rely on PWC`s to take care of your calcium needs.

[Sir Ottis]

OK - will do

I don't usually use purple up. I haven't used it for a long time. Just recently for a few weeks now.


That said, this problem has been going on far longer than my use of purple up.

[Kurt_Nelson]

What corals have died, and how did they die?

The other issue with PurpleUp is that it has iodine in it, which if overdosed can kill off corals. Doesn't sound like you think that's the issue, but I'd be doing some water changes to get those levels back down to normal in your system. Also... what is the alkalinity? 1500 what? That's not really a normal number for any of the units normally used for alkalinity.

[Sir Ottis]

Did a pwc this morning


Ca 500

Ak 2


Corals that have not made it:

Frogspawn - slowly recinded into their exo over a 3-4 week period
Montipora cap - bleached out over a few weeks
Pink bird's nest - bleached out over a few weeks
Hammer - slowly recinded into their exo over a 3-4 week period

All corals were drip acclimated for 3-4 hours

My blue-legged crabs also killed all of my turbos and took over their shells

[Kurt_Nelson]

Hmm. If you were dosing the PurpleUp when all this happened, that'd by the prime suspect. But you say the corals died before the PurpleUp, so that must not be the issue. Regardless, calcium of 500 and alkalinity of 2 (meq/l ??) points to some imbalances in your water so I'd get those cleared up before adding anything else. Here's a good article:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

The phosphates at 0.25 ppm is really really high. Especially if you're running a Phosban reactor. Have you traced where that's coming in at? Tap water? I wouldn't expect it to kill off a coral that quick, but it's definitely a problem.

With the Monti and Bird's Nest, it could've been that your lighting was higher than what they were used to? Just talking out loud... Coulda been bad luck with the frogspawn and hammer. Or it could've been the long acclimation time... 3-4 hours is really long, in my opinion. (I usually shoot for 30 minutes, 1 hour max) Did you keep the water temperature stable during that time period?

Nothing really jumps out at me though...

[Sir Ottis]

Thanks for the link. I will read that tonight.

My LFS told me that I needed to change my phosban reactor medium and make sure it is lot leaching back into the sump. They also recommended I try a grounding rod.

[Sadielynn]

Flame angels are known to nip at corals ...

[melosu58]

Originally Posted by Sadielynn

Flame angels are known to nip at corals ...

I second that from experience.

[Sadielynn]

one final thought is this ... Do think hard on this one ...
Has any one sprayed anything and I mean any thing around the tank ? Is there a possiblity of contamination of any sort ?
Also I would think that a stray current would also effect the fish ... use of a volt meter will rule this out ... tho a grounding probe is also not a bad idea tho

[Sir Ottis]

Numbers Today

Ph - 8.3
Kh - 180
Am - .03
Po - 0
Ca - 500
N02 - .01
N03 - 0

I just noticed my voltage meter doesn't read below 80 volts. I will get my hands on a more sensitive meter tomorrow.

I also read on the ground that the eyelet on the ground wire has to be above the water level of the tank. This will involve adding an outlet upo the wall for this height. Not a problem - I will just have to wait until this weekend to do this due to time. Also of note - the instructions say to mount they eyelet of the ground wire to the outlet plate screw. This I feel is a mistake because the plate cover is plastic. Any ground needs metal on metal seating to ground. I can mount to one of the outlet mounting screws for this.


btw - I have had the flame angel for two years now. He never nipped at my corals prior to my disaster last July. I know fish can change their behavior over time, but I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary with them.

As far as a spray/chemical - I do use a glass cleaner on the outside of the glass ( kids finger prints....lol) But I spray it on a towel - then clean the glass.

[Kurt_Nelson]

Originally Posted by Sir Ottis

...
btw - I have had the flame angel for two years now. He never nipped at my corals prior to my disaster last July. I know fish can change their behavior over time, but I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary with them.....

I didn't notice the mention of the Flame Angel as one of your fish until Sadielynn mentioned it. I'd move that right up to the top of the "suspect" list. I've heard multiple stories of folks that have had the miniature angels for years (think Melosu might be one of them), and then suddenly, for whatever reason, they start nipping. Maybe the switch to the new tank for it changed it's ways. Time to set up video surveillance!

[Sadielynn]

in that size tank with what I can assume is a few corals you may not notice right away but with due time and stress it can kill corals ..
The spray cleaner try vinegar on a wet towel and shine with news papers works like a charm and the vinegar is non toxic to kids , pets and fish

[Sir Ottis]

Would a Flame Angel nipping at a Pink Bird's Nest cause it to bleach out in 4 weeks? In 6 months, I have had a monti cap bleached out and so did 2 acro frags.


I am not opposed to removing the flame from the tank, if I can catch him. He isn't worth the time or money to ruin corals if he is the culprit. I will set up the vid camera soon.

[Sir Ottis]

I checked the conductivity of the water today with a more sensitive meter. There is Zero voltage leak in the water. I installed the grounding rod anyway and still got Zero on the voltage meter.

I will be replacing the phosban media this weekend as well - it is time anyway.

My GSP have started to come out a bit, but my branching hammer is almost gone. My fish and crabs are as happy as they can be.

I have not been using RO/DI water but am in the process of ordering a RO/DI filter. I have been using filtered tap water and Prime for 2 years, but am taking the RO/DI plunge now.

Also up for the weekend - Flame Angel surveillance.

[Mitchell0605]

If you stick your hand in the tank and don't get a shock then you don't have voltage going through your tank so a grounding probe would be useless.

[Sadielynn]

Originally Posted by Mitchell0605

If you stick your hand in the tank and don't get a shock then you don't have voltage going through your tank so a grounding probe would be useless.

I disagree a grounding probe is never usless .. it is a safety mechanisium that will help should a piece of equipment ever fail or a cord get frayed and prevent something from happening ... I can safely say that a grounding probe could potenially save a life .......yours