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Cody 
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 Topic: Well it happened to me :(
Posted: April 16 2012 at 7:30pm |
I havent been on this forum very long but I have a lil 14g biocube that I have had set up for a year now. Everything has been doing fantastic and I have had very very minimal loss. I did my research before buying anything. So here is what happend. About six months ago I purchased an RTA ultra anemone from Grassfairy on this forum and it was doing fantastic until yesterday when I noticed it started to shrivel up and not be as happy. Now I do a partial water change(1-2 gallons) every two weeks and I get my water from the same place(Fish 4 U). I thought maybe the anemone was just not happy. Turns out today I get home from work it has detached itself from the rock and left a slimy film and is just bobbin around on the rocks. I figure the worse(dead) and remove it because I know of the poison factor these have when they die. I did a large water change and added new activated carbon and my chaeto in the refugium looks ok. Now here is the bad part. Dead loss.... 1-Fire shrimp(had him the whole year) :( 90% of my CUC( 3  ceriths made it, tough lil buggers) Frag plug full of Tyree Mummy eye chalice Frag plug full of Watermelon chalice All my acans are pissed but still have color. Im not sure if the'll pull through. All other corals looks horrible. All Zoas and Paly's are closed Green hammer look bad. On the bright side my 2 Premium Black Ice clowns, Purple Fire fish and long fin red banded goby all made it. So here is my question. As I sit back and look at my loss I removed all dead looking coral and shrimp and CUC. Should I remove the coral that looks like it might make it to be safe or should I give em a chance??? Sorry for the long post.
Edited by Cody - April 16 2012 at 7:46pm
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bstuver
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Posted: April 16 2012 at 8:15pm |
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It sounds to me like you have something going on with your tank other than the anemone... Was the anemone melting? Just because it released doesn't mean it was dead and seems you removed it it should not have been the anemone that caused the issues unless it was melting.
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Jackie Stuver
"wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart
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Ann_A
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Posted: April 16 2012 at 8:41pm |
 bstuver wrote:
It sounds to me like you have something going on with your tank other than the anemone... Was the anemone melting? Just because it released doesn't mean it was dead and seems you removed it it should not have been the anemone that caused the issues unless it was melting. |
+1 What are your water parameters?
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Akira
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Posted: April 16 2012 at 9:04pm |
When my rbta detached and moved he split . Mine shrinks on a regular basis , so makes me wonder what are your params , do you feed your anemone , and does he shrink at times ?
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: April 16 2012 at 9:09pm |
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The long post is what we need in order to help.
There is no need to bother testing N compounds. The pollution, which is Ammonia and/or Nitrite and soon Nitrate, is going to be way out of range. That's a fact that we can easily deduce from the die-off you have described.
The four most important parameters are what we need to know:
Temperature
Salinity
Alkalinity
Calcium
Water changes are going to be really troublesome.
The best way to help your tank recover is to leave all the lights on 24/7. Algae is amazing. As it grows, it eats up pollution like crazy.
The sides of the tank should also be left to grow all the algae that can grow.
Split the Chaetomorpha between the Refugium and the tank. Place it as close to the lights as possible. Get more Chaeto or Caulerpa if you can from someone here.
Continue removing things that have died or, if you are inclined, move all coral and LR to another hobbyists larger (at least 30 gal) well established tank.
I agree the anemone could pull through.
Give it all a chance.
Okay, to go back and see what happened, let's look at a few things.
How long ago was the last water change with Fish4U water?
When you do water changes, do you check the salinity of the Fish4U water? Another hobbyist here was getting saltwater from them and found that the salinity was way off. She is now mixing her own salt water.
What other changes or maintenance were done to the tank within the last week?
What supplements are used?
It may hurt but please post a pic of the tank. Is there a pic here on the MB of how it was looking? If not may we see that too?
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Melissa
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Posted: April 17 2012 at 9:14am |
Crap Cody 
Like I said, if you need anything...
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rufessor
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Posted: April 17 2012 at 11:02am |
I believe its worth testing for nitrogen compounds, just to know where your at. I too doubt the anemone killed the tank. If the nitrogen tests high, and its going to be a bigger number if this is the culprit- then lights on and a MAJOR water change would be in order. I would have no issue with doing 2 50% water changes spaced a day apart and another a few days later. 14 gallon tanks are kinda nice this way... 20 gallons of fresh mixed salt will let you fix almost anything quickly.
If its not a high nitrogen reading, then you need to get a big ol bag of carbon and run it, and do the water changes.
Basically, do 2-3 large water changes, just be sure to match the salinity and temp (salinity should be as close to exactly the same as you can measure it, temp can be sorta kinda in range but so long as its close nothing will be harmed). I ran a nano for a good while, water changes are your friend, you can run very large water changes without hurting anything, I used to do about 30-40% water changes every other week as a routine maintenance and would double up if I saw algae growth taking off....
If your Nitrogen is this high, your tank will be growing hair algae like crazy, so let us know what it looks like. If its clean, algae free and stuff is dying, I would bet 50 bucks, your nitrogen is just fine. I always saw algae first- even when my water tested OK if not perfect, then if I let it go, it would get worse. Hope this helps, but its good to know for sure. In your case, water change... regardless.
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Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler -A.E.
57 Gallon RImless build in progress check the thread before if becomes boring and just full of nice pictures of colorful coral!
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: April 17 2012 at 11:28am |
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I agree with rufessor that hair algae sometimes takes off during a situation like this. That's why I suggest adding more Macroalgae and lighting it 24/7. The growth of the Macroalgae sucks pollution out of the water so that other algae cannot grow.
I should also explain that for me, testing Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate was something I also did as a new hobbyist, but eventually came to realize that the condition of the tank told me whether those were in line. If coral are happy and expanding, the levels are good. If coral are sad and not expanding, the levels are bad. Then is the time to use the amazing power of algae growth to clean the water of pollution.
An accident like what you described is usually the result of Temperature and/or Salinity. Alk and Ca go out of range slowly and don't really cause this kind of crash but they are very important parameters which, if out of whack can combine to cause a worse crash that cannot recover. They should be monitored.
Is this making sense?
My phone number is below for you to call on the spot for immediate assistance.
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Cody
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Posted: April 17 2012 at 9:18pm |
Thank you all for the replies. Sorry it has taken to long to reply as I am quite busy. Water test as follows an hour ago... Ammonia- .2 nitrate- 10 Salinity- 1.023 Temp- 76-78 PH- 7.9 Calcium-350( a lil low, going to suppliment) Alkalinity- 11.2 To answer all your questions. Ever since I have owned this 14bc I have done 1-2 gallon water change every two weeks. I purchased my water form Fish 4 U every time like stated above. I always checked the salinity before adding it and its never really been off. Only maintenance this week was the usual water change and rinsing of media basket I have in chamber two. It gets alot of algae build up from the ref. light so I just rinse it off. Always have done this and no ill effects. Since day one I have always ran Chemipure Elite in chamber 2 of the mediabasket, filter floss on top and the Chaeto on bottom and this time I decided to not spend so much and get Kents reef activated carbon. I followed the recommended amount for that. It was the next day when I started noticing things that were either dead or dying. Not sure if this is what caused the problem. I have never dosed any suppliments because I would do water changes and never ever had a problem with dying coral or fish. As Rufessor has mention, I have done two 50% water changes since Saturday and have changed AC twice. Things are starting to clear up and look better. Fish are swimming around and eating and corals look the same not worse. On a side note. I do believe it was the anemone that did this. Like I said above after I did the water change on Sat. it started to shrivel up and then the next day it let go of the rock and was just floating around in my tank. I believe it released its toxins at some point and in a tank this small took things out quickly. So now the anemone is no long in the tank. Thats just my 2 cents though and Im glad you guys have replied to this. Thank you.
P.S. Melissa is going to load a couple pics for me.
Edited by Cody - April 17 2012 at 9:21pm
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Melissa
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Posted: April 17 2012 at 9:38pm |
Posting pictures for Cody
Before shot
After
Spiderman zoas before
Spiderman zoas after
Acans after
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rufessor
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Posted: April 17 2012 at 10:59pm |
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Sucks!!!!
But. things look like many will pull through. you may be surprised how well it will be doing in just a few weeks- if it was truly the anemone. one thing that kinda worries me. your ammonia reading is very low and you may just be reporting the lowest value on the test.....but if it's a real value and not just "zero" I would seriously watch that and be ready to do more significant water changes. it should not ever really test as above barely measurable its acutely toxic. There maybe enough die off to spike it but a mature tank should be able to stay ahead of the curve if you really watch it. I would test am and pm for a few days to see if the die off try's to start a big cycle and then I would turkey baste everything hard and do a large water change immediately and try to suck up and crap.
sounds like your ontop of it. gOOD luck all is not lost. I bet Zoas all open in a bit
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Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler -A.E.
57 Gallon RImless build in progress check the thread before if becomes boring and just full of nice pictures of colorful coral!
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kellerexpress
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Posted: April 17 2012 at 11:40pm |
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Man that is terrible. Just a thought.......when you mentioned Kents carbon i had some red flags go off in my head. It could have been the the Kent's carbon you used, they recalled some batches a couple months ago due to some of the batches containing high levels of heavy metals. You can read about it here.
http://reefbuilders.com/2012/02/23/kent-marine-reef-carbon-recall/.
I would dump the carbon and do a very large water change if you suspect this might be the case. Sorry for the loss. If you ever get down to Spanish Fork I would be willing to donate a couple frags to help get your tank going again.
Edited by kellerexpress - April 17 2012 at 11:53pm
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IM 30L
Kessil A160we x2
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Cody
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Posted: April 18 2012 at 12:25pm |
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I will read up on that link for sure. I have taken out the Kents and have gone back to Chemipure. I woke up this morning and to my surprise one of my acans is starting to come out. I have been keeping the lights on 24/7 like suggested. There's hope yet and I will deff take you up on that offer about some frags once things stabilize again. Thank you.
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rufessor
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Posted: April 18 2012 at 1:16pm |
Be a little bit careful about 24/7 lighting... depending on the intensity you for sure can get into a bleaching issue.... if your running lights to promote algae I would consider a cheato ball with a compact fluorescent bulb 24/7 and run main lighting on a more normal schedule. Corals are typically ok for a bit, but if your running high intensity lights the length of time they will "like" this is less than say with PC or minimal T5 lighting. I know that, for instance, with my new LED set up, light cycle matters as I can see some LPS start to bleach if I run them too long at a given intensity. I also am still kinda sorta (more or less done) in the acclimation period, so I cannot speak to tanks that are well acclimated to high intensity lighting and going to a 24/7 schedule.... just watch.
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Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler -A.E.
57 Gallon RImless build in progress check the thread before if becomes boring and just full of nice pictures of colorful coral!
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tfmreefs
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Posted: April 18 2012 at 4:00pm |
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WOW so so so sorry man! that sucks, but yea just maybe give it a week with some water cahnges to take down the amonia but also like someone else said, just give it some time and then see how every thing is going. Yes that is stressful. Sorry
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Cody
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Posted: April 18 2012 at 4:28pm |
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Yeah I'm keeping an eye on things as long as I'm home. I think I'm only going to do the 24/7 lighting like mark suggested until I see some algae growth and then cut back. It's stock PC lights so I'm not worried.
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tfmreefs
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Posted: April 18 2012 at 7:10pm |
Yea cool, hope that works out for you!  good luck!:)
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"The early bird might get the worm, but only the second mouse gets the cheese."
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ptronsp
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Posted: April 18 2012 at 8:37pm |
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Oh man I am so sorry!
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The only clowns I like are in my tank!
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Cody
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Posted: April 19 2012 at 7:09pm |
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Lil update. My acans are comin around already :0) and so is the candy cane. All my paly's and zoas are still angry and look to be secreting waste(black stuff).
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Cody
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Posted: April 22 2012 at 7:37pm |
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So it's been a week since this has happened. Things are getting alot better. Only my spiderman zoas are not opening yet. So how long should I wait till I restock my CUC?
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