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Tanuki 
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 Topic: CORALS are dying!!!!!
Posted: October 17 2011 at 9:26pm |
SO my friend/ neighbor has been out of town for a few weeks and his wife has been home caring for the tank.
He has no SPS but a few really nice LPS.
Anyway yesterday everything was fine, but today tons of stuff has started dying. His wife called me crying to come and help, but all i can do is test parameters. I am curious if something is eating the corals, but I don't know whats going on.
Ca tested at 350ppm Nitrate at 10ppm
What I am also worried about is she has the tank at 84 degrees.
So what could be causing this and is there anything I can do to help?
How large of a water change etc?
The Big green Favia has been dying over the past 10 days or so, but the rest got how they look in these pics basically over night. I pulled the hammer spawn out and threw it away already.
Ideas?
Thanks in advance!
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ttls1
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Posted: October 17 2011 at 9:33pm |
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Salinity, alkalinity, ph? My guess is one of those it they are dying that rapidly. Temp needs to come down also.
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Shane H
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Posted: October 17 2011 at 9:40pm |
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Get the temp down immediately. Lower temps will slow the problem and give you a better chance to find the root cause. Fans, ice, open window - whatever it takes but drop the temp by 5 to 7 degrees over a 24 hour period (or even 12 hours).
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Posted: October 17 2011 at 9:58pm |
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Whats are all your params? Get the temp down to 72 over a 12 hour period, this will slow down your problem. A water change will cool the water but you need to know your levels so you can add as well. This is what needs to be tested: PH, NO2, NO3, PO4, NH4,Ca, Alk,Mg and salinity. What have been the trends of the tank and what additives has he been adding through out the tank? You shouldn't have thrown away the hammer it may have come back, you would be shocked to see what comes back and what doesn't. Going off the pictures I am going to say high temp is the major problem and was higher than 84 degrees. It also looks like you have had a low Mg level as well.
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Tanuki
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Posted: October 17 2011 at 10:09pm |
Alkalinity- 3.3 Meq/L (9.2dKH) PH- 7.8 Salinity- 1.024
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Tanuki
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Posted: October 17 2011 at 10:12pm |
the hammer coral was just falling apart. It would be an extremely long shot as it was all disintegrated and clouding the water. I have seen bad hammers, and this one was worse.
I am thinking the temp is the huge driver right now so we will be working on a quick late night change and report back.
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Tanuki
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Posted: October 17 2011 at 10:28pm |
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magnesium 1340
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Tanuki
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Posted: October 17 2011 at 10:30pm |
I just did a 10 gallon water change (Redsea max 65 gallon) and the temp came down to 80.6). We turned her house ac down to 63 so that should hopefully do the rest of the work between now and morning.
Thanks for the help and hopefully we will find out more sooN!
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Laird
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Posted: October 18 2011 at 9:38am |
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Get some little fans to blow over the water surface to cool it down.
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Indefinite hiatus from sw aquariums.
Once I have my glorious return I'll set back up the following.
50 Gallon rimless cube.
180 Gallons mixed reef paradise
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Tanuki
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Posted: October 18 2011 at 12:13pm |
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Tank is down to 76 this morning at 8 or so. I think she is at work now or I would ask again. She said nothing looked worse this morning than it did last night so I am hoping we stopped the quick progression at least. Will the scoly's make it, or do they die once they get like that?
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: October 18 2011 at 5:42pm |
UNPLUG THE HEATER It probably stuck on, causing the temperature to slowly rise. Sounds like he is a smart hobbyist that bought the right size heater that wouldn't stick on and totally cook the corals in only a day. Unfortunately it was a slow cooker, but nobody noticed it.  Don't bother buying another heater unless the room is kept cold or goes cold in the winter. Now is the time to turn on the Refugium lights 24/7 and to stop feeding. This will help to get ahead of the die-off and pollution that is sure to come. There is a lot of life in the tank that has already died besides the dieing coral. Please post a pic of the entire tank. If there is not much algae in the tank, now is the time to add a bunch of Chaeto up high near the lights and if necessary, as you check N compounds, turn the main lights on 24/7 to eat up more pollution. The fan(s) mentioned will help keep the tank from getting too hot from the main lights being on 24/7. Please post that full tank pic and let us know.
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Tanuki
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Posted: October 18 2011 at 7:11pm |
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I will see if I can get pictures. The tank has close to no algae and is very well maintained. It is a redsea max tank so the heater is actually built in. I don't know how to adjust it so I turned it off (I could see that switch).
I am thinking this is maybe related to stray voltage though. Could that do this? He has stunner strips and three of the connection points on the wires came in taped and were hanging in the water. I assumed they were sealed but pulled them from the water and re attached them to the hood. Could that have been the culprit?
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: October 18 2011 at 8:21pm |
Electricity would not cause the water to heat. Stunner strips are LED's and they require very little power so that wouldn't have caused any problem IMO. I'd get some Cheato and place it as high as possible to be close to the light. Coral and other living things could be dying for the next couple days, even after the temp comes down. The greatest pollution levels will be delayed for a few days even up to a week or so. Having algae in there to eat it up is the best way to handle the Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate pollution so that the tank can recover as quickly as possible. Also add some AC to absorb the toxic chemicals from the dying dissolving coral. Other than that, leave it alone and don't feed at all for a few days and then feed half as much as usual. 
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Posted: October 18 2011 at 9:55pm |
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I am glad things are doing better. The scoly's will heal it will take time they are slow growers. Keep the Mag up above 1450 to keep them healthy right now or they will end up with pink skeletons. If they dont have a refugium, I would add SeaGel from Seachem and in a reactor but if they dont have one keep it in a high flow area. SeaGel will last longer than AC and remove more waste from the water column.
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