Devastating week for my tank....any advice would be helpful....

[kylehustonvw]

I have had my 29 gallon set up for over a year now loaded with softies zoas and other random corals but no sps. Everything has been flurishing and growing beautifully until last week when the giant frogspawn I have instantly turned into its skeleton overnight. I removed the coral from the tank and did a water change. The next day my kenya trees were dead and brown looking snot was comming from inside the kenya tree base. Without any hesitaion I removed the kenya trees from my tank and disposed of them
(The kenya trees were starting to take over the tank anyway so im not too worried about this loss..lol) A day later I start to notice both of my orange montiporas bleaching out and now they are completely colorless. To make matters worse my flame angel was sitting at the bottom of the tank motionless so I did another water change and tested my parameters. My salinity seems to be good and all levels look ok.. My ph was low 7.5 but that is the only thing that stood out to me. I have a couple other corals that seem to be slowly bleaching and im not too sure where to go from here. I can post pics of specific corals but nothing in the tank looks truly happy right now and I still have a few corals bleaching??? Any advice besides continuing to do more water changes???

five corals and my flame angel all gone over a weekend I gotta get this figured out before I lose more
Anything helps thanks in advance??

 

[user 26995]

Sounds like copper poisoning to me.
I would have your water tested both tank and newly made water.


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[user 26995]

OH,
Check your heater. Make sure it is not broke and check for a stray current.

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[user 26995]

Do you have any other fish that are not affected?

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[kylehustonvw]

Right before this happened my protein skimmer was off on accident for about 48 hours before I noticed. Heater seems to be functioning correctly. I have 2 clown fish a goby and a couple shrimp that seem to be doing perfectly fine. I have not tested for copper so i will get on that and I have never tested the water here I recently moved in the last 5
months. I will post pics now that im home..

 

[kylehustonvw]

 

[jezzeaepi]

Did you do a water change before the frogspawn died?

What are your actual water test parameters, and what brand of test kit are you using? 7.5ph is hardly "ok" and signals that there is something very wrong with your water. You would need to do something drastic to get your PH that low. I used to run a calcium reactor(CO2) and kept my windows shut, and even in the dead of winter never saw PH below 7.75, so highly doubt your readings.

 

[kylehustonvw]

I dont have my meter here so ive been testing with drops. aquarium pharmaceuticals is the brand. Just tested again and got a 7.8 to 7.9 reading. Should I be using a ph buffer and get it up to 8.2-8.3??

 

[kylehustonvw]

oh sorry and to answer your question..No I did not do a water change before the frogspawn died. The frogspawn literally died over night ( rapid tissue necrosis I figured but everything just continues to go day by day so now im unsure) Its weird cause my frogspawn was the most hearty and large of all my corals I would have never thought it would have been the first to go...unlike the flame angel being the most sensitive of all my fish

 

[jezzeaepi]

What about alk/calc/mag?

 

[user 26995]

You said you have not tessted the water here yet. Does that mean you are using tap water? Are you treating it with anything?

 

[NC2WA]

kyle,

How close are you to Bothell?

I have most test kits including copper and a pH monitor to test your pH.

can even test PO4 if you want..

let me know.

it does sound like water is an issue, and Lorrie asks a key question? the water you are using is it tap or RO water?

 

[jezzeaepi]

I would definitely run some carbon if you aren't already. You should try to get ahold of one of these: Poly Bio Marine: The Poly Filter
It well help pull out possible contaminants, and will turn different colors depending on what it pulls out.

 

[kylehustonvw]

I am located in the south end so bothell is a little out of the way til atleast the weekend. my test kit doesnt have cal/mag so I will have to go pick another one up.. I use rodi water not tap..been using the same ro water for a while now with no issues but I should test it

 

[Chichas01]

I would check all pumps and magnets in the water to see if any are rusting.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Prior to the die off, when was your last saltwater change, what percent, and how often is it done?
What brand of skimmer, and how much rock in the tank?

 

[NC2WA]

kyle,

the weekend is fine with me, just let me know via PM..
thx

 

[Peppie]

Just throwing this out there. Outside tank contaminates. Brought in thru aeration????

 

[kylehustonvw]

well i tried multiple water changes to dilute any contaminants or desease i could of had from speading in the tank. im still unsure what caused my tank to fail so rapidly. literally within a week and a half everything i owned died. My ph seemed to be a little low 7.9 but that is the only issue i continued to see every time i checked the water..Over twenty corals and a couple fish all pretty much died overnight. Now all I have remaining is a very large goby and a damsel i recently added in..sad to say, through it all I dont know what caused any of it my only leading suspicion is that i bought a couple mushrooms from qt aquariums and all thier tanks were looking pretty sad at the time. I wonder if i picked up a diseased coral and brought it to my tank(i know i know i should have had a quarantine before i introduced it to my coral tank) rapid tissue necrossis hit me overnight and there rest is all she wrote..I have been doing salt water for roughly 3 years now and corals had come and gone but nothing soo extreme in such little time. by the time I made this first post a quarter of my tank was already wiped out and more than half was gone before i got any good responses. thanks for all your help everyone throughout the years but this might have been my final blow to get me out of the hobbie. check the classfieds in the next comming week i should have alot to get rid of

 

[Derbird]

Sorry to hear about the devistation. It can be a frustrating and disheartning thing to happen.

If your going to get out I would suggest you keep your tank and supplys for a while. I see threads all the time of "Got out and sold everything, Starting over need new stuff." You may miss it more then you think and you never know when that salty itch will hit.