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So I am in the middle of learning a harsh lesson, although I am not entirely sure what it is yet. About a week and a half ago I had a violent battle with the GSM Clown and the next day I noticed some weakening in my corals, especially those on the frag rack. Now several larger colonies plus nearly every coral on the frag rack have lost most color and are completely retracted. I do not see any necrosis as of yet, but the overall health of the corals is not good.

I did do a water cahnge a few days agaon, and then another one last night. I also have been testing like a madman with no evidence of what could be wrong, until last night.

Test results are as follows:

10-31-08 4:30pm

Alkalinity: 8.0 dKh (Salifert)
Salinity: 1.025 (refractometer)
Ca: 430 ppm (Salifert)
Mg: 1500 ppm (Salifert)
Nitrite: 0 ppm (Seachem)
Nitrate: 0 ppm (Seachem)
Cu: 0 ppm (Red Sea)
PO4: 0 ppm (Merk)
Ammonia: .25 ppm (API)

So I had not done an ammonia test until last night because I never do them and shouldn't have any reason to. Realizing that this is not the most accurate test on the market, I did a "control" using my fresh made SW which clearly gave a result of 0 ppm.

So the question is, where is the ammonia coming from? When I had the GSM battle, I ended up stirring up a lot of detritus and clouding the tank. That seems to be the key here, but maybe it was the heavy feeding I did for Big Blue? I find that hard to believe because the corals reacted before I put Blue into the tank, and I would think other parameters would spike as well if that was the root cause.

But what could I have uncovered in the detritus cloud? Maybe sulfates?

So I am just putting this out to get ideas. I will be swapping out carbon today and that should help. And not ALL corals are affected.
 
any swings in alkalinity or salinity? Have you added any PO4 absorber lately? (I don't know what to say about the ammonia, or its effects on corals, but you could have rotting fish food in the detritus that got exposed to air when you stirred it up.)
 
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small swings in alk as usual. not swapped GFO for about 3 weeks IIRC. I think the rotting food may be a vlid explanation because I fed really heavy when I introduced the ABT, but as I said, the problem with the corals started before that. It is affecting some montis and zoanthids, but not all of each.
 
how old are your bulbs? Could one be emitting UV somehow?

jnarowe said:
small swings in alk as usual. not swapped GFO for about 3 weeks IIRC. I think the rotting food may be a vlid explanation because I fed really heavy when I introduced the ABT, but as I said, the problem with the corals started before that. It is affecting some montis and zoanthids, but not all of each.
Click to expand...
 
doubt it. if that were th ecase then corals right next to each other would be suffering, rather that seemingly random thoughout the tank.
 
Well, I am back with an issue I guess I need help on. My SPS and zoanthids continue to decline, while the PLS all seem fine. Fish health is excellent. I have moderate algal growth in the system. Water parameters all seem to be normal, but for the last 3 days my pH has been very low, getting down to 7.65 last night and not going above 8.0 during the daylight cycle.

I have kalk dosing as normal. The temp. probe is good, and I cleaned and re-calibrated the pH probe with the exact same results. Maybe not enough fresh air? Ambient temps are dropping and the display got down to 76.5 last night. Perhaps I am not getting as much air vented in?

Looking for thoughts.
 
are you using filter sock,if you do ,removed it for now and replacing cabon and po4 remover media.,more water change,,skimm wet,it should help.
 
Well, good comment and I (since I didn't sleep last night) have a working theory. First of all, I did add some TLF kalk and the pH has remained up where it should be. Last night it only went down to 7.95 which is right where it would be "normally". Having said that, alk numbers have not been low.

On to the theory. I did some late night recon and discovered that my suspicions where correct. The reef has experience yet another snail die-off. There were only a few snails on the glass late last night, where normally would be hundreds+. So, Once again I am losing my SPS, and this time zoanthids as well. This also explains the discovery of ammonia in the system last week. And the hydno has lost so much tissue it looks like it is dotted with holes. Only two corals have actually had a necrotic event, but the others all have drastically weakened flesh.

The horror of it all is that following the last snail die-off, I had a 3+ month battle with dinos. Hopefully because the bio-mass of snails is significantly lower this time, I may be able to avoid that this time around. I have debated moving corals to the QT, but remember the last time I did that I lost most of them in there too. Looks like fragging is in my near future. :(
 
When it rains it ***** pours doesn't it.

Sorry about hearing your tank not doing well J.
I would run swome heavy carbon to help with the Ammonia and it probably wouldn't hurt to do a large water change as well.

If you do end up moving the corals into the QT though I would suggest that we take the opportunity to re-aquascape your tank bro. Presently I think there are just way too many places for detritus to settle and collect unnoticed.
 
The heck with shorts.... just more places for detritus to settle.

I say go commando! I will be safely absent ;)

Seriously, sorry to hear of your issues. I lost the my large monti-cap
to nudi's and can really relate. When all has run its course, If there's anything that I have that you need, say the word. D
 
Thanks Dan...I just seem to have these cycles and have not "gratuated" to the next level. Working hard on it of course, but I am suspicious that snail die-offs may be a "normal" cycle in some respect, and at the quantities I have, detrimental to my system.

Are you dosing any iodine?

DANG: Cool link! I have only been out of the green zone once that I know of and that was when I was struggling with alkalinity dosing and started testing kalk. For the majority of my system's history, it has been well centered in the green zone, and slightly skewed toward NSW.

I target 420 Ca, 9.0 dKh, and 1450 Mg. My average is 420 Ca, 8.2 dKh, and 1450 Mg. But that's not to imply that it is "solid". The alk number moves a lot, although typically within the green zone.

Thanks for the link!
 
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