no clue whats going on.....

[Skeptic9962]

ive had this tank setup for a good 8 months and before i moved it it had been setup for atleast a year prior for that full year prior it had been doing perfect...then once i moved it it took a week or so to go back to the way it was..but after that it stayed fairly good looking until one day we had to tear apart the tank to get the damsel that i had in it out due to picking on other fish ever since it got tore down and re-done everything has slowly gone to crap...any ideas on what this possibly could be? ive tested for everything that ive been told to test for barrier reef tested everything with there test kits also...

test results:

temp - 78.8-79
amonia- 0
dkh - 9.8
salinity- 1.024
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10
calc- 400

thats all i have for test kits im wondering ive never had my magnesium tested phosphate has a little bit in the water but not much at all barrier tested that and it just barely showed any...i recently found out that my urchin likes some of the soft corals but it just doesnt make sense that everything is looking like crap...seems like there is something more then just the urchin but noone seems to know exactly what it could be....

livestock-

1 clarkii clown
1 sixline wrasse
1 coral banded shrimp
1 serpent starfish
10+ hermits
10+ snails

corals-

green lobo brain
random purple, brown, red, green mushrooms
pink, orange, green florida rics
green ricordia (huge)
2 decent sized frogspawns
pom pom xenias
candy canes
tons of random zoes (lots arent even open for some reason)
green star polyps
lots of kenya trees



i do weekly 5 gal. water changes with IO reef salt
top off daily with RO water dont have a RO/DI unit yet but i get RO water from the store.
daily feed them mixture of all sorts of frozen foods.
put in C-Balance daily 1 cap of each seems to keep everything in line.(not sure if that is way too much?)

equipment-

29gal AGA
CPR bak pak 2 with mesh mod
CPR refuge w/light
dual sattelite 2x 65w
cascade canister 700 with carbon and phosphate filter pad
1 koralia 3
2 mj1200 1 for skimmer 1 for fuge
2" sandbed
50lbs live rock? not sure possible more or less




any ideas??

 

[Scooterman]

5G isn't enough for a loaded 29g tank, probably your bio-load has grown & with the moves that probably didn't help, also your sand was probably releasing stuff while being moved & drained so the big wc's will help.
First thing I'd do is a 15 g wc or at least 10 & do a second 10g change in few days, make them large to get it back to health.

 

[Skeptic9962]

i was thinking the same thing but its been quite a while since i tore the rockwork down to get that damsel out...after that i did 2 10 gal. changes and since then i did a few more 10 gal changes...its really been probably 4 months that ive been trying to figure out whats going on...cause it would get better for awhile and then get real bad and then get better...right now its the worst ive seen it...and also all of the test results seem to be fine so just leads me to belive there is something major wrong that is pissing off the corals real bad....is it possible that i could be putting too much C-balance? and boosting certain elements that dont need to be boosted other then calc, alk? some people have said that some of those corals send out toxins...but whats interesting is the green stars that i have everyone was saying that they are real toxic to everything...some of my zoes that are really healthy are right next to the stars...

 

[Scooterman]

I'd also bump your sg up some, 35ppt or slightly over 1.026sg, what type of salt mix are you using & have you changed it recently?

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

use this to see how much you should be adding If you need, help keep it in balance.

 

[Damsel13]

old bulbs?

 

[Skeptic9962]

i use IO reef salt. been useing it for the last couple of months or so...usually mix it to 1.024 - 1.025 before that i was useing the natural water from Aquarium paradise but figured its alot cheaper just buying a 5gal bucket of salt.

and bulbs are about 3 months old.

 

[Boomer]

I would agree with those that say it maybe coral toxins. You have an Urchin and they are good water quality indicators and not affected much by corals. The green stars my not be affecting the zoes but the others or some of them. Do a 50 % WC and then double the amount of carbon you are using. Also add some Polyfilters.

 

[saltyreefguy]

by any chance you have live sand in the tank. if so, did you happen to stir up the sand when trying to catch that damsel and release all that bad stuff it was in the sand?

 

[Skeptic9962]

ill try doing that boomer i curently use 1 bag of carbon so ill toss another bag ontop of it and see if that helps. and ill do another 10 gal. change did 10 gals, yesterday so that should do it pretty good. and what are polyfilters?

yes, there was just live sand in there when we where catching the damsel...it got really stirred up and there was a bit of a spike but that was months ago. is there a real long term effect of stirring up live sand?

and when i do water changes should i not sift the sand? i usually do a little bit just to get the top layer....but that would be nice to know if thats another thing i might be doing wrong.

 

[mmkeeper]

Have you tested the nitrates in the saltwater you are using for the water change?

 

[saltyreefguy]

i never touch my sand, no need. the sand star stifters, cucumbers, and any copepods do the job on that. you shouldn't need to lots bad stuff(phosphates,detritus,etc..) way deep down in the sand. maybe you should have made a trap instead...

 

[Skeptic9962]

went and got my water tested yesterday by barrier with all elos test kits

results


ph - 8.0
amonia - 0
nitrite - 0
calc - 400
nitrate - 20 (need to get down)
alk - around 8dkh
salinity 1.024
mag - tested and was told it was fine but wasnt told what the numbers were

was told to add a diferent type of carbon and change it once a week and see if that helps so i bought the kent carbon and a sock for it i used to use the cascade canister carbon bags but was told there not very good carbon...so far my main kenya tree has perked back up so hopefully that was what it was probably a mixture of things im guessing...

thanks for all the help guys =) and if anyone has any suggestions on how to get nitrate down let me know =) thanks

 

[saltyreefguy]

no phosphate test?

 

[Skeptic9962]

no they didnt test that for some reason....

 

[saltyreefguy]

thats strange, should have been on the top of their to do list... you should buy a set of salifert test kits for yourself, most invaluable when problems arise like your situtation..

 

[Skeptic9962]

yeah i just tested my makeup water today for nitrates and it was surprisingly not the best....roughly around 5ppm in the makeup water.....so soon ill need to get a RODI unit that i can rely on.

 

[saltyreefguy]

definitly you'll need one, RODI unit using a tfc membrane not ctc(cheaper stuff) and get a module for di resin..

 

[Skeptic9962]

possibility??? red slime...was reading up on it and have heard that if it gets on your corals it can cause them to not open (such as my zoos...) shrivel up (mushrooms, kenya trees) and even kill at times....is this possible and is it possible to be black in color?