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My levels were not the original problem. I do have some nitrates, 15-20, but I am sure that is because of all the stuff dying in there. Nothing a couple of larger water changes won't help out. I just need to find the time to get them done:( :( :(
 
Charlie,
Nothing in the plumbing is Copper? How about a broken bulb lense? I have been following this for a while trying to learn also. I feel for you Buddy.
How about a test with a ohm meter and disconnect things one at a time in your tank. Your Heaters, Your pumps, powerheads if you have them, a probe broken, etc.
All I can say is I do feel for you Buddy. The corals can be replaced but not the time. Shark Reef had another Tort for 40 dollars. That is unless John got it. You may want to call Shark Reef, There are enough people around ya that will easily support you and try to help out.
Sincerely,
Ed
 
Ed, I have to wait on adding anything back to the tank, it would be coral suicide if I added anything back to it now. I don't even know if the rock is still good. The only thing I have to go on is the lps in there, 2 plate corals and a torch, seem to be doing OK. I still have to find time to get all the rest of the dead sps out of there!!!!!!!
 
ya, i would remove everything you can get outta there asap, b4 it fisnishs messing stuff up.

voltage is what people seem 2 be leening twards. your tanks bing up for a while right?

MAybe start replaceing electrical things powerheads heater exc
 
I am gonna tend to agree with you, but that is the easiest thing to nail down it seems. It is so darn tough to fight what you can't see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As I stated before, I have to find the time to start narrowing things down.
I know one thing tho, I will find it and whatever it is, I will correct it. It just really gets under your skin a bit when you can't see something definite!!!!!!
 
i know what ya mean, i worked on cars for years. and theres a lot of that.

Im not saying working on cars in the same, but it is the same in the aspect of puting your time and hard work in to something to have it take a shat on your shoes. dont worrie time will heal time will tell and time will........ do something it always does anyway, but

good luck, post us pics when you get everything sorted out
 
Charlie, you may not find a single culprit. Sometimes, it is a succession of things that stress the corals enough to RTN. It could have been a temperature swing, combined with new lights, combined with a small chemistry shift, combined with caulerpa harvesting, combined with low voltage, etc etc etc...until the coral finally craps out. Hang in there! I've been there, so I understand waking up and wondering what else is gone.
 
Charlie, you may not find a single culprit. Sometimes, it is a succession of things that stress the corals enough to RTN. It could have been a temperature swing, combined with new lights, combined with a small chemistry shift, combined with caulerpa harvesting, combined with low voltage, etc etc etc...until the coral finally craps out. Hang in there! I've been there, so I understand waking up and wondering what else is gone.



Oh great, now my brain really hurts.:lol: :lol: :lol: There are just too many things I guess. There are alot of coincidental happenings, so you are right, I am probably barking up the wrong tree no matter which way I go. The only thing I can do is correct one thing at a time and see where it goes from there.
 
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heya, Charlie... very sorry about the losses indeed :(

As per your query/wonder (PM) about CaCl2 buildup being a possible culprit here... perhaps. And easily enough IDed. Calcium Chloride IMO is badly overused... too often promoted and used as a safe stand-alone Calcium supplement. Its a mistake though in light of realities that most aquarists do too small and too infrequent water changes to adequately dilute accumulating Chloride ions. But for this to ultimately be a significant problem, you would have had to have seen a sudden (precipitous) drop in your alkalinity and then/or pH. Since you did not mention this serious change... I'm guessing it was not the problem here.

But lets please keep in mind that CaCl is not an optimal means of daily calcim dosing... it is best used for a quick remedy in infrequent times of straying.

Instead, please rely on Calcium reactors and/or water changes for balanced mineral supplemenation. Kalk use is very fine too (my pref actually)
 
Well, in my mind that takes that out of the equation then:| :| I do dose kalk, was doing about a gallon a day until this came up, no more need to do that tho................. My water chnages were 2-20 gallon changes a week, or about 10% of the system a week. After that, I am still in a quandry as to what happened.
 
Charlie being that both you and Duane had crashes in about the same manner at the same time, and are on the same water system do you think something - that isn't necessarily tested for - maybe got in the water?
 
Charlie- I am very sorry to hear of your tank crash and hope that you are not discouraged so much that you won’t start another SPS tank. I have been stewing over your situation and this tread - did you notice any STN before all the RTN started? I ask because I have had a problem with some STN for a little bit now and recently had 1 coral RTN on me in spite of good water quality- hope it is not a sign of things to come. I am chasing the AEFW theory right.

As for the stray voltage, I wonder if 5 volts would be able to cause that much damage? About 8-9 months ago I had stray voltage. Found it when I stood barefoot in a skimmer overflow puddle so it may have been a problem for a while before that as that outlet was not grounded. Patrick had a voltage meter that read 14 volts. One coral showed mesenterial filaments but recovered when I fixed the voltage problem and I did not loose anything. That just makes me wonder if 5 volts would do it. I do not think the voltage in my tank was grounded (or creating a current through the tank) before I provided one by stepping in the puddle with my arm in the tank so perhaps if yours was able to create current through the tank it could have caused more damage. I am not even close to an electrician so I am just talking about my experience hoping it might say something to someone who knows more about voltage and currents to help determine if the 5 volts through your tank could be the culprit.

I do hope you are able to figure it out so that there is closure for you and so that we can all learn something from this. One must know what has gone wrong thru out history to avoid unnecessary repetition and so I will continue to follow this thread!
 
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Tracy, I think I have found where my stray voltage is, it is coming from my lites in the refugium. That should be an easy fix, I am hoping.:D
I hope your situation gets better, it sounds almost eerily similar.
 
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How are you guys finding the stray voltage? Just using a volt meter in the water and unplugging things one at a time?? I might need to do the same at this point since I am on my way to a white coral forrest.
 
Put one lead in the water, and one lead to ground Reed, but be careful. I think you know about voltage!!!!
To be honest Reed, I really think we might be barking up the wrong tree, but it wouldn't hurt to get rid of the voltage anyways. I think we are dealing with something unseen, but that is really a major guess on my part. There are too many tanks going south this summer for stray voltage alone being the cause.
 
I tend to agree Charlie, but I am getting desperate at this point. I mean at the rate my tank is going I'll be a FOWLR tank in the next month or so.

I looked for AEFW and see none, I've treated for red bugs, no bulb changes, ORP is stable, PH is stable, temp is up but no different from the previous years that I made it through fine. Just strange and very frustrating.

On the up side, all of the crappy coral happenings has pushed my clowns to spawn...imagine that.

Thanks Bud! Good luck to you.
 
Reed, are you getting the dead stuff out of there? I made that mistake and probably caused a little spike in my nitrates. That and the fact that I forgot to clean my skimmer and it wasn't working to maximum efficiency.
 
You know recently we had several tanks Crack, was it contagious? No I don't think so but the problems we're seeing now might be brought upon ourselves spreading problems to others & taking a while before they show up so you never think it was a problem, just like Pinched mantles, sometimes I think we may be overdoing / thinking things too much!
This isn't a proven science, not everyone is right or wrong either. J2Cents!
 

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