Help!!!!!!!

[twhaddon]

I have had my tank since April without any real problems and now it looks like everything is dying. The fish seem like they are in a panic. I have attached a few pics of the polyps and ricordia. The first pic is a before when everything looked good and the others show the polyps dying.

120 gallon

Foxfish
Hawkfish
Tiger goby
Blue reef
Coral beauty
Clown

Cleaner shrimp
Emerald crabs

40 gallon sump
Uv
Dual reactor GFO/carbon
2 1200 gpd voyager powerheads

Parameters
Ph 8.2
Phosphate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrate less than 10
Temp around 77/78

Could I have bad salt? Fish food be bad? Not enough or too much flow? Lights are T5 and only had since April.

Any help would be appreciated.

Signed, "worried"

 

[jdavid]

Parameters are ok, if I were you I would start oxygenating the tank with air pumps, because I know low oxygen levels can cause a crash. If it's the fish an coral, it could be bacteria using up all the oxygen.

 

[saltloco]

What's your salinity ? Id double check nitrate. Add some prime if you have it.

Edit: If start a 25% water change right now.

 

[twhaddon]

My salinity is 1.025. I have a little prime left so I will use that. I have a third powerhead for water movement. Thought that would be enough for oxygen. I could maybe add one of those bubble bars or something.

 

[spankdog]

saltloco;924856 wrote: What's your salinity ? Id double check nitrate. Add some prime if you have it.

Edit: If start a 25% water change right now.

:thumbs:

 

[twhaddon]

I checked the nitrate tonight and under 10. I did 25% change this weekend and 2 out of the 3 weeks before that I did 10%.

 

[spankdog]

Have you changed the carbon or gfo recently?

 

[twhaddon]

Yep. Both this weekend with the 25% change. I use that seachem phosguard. Maybe the GFO before that was bad and it will just take some time to get better now...

 

[tbub1221]

twhaddon;924864 wrote: Yep. Both this weekend with the 25% change. I use that seachem phosguard. Maybe the GFO before that was bad and it will just take some time to get better now...

Is there any chance it didn't get rinsed off good ?

 

[twhaddon]

I rinsed through it, but I didn't use rodi water to rinse with. Could that be it?

 

[nickh06]

is there good movement at the top of the waterline? That helps increase oxygen, also do you have a closed canopy? If so I would remove it for a day for better o2/co2 exchange. Do you have any filtration in the sump that is dirty?

 

[tbub1221]

twhaddon;924888 wrote: I rinsed through it, but I didn't use rodi water to rinse with. Could that be it?

That I cannot answer , but I will say that if its not rinsed good the dust can really aggravate some corals mainly soft coral.

Also just FYI tap water contains high amounts of phosphates , much higher than what's normal for our low nutrient systems so by rinsing it in tap water your prematurely ageing the gfo .

The advice I was given was to change media at wc time , I save about 1/3 bucket and just fill the reactor then put the pump and return in the bucket , let it run for 5-10mins I also tap on the reactor exterior to jar loose any smaller pieces that may blow through .

What test kits do you use and how do you check your salinity refractometer or hydrometer , I ask because the results your getting may be inaccurate to some degree , also you say 0phos which is almost impossible , I realize you run gfo but still with a good low range phos test some should be detectable even if its 0.02ppt it shows up

 

[twhaddon]

Nick06 - All 3 of my powerheads are slightly angled toward the top of the waterline to get movement. I just have a sponge filter and changed it this weekend with water change. I will remove the canopy and leave it off for a while to see if that helps.

Tbub1221 - Thanks for the tip on the rinsing. I will try that next time.

 

[twhaddon]

Tbub1221;924935 wrote:
What test kits do you use and how do you check your salinity refractometer or hydrometer , I ask because the results your getting may be inaccurate to some degree , also you say 0phos which is almost impossible , I realize you run gfo but still with a good low range phos test some should be detectable even if its 0.02ppt it shows up

I use the API kits for most of the parameters. Red Sea for the chemicals and a refractometer for the salinity...

 

[ringo®]

API isn't known for being the most accurate kit on the market. I would grab a sample of water and run it up to the LFS for testing.

 

[twhaddon]

Yea - I had purhcased these at the beginning and wanted to use them up before I get new ones. I will probably go with a combination of Salifert, SeaChem, and Hanna Checker depending on the parameter being tested for the next ones.

Thanks!

 

[tbub1221]

Ringo®;924948 wrote: API isn't known for being the most accurate kit on the market. I would grab a sample of water and run it up to the LFS for testing.

This is very true the p04 test doesn't even measure at a level suitable for a reef .
It could be that the p04 and n03 are higher than you think , but perhaps not the only way to be sure is to check it with a better kit.
Do you have calibration fluid for the refractometer ? Perhaps it needs calibrating and its giving false reading
I dropped mine once and it must have banged the screw because I got lower than average reading .

Good luck sorting it out . I hope the coral pull through for you.

 

[twhaddon]

Thanks - I don;t have any calib fluid, Ijust used Rodi water which should give 0 reading for salinity. I am going to pick up some mexican turbo snails today because i do have a slight hair algea problem. I was alos told to get some 3 poly filters which should help to remove some of the pollutants as well.

Summary:
Turbo Snails
3 poly filter
check caliberation on refractometer
better test kit
more movement at top of water
take canopy off for a bit
better rinsing of gfo/carbon

Thanks for everyones help!

 

[jennm]

I'm late into this thread... I didn't see any photos.

I wouldn't have recommended adding Turbos if there's trouble - they're a bit sensitive and a bunch of dead Turbos can foul the water.

Did you get the refractometer properly calibrated? RO is rather inaccurate.

If everything is looking kind of peckish it could be a variety of things - from stray voltage in the tank, to toxins in the water (ie hand lotion, air fresheners, other accidentally introduced substances).

Have you made any progress?

Jenn

 

[twhaddon]

Hello Jenn, good to hear from you. I picked up the 3 poly filter and added some prime. The ricordia and mushroom look better, but I think most the polyps are too far gone. I did have some food that I kept in the fridge that I think might have gone bad. The food is the HPD diet food through http://www.americanreef.com">www.americanreef.com</a>. It has actually worked really well for me, but I think my last batch I just had too long. I figured that could be what was wrong so I mixed up a new batch and am doing a 25% water change this weekend.

FYI - the pics were too big to upload..