What's wrong with my sick nems?

[heathlindner25]

</em>hey Shane do you have a electrical meter? hate to bring it up I'm just curious if there's any voltage in your water, I mean everybody has a little I imagine ...I'm just curious how much is in your tank?

 

[shanepike]

I sure don't. I don't feel a thing when I put my hand in the tank, but I know that doesn't mean there's nothing there.

The other mystery is that my four different euphyllias are doing great</em>. I remember reading at least once that they were a good indicator when something was wrong. That may not be correct, but they have been going gangbusters this whole time. Haven't missed a beat. (And no, they're no close enough to anything else to be the culprits.)

 

[jennm]

I was going to ask about voltage too, but fish usually show that issue first.

I'm sure I've asked this before but I'll ask again because I'm old and the brain is feeble. Do you run carbon? I'm wondering if there isn't some sort of 'chemical warfare' amongst the corals that might be part of the problem.

Please post a full tank picture, sometimes that might show something - sometimes not but it can't hurt

And no you typically don't feel volts in the water. You will feel amps (owwies). Sometimes if people have an open cut they'll feel a tingle with volts. My 'other' Jen who used to work for me was a human volt meter, she'd feel a tingle and get the meter and she was never wrong. :lol:

You can get a volt meter for under $10, or perhaps someone near you can lend you one. I'd at least rule it out.

Jenn

 

[shanepike]

Sorry. I didn't get a photo before I redid everything I'll give you this one, though. Maybe this is a clue, Scooby Gang:

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This is my turbo snail. He has what looks like thick hairy dust all over his shell. At least one of my other snails is this way too, and it was all over the big rock in the last week or two. It looks like something that would just blow right off, but I couldn't even brush it off with my hand.

Any idea what it is? Could it be a clue as to what's going on?

What's New

The big rock is out now, along with 8g of the old water. In went about 13g of fresh saltwater. (It was a big</em> rock.)

The nems and a few corals are now in my old 8g Aqueon Evolve, along with a little of the LR that was in the big tank. I know that spoils the experiment a little, but I was worried about using Matrix rather than LR because I have zero experience with it, and I couldn't find any ready-to-go LR on short notice.

For what it's worth, even after just an hour or two, everything </em>in the 8g is open farther than it has been in recent memory. It's still not healthy looking by any means, but at least it's a good start. We'll see.

And yes, I'm going to check voltage too. Just haven't been able to do that yet.

 

[jennm]

I hate a mystery Not sure what else to suggest but if things are already looking better in the other tank, then that definitely spells a problem with the big tank.

Again with a stupid question but you don't have any metal fittings in the big tank, do you? Hose clamps or similar? Chances are the polyfilter would have told you something if you did... I'm just asking the obvious stuff because sometimes that's what gets missed.

I'd definitely try the voltage thing, if for no other reason, to rule it out.

Jenn

 

[shanepike]

Alright, got a multimeter this morning and measured voltage. It registered at 0.007v, which I assume is basically nothing. So that's out too.

Answers to your last question plus one I forgot:

1. No metal fittings of any kind that I know of. They'd have to be hidden somewhere (like deep in overflow) where I couldn't see them. (I even drained the overflow completely a couple of weeks ago or so just in case something was hiding in there.)

2. I am not running carbon, a skimmer, or anything else. Nothing but a filter sock.

Any idea what that is on my snail?

 

[jennm]

Looks like algae on the snail. Maybe Bryopsis but hard to tell from the picture. Does it look kind of 'feathery' in structure?

I'd try running some carbon for a few days and see if that makes any difference. When corals are stressed, they release more toxins than usual. Carbon helps remove them. It won't hurt to try that at this point, it won't hurt at worst, and it might help at best.

Jenn

 

[shanepike]

Yeah, it's definitely bryopsis. The big rock had some on it before I let it sit outside for several months. I figured that would be enough to kill it. Clearly not. Would that have any impact on everything else?

And yeah, I'll try some carbon.

Thanks so much for the continued help!

 

[heathlindner25]

it looks like dying hair algae on the snail.