Another hard lesson?

[Duds]

So quick back story everything was in a 10 gallon and we were in a trailer until our house was finished. I moved the 10 gallon over everything went smoothly as if nothing happened. Ffm was maybe a weekend after that we bought too much we then setup the 20 gallon and moved everything from the 10 gallon into it. So within two days I added about 10 gallons to top off still nothing happened smooth sailing everything was minty fresh!!! I started tinkering again honestly I did two things at once when I normally only do one at a time observe and then continue if all is well. Wednesday I turned the lights up another 5% and raised the alk 0.4dkh from 8.9 to 9.3 with two doses one am and one pm to split it up and be less drastic. At the same time I tested my ph for giggles and it was 7.7 not good lowest I’ve ever seen it in my tank. I attributed it to our house being spray foam insulated so it’s quite sealed up and being winter the windows are closed. The next two days I didn’t get any alk consumption which was odd but didn’t think much of it maybe adjusting or something. Saturday morning things looked off but I had a wake that day and when I returned things looked even worse. So I went straight to raising the ph maybe the corals are suffocating ran the line outside hooked it all up got it upto 8.15 now happy days. But not for my corals still, nutrients seemed a tad low for my tank so dosed reef roids and fed the fish heavy I dose Red Sea coral ab+ everyday so hopefully they help where they can. Throughout those few days alk stayed at 9.3dkh ca 450 mg 1380-1400ppm nitrates down to 5ppm (most will say fine but low for me my corals seem to like dirty water). Sunday even worse I woke up and it looked like a parasite or infection I dipped in iodine to stop the spread or kill it. It was my wife’s birthday so we had plans to go out first thing of course I dipped things and did a quick test first lol. Again everything in check ph upto 8.15 alk had some consumption down at 9.1 the rest the same low nutrients still so fed reef roids again to dirty it up. Yesterday I had to make some water to top off what I took to dip the corals the previous day. For whatever reason I thought yesterday was the day to recalibrate my hanna salinity checker and low and behold it was off. The salinity before calibration was 1.026 and after 1.024.

Needless to say I’ve had my hands full with everything going on and I forgot to recalibrate. I’m trying to minimize the amount of coral loss but not sure if they can recover. There’s somethings that are wide open and unaffected then there’s others that are completely closed up some melting flesh some showing skeleton but none are completely gone. To be quite honest I’ve spent so much on corals that I feel like I can’t give up when maybe they still have a chance?

Also would low salinity cause this or should I still be looking for something else?

Thanks
Stephen

The last full tank shot I had was 3/5 the day after ffm the other was just now

 

[Duds]

Also I have a 40 breeder that’s cycled do I throw everything in there to try and save things they are not connected.

I also forgot to mention Saturday I put a hob filter on running carbon.

Also I just setup my rodi last week we’re on a well there is one filter before the rodi system maybe the water has contaminants in it that the rodi can’t pull out? My inline tds meter reads 0 on the outlet side but maybe there is something in it? My 40 breeder seems fine only two clowns 5 hermits and 4 snails in it though.

Is this down to user error or should I look deeper and maybe do some of those send off tests to have more parameters tested to see if there is something else going on? My snails in the 20 don’t seem happy but fish and hermits are fine if that’s an indicator for anyone for anything lol help!

 

[Cpage101]

that’s a whole lot of changes you made in a very short time. Would be tough to figure out the root cause. did you check ammonia you may of had a mini cycle when you transferred everything over? 1.024-1.026 is in a safe range so really should not affect corals. To further note sounds like you added a whole lot of bio load to the small system before upgrading.

 

[jazzsam]

Honestly I have found making a change does not show the results in one day. I find for MYSELF (results differ for others) any change I make takes a week to see the results.

 

[Duds]

The changes I knew about were the lights and alk I didn’t think about my own rodi being a change I would have to monitor sort of thing. But yes agreed even doing both of those together is too much. I normally do one thing wait at least a week and see how things are affected.

I did test ammonia and nitrites and both are zero my mind went there as well maybe a mini cycle.

Well if it’s not the low salinity then there could still be a problem. Do I take a chance and switch everything to the 40 breeder? If so dip everything first? If so in what?

Thanks for the replies I appreciate it!

 

[Joe Rice]

Are they losing tissue? Are all the corals looking stressed or just some of them? Sounds to me like the corals might just need to settle in. Maybe slowly raised the salinity over the course of several days.

 

[Duds]

Are they losing tissue? Are all the corals looking stressed or just some of them? Sounds to me like the corals might just need to settle in.

Yes some are losing tissue some are browning out and some aren’t affected at all. It’s honestly a mix of corals that have been in my tank for months and ones that I only got a couple weeks ago. For example I got the green slimer, blue stylo and Tubbs blue zoas from you a while back and all are closed but the monti digi I got from you is open fully extended polyps and some other zoas I have are out and look ok some new some old. I’ve been trying to find a pattern or source of the problem something but nothing so far.

 

[Duds]

What Icp tests does everyone use I see there’s ati and Triton? I’m leaning towards ati as they include a vial for rodi water so I can get that tested at the same time. Maybe it’s something I can’t test for???

 

[DylanCameron]

I haven’t used any ICP tests, but I doubt your troubles are due to any trace element being out of whack. It’s likely due to the fact that you swapped tanks, everyone has had losses at one time or another during a move. It simply takes time for these animals to adjust to their new environment, they need to get used to the flow and lighting.

If you’re going to move anything I would only move the corals that are really hurting, no point in moving the corals that are open and happy. Keep in mind, if it IS something bacterial, you don’t really want that spreading to your 40B

 

[Joe Rice]

If I had to, I'd guess that the sudden addition of 50% new water stressed them out and they just need time to readjust to the new parameters. I would try to get the salinity back to 1.026 but not too quickly - maybe over the course of at least two days. Did the light level change at all when you switched to the 20g?

 

[Duds]

I haven’t used any ICP tests, but I doubt your troubles are due to any trace element being out of whack. It’s likely due to the fact that you swapped tanks, everyone has had losses at one time or another during a move. It simply takes time for these animals to adjust to their new environment, they need to get used to the flow and lighting.

If you’re going to move anything I would only move the corals that are really hurting, no point in moving the corals that are open and happy. Keep in mind, if it IS something bacterial, you don’t really want that spreading to your 40B

My intentions on doing the test are not to see if trace elements are off but to see if it will come back with a contaminant. I went with ati and they include a vial to test your rodi water so I’ll at least know if my rodi water is ok to continue to use. Who knows maybe it’ll help point out something to look for if my rodi water is fine.

I think I’m going to keep everything where it is and keep things stable and see what happens better safe than sorry my 40 breeder is so clean lol.

 

[Duds]

If I had to, I'd guess that the sudden addition of 50% new water stressed them out and they just need time to readjust to the new parameters. I would try to get the salinity back to 1.026 but not too quickly - maybe over the course of at least two days. Did the light level change at all when you switched to the 20g?

Yea I’ve been slowly getting the salinity back up I’m just about there so two days like you mentioned. The light I use clips on the tank and the tanks heights are the same just longer and wider now but their placements never really changed so the light they received was consistent. I am convinced there is some other underlying factor I was hoping everyone would say yep low salinity will do it but doesn’t seem to be the case. I hope it’s not my water I don’t want to buy it anymore I like making it at home it’s so much easier lol

 

[thrillreefer]

One thought, since you just added new corals, is a potential new pathogen hit them? Especially if they were also a bit stressed from Alk swing, salinity issue, light change (although 5% not very harsh) and/or mini cycle.

Which corals are affected? Any common threads? Like all acros, all LPS, etc

 

[Duds]

One thought, since you just added new corals, is a potential new pathogen hit them? Especially if they were also a bit stressed from Alk swing, salinity issue, light change (although 5% not very harsh) and/or mini cycle.

Which corals are affected? Any common threads? Like all acros, all LPS, etc

Could definitely be something like a new pathogen, to be honest I don’t have the best practices in dipping and qt. Plus the switch over to rodi from my well instead of buying at my lfs to also add in that mix of changes/potential stressors.

Pulsing Xenia absolutely thriving lmfao, I only have one acro a green slimer and it’s completely browned out maybe hints of color deep down. I have stylophora pocillopora stylocoeniella leptoseris couple monti caps all affected sps wise monti digi and sunset monti only ones still coming out to play all in the same area. Lps chalices all of them from watermelon raja rampage Miami hurricane space invader pectina rainbow pectinia starting to lose color and tissue but monster bubblegum chalice fine, only one blasto and that’s fine, gonis have two one has been closed the other was fine till maybe yesterday and now closed as well still have color no tissue loss, red war coral yellow submarine favia and favia of the gods for favias all affected losing color and some tissue, scoly lost a lot of tissue but still has good tissue in the middle and some below the surface sort of speak on the edges and the mouth still opens and closes so I’m not giving up it’s one of my favorites, cyphastreas all affected and closed acans I have 6 and some are fine and some are closing slightly. Softies I only have one leather a tyree toadstool and it’s been closed since before the start should’ve been my sign lol, gsp some out some not, zoas are hit or miss and I say that because I have quite a lot maybe 20 different types and I’d say less than half are open. And again some of that has been in there since the beginning and some only a couple weeks I can’t find any common themes or trends.

If you want I can add to potential problems I had a flatworm problem before the event and used flatworm exit the first time as directed and then again two weeks later but at least double dosed as it did not affect the flatworms this time around. Possibilities are endless huh lol

 

[Drichards]

One way to raise salinity is to put salt water in your ato. That was such a small variance you had though. Mine fluctuates here and there and hasn't had a negative impact. One time my ato decided to stay on and over flow my tank! Good news is I got a bunch of Black Widow splits from the mishap

 

[Cooper2]

The salinity before calibration was 1.026 and after 1.024

I don't think you have or had a salinity issue.... more likely one of the other factors previously mentioned or any combination of them. There seems to be far too many variables and I think you might want to pump the brakes before anything too drastic. Personally I'd dip all the healthy looking ones and get them into that clean 40B. Then treat the tank like a QT tank and see what recovers and what you can save. Best of luck!

 

[Duds]

One way to raise salinity is to put salt water in your ato. That was such a small variance you had though. Mine fluctuates here and there and hasn't had a negative impact. One time my ato decided to stay on and over flow my tank! Good news is I got a bunch of Black Widow splits from the mishap

That’s exactly what I’ve been doing so it’s a slow rise back upto 1.026. There must be something else going on things are looking worse today I thought it was making a turn for the better yesterday. Another panel of tests and everything comes back perfect sent out an Icp test this am see what that comes back with.

 

[Duds]

I don't think you have or had a salinity issue.... more likely one of the other factors previously mentioned or any combination of them. There seems to be far too many variables and I think you might want to pump the brakes before anything too drastic. Personally I'd dip all the healthy looking ones and get them into that clean 40B. Then treat the tank like a QT tank and see what recovers and what you can save. Best of luck!

I think I’m going to have to move things over as some things are looking worse today and I still can’t find anything off. I sent out an ati Icp test and that includes an rodi sample so I’ll be able to see if I’m simply adding contaminants through my water. Everything else is back in check as to where it was before the issues.

 

[Reefer508]

I had a similar problem. Corals started dieing, some looking good others just steady downward spiral. Everything tested good. Ended up being a cracked pump in my mixing station. Every water change was making it worse. I'm sure you've checked your pumps and heater but maybe it's coming from your well. You could use some CupriSorb, it will pull out any metal.

 

[Duds]

I had a similar problem. Corals started dieing, some looking good others just steady downward spiral. Everything tested good. Ended up being a cracked pump in my mixing station. Every water change was making it worse. I'm sure you've checked your pumps and heater but maybe it's coming from your well. You could use some CupriSorb, it will pull out any metal.

Yea I’ve checked my powerheads and their magnets heater frag rack magnets I don’t see anything obvious and nothing collects with water where it shouldn’t. Fish are still perfectly fine and unaffected. Some zoas my blasto mini maxi carpet anemone and 2 rock flowers are good and again Xenia still thriving most others are wilting away. I’ll give it a shot ordered through petsmart doordash delivery it’ll be here between 3-6pm. I can’t help but think it’s something like that. Thanks!