Please help tank going down SOUTH FAST!
 

Right after my newly purchased starfish died few days ago my corals wrnt looking so good to BAD. I did a 15% water change the next day but all my LPS were pretty much closed and zoas all closed. 3 days later my sps frags all starting to brown but most of my LPS back to normal kinda. My purple acro started to have base recession this afternoon now only couple hours later the recession seem to have doubled!!! What do I do I don't want everything dying. Here's a pic of how it was not to long ago to afternoon and now.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...psd76fe220.jpg

And here's my hammer that still on trouble.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...psd342c849.jpg

My water parameter seems to look like its always been just my nitrate are a bit higher than normal due to my skimmer lvl a Lil too low after I removed its foam filter on the water lvl adjuster I think it still breaking in.

Phosphate 0.25. Nitrate 15, KH 7. Salinity 1.025. How can a dying starfish do so much damage. They arnt poisonous right? All effect happen right when it died. I'm planning to do another 15+gallon water change Tmr. My tank is 75g

Please help before its too late!!

frag the sps well above the recession and remount. toss the bottom piece. gives the coral a chance at least.

lots of new carbon!

+1

Yes I have new carbon. How can the purple sps recess so damn fast tho.

It's body is also starting to turn to the color of the recessed part =(. Would dipping it in revive save the base since it just happened in the last few hours?

I would do 80% water change. Then do another one two days after.

Oh damn 80%!!! That's insane! I just fragged off my purple acro now. Scared if I wait till Tmr it will be dead at this rate.=(

Iv been fighting dinos for the last month, and finally got some good advice. So decided to take the advice, and I have done two 80% water changes and one 50% water changes in the last week. As of right now, my tank has never looked better. Corals and fish are happier then they have ever been. And absolutely no sign of any dinos. And if you have had to battle them before you know the **** grows back almost as fast as you can remove it. Just my opinion.

+2

I just noticed recession in a few other acros but they at the body of it near middle of the pieces what do I do? Also what is dinos? Is that another term for recession?

Dinos = dinoflagellates. kinda like cyno-bacteria. red slimy algae looking stuff.

As for your acro, the tissue recession is generally referred to as STN, or RTN, depending on the speed of the recession and is sometimes caused by bacteria as well as several other possible causes. Cutting the coral well above the affected area sometimes stops the spread of tissue loss, saving the coral.

I would also try and knock your phosphate down using GFO, 0.25 is pretty high, could be causing the browning of your other corals.

Best of luck!

I agree with everyone. Run carbon and GFO to battle whatever is going on and reduce phosphates. .25 PO4 is quite high and would definitely cause some browning out of SPS. Judging by the pics, your SPS are RTN'ing. Chop off the good part of your SPS and mount them on frag plugs. That is the only way to potentially save them at this point. The second SPS get stressed, they can die off within hours. The die off will only cause more nutrients and can set off a chain reaction.

Water changes of at least 25% to even 50% would be good at this point to help reduce your nitrates, PO4, etc.

Are you using ro/di water?

If not then I'd strongly suggest getting a system

How deep is your substrate? Gravel or sand?

Do you thoroughly gravel vac it?

How much is your skimmer pulling a day? Dark or light coloured skimmate?

Chemi-pure elite has carbon, GFO and I feel some other things in the bag.
Get a couple those and throw those somewhere that will get water through it. (rinse the bag well)
or even poly filters.
It's def water perameter based if it's affecting your whole tank.
And yes Acro's can lose all their tissue in hours, hense RTN (Rapid Tissue Necrosis)
if your corals are tossing tissue then that's going to add to the bioload and make things worse so carbon (or the like) and waterchanges will at least slow things down.

Entirely possible this is related to your starfish death. There are some weird critters out in them oceans.

All those symptoms are typically related to alkalinity, 7dkh is a bit low IME but if it's accurate and stable then not likely the issue but I'd try and confirm that number and bring up between 8 & 9 dkh. If you test kit doesn't give you a decimal it's not accurate enough.

Yes I am using a ro/do system. So I'm planning to do a 50% WC today and another one Tmr or Friday. I'm scared I won't be able to match temp alk/cal/mg exactly if I do a 80% and end up killing everything. So what is the shortest amount of time does it take to properly mix new salt water?

You can mix new salt water in 20 minutes or less with a good mixing pump. You don't need to worry about ca/alk/Mg for now, worry about SG and get temp as close as you can.

Did a 50% WC last night. A few zoas still closed. Most corals look ok but my purple acro that I fraged off the rtn base is stripping its base again!!

Do I have to frag off its base again?
http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1af70573.jpg

Hammer is still showing its mouth

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3ba38db1.jpg

The acro will likely continue to recede, so ya, I'd cut it at the half way point. The hammer looks fine for now, I wouldn't worry too much. Are you running carbon?

Yes, chop it again unfortunately. You will have to keep doing it until it stops RTNing or dies off...

A nice piece to a tiny piece. What a shame. I glues the receeding pieces behind it in hopes it will come back to life. The first initial receeded piece I frag onto a plug looks like its still alive.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps06e0fad6.jpg

Yes I've been running carbon Brad. Got about 1-2 cups in my sump in a mesh bag. Changes it 2 weeks or so ago. Some ppl told me I shouldn't be putting the already fully recessed frags in the same system as my DT. True?

At this point I'd just sit back and see what happens. The acro will live, or not. Playing around with it too much could cause more problems than it could fix. I would personally remove the receded pieces, they aren't going to do much but slough off the rest of the tissue into the tank.

Should I give my hammer a revive dip? It's excreting its guts a bit

I'd just leave it for now. Annoying it further probably won't help. See what it does ever night.

I'd change the carbon tonight and possibly keep changing it every few days until things calm down
I say this as your current carbon is weeks old and only in a bag (passive)
And even if you had a reactor for the carbon, I'd still suggest changing it until things calm down

At the very least, keep up with some WCs and you should see a turn around

Does the hammer have any brown jelly looking stuff on the heads? Google brown jelly disease to see pics of what it looks like if you're not sure.

It's just waste. Just do water changes and sit and wait. The more you fiddle the longer it'll take. Patience

I don't believe I saw any brown jelly stuff but it did excrete things with its mouth wide open like this a few hours before I did my 50% WC

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...ps529f7438.jpg

I will change my carbon tomorrow and prob do another 50% WC on sat. I will leave my hammer alone for now. No dip. How often am I supposed to change carbon? I'm getting mixed inputs. 6 weeks or 6 months?

I would change carbon monthly as a regular schedule. 6 months is silly :)

Is there a chance you could rig up a reactor for your carbon. IMO. Passive is a bit silly as only the outer layer will have flow past it and unless agitated can build up with detritus

I never really looked into reactors or auto dosing yet so I have no knowledge and where to even start with them yet =P what's the pros and cons of them from all my fellow reefers experience with them? I put my bag of carbon in between one of my baffles so I guess the flow through it would be pretty decent. Any tips on making it better if I have no reactor yet?

If you don't have a reactor or Cannister filter that's probably the best you can do.
JL filter socks are long and narrow if youre not using one of those maybe look into it for covering more of the baffle. (becareful it doesn't get clogged and drain your return section of the sump.)

Reactors tumble the media via a pump and a cylinder. The benefit is max surface area the impurities will have contact with. When one puts in a bag or in between a baffle the path of least restistants will be taken.
While it's not absolutely necessary it is more economical

Since you are into buying coral now it would be wise to start researching some extra equipment. While it's not as exciting as a frag or colony it may help in the long term sucsess to keeping a reef

This makes no sense

Perfect sense. If no reactor or canister, placing it between the baffles is the best you can do. I guess it makes sense to me, since that's what I do :)

Ah ok. I miss read it. Or should I say didn't read the op post properly

Yeah there more than one way to skin a cat. For my self I could not achieve water clarity running carbon passively. Now on a reactor the impurity are gone

Brad do you use the carbon pads that can be cut to fit in the baffle or just stuff a bag in

Just in a bag, hanging in the sump. I'd run a reactor, but it's in the basement and I'm lazy :)

Did a 70% WC this time 2 days ago and those affected corals still don't look that great. Should I just let it takes its course naturally and see where that goes?

I dunno if I missed it or not but what are your calcium, magnesium, kh, temperature, photo period, flow, skimmer and phosphates like

All my tests are using API test kits so its not accurate but here we go. Cal was so high off their chart so I dunno and have up testing. No mag kit so don't test. 7-8 dkh. Temp hovers around 80-81. LEDS white light in for 8hr blues on for 12hr. Running 2 hydor kor 1400. Skimmer is euro reef 125 rs tank is 75g. Phosphate was lowest on the API chart so it said 0.25. I think it's much lower now after the super massive WC.

Today I noticed my green zoas are beginning to morph colors and it looks so freaking awesome!! The new morph are the ones in the middle left of the colony. It's super neon lime green now instead of dull green. There's another head that's not in the pic that's half new morph half old which is pretty dope. Should I name this ultimate green eye Trex and make tons of $$$? Haha.

http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/...psfb9b293a.jpg