Can't stop the losses

[Jason McK]

Ok I've come to my breaking point.

I've been losing SPS for the last 2 months. Then Last night my 7 year old Hammer Coral is turning to mush and dieing as well.

I've checked everything
My water is good
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrites 0.0
Nitrates 0.0
Phosphates >0.03
PH 8.0 -> 8.4
Temp 79.0
SG 35 or 1.026
CA 430
ALk 8 DKH
MAG 1350

I have checked for AEFW and Red bugs
I have stopped the use of Zeovit
Installed a 40W UV sterilizer
I'm running 1L of GFO and 1L of Carbon
performing 2X 40G water changes a week

I've lost 95% of all SPS and now it appears as though my LPS are next.
Through out the this whole situation my Hammer has not extended it's polyps fully.
Fish inverts and Clams all seem unaffected

Looking for any suggestions

Thanks
Jason

[i have crabs]

maybe some bacteria problem going on, not really anyway of knowing i dont think, and im shure any kind of treatment would f-up your cycle big time

[christyf5]

Man Jason, that just sucks hard . I was going to suggest maybe a bacterial infection but you're running UV which you would think would keep it at bay or at least at low levels. Have you tried dipping your corals? Dipping them and holding them in another tank to see if its the tank or the corals?

Just throwing stuff out there.... 151 views and no comments, thought I should offer something.

[globaldesigns]

Jason, sorry to hear about your troubles...

I don't know what to suggest, as your parameters seem good. How old are your bulbs for lighting?

[Snaz]

Tested for Copper? Reaching here but maybe an errant bolt or other metallic bit is leaching Cu into the system?

[Aquattro]

The first thing that I read here is that you've done a lot to try and stop it. Maybe too much change too quickly?
I suffered the same type of losses a few years back, due to what I believe was vibrio. I treated with an antibiotic and losses did stop. For me though, it was fairly simple to tell, since anytime I scratched my arm working in the tank, I'd get a nasty infection.

[Jason McK]

Thanks all.

Brad, I haven't exerienced anything like vibrio, I had remembered you having that problem and searched your solution a couple of months ago.
I was leaning toward a change in the CA I'm using in my dosing system but can not find anything negative about it online and TomR is using it without any negative results.

But I agree, I think I brewed up the perfect Storm for this crash, Too much too Soon

J

[Doug]

Crap Jason. I was just looking at your totm thread again to see if anything popped up. Nothing though. All those beautiful acros.

First, I thought taking a tank of something like Zeo or the others, had to be done slowly? Could that now be adding to the original problem.

Second, whenever a tank is stunning, Zeo or again, whichever other prodcuts one uses, gets the credit. Could there possibly be something in the regiment that could cause these problems, perhaps if one of the additives was a bad batch or something? I dont know, like the others, just throwing things out.

[Jason McK]

I thought, when I pulled off the Zeovit reactor I would see a noticeable decline in the tank. But nothing accelerated in it's downward trend. So I concluded that the Zeo pull did not effect the tank too harshly.
But that is just the theory

J

[Samw]

You don't use Instant Ocean do you? I believe I had a bad batch of Instant Ocean recently (about 2-3 months ago). My powerhead turned white when mixing it. The newly mixed water stayed cloudy after mixing for a day. My mixing tank had a film of white residue that won't dissolve. I used the water anyways for my water changes. Not surprisingly, I lost a few corals and many declined after that. I stopped using that batch and I bought a new bag of Instant Ocean which mixed fine and my corals have recovered.