mysterious happenings...

jennytheleopardgrouper · #1 12-02-2005, 05:23 AM

Okay, so I've lost 3 turbo snails in the last week. Tested the water, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate all at zero. Brought a water sample to get tested for everything they could think of-everything's great. Something was a little on the high side of normal...can't remember for the life of me what it was...alk maybe? Well yesterday, I was gazing at my tank when I realised that my 2 inch dark gray unidentified sponge had well.....exploded! It was ripped to pieces like from internal combustion....it's now a light gray/white and blowing in the current in strands. My fish seemed a tad itchy over the last week but some garlic seems to have fixed that. Anyone know what could be wrong? I have had some temp fluctuation in the last week while breaking in my new heater...ranging from 75-79 degrees over a few days. Tank is now at 79. I have a light dusting of cyano on some of my CC. Should I remove the dead coral? It looks scary..I'm afraid for the other corals on that rock.

Tank is 120 gallons, 100 lbs LR, lights are 2-48" reg flourescents, plus 2-48" T5's (one 10,000k and one Actinic)
Inhabitants-1 coral beauty, 2 chromis, 1 mandarine goby, 1 new juv clarkii (got him 2 weeks ago), 1 baby regal tang, 1 cleaner shrimp, several crabs (including 2 ugly hitchikers), and snails.
Coral-Show size Toadstool, 3 leather coral, multitudes of star polyps and mushrooms, and one baby bleached anemone.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

TNTCanada · #2 12-02-2005, 05:40 AM

Well for one the watt per Gallon is quite low. If they are
40wX 4= 160/ 120=1.33 that is only 1.33 watts per gallon. If your Alk is really high that can be a problem as well. The hitch hicker crabs can also be a problem if your snails and sponge are having some problems. You really need to find out what it was that was high. These are all places to start. They might all be factors or it might just be one or a mix of a couple.

And yes you should remove the dead coral.

Just my 2 cents

Cheers
Tyler

jennytheleopardgrouper · #3 12-03-2005, 12:35 AM

Thanks Tyler. I'll find out what was in the high range and try to get some more decent ighting. (Anyone have any theyd like to sell?)

StirCrazy · #4 12-03-2005, 01:20 AM

snails die, they are rather short lived on average and need to be replaced once and a while.

Steve

geopod · #5 12-03-2005, 01:36 AM

I would go with TNT on the hitchhiker crab thing.You all must have seen the crab pics I posted already.I pulled 7 out already and found they were killing snails,shrimp,and my sponges, and coral. etc.I spotted a few more last night.So I would start there and get rid of the hitchhikers.Look for my post and see if it looks like the same crab.

And there is my 2 cents.

george

Pegasus · #6 12-04-2005, 12:15 AM

Personaly I would check your salinity. If things explode(?) then I would say your salinity is low? Your alk can be as high as 11 -12 Dkh before you will notice anything abnormal. I believe that seawater is around 8 Dkh.

As far as your snails go, I can't offer an opion until I now what your Alk is. Maybe the two are related or maybe other factors are in play, in that perhaps they are short lived like Steve suggests or don't have enough to eat.

Hope this helps.

Larry

jennytheleopardgrouper · #7 12-04-2005, 01:09 AM

Salinity is at 1.024 right now. I usually keep it at 1.023. The alk was only on the high side of normal. (It wasn't dangerously high by any means.)

My crabs are out in full force right now, I haven't seen so many so active at one time. And the rest of my coral are the happiest I've seen them yet, fully extended.

As for the hitchhikers, yes they're quite ugly but they've been with the coral for about 4 years, so if they're the problem then it's a recent development. They have plenty to eat, if anything I'm overfeeding.

Anyways, I think I've formed an idea of what may have happened. The exploding coral is in shadow and probably needed more light to survive, and died. It may have created an ammonia spike, therefore killing several snails, which I believe are quite fragile to spikes. Does this sound like a possibility?

Pegasus · #8 12-04-2005, 01:50 AM

Are we talking about a sponge or a coral here? Two completely different things.

If it was a sponge then the sponge would probably secreted a toxin when it died. However, you have a 120 gallon tank, a 2 X 2 inch sponge shouldn't do any damage.

If we are talking about a coral, either soft or hard, again a 2 X 2 inch specimen in a 120 gallon tank shouldn't do anything.

My guess is that the two incidents are unrelated. As Steve suggests, either the snails where at the end of their life cycle or perhaps they are being under fed? Die off due to a deminishing food supply is to be expected.

Larry

jennytheleopardgrouper · #9 12-05-2005, 04:24 AM

Good question. I believe it was actually a gray sponge. I'm not completely sure though. At any rate, it is now almost completely gone, just a thin coating on the rock it was on.

I just walked over to my tank to find 15 crabs on yet another snail. That makes about 5 in a week. I don't think this is normal die-off. I watched them pull the dead snail out of it's shell and noticed that the snail was a brilliant turquoise blue. It actually looked like the opera-singing alien on the Fifth Element. I don't know if this is the normal colour for a turbo snail or if it had some kind of illness?

The snails should have a good food supply-I keep three sides of the tank nice and clean and let the back pane grow a little algae to feed anyone who wants it.