Heartbreak hotel

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by reef_raf

As I said offline Tony, every time I put my hand in the tank, I'd get heavy infections in any open wound. I spoke with my doctor who agreed it could be a strain of vibrio (not flesh eating disease ) and that the broad spectrum antibiotic could help. Being the idiot I often am, I used all th emeds on my tank instead of me, and the tank did clear up after treatment. I also stopped getting infections from scratches on the rockwork. Vibrio?? Who knows, but the antibiotic did resolve whatever was sloughing my acros. No science here, just experience...

So Brad did you notice any sort of cycle after treating the tank? I curious what effect the antibiotic would have on the bacteria in the rock.

UV sounds like a good idea,it would clear up any free floating bacteria or viruses,maybe stop it from spreading.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

So Brad did you notice any sort of cycle after treating the tank?

No, can't say that I "noticed" one, but I never tested anything. Everything was doing much better than before treatment, so that was good enough.

[Delphinus]

Buh ,, ... so, just in case anyone was wondering ... Zeovit wasn't the saviour I hoped it would be. 5 frags down the tubes this week, same thing, starts with a loss of colour, then recession from the tips. Seen this before so I know what's next.

I've changed my signature to include a nice little Haiku-ish poem for now.

Ugh,.. this has been going on for far too long. I hate that I can't grow SPS anymore.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Buh ,, ... so, just in case anyone was wondering ... Zeovit wasn't the saviour I hoped it would be. 5 frags down the tubes this week, same thing, starts with a loss of colour, then recession from the tips. Seen this before so I know what's next.

I've changed my signature to include a nice little Haiku-ish poem for now.

Ugh,.. this has been going on for far too long. I hate that I can't grow SPS anymore.

Maybe it's the reef gods telling you...and catherine. Stop focusing on anything but the big tank, then i will let you have sps again

[BMW Rider]

I quit using the Reefresh system about ten days ago, and started dosing some potassium suppliment to my tank. Thus far, all my sps are looking much better and the glass is not turning opaque green in eight hours like it had been. I can actuall go three days between glass cleanings and even then its not horrible. Some of the SPS frags and colonies that had been receding have shown new growth, and colour is improving on all of them. Polyp extension is also better. Not sure which change is helping, but I don't care, I'm going to maintain this routine at least until I've used up the bottle of K suppliment. I'd like to find a test kit for it, but so far haven't been able to track one down.

I don't know if you can derive any conclusions from this for your tank or not, but htought it may give you something to consider.

[Snappy]

Tony,
I am not sure what to tell you, I thought you were on the rebound. I have leathers, gorgonians, zoos, mushrooms, gsp, 20 varieties of LPS and a wack of sps all in the same display. Also plumbed into the same system are 2 other tanks, 1 mostly softies and then my frag prop tank with mostly sps. There has to be more to this story that we are not considering. Are you running carbon? if so, how much and how often do you change it? Are you getting a good enough flow? But even with that, for a mille to slime for days on end is something I have never seen so I conclude there is definately an issue with the water.
Here's a story, I am very sensitive to chemicals and we lived in a house only 3 blocks from where we were living in Acadia. We lived there for three years and during that time I was sick way more than usual or ever before. Anyway, we sold the place 11 years ago & moved to where we are now and my health greatly improved and went back to normal. Is it possible that somehow your house is located near something that could cause problems? Something in the walls, type of insulation, etc? Who knows? I attributed my health issues to a small natural gas terminal that was a few blocks down from where we lived although nobody else around seemed affected by it. Here's another example: I heard of an individual in the States that after months of grief finally tore his whole system apart and found a tarnished penny in the back of his rock work. I guess some kid used his reef as a wishing well during a visit from relatives and it started killing things. I know it sounds like a wierd long shot but given your vast experience & expertize in the hobby and the fact that it has only been a problem since you moved, it just makes me wonder what else it can be. Sometimes there is just something in the air. Can you rig up a carbon filter for your skimmer's air intake? Like I said I know it sounds odd but it might be worth a try.

[Snappy]

Stuff a phosban reactor full of Carbon and run it 24/7 then add a frag or 2.

I think this is the next logical step. I'll give you some frags to experiment with.

[danny zubot]

Sounds like an experiment would be in order. I'll donate some caps frags if you want.

[Delphinus]

As tempted as I am to blame the house or the new location, that of course opens the door to more sinister questions like is it even safe to live in it? I would hope that this part is OK.

I'm actually not running carbon right now. I can always put some on though, guess it can't hurt. I'm sort of wondering if running UV might be something to look into.

Old tank syndrome is also something I've thought about. I think that this is a mix of both "documented and explainable buildups/depletions" and "something we just throw out there when we can't come up with any other plausible explanation." Ultimately there is so much going on at a level we can't really perceive it's really hard to come up with simple one-tiered approaches to problem solving.

[PoonTang]

Did you dip the frag before you added it? perhaps this did some damage although it doesnt explain the rest of the corals. I doubt chloramine is the problem or else you would have sick fish too, although mabey you levels are still low. Try an ammonia test. Do you have a TDS reading from your RODI, mabey your membrane is shot? Try running a different salt and definately run Carbon 24/7. Another thing you should try is routing your skimmer air intake outside the house. It could be related to new/old house syndrome, cooking,do you smoke? almost anything but you did state it all started when you moved so most likely its either the air or the water at the new house.