144G Half Circle Mixed Reef

[Carmen]

HOLY Crap! What do I do if my nems are spawning or spewing or something?? I think I know why the tank is cloudy! I went to start my water change and noticed my nem spewing cloudy stuff. Completed my W/C and now the other one is too!!! Is it gonna nuke my tank????? They are looking aweful. Some of the corals look ticked. Fish are okay. But I just did a Nitrate test and it's now 40!!!! WTF!????
Here's a video: (if it works)




The other nem looking crappy before it started spewing too!

[Argentiner]

Oh, wow Carmen. Not sure what you could do other than make a big batch of water to keep changing it. Especially if your nitrates are spiking. Hopefully it won't last long.

[Delphinus]

1) Don't panic
2) Keep your skimmer working
3) Carbon and lots of it
4) Don't panic
5) As big a water change as you can handle tomorrow. No sense in doing it now, let them finish ... it will take a while.

Been there! Not a pleasant smell is it? Actually it's fairly .. um .. unmistakable. Weird how some things are universal.

Don't panic! It will be OK.

[Delphinus]

Oh .. they will have a "spent" look to them for a few days. They're not dead or dieing, they're just .. yeah, "spent." (Insert Austin Power impersonation here..)

[Carmen]

Okay...trying not to panic but I am kinda worried......Just found 2 BIG dead turbo snails.

Tony they do look "spent"....severely deflated! Ya there is abit of a smell, not aweful though just different. So this has happened to you then? Did you have any "crash" after?

Actually I think I might be kinda panicking........

Going to do another 30G W/C tomorrow.

[Delphinus]

Yes, many times. Too many times to count. BTA's a few times but also with my old ritteri whom was 24" diameter (huge monster) and could spew for hours on end.

In actual fact very often within 2 weeks of an equinox as well. And guess what was last weekend? Weird eh.

Anyhow. There's no question it's a kick in the stomach for the tank as far as bioload, but the real kicker is O2 depletion so it's imperative to keep your skimmer on, even if it overflows for now. An air bubbler couldn't hurt, but shouldn't be necessary.

Your tank will pull through.

I'm not sure what's up with the turbos - it *could* be coincidence - snails do have a terrible habit of dropping dead just like that.

[Carmen]

Thanks Tony! I knew you'd jump in on this one!
I will try not to panic! BREATHE>>>>>>>>>>

Weird on the Equinox thing. Neat....gonna have to watch for that.

[Delphinus]

Oh, about the 40 nitrate thing. Dollars to donuts it's just interference (ie., the water is cloudy and thus the colour got darker, or something of this nature). It can't have jumped to 40 just like that, so either it's a false reading, or it already was up there or close to it in which case another day of it won't hurt. If it IS 40 though tomorrow, well .. you know. Not to sound like a broken record but there are these lentil like pellet things you might have heard about.

Spawn events are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it's cool to see because blah blah blah circle miracle of life wonderous times blah blah blah and all that, ... but at the same time IT'S IN YOUR TANK AND IT SMELLS! LOVELY! .... I totally feel for you tonight. But I promise after tomorrow it will be OK again!!!

[Carmen]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Oh, about the 40 nitrate thing. Dollars to donuts it's just interference (ie., the water is cloudy and thus the colour got darker, or something of this nature). It can't have jumped to 40 just like that, so either it's a false reading, or it already was up there or close to it in which case another day of it won't hurt. If it IS 40 though tomorrow, well .. you know. Not to sound like a broken record but there are these lentil like pellet things you might have heard about.

Spawn events are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it's cool to see because blah blah blah circle miracle of life wonderous times blah blah blah and all that, ... but at the same time IT'S IN YOUR TANK AND IT SMELLS! LOVELY! .... I totally feel for you tonight. But I promise after tomorrow it will be OK again!!!

Okay...broken record! I AM running the pellets!!! They have been in there for 3 days! I hope they are working!!!!!! Started thinking they were the cause because of the irony of having just added them, then this, but they better not be!

I will retest the nitrates tomorrow, hopefully a false reading.

[Delphinus]

Oh ok. Well there's no way they could really have populated enough bacteria yet in 3 days to affect anything (either positively or negatively), and since they are basically plastic otherwise, they're basically inert in and of themselves, so very likely that is only coincidence.

To me the fact that spring equinox was only 5 days ago is the more striking coincidence. I found that with my anemones very much so and yeah that could also be coincidence but the fact that it happens more often than not is probably telling us there is something to that after all.

Wish I was closer, I'd come over to help. Just make up as much SW as you can for tomorrow (or anytime after you notice them stop spewing, really) and kick off that waterchange. Do another one in another day or two if need be. Waterchanges can't really hurt and "the solution for pollution is dilution" so they definitely help in that way.

Another though. Sorta hesitant to suggest this since you had a bad experience with it, but when I had my mystery cloudiness back in September, I first thought it was a spawn. But then I noticed it wasn't clearing as quickly as other spawns I've had. It was suggested to me to use Coral Snow (the zeovit stuff) to help clear the water and I think it did help clear the water in the end. But that was really a strange one for me and I'm not sure it was a spawn in the end since the water usually cleared up in a half day or so for those other spawns.

Good luck!