Tank is crashing :(

[Animal-Chin]

are coral still dying or have things mellowed out?

I wish there were easy answers to this sort of thing. When I started carbon dosing I lost a lot of acro which was maddening because my nitrate was at 80 and they were doing fine and it was during the nitrate drop they started dying off. Now I have a nitrate and algae free tank but lot a lot.

I still think carbon dosing isn't an awesome idea even though I run a reactor. My nitrates/phosphates are super low but I loose sps coral here and there.

I have a huge red planet, the healtyiest looking coral in my tank. 4 days ago one branch turns totally white. I snap it off and the next day another. Every day one little branch (or nub as I call them) dies.

Why? NO idea. Why are all my other coral fine? NO idea. I just keep trimming and hope it stops.

What i should do is reduce my bio load (I have a bunch of big ole fish) and maintain my tank the old way, water changes, but I love my fish so I'm trying to combat their load with a reactor and I'm thinking the consequence is some sps loss.

Sorry just thinking out loud here. Maybe something rings true to your tank?

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

are coral still dying or have things mellowed out?

I wish there were easy answers to this sort of thing. When I started carbon dosing I lost a lot of acro which was maddening because my nitrate was at 80 and they were doing fine and it was during the nitrate drop they started dying off. Now I have a nitrate and algae free tank but lot a lot.

I still think carbon dosing isn't an awesome idea even though I run a reactor. My nitrates/phosphates are super low but I loose sps coral here and there.

I have a huge red planet, the healtyiest looking coral in my tank. 4 days ago one branch turns totally white. I snap it off and the next day another. Every day one little branch (or nub as I call them) dies.

Why? NO idea. Why are all my other coral fine? NO idea. I just keep trimming and hope it stops.

What i should do is reduce my bio load (I have a bunch of big ole fish) and maintain my tank the old way, water changes, but I love my fish so I'm trying to combat their load with a reactor and I'm thinking the consequence is some sps loss.

Sorry just thinking out loud here. Maybe something rings true to your tank?

You should probably start you own thread so we can help you address your problems.

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by iceman86

I was sitting at work this morning and thinking about this lol I then realized that I added a clown tang around that sane time the problems started happening. The tang was fat when I bought him, but slowly got skinnier and skinnier even though I was feeding him a ton to try to fatten him up. He ended up dying 2 weeks ago. Found his skeleton on the sand bed. All my other fish and tang are healthy and happy.
Could it be that this fish brought in a coral killing disease?

I am not aware of any disease problems that a fish can cause to your corals. I believe a large dead fish could cause a spike in your ammonia levels.

[Animal-Chin]

my problem is I started a reef tank...

[iceman86]

Originally Posted by Frogger

I am not aware of any disease problems that a fish can cause to your corals. I believe a large dead fish could cause a spike in your ammonia levels.

I fed the fish the night before and that tang looked a little sluggish but still ate but next day after work I went to feed again and all that was left was his skeleton. He was gobbled up pretty quick.

[tang daddy]

It's gotta be something else than the fish....

When I neglected my tank for 5 months I basically let it run to shit, and it was a chain reaction acros went then Lps and finally I told friends to come save the rest and gave the tank away. However it took a really long time for the tank to be in a death state.

Maybe you added something that was toxic, stray voltage, sudden rise in temp, not enough oxygen, or maybe the bacteria died caused a huge spike that stressed the corals to the point they released skin....

Just thinking out loud

[iceman86]

Got home last night and went to the basement where my tank is and it smelled terrible like something was rotting and sure enough it was coming from the tank. Im guessing hydrogen sulphide releasing from the sand bed. My sandbed is only 2" thick but its really coarse sand and easy for detritus to trap itself in there. All fish and inverts are alive. The glass was also covered in green dust algae.

I'm guessing the sand bed needs replacing? I poked a couple spot and detritus like dust come out. I know it's normal to have a little but this seems more than I've ever had in my years of reefing.

[DKoKoMan]

Did you start with live rock or dead rock. I don't think it should be releasing that kind of odour from the sand bed. If I had to guess I would think there is some sort of contaminant(s) in your water.

[iceman86]

Originally Posted by DKoKoMan

Did you start with live rock or dead rock. I don't think it should be releasing that kind of odour from the sand bed. If I had to guess I would think there is some sort of contaminant(s) in your water.

I started with both. I used the old rock from my old tank and added new dead rock. It's getting to the point that all my corals are dead and if it happens, I'll siphon out the sanded and do a massive water change and start over

[DKoKoMan]

I would take your water in to a LFS in Edmonton and have them do a massive test. This way you can compare to previous tests you have done. Worth a shot IMO, sucks to hear that most of the corals are toast.