Coral Question

[Aries85]

I have a question for everyone out there. I know I been away for while but I have been busy. The tank was doing good until about 1 week ago. My heater took a crap and the temp dropped down to about 65 when I woke up in the morning. I replaced the heater and now all my corals are looking kind of shooty.
My Finger Leather was the 1st to go last week and then today I removed my Colt coral that died. The Xenia I have shrunk a little and are not pulsing like they used but most noticeable they shrunk. I tested my water and everything was fine and I had my LFS check it and the only thing that was high was my Trates = 20. My pH is about 8.4, Alk=10.4, Salinity= 1.025, temp is remaining stable at 76.5. The only other noticeable thing is that my sand is getting a kind of brownish looking debris on it. Anyone got any ideas? I am like pulling my hair out trying to figure this out. Thanks in advance.

 

[yote]

A quick drop in temp. could have caused a die off of some the small bugs and inverts.At least thats my guess.
Thats also why I run 2 smaller heaters than one big one.That way if one goes out,the temp wont drop quick plus if one sticks on,it wouldnt be enough to over heat the tank.

 

[Bifferwine]

I think Yote is right, it sounds like the temperature drop killed some things in your tank, which caused your nitrates to spike, and a combination of the temperature drop and high nitrates is probably what hurt your corals. Not much you can do except do water changes to get the nitrates down. Sorry to hear about your losses.

The dusty stuff sounds like diatoms, which is normal if you just had some die off in your tank. It should go away on its own eventually.

 

[Aries85]

Yeah I checked the Trates again today and they were 20. I took out the colt coral and when I did some of it got into the water so I think thats what spiked my trates today. Also, could overfeeding spike my trates??

 

[yote]

Overfeeding is the biggest cause of high nitrates.But I'm sure part od a dead colt coral didnt help them any.

 

[Doc]

sorry about your loss. No one like to lose corals. Hope you can recover quick

-Doc

 

[Aries85]

I am hope all recovers well. I think some water changes are in order. I just did one on Sunday so I think I will try to one tomorrow. By doing too many water changes will that not bring me into like a never ending cycle? Are there any buffers or anything like that?

 

[Doc]

keep your total water change volume under 50% of your tank size for the month and you will be fine

-Doc

 

[Bifferwine]

Nothing you can really add to the water to bring nitrates down, water changes are your best bet.

 

[Aries85]

Just to give you all an update. My Nitrates did spike in my tank very big. I still do not know what caused it, but what ever its almost over with now. I did loose all my corals though. The only ones that may make it are our Blasto and our Plate coral other then that they are all gone. So far we lost the Colt Coral, Forgspawn and Xenia. Kind of sucks but what you going to do.

Thanks all for the help. We will difnantly update with some new pics of new corals when we get this straightened out.

 

[Doc]

sorry to hear about it. I hate to hear about total losses in tanks. we work so hard to make this hobby work and when this happens, it is a real blow

-Doc

 

[Bifferwine]

That sucks that your corals died. Weird though, blastos and plate corals are more sensitive than the ones that died. I can't keep plate corals alive even in a healthy tank. It's a curse I'm forced to bear :(.

 

[fatman]

The problem you just went through was one of the major reasons for the huge and quick growth in the use of sumps. Larger the volume of water the smaller the changes to a tanks water parameters following a mishap or problem. IE a large volume of water cools slower than a small volume of water and a dieing coral pollutes a larger volume of water less than a smaller volume. It is much harder to be successful on a long term basis with a small tank than a much more forgiving large tank. Lots of large tank keepers practice such poor husbandry that they would have to change a lot of their practices before they could successfully keep a small tank. Remember sumps can be remote from your display tank; on a lower floor, another room or hidden in another cabinet in the same room. A sump can be something as simple as a plastic trash can, it does not have to be another tank or elaborate acrylic concoction.