Help! Something is Wrong!

[FishyReef]

Sorry for the double post, but this is urgent! They cleaned the carpets in my office this morning - I watched them do it, and it seemed like they did a pretty good job not spraying anything near the tank or sump (which was behind closed doors in the stand). I went and picked up activated carbon at lunch, threw it in a filter bag, rinsed it in some extra premade water I had laying around, and put it in the sump. Foward an hour and 15 minutes and my corals are suddenly retracting before my eyes and my large nass snails are climbing the walls. I've pulled the carbon bag from the sump, unsure if there is something wrong with the carbon, or if this is chemical related. Just tested params, pH 8.2, salinity (high at 1.30), nitrite 0, nitrate about 1ppm, ammonia 0. What do I do - fish look okay but I just noticed the corals start to change about 15 min ago. Freaking out a bit!

 

[FishyReef]

Just talked to a local store and they are recommending that I do a 100% water change - too much?? At 90g I'm looking at $100 bucks to go buy the water and do that type of water change since I don't have any made up here.

 

[Bifferwine]

I don't know about that. Doing a 100% water change seems to me that it could make things worse. I would continue to run the carbon and take a "wait and see" approach. You don't really know what's wrong -- but I would put my money on whatever they used to clean the carpet. Maybe buy some ChemiPure and run that.

You have had a lot of problems with keeping this tank in your office. Have you considered moving it? I know that would suck, but when I set up a tank in my old office, I set up a pico tank specifically in case I had to move it in an emergency.

 

[FishyReef]

Actually this tank has been pretty stable (this is my 90g) - its the little tank at home that has been so problematic. Moving it out of my office would mean getting rid of it entirely - landlord won't allow it and the floors at my house won't support the weight of it.

 

[cvcdrk]

I think she means they always seem to be doing some sort of construction or cleaning at your office. You mentioned the paint before. :)

 

[FishyReef]

Ahh, yes. Well, they recently turned the conference room next to my office into a wing of offices, so there has been construction going on for a few months now... but they are finally finished, hence the carpet cleaning today! There shouldn't be any other major changes around here for years to come now lol (seriously, its been years since the carpets were last cleaned and anything was repaired around here up to this point lol).

So I'm optomistic that I've averted a crisis. Went to an LFS that recently relocated closer to me and picked up 30g of water, chemi-pure, a poly filter pad (the kind that turns colors based on what's in your water), and an ammonia filter pad (in case I had a major die off in the middle of the night even though my water is currently testing 0 for ammonia). Ended up miscounting the number of buckets I removed from the tank and only ended up doing a 20g water change, but at any rate, w/ multiple chemical and mechanical filters in place, ventilation, and a water change, my corals are beginning to open back up!! I'm getting ready to leave for the night and am going to hope for the best, but think things are going to be okay!

 

[wontonflip]

Don't forget to gradually lower that salinity. Only lower it by .001 per day.

 

[FishyReef]

Yeah, that's why I did a smaller water change than recommended in this type of situation.... also I think my refractometer might be reading on the high side. The water I got from the LFS was said to be 1.025, but when I tested it before adding it tested at 1.029, not much lower from what my tank was testing. I think its time to recalibrate...

 

[yote]

Happy that everything is calming down.
I know I'm late for this thread, but here goes any way.:D

100% water changes are drastic. But there are times when they are necessary ( i.e. chemicals in the water ). When doing those types of water changes, it's imperative that you get the parameters of the new water as close as possible to the water in the tank. And even then, you're probably gonna loose something. But it's better to take a small loss than to loose everything in the tank.

 

[FishyReef]

Things are okay this morning - not great, but not terrible. Bubble, torches, frogspawns, birdsnests, sunset monti, mushrooms, duncans, and digi are semi-retracted - not as much as last night but not fully open either. Purple monticap is bleaching and might be a goner, but the red monti cap looks okay. Plates, zoas, acans, meat coral, australomussa, chalices, favia, blastos, trumpet, cyphastreae, gsp, superman monti, and hairy mushrooms are all fully open and look fine! Fish are accounted for. Snails are still climbing the glass. The worst news is that they are cleaning the hallway carpets this morning, right outside my office. I left my door open overnight for ventilation, but obviously have it closed now to prevent fumes from the latest round of cleaning from creeping in. I will be doing another big water change tonight for prevention purposes given the new round of cleaning. Top it off with a head cold and its gonna be a long day.

 

[little_fish]

Good luck!

 

[yote]

Get yourself a big onion. Cut it up into a pot and boil it on the stove to make an onion tea. Add a little dab of vinegar and some honey for taste. pour a glass full while it's still warm and drink. It'll help with that head cold.

 

[poksal]

+1 yote
add to that take plenty of zink til you beat the cold.

65 here and no pharm meds so far

 

[FishyReef]

So I thought I'd give an update: I'm on the mend from my cold (and what an awful tasting concoction, Yote!). My tank is on the mend from the carpet cleaning incident. My purple monti is pretty much bleached entirely and I don't think it will recover - gonna hang on to it for a while to see if it colors back up but doubting it will. My birdsnest has some bleaching and the polyps are still retracted but I'm really hoping it pulls through - it is one of my first corals and has grown a ridiculous amount since I got it, I'd hate to lose it. I have a small frag of blue clove polyps that are retracted and probably won't make it - not a huge loss, though odd that these were affected while some of my more sensitive corals weren't. Both of my acans were fine through the initial days, but one was shruken yesterday and remains shruken today - I don't know what to make of it - its been a super healthy coral ever since I got it and has been stable and growing rapidly for months - hoping it bounces back. Australomussa is a bit shruken, but given all that coral has rebounded from I'm not too concerned. Snails are back in the sand and everything else looks fine. I pulled the carbon, filters, and chemi-clean today, will do another water change tonight, and might put in another poly-filter. The first polyfilter turned blue, indicating that it was pulling copper from my water. I use RO/DI so the copper must have been in the carpet cleaner. Given how sensitive corals and inverts are to copper I'm thinking I'll put a new poly-filter in to be on the safe side. How many days do you guys think I should leave the poly-filter in? And how many days can my acans be retracted before I need to start getting really concerned about them?

 

[poksal]

I can't possibly answer any of your questions... I just hope my tank is half as nice as what I have enjoyed reading about you having in yours. .. for what ever that is worth..

 

[cvcdrk]

Have you tested for copper?

Copper is very very bad I think.

 

[yote]

HAHAH
I never said that onion tea tasted good.:D

Glad that you've got the tank headed back in the right direction.