Help!

[ErinCahir]

So last night (for the first time) I put a nori sheet in my tank. I rubber banded it to a lobo skeleton and put it by one of the fans. Today my frogspawn is shriveled, my anemone looks absolutely horrible and my mushrooms are starting to shrivel as well. And then about an hour ago my protein skimmer started skimming like crazy and overflowed. Does anyone have any ideas what could have caused this?

 

[Piratefish]

What are your water prams? Do you use gloves when you are working in your tank?

 

[ErinCahir]

Everything (that I have a test for) checked out fine.
Salinity 1.026
Amm 0
Phosphate 0-.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10-20
Calcium 400
KH 8
pH 8.4

And I do not use gloves when I work in my tank. But I never have and I've never had a problem before.

 

[Smitty]

I'm wondering if you've had any type of chemical on your hand, that you thought you may have washed away. Or maybe the rubber band did.

 

[ErinCahir]

I was thinking more the rubber band... I'm totally bummed. My anemone seems to be bouncing back (he was hanging on by a tiny little piece of his foot and now he's footed securely again). My frogspawn... not so much. :( I've had it for a month and a half or so... it was getting two new heads...
I'm totally kicking myself over trying to fix something that wasn't broken.

 

[Smitty]

Did you take the rubberband AND nori out? One of those two things is what caused the issue, so make sure you eliminate those two factors that triggered it.

 

[ErinCahir]

I did. I took it all out. The nori, rubber band and even lobo skeleton. Everything went in the trash. I didn't have any water made up (stupidstupid) but I'll be doing a change in the morning...

 

[OhNoNemo]

Bummer Erin,sorry to hear that....i can't imagine it being the rubber band though...I have used that method for years with no problems .....IDK ....good luck

 

[sen5241b]

Everything (that I have a test for) checked out fine.
Salinity 1.026
Amm 0
Phosphate 0-.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10-20
Calcium 400
KH 8
pH 8.4

And I do not use gloves when I work in my tank. But I never have and I've never had a problem before.

That does NOT look fine to me. Many stony corals will start bleaching and dying at 0.25 ppm phosphates. That is straight from Dr Shimek's book on corals.

 

[Piratefish]

+1 Sen If the phosphate are at .25 they are probably really higher . Algae uses it up fast so its hard to get true readings. Do you have any algae in the tank?

 

[ErinCahir]

Yes. All over the back glass. The tangs and lawnmower eat it all day. The color was reading BETWEEN 0-.25. We have had phosphate problems before. This is not what happened.

 

[yote]

Check the package and see if the Nori had preseratives in it.
Of course it chould have been a bad batch too.

 

[ErinCahir]

I don't know if the Nori had preservatives in it... when I opened the package that's the end I cut off (d'oh). The first ingredient is dried pressed seaweed, but it looks like there's something else written underneath it that I cut off...
I did a water change yesterday and will be doing another one today... my frogspawn is totally gone as is my anemone. My green star polyps also didn't come out yesterday but I have my fingers crossed for them. My mushrooms and rics are hanging in there, and my zoas and candy cane have looked awesome for the past two days... odd.

 

[dcantucson]

Sorry for ycur losses Erin. Hopefully that will be it. :(

 

[Chito]

Ugh. So sorry to hear about this. Such a fickle hobby!

 

[Piratefish]

Hang in there I have my fingers crossed for you !

 

[Dana42078]

Oh man that sucks. Everytime i read about stuff like this it makes me rinse my hand/arm longer before i put it in the tank. Sorry about your loss.

 

[Piratefish]

I got gloves from Harbor freight $7.99 shoulder lenght.

 

[ErinCahir]

I got gloves from Harbor freight $7.99 shoulder lenght.

Hahaha.... unfortunately shoulder length wouldn't be long enough... My tank is deeper than my arm.
Thanks, though.