salty crisis

parrotchute

DUSTOFF MEDEVAC
So, last night I got home from my week trip to Vegas and my tank looked off; a lot of corals closed up, and an unusually large amount of algae on the front glass, and some nuisance algae cropping up on the rocks.

I checked the salinity, and it's at 1.034!!! I've been slowly lowering it back to normal.
What I think happened is my recent dosing of mag was bringing up the salinity way more than I expected. Right before I left I noticed my two serpent stars had crawled out into the open (unusual) and stopped moving (died). Now my urchin hasn't been moving and I think it's dead too. I can only spot one of my hermits, none of my turbo snails nor any nass snails. I'm about to check my levels, but I think the algae is from the dying animals releasing nutrients?

I'm prepping a water change now.

I'm about to leave on another trip for 2-3 weeks, so I'm thinking I should buy some replacement CuC before I leave. My girlfriend can't do much more than feed/top off in my absence.
 
Wow sorry to hear that. I noticed that since I slowed my water changes down with less change that algea has sprouted more and more. I had started doing water changes more often and the problem is being rectified.
 
Yeah, I've been on schedule with my water changes. I think it's a direct result of the salinity. I spent all day slowly bringing it down. Almost threw out my urchin - as I was carrying, he moved a bit, so I put him back in. We'll see if he moves at all tomorrow.

Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, all steady at 0.

Some corals look fine, others are still all grumpy looking. I saw some more hermits and one of my turbos, so that's a good snail.

Tomorrow I'm going to check the levels again, and do the water change. Might go to the LFS to pick up some more CuC too...
 
I am not sure what caused my bloom, I have live rock only right now.... The only thing that changed was I took off glass tops to allow my temps to stay constant and skimmer was put in.

Salinity always stays at 1.025
 
Wow Alex, that sucks! Hopefully your stuff makes it. I had a recent tank disaster myself that I'm on the edge of my seat about, just waiting to see what's going to live and what's going to die. It sucks.

Bring it down slowly. Most things should be fine. Good luck.
 
John, your bloom is related to the tank being new. The algae establishes itself, finds little competition, blooms, and then recedes as the nutrients are used up, and then an equilibrium is established.

Yeah Biff, seems bad luck comes in pairs. I've been reading about the kalk precip, that's a bummer. Mine doesn't appear to be as bad, but I'll be pretty sad if I lose the urchin. Some of my zoas are closed along with about 30% of the other corals, but I did notice they have some brown stuff on top of them...looks like algae, but I hope it's not an indication that they are under attack by something else.

Stressed about it, too, because I gotta go away for another 2-3 weeks Tuesday, so it'll be back in my girlfriend's hands.

Thanks for the info VA, I did not realize that.
 
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