All frags dying!

[MnFish1]

Did you dip the coral? I had a similar event happen when I left the corals in CoralRx for 15 minutes. If no dip, I would think a containment. Lotion or soap on hands, soap on the container you used? I know my dishwasher leaves residue now and then. Try again with a hardy birdsnest. Someone in your club should give you a frag. Sorry fellow reefer!

This post reminded me of something not yet mentioned - When you move corals around - especially zoos - they can release toxins. Though it looks like you have a pretty big tank (can't really tell) - it could be that something released toxins in the water - especially with the longer drip method. For example - In my tank - no matter what I do I can not grow 'birds nest' (except 1 of them) - within 1 week they are dead - this is despite several other corals that have thrived for months/years together. Do you run carbon?

Another thought you had the frags in 'small bags' with little water - Could the temp have changed significantly even during the 20 minutes that you drove home? Then when you quickly added them to the tank for 10 minutes - the temp rapidly changed again?

I agree with others low light will not kill coral in 2 days. 1. Corals are routinely shipped for 12-24 hours in complete darkness. 2. During severe storms which can last for days on the reef the lighting can become extremely low - and corals don't die.

Whenever I get new coral (now) - I ask the LFS - what is your SG, alk, what par etc the corals are at and I match those as close as possible in the tank (if I cant match them - I don't buy the coral). Just have had too many experiences just like yours.

 

[Keroppi]

I cannot think of any airborne contaminant that could have made it's way into the tank.
An ICP test is not out of the question, but at $50, I am not sure it's worth it. If I suspect the water that highly, it would be cheaper and easier to do a 100% WC...we're only talking about 2 fish here...I fully expect the rest of the coral to be dead by time I get home from work.
I did *not* dip the coral. I considered it, but based on the source and the fact that it was my first coral, I didn't worry too much about it.
I don't run carbon, or any other reactor. Have one, but never hooked it up. Didn't figure I needed it yet.
I also suspect the temp shock might've done it. Everything else makes less sense. Not so much from the ride home, but maybe from the overly long acclimation. I didn't use a heater, maybe the temp dropped too much and shocked them when adding to the tank?

 

[MnFish1]

I cannot think of any airborne contaminant that could have made it's way into the tank.
An ICP test is not out of the question, but at $50, I am not sure it's worth it. If I suspect the water that highly, it would be cheaper and easier to do a 100% WC...we're only talking about 2 fish here...I fully expect the rest of the coral to be dead by time I get home from work.
I did *not* dip the coral. I considered it, but based on the source and the fact that it was my first coral, I didn't worry too much about it.
I don't run carbon, or any other reactor. Have one, but never hooked it up. Didn't figure I needed it yet.
I also suspect the temp shock might've done it. Everything else makes less sense. Not so much from the ride home, but maybe from the overly long acclimation. I didn't use a heater, maybe the temp dropped too much and shocked them when adding to the tank?

I also think we don't consider toxins that the corals themselves produce when stressed. Again - not sure its what happened here Carbon can help with that issue.

Temp can be very funny - think about a ounce of water in a car with the air conditioning on - or on a warm day when the temperature is 85. The temp in those bags will rapidly change to whatever the temp of the car is. Then you drop the bags into the tank - and rapidly it changes again. Its impossible to say really...

 

[Keroppi]

I also think we don't consider toxins that the corals themselves produce when stressed. Again - not sure its what happened here Carbon can help with that issue.

Temp can be very funny - think about a ounce of water in a car with the air conditioning on - or on a warm day when the temperature is 85. The temp in those bags will rapidly change to whatever the temp of the car is. Then you drop the bags into the tank - and rapidly it changes again. Its impossible to say really...

Yeah. This experience has left a rather bitter taste in my mouth. I think the next time I buy livestock, I am going to *bring* a cooler with water in it, kept heated to 78...I have an outlet in my SUV. That way nothing has to ever acclimate or fluctuate more than a couple degrees. Just one less piece of the puzzle to worry about.

 

[MnFish1]

Yeah. This experience has left a rather bitter taste in my mouth. I think the next time I buy livestock, I am going to *bring* a cooler with water in it, kept heated to 78...I have an outlet in my SUV. That way nothing has to ever acclimate or fluctuate more than a couple degrees. Just one less piece of the puzzle to worry about.

The other thing is use bigger bags with more water the temp won't change as much and keep your car at 78? a cooler might be overkill - but whatever works. Good luck

 

[Keroppi]

The other thing is use bigger bags with more water the temp won't change as much and keep your car at 78? a cooler might be overkill - but whatever works. Good luck

Got this on the way, I guess we'll see if the API kit was right or not.

 

[Actup85]

Tank looks way to clean get some good test kits practice maintaining the essential parameters let tank finish cycle and then start slow and a couple mushrooms or leathers something easy to start getting in the hang of testing and maintaining parameters.

 

[Actup85]

The kits you ordered are awesome btw

 

[Reefinmike]

Glad to see you have some real test kits coming your way! not that I'm an anti API shill, just that every kit I had from them gave inaccurate results causing me to dose waaay too much calcium before I shut my reef down and after resetting I thought the new batch of salt I bought was good to go. It took over a month to get my parameters back in check once I realized the value of having quality kits and even better- two different quality ways to test every essential parameter. I can't speak much on the API ammonia kit. I had one that came in a pack but never used it because I never bother testing for ammonia. It went in the trash along with the rest of the api stuff lol

 

[chris85]

How did you acclimate them? Did you put them all together?

 

[Keroppi]

Yes. Into a single bucket with egg crate.

How did you acclimate them? Did you put them all together?

 

[chris85]

That may be where the problem is!! 15 differant corals bunched together having chemical warfare. Sorry you are having trouble, but seems most logical to me in such a short span of time. Unless there is some kind of contaminent that has been intruduced.

What type of corals where in there?

 

[Stanzo13]

I should again remember to add advice and not just direction.

Once you start keeping corals the parameters you're going to want to have reliable test for are:

Salinity
Alk
Calcium
Mag
Nitrates
Phosphates

Thanks for this.

 

[Keroppi]

I know there was birdsnest, acan, frogspawn, zoas, some real small frags of what I think were cyphastrea, and problem 1 or 2 more that I didn't identify.

That may be where the problem is!! 15 differant corals bunched together having chemical warfare. Sorry you are having trouble, but seems most logical to me in such a short span of time. Unless there is some kind of contaminent that has been intruduced.

What type of corals where in there?

 

[chris85]

Those corals have some serious stng to them, not to mention zoas have toxins that have made whole families sick along with the pets just from cleaning up and irritating the coral. I know I have been stung by a frogspawn on an open sore on my hand. It felt like a mild jellyfish sting and I just had my hand touch it for about ten seconds. We live and learn, try and acclimate seperatly next time.

 

[chris85]

How is everything doing?

 

[Keroppi]

Dead. It's a postmortem now. All frags but the zoas (still closed up, but don't appear to rotting) has been yanked back out of the tank.
The clown started looking stressed, so I am dosing amguard to keep any potential ammonia in check from the die off. No sense in killing the fish along with the frags.

How is everything doing?

 

[chris85]

Run some fresh carbon and maybe get some algae to pull all the chemicals and junk out.

 

[Tariq]

Just out of curiosity and to learn something from this bad experience, it would be worthwhile to run all the tests using the new kits you got, before you run carbon or do a water change.

 

[Hanna Instruments]

Thanks for the response.
Tank temp is 78.6, salinity 1.025. I bought a hanna Ca checker, but I don't have any de-ionized water (I am told it needs proper lab grade) but TBH I didn't think I needed to worry about it that much in the beginning.
Sadly, I bought an apex with a brand new ph probe...but it won't be here until the end of the week. I shoulda just waited a couple days.

You can use vapor distilled water from a pharmacy to preform the Ca test.