All remaining corals dying tank crash?

[Marc2952]

Ive t
Had a other thread here of how i had some copper in my system which i struggled to remove for 2 months, i finally solved that issue but sadly lost %80 of all my corals, the dinos didnt help either since i got them when i rescaped my tank 3 months ago. The issue is that even though i have fixed those problems i started losing my hammers which have done a polyp bailout. All cyphastreas have also perished aswell as all my chalices,acans and most of my zoas have melted or havent opened for a month due to algae taking over some of them ( had to keep phosphates over 0.08 and nitrates at 10 dje to dinos and so far i got them mostly beat ). Should i just crap everything and restart again? The tank has been fallow since i lost most of my fish due to velvet aswell and the ones i got in QT are ready to bring upstairs. What do you guys suggest? Im devastated to have lost thousands in corals when ive tried real hard to keep my parameters stable. The funny thing is that im getting some coralline growrh now and have a TON of pods all over the rocks and glass aswell as some dorvilleidae worms since ive been feeding phytoplankton.
Current parameters:
Alk: 8.3
Cal: 460
MG:1400
Salinity 1.025
PO4: 0.10
Nitrate: 10
Running 4 kessil a360x on a 75 gallon tank at %60 intensity all blue ( again because of the dinos) and 2 mp40s at %60 reefcrest mode.

 

[dadnjesse]

Your tank doesn't look very mature to begin with. Not sure where the copper came from but If you got that removed you might be better off to continue to let the tank mature.

 

[Marc2952]

Your tank doesn't look very mature to begin with. Not sure where the copper came from but If you got that removed you might be better off to continue to let the tank mature.

Yea its kinda new only been running for 7 months, thing is prior to the rescape everything was growing nicely, my zoas almost doubled in heads and my cyphastreas where growing now everything died, till this day i never found out where that copper came from but it was as high as 0.12 on my hanna checker.

 

[HellaDudes]

Was it just the copper that caused this crash? Did you figure out where it came from? I don't think 7 months is too you to be adding corals by any means, especially if you see coralline growing. How long were things going good with these corals before it crashed? Tough call, but if the copper is all gone I'd probably keep it running.

 

[Marc2952]

Was it just the copper that caused this crash? Did you figure out where it came from? I don't think 7 months is too you to be adding corals by any means, especially if you see coralline growing. How long were things going good with these corals before it crashed? Tough call, but if the copper is all gone I'd probably keep it running.

No i never found out what caused the copper to rise since everything i got was new and the only "suspicious" thing i had was marinepure blocks which i doubt it was. I added corals to the tank 3 months after it was cycled with fish and was growing fine. After i rescaped the tank with the e marco 400 cement is when everything went to crap, i had to leave the rocks out the water sonthe cement could dry so my guess that killed most of the bacteria which gave room for dinos to pop up? I did a 2 day blackout to help with the dinos but all that did was made me lose 10 frags of corals in one hit. Is there anything that can be done to save the remaining corals? The hammer thats in the picturenis the last of the hammers alive and i can already see its doing a polyp bailout. My zoas havent opened in a month and i fear they might all melt aswell if it stays like that any longer. The montipora setosa, green slimer and montiporas are all gone so ill guess ill throw those out. I thought cyphastreas where hardy too ( had a meteor shower that covered the small rock i had it and its completely bleached out no polyps can be seen anymore among others.

 

[ScottB]

Short answer is I would certainly NOT reboot unless one of these is true:
a) Something about the aquascape disgusts you
b) You could not remove the copper otherwise
c) You have an overwhelming infestation of aiptasia
d) Little to no time has elapsed since the die off caused by the scaping project

The first 12 months are supposed to be ugly -- especially with a dry rock start. You would just be repeating yourself and losing time, money, patience and bacteria. The corals today are expressing to you the stress they were under weeks or even a month ago. Some may make it and some not. I am sure there is an exception out there, but I have never seen a healthy coral system without fish waste, so I would wait on more corals until your fallow is done and fish turds are flying again. You can ghost feed in the interim which may help some.

As to the last stressor (the aquascape project) just curious how long rock was out of tank. It takes a while to kill all the bacteria, but the microfauna dies pretty quick.

 

[HellaDudes]

No i never found out what caused the copper to rise since everything i got was new and the only "suspicious" thing i had was marinepure blocks which i doubt it was. I added corals to the tank 3 months after it was cycled with fish and was growing fine. After i rescaped the tank with the e marco 400 cement is when everything went to crap, i had to leave the rocks out the water sonthe cement could dry so my guess that killed most of the bacteria which gave room for dinos to pop up? I did a 2 day blackout to help with the dinos but all that did was made me lose 10 frags of corals in one hit. Is there anything that can be done to save the remaining corals? The hammer thats in the picturenis the last of the hammers alive and i can already see its doing a polyp bailout. My zoas havent opened in a month and i fear they might all melt aswell if it stays like that any longer. The montipora setosa, green slimer and montiporas are all gone so ill guess ill throw those out. I thought cyphastreas where hardy too ( had a meteor shower that covered the small rock i had it and its completely bleached out no polyps can be seen anymore among others.

How long was the rock out of the water? I have a feeling that is probably the main culprit here.

 

[Marc2952]

Short answer is I would certainly NOT reboot unless one of these is true:
a) Something about the aquascape disgusts you
b) You could not remove the copper otherwise
c) You have an overwhelming infestation of aiptasia
d) Little to no time has elapsed since the die off caused by the scaping project

The first 12 months are supposed to be ugly -- especially with a dry rock start. You would just be repeating yourself and losing time, money, patience and bacteria. The corals today are expressing to you the stress they were under weeks or even a month ago. Some may make it and some not. I am sure there is an exception out there, but I have never seen a healthy coral system without fish waste, so I would wait on more corals until your fallow is done and fish turds are flying again. You can ghost feed in the interim which may help some.

As to the last stressor (the aquascape project) just curious how long rock was out of tank. It takes a while to kill all the bacteria, but the microfauna dies pretty quick.

The rock was out for 12 hours out the water so i would imagine most bacteria died. There was no other way to let that cement dry then doing that though. I kid you not 2 weeks after that i started getting dinos.

 

[Marc2952]

How long was the rock out of the water? I have a feeling that is probably the main culprit here.

Over 12 hours for the cement to fully dry.

 

[HellaDudes]

Over 12 hours for the cement to fully dry.

Yeah, that probably killed all the bacteria but also all other microfauna on the rock which could have degraded and fowled your water with no bacteria to nitrify it. All the extra nutrients from that could explain the dino outbreak. I'd maybe test for ammonia and nitrite to see if your tank restarted the cycle. If the corals perish then at least you can do a full blackout for weeks to destroy the remaining dinos and let bacteria recolonize... trying to look on the bright side. I'm sorry for your crash! That is rough.

 

[Marc2952]

Yeah, that probably killed all the bacteria but also all other microfauna on the rock which could have degraded and fowled your water with no bacteria to nitrify it. All the extra nutrients from that could explain the dino outbreak. I'd maybe test for ammonia and nitrite to see if your tank restarted the cycle. If the corals perish then at least you can do a full blackout for weeks to destroy the remaining dinos and let bacteria recolonize... trying to look on the bright side. I'm sorry for your crash! That is rough.

Yea i guess my mistake was not making sure i liked the aquascape before filling with water. Its been a couple of months since that and ive been feeding 3 times a weeks since i got 2 fire shrimp and a couple of nassarius snails and crabs. Been also dosing some phytoplankton and so far the dinos only appear on the sand and one tiny spot on the rockwork. Will check for ammonia and nitrite today though. I did notice there are thousands of pods on the glass ive never seen something like that before.

 

[ScottB]

Yea i guess my mistake was not making sure i liked the aquascape before filling with water. Its been a couple of months since that and ive been feeding 3 times a weeks since i got 2 fire shrimp and a couple of nassarius snails and crabs. Been also dosing some phytoplankton and so far the dinos only appear on the sand and one tiny spot on the rockwork. Will check for ammonia and nitrite today though. I did notice there are thousands of pods on the glass ive never seen something like that before.

I forgot to say sorry for the losses. I recall you on a dino thread but cannot recall your dino species. They will pretty much always be around in some form. They exist in virtually all live marine systems just like bacteria. Just don't let nutrients get too low and avoid amino acids for say a year or ten.

So you are two months in since the reboot driven cycle. I'd keep it in gear and set cruise control until the fallow is over.

 

[Marc2952]

I forgot to say sorry for the losses. I recall you on a dino thread but cannot recall your dino species. They will pretty much always be around in some form. They exist in virtually all live marine systems just like bacteria. Just don't let nutrients get too low and avoid amino acids for say a year or ten.

So you are two months in since the reboot driven cycle. I'd keep it in gear and set cruise control until the fallow is over.

Yes i had a thread about dinos about a month ago, thanks for helping out scott i really appreciate it. Btw i would imagine its safe to add the fish to the DT? Its only a juvenile kole tang and a yellow wrasse

 

[Slawman]

I have a rule to not use any rock that has been in a copper treated system. It will usually leech back into the system at some time and is so toxic to inverts is is not worth the risk. If you have tons of Pods it is a good indication however a slight PH change can trigger enough to be detrimental.

Me personally, either go fish only or ditch all rock and sand and any other calcareous material in your system and go for a re-boot.

 

[Marc2952]

I have a rule to not use any rock that has been in a copper treated system. It will usually leech back into the system at some time and is so toxic to inverts is is not worth the risk. If you have tons of Pods it is a good indication however a slight PH change can trigger enough to be detrimental.

Me personally, either go fish only or ditch all rock and sand and any other calcareous material in your system and go for a re-boot.

Yea all the rocks i got where dry marco rocks never touched copper, my QT tank is in my basement so i dont think it would be an issue. Ill let this ride out to see what happens, now my only thing is beating these dinos and not buy corals for atleast 6 months to see how it goes. Its rough losing so many nice corals though.

 

[dadnjesse]

have you tried a UV filter for the Dino's?

 

[Marc2952]

have you tried a UV filter for the Dino's?

Yea i currently have an Green killing machine 24w

 

[Marc2952]

Also bad news just checked today again after a week and its saying 0.10 on my hanna checkee again idk whata going on. I have checked every corner of the tank and just cant find anything rusting.

 

[mitch91175]

Check your MP40 to make sure they aren't rusting. If they were new they shouldn't rust so fast, but they do have a tendency to rust on the wetside.

Can't speak about copper in the system, but if you used all new equipment maybe check your salt.

 

[Marc2952]

Check your MP40 to make sure they aren't rusting. If they were new they shouldn't rust so fast, but they do have a tendency to rust on the wetside.

Can't speak about copper in the system, but if you used all new equipment maybe check your salt.

Holy crap i decided to check my kalkwasser container and im blown away by how much copper it has. How is this possible? Its just a plastic container. I checked my RODI and its 0.