Baffled and very discouraged

[SteelerMike]

I've been losing my sps for a almost 2 months now and am at my wits end. My tank has been up for a little over 5 years. I slowly transitioned it to more and more sps and it was doing well but some of my beginner corals (kenya trees etc) were taking over and I wanted to clean it up so I removed all the rocks from the left side of my tank and in doing so apparently disturbed the sandbed and caused all kinds of problem. I had immediate losses over night (monti cap, bubblegum digi, several sps frags). I ran carbon, have done weekly water changes but still losing things everyday and it's almost 2 months later! The crazy things is I am losing frags I introduced after this happened. It caused a pretty big PO4 spike (.04 to 1.6) and went from undetectable nitrates to 3 but it has since come back down so I didn't think the new frags would struggle. Here are my current parameters:

salinity 1.025
temp 77-78
alk 7
Calcium 380
Mag 1400
PO4 .03 Hannah checker
PO3 2
Potassium 440 (got a kit to check it just to see)
Lighting ATI 60" 8 bulb (reduced the photo period a bit to lessen the stress but to no avail.

New bubble gum digi frag before



After:

Turquoise stag I've had for 2 years..woke up to find it like this today

Joe the coral before:

After


Pic of when things were looking really good just for reference:


Raeely stumped and don't know what to do to stop the carnage any advice is greatly appreciated

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Wow,Sorry, that's heartbreaking. Did you run gfo" or a binder? I didnt think Po could spike that hard or fast. did you use lanth chloride in the past?

 

[SteelerMike]

some shots from before..you can see the stuff I wanted to remove
FTS

right side

left side that I removed

 

[SteelerMike]

I haven't used any gfo or anything like that and not sure what lanth chloride is..so probably not lol

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I haven't used any gfo or anything like that and not sure what lanth chloride is..so probably not lol

Haha. Lanthanum chloride is used to remove Po4. Po rx or something. But it leaves it in the tank if you dont remove it.

GFO Poly pad and a few others chemically bind organic Phosphates. It also binds other heavy metals silicates and other stuff. If your po is high enough to not strip the heck out of the water column, you can use that.
along with some aggressive bacterias(water conditioners is how their marked for this reason), to remove the funk with the skimmer.

Your not smelling rotten eggs are you?

 

[esolo16]

Have you checked ammonia?

 

[SteelerMike]

I haven't checked ammonia because the fish were fine so I figured it was OK, but I will check it. Not smelling rotten eggs

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

K

Have you checked ammonia?

I haven't checked ammonia because the fish were fine so I figured it was OK, but I will check it. Not smelling rotten eggs

Yes def check ammonia.

And hopefully we can rule out hydrogen sulfide.

 

[esolo16]

I haven't checked ammonia because the fish were fine so I figured it was OK, but I will check it. Not smelling rotten eggs

Definitely check it. It could be removing the rocks reduced your beneficial bacteria population. I believe coral, especially sps, is much less forgiving to ammonia than fish.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Definitely check it. It could be removing the rocks reduced your beneficial bacteria population. I believe coral, especially sps, is much less forgiving to ammonia than fish.

there's SO much funk in an old sand bed.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

You need to vacuum the sand bed first off, make sure it's completely clean after a few times cleaning it. Run lots of carbon and some gfo in a reactor. Change it out as soon as it's depleted which you will need to test the effluent coming out of the reactor to do so. Check ammonia, you may need to do one large waterchange after you vacuums the sand bed very good for the first time. The sand got disturbed and released something, and is probably still slowly releasing whatever was in it as the sand bed moves under the flow of the tank. This is why I like keeping barebottom, I always get lazy and don't vaccum the sand.

 

[SteelerMike]

Checked ammonia..no ammonia

 

[SteelerMike]

You need to vacuum the sand bed first off, make sure it's completely clean after a few times cleaning it. Run lots of carbon and some gfo in a reactor. Change it out as soon as it's depleted which you will need to test the effluent coming out of the reactor to do so. Check ammonia, you may need to do one large waterchange after you vacuums the sand bed very good for the first time. The sand got disturbed and released something, and is probably still slowly releasing whatever was in it as the sand bed moves under the flow of the tank. This is why I like keeping barebottom, I always get lazy and don't vaccum the sand.

So vacuum the sand bed around where I disturbed it? I was nervous that this would make things worse

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So vacuum the sand bed around where I disturbed it? I was nervous that this would make things worse

yea, I wouldnt. I do recommend sand cleaning, but man ya gotta be careful.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Yes I would clean it, sand beds need to be cleaned. If you don't stuff like this happens and the damage is done so I would make sure to clean the whole sand bed or at least what you can get to. If you don't a powerhead pointed the wrong way could cause this all to happen again. Doing it over a few weeks is normally the best optional but if I find my sand bed has really gotten bad I clean as much as I can get to. Cleaning it slowly and carefully will make it easier and safer. Don't let any gunk float up without syphoning it, be careful around any areas with gas bubbles and dark colors. The sand bed won't fix itself if it has gotten bad enough to cause that much damage and release that much phosphates.

 

[celebrityovernight]

If I were you I'd order a triton test. It'll give you a clear picture of what parameters are out of whack and what you can do to fix it. Because your reef is around 5 years old, I suspect a piece of equipment you have maybe leaching something into your water causing the more sensitive sps to go up in smoke.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Yea I would not think only the sand bed is to blame as well.

 

[alanbetiger]

Stray voltage? Have you checked for it?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If I were you I'd order a triton test. It'll give you a clear picture of what parameters are out of whack and what you can do to fix it. Because your reef is around 5 years old, I suspect a piece of equipment you have maybe leaching something into your water causing the more sensitive sps to go up in smoke.

Yea I would not think only the sand bed is to blame as well.

I dunno. I've killed stuff with a sandbed before. It made ma a "clean the sand or go dsb"guy.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Same here, actually made me a barebottom guy because I get lazy cleaning the sand and I feed so much it gets dirty very quick.
Op, good luck I hope things turn around!