Can blasting coral during water change kill it?

[danieljones8623]

Hey everybody. I have had my tank set up for around 2 months. 0 ammonia, zero nitrites, 2 nitrates. I have a few small fish in there, a small zoanthid frag, a small leather coral frag, and I had a small acan coral I added about two weeks ago. Things were going great with my acan until I did a 20 % water change yesterday and this morning my acan was a goner. I’m trying to figure out if me possible accidentally blasting the coral with new water could’ve done it? Can that kill a coral outright? I know it could be nearly anything that could’ve killed it, but my parameters seem in check and my other corals that requires presumptive similar lighting and flow have been doing great and growing. I matched my water the best I could that I changed. I just can’t think of anything else.

 

[Little c big D]

What are the CA Mag and Alk numbers? Temp and salinity also. Can you post a pic of the acan? To see if it has actually died or is just unhappy and receded.

Also how hard and with what did you blast it? I do 10% weekly and blast all the rocks and corals off. The acan gets more irritated than anyone one.

Another possibility is that something was majorly off in the water change water.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Blasting coral especially euphyllia (hammer,torch) can literally seperate tissue from the skeleton.
If not high flow causing this, I assume the new water was same temp and salinity as of that in the tank? Was new water Totally dissolved. If no to either- will for sure cause imeediate loss.
Your readings. . . . What test kit are you using?
If API, you may be getting false readings.

Occassionaly I will clean coral surfaces with a turkey baster- but applying GENTLE balsts/squirts

 

[Pistondog]

Hey everybody. I have had my tank set up for around 2 months. 0 ammonia, zero nitrites, 2 nitrates. I have a few small fish in there, a small zoanthid frag, a small leather coral frag, and I had a small acan coral I added about two weeks ago. Things were going great with my acan until I did a 20 % water change yesterday and this morning my acan was a goner. I’m trying to figure out if me possible accidentally blasting the coral with new water could’ve done it? Can that kill a coral outright? I know it could be nearly anything that could’ve killed it, but my parameters seem in check and my other corals that requires presumptive similar lighting and flow have been doing great and growing. I matched my water the best I could that I changed. I just can’t think of anything else.

Chances are most of the parameters in your new saltwater were different from the tank water, other than salinity. This may have damaged the acan.

 

[danieljones8623]

My cal is 425, alk is 9.0 and mag is 1350. I use saliferts for everything. It was definitely dead. There was a white film on the top of it and on further inspection, it was as the tissue and it was unattached from the Stoney skeleton. The water I added was matched to the water I took out. The only thing that can think of is that it being new to the tank, lol didn’t realize no about it being here when I added the new water in.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

what do you mean by "blasting water", you had a powerhead pointed right at it? Water change or parameters being off will not completely kill a coral overnight, something drastic had to happen. Maybe a pic will help?

 

[danieljones8623]

By blasting I mean the I took the change water and pour it directly onto the coral. Maybe too vigorously.

 

[Supa]

Yea if you dump the bucket on top of some of the coral it’s likely you may have killed it. I would expect it more from a hammer or something though.

 

[Spare time]

I bleached a chalice with cold water on accident while dipping the tiny rock it was on. I recovered it and it came back with new colors so that was fun haha

 

[danieljones8623]

That’s kinda what I’m thinking. It was definitely an accident, but that’s the most obvious thing I can think of it being off the top of my head. Maybe next time, I can just turn my pump back on in my sump and feed my sump the change water as the water level decreases his ri be extra safe.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

By blasting I mean the I took the change water and pour it directly onto the coral. Maybe too vigorously.

was the tank completely empty? its just a water change, I cant envision dumping water directly onto the coral unless your tank is only 6" deep or was almost empty. what size is the tank?

 

[danieljones8623]

It’s a 40 gallon breeder.

 

[danieljones8623]

It was approximately in the middle of the tank and. Took out about 4 inches of water.

 

[danieljones8623]

My wife reminded me too, after I put the water in, this stringly, slimmy looking thing appeared on it. It was clear. I’m not sure if that had a thing to do with it but I forgot about that.