Chalice suddenly dying

[palvyre]

I have a chalice that was beautiful and had grown about 6x it's original size and now it is suddenly dying. Looked like part of the skeleton was exposed here and there, as if someone had taken a cheese grater to it. Now it's almost completely dead. Could a temperature spike from 78.5 to 82ish two days in a row cause this?

 

[gmoney243]

My original mummy eye did the same. Sucks was a super sweet piece orange and green with bright pink eyes. Sometimes stuff happens for no known reason. But could be a temp swing i guess.

 

[palvyre]

Possible swing in nitrates/phosphates? I feed kind of heavy and I notice my ecobak is consumed like crazy. Especially after adding the microbe lift. I have some GHA, and it looks to have gone dormant. It's turning reddish brown. My war coral and favia I got back from Jay have not done well either. My two leathers (toad stool and cabbage) aren't very happy. My Xenia died. The zoas look good, frogspawn looks good. All my mushrooms look good, but my Yuma looks a little mad. The anemones look happy though.

 

[caudill187]

Sorry to hear your chalice is having troubles. I'd give it a quick dip, put it in lower light and moderate flow, and try feeding it. Don't give up just yet as they can turn around from almost nothing.

When I've seen such things happen in my tank, alk swings are usually the culprit....could be temp too. Good luck.

 

[Dowtish]

The temp swing could do it for sure. How did that happen, dont you have them on a controller?

Also If your softies like the cabbage and other arent happy and xenia died, you could possibley could have toxins being released from them. Make sure you have fresh carbon running.

Do you know what your nitrate and phosphate levels are? and what test kits are you using?

 

[palvyre]

Carbon needs to be replaced, was due last week but life got in the way of my monthly maintenance. Temperature swing happened because my wife turned off the AC on two consecutive days while I was at work. Nitrates around 0-2 on API test kit. Phosphate undetectable with API kit.

 

[palvyre]

I think I know what's happening. The carpet anemone is right on the cabbage leather and the leather has turned grey as a result. I bet it's putting out toxins. The chalice is right next to it.

 

[shellynjason]

I think I know what's happening. The carpet anemone is right on the cabbage leather and the leather has turned grey as a result. I bet it's putting out toxins. The chalice is right next to it.

hmmm so what do you do ... remove the anemone to save the other corals? I really want a Chalice or two , so sounds like not having any anemones would be a good idea they sound like trouble makers. LOL

 

[palvyre]

I moved the leather. WC is tomorrow and I will put in fresh carbon.

 

[palvyre]

So my newbie mistake years ago continues to haunt me. When I very first started in the hobby I used some brass fittings in my tank. It took me probably 2-3 months to figure out why all my coral was dying. I removed all of the brass and I ran copper absorbing product for 6 months. Since then I have always run carbon. Well my carbon is probably 2 weeks past its useful life and what has been occurring in my tank looked oddly familiar. I just ran a copper test and I am at .2. It must have leeched back in from my rock. This is so frustrating, makes me feel like quitting.

 

[justgotwet]

You could turn that tank into fish with live rock only.

 

[palvyre]

That's what I am going to do. I also have a jbj 30 rimless that is not contaminated. I was going to use it for sea horses. Now I am going to convert it.

 

[palvyre]

Possible false alarm. Jay talked me off the cliff and I tested the water in my jbj and it also said .2. Likely a bad test. I am probably dealing with rapid stripping of nutrients. Another 500 ml of EcoBak gone in 2 weeks. I am taking a water sample to AC for some testing.

 

[palvyre]

0 copper. Phosphates undetectable. Nitrates 30-40 ack. Pulled my GFO so that my EcoBak can do its job.

 

[palvyre]

Btw newbie tip. Apparently test kits are supposed to be read under fluorescent lighting. Guess I missed that one

 

[palvyre]

I am wondering if its the complete lack of phosphates that has my softies unhappy. I don't know if 30 ish nitrates is enough to make them mad.

 

[pickupman66]

Palvyre... mine are usually in the .03-.02 range on my hannah. this seems to be a sweetspot on my tank. (at least lately) and I have learned that Ecoback does remove nitrates and phosphates in a ratio'ed ammount. having too much of one or not enough of the other makes it less effective.

 

[palvyre]

I was running GFO on top of it. It looks like I stripped my water of phosphates and then the nitrates creeped up. I have ordered a new nitrate test as well. Mine was old and always said 0, AC testing and I was around 30.