Environmental Poisoning? or Sabotage?

[Store Owner]

I need help. I run a store with a few frag tanks. One of them is having major problems. Nothing had been added to the tank in the days prior. No water changes had been done. No aerosols had been sprayed. The tank was very stable and well established. Environmental poisoning is all I can come up with, just what was it though. Sabotage has not been ruled out. Cameras have since been installed. Any Ideas?

Day 1: Cloudy water, ammonia .05, all corals closed
40% water change
Zeolite added
Carbon added
Day 2: Much less cloud, ammonia <.25, corals barely open
Day 3: Corals closed, ammonia <.25, all xenia dead, all algae dead
40% water change
Perfilturim added
Day 4: Corals barely open, all dead xenia and algae removed
40% water change
Day 5: Corals barely open, ammonia <.25, all turbo snails dead
Several SPS corals bleaching
copper test run, negative results
40% water change
CupriSorb added
Day 6: Duncans, Zoas, softies, gonnies, and LPS seem to be partially opening. Ammonia <.25
40% water change scheduled again today

All fish are thriving. All shrimp are as well

 

[brandon429]

Immediately lower your light intensity as we search. Cloudy week for the reef, on


the current light levels are set for stasis periods this ones an upset period. If it was my tank I’d run a nearly complete water change matching temp and salinity, keep lights dimmer than happy times, and instate small target feeding right to polyps when possible to try and coax out activity vs withdrawal

also keep up exporting changes to both flush out (hopefully) any contams but also to refresh with clean water for more feed, one round of coaxing isnt the trick it’s sustained cpr for a week or so.

no binders for phosphate in place, can run granular carbon in a side filter though. Dont run ammonia scrubbing zeolites we want the low level ammonia in this case, your nitrification system is assumed to be ok and trace levels will be handled and converted into coral sustenance. Focus on the physical exchange of water vs chemical binding. Focus on feed and lowered light for sure.

 

[brandon429]

This might be a time for icp testing as well.

 

[Store Owner]

This might be a time for icp testing as well.

Good advice, it's has been ordered

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Using Zeolite to Keep Your Aquarium Clean

What is zeolite and when should you use it in an aquarium? Learn why it isn't appropriate for long-term use.

www.thesprucepets.com

Zeolite ime is only good in fresh water
It can kill of your microbial microbiome and cause your tank to keep recycling creating a full bacterial bloom ive heard of people having nucianse algae problem running a little bit in mushroom basket or adding pinch to media and I mean like a pinch but never running zeolite in saltwater

Water changes should get you where you need to be

Is it a closed or open loop system how much flow,what kind of sump system,how often do you do detritus how often do you feed what kind of lighting how far are they mounted from waters surfac what's up the par at top of tank and bottom,are you doing a 10 percent daily when cultivating corals on a commercial scale, are the corals too close, are you broadcast feeding twice a day and target feeding at least twice a week

I like to keep my system at 1.025( only fluctuating a point up or down 1.024 or 1.026) topped off daily with rodi or salt depending on nutrient uptake cal 420 to 440 mag at 1400 and a dkh of 8.2 to 8.4

Basically know your products feed more than you should wc more than you should and provide the propper placement( based on par and species) if xenia are dying something is severely wrong on a chemical basis and you may want to start testing twice a day do salinty then do wc then test dkh cal mag then dose if necessary,check water temp

Those are some things when I started off I overlooked but now I preach that everyone should be testing twice a day if I got a heavy bioload just my 2 cente

 

[brandon429]

Do the environmental testing on the cleanest condition you can leave the tank in, to check for leftovers. I know testing the current water lends the culprit if any but the other way focuses on the frags, send em two different samples old and new for the big picture

 

[Garf]

Was the algae a Caulerpa species?

 

[brandon429]

nice clue catch

 

[Timfish]

I'd say something got dumped in it. I like Xenia as an indicator species because it can be more sensitive to some stuff than stony corals. That both Xenia and algae died so quickly, and slower decline for other corals while fish and shrimp seem fine dosen't sound like a typical crash or nutrient issue to me.

 

[ZoWhat]

Got any enemies off the top of your head? Past or current hot-headed employees?

Wyze cams are like $25 a piece and you can live stream and record onto a microSD card

Live stream straight to your phone 24/7. Watch playback 24/7

I would mount and link up quite a few of these thruout your store for a Security System on a budget

Www.wyze.com

Here's my home system screenshoted right off my phone

Video is black.n white bc its night time right now, but during the day, full color,1080p hi def video

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