High Nitrate ~~ Fish and Coral Dead

[RibbonFish]

Hello,

My tank was fine. But disaster happened on Thursday.

Here is about my 40 gallon tank:

I bought some artificial live rock first. They are all white and supposed to become red gradually by the effect of other live rock. Then, I bought some soft coral on the second day. However, with the time passing by, the original live rock is becoming white. I guess this is due to the calcium etc missing from the water. Coral may absorb whatever in the water, which led to the fading of live rock.

In about 7 days after putting the coral, on this Thursday morning, blue hippo died and one type of soft coral died too. I have my water tested by Petco, and the nitrate seems to be between 60-80. I have ordered other testing kits on the way home.

My questions are.
1. How should I treat those white artificial live rock? Should I wash them, etc? My local store told me that they are safe to be just put in the tank.
2. Live rock turning white has nothing to do with the nitrate. Is this right? Why does it happen if my thoughts are not right.
3. Should I use bio-reactor to reduce the nitrate? or just some nitrate conditioner such as instant ocean? I only have 5 fish.

Thanks for help in advance.

Mike

 

[RibbonFish]

BTW, I have seaClone protein skimmer and a regular filter. Everything was fine.

 

[kschweer]

How long was your tank up and running before adding livestock?

 

[TJ's Reef]

Sorry to here man. What are your other water prams ie; Ammonia, Nitrite and PH ??? How long has this system been running ? Did it go through its cycling and if so how long ago ? More info more easily answered.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Reefing Madness]

Live Rock turning white is the Coralline dieing off. Either new system, or your MAG, CAL, ALK are out of line, and high phosphates. Could be a combination. Thinking this is a new system, don't do anything rash. Just let it run its course out. 4-6 weeks on a new tank cycle.

 

[RibbonFish]

My tank has running over 6 months. Everything was fine until this week.

PH is also fine.

 

[peterthegamer]

Do a water change asap. Check for alk mag and cal. Low cal can kill of algae making the rock white. You may need to use carbon if you haven't yet.