My inverts are dying one by one... please help.

[ssunthar]

Hi Experts, noticing that my inverts are slowly dying... one by one for the past few days..

Lost about 4 turbo snails, 2 mexican turbos and my beautiful fire unchin is MIA... all this happened in past 5 - 7 days. My Halloween urchin (been with me for 8 months) are not looking so good.

Started seeing some slime like thingy around the mouth area.

Here are my parameter levels:
Kh 9.3
Ammonia 0
Phos 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 8.2
Cal 400
Mag 1350
Temperature 25.5c
Salinity 1.025

I am have a bad GHA outbreak and in the process of controling it.. not sure there is any correlation to snails dying.

Another thing, i see a lot of tiny white things on the the GHA.. these are not air bubbles... could these pods.

Appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

Thanks.

 

[PhilMStudy]

Are you sure you have algae and not dinos? Some types of dinos can be toxic

 

[Duncan62]

Are you sure you have algae and not dinos? Some types of dinos can be toxic

Dinos will surely kill your urchins. Even though you have some nutrients in your tank dinos are very possible. Looks like tiny bubbles in the pic.

 

[polyppal]

My suspicion is that your salinity is off despite test results. Are you sure your refractometer/etc is properly calibrated? Can you check it against another device?

 

[ssunthar]

Are you sure you have algae and not dinos? Some types of dinos can be toxic

Thanks, I had dino a few months ago.. the GHA started appearing after the dino are cleared.

 

[ssunthar]

My suspicion is that your salinity is off despite test results. Are you sure your refractometer/etc is properly calibrated? Can you check it against another device?

Thanks, let me try that.

 

[ssunthar]

Dinos will surely kill your urchins. Even though you have some nutrients in your tank dinos are very possible. Looks like tiny bubbles in the pic.

I looked at it carefull.. they are not bubbles... surely something white and tiny and like to hang on to the GHA.. it is all over my tank there are some on my glass too.

 

[mehaffydr]

You say your in the process of controlling GHA? Are you adding anything like Chemiclean? How are you controlling GHA?

 

[ssunthar]

You say your in the process of controlling GHA? Are you adding anything like Chemiclean? How are you controlling GHA?

Cutting down on nutrients, light, and removing GHA by hand....

 

[ssunthar]

Really sad to see these cool CUC dying like this... they had been in the tank for a while and been doing a great job. They all grew quite a bit too...

 

[ssunthar]

I looked at it carefull.. they are not bubbles... surely something white and tiny and like to hang on to the GHA.. it is all over my tank there are some on my glass too.

Here are some othe pics under white light...

I suspected them to be bubbles too but they are not... so i am interested to find out what they are?

 

[ssunthar]

You say your in the process of controlling GHA? Are you adding anything like Chemiclean? How are you controlling GHA?

Hi @mehaffydr, it is interesting you mentioned chemiclean... may i know why? I used it during my fight against dino a few months ago.

 

[ssunthar]

My suspicion is that your salinity is off despite test results. Are you sure your refractometer/etc is properly calibrated? Can you check it against another device?

Hi @polyppal , re-calibrated my refractometer.. the reading is the same, salinity is at 1.025. Planning to buy a new one as a backup. Thanks.

 

[ssunthar]

Hi experts, any id on the tiny white creatures on the algae and glass? Are they copepods? Thanks.

 

[mehaffydr]

Hi @mehaffydr, it is interesting you mentioned chemiclean... may i know why? I used it during my fight against dino a few months ago.

Inverts are typically kind of delicate especially crabs. So anything that is altering water chemistry I would be concerned about.
Also have you parameters like salinity Alk and CA be stable fluctuations can cause issues

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

I would do a copper test. Inverts and copper do not mix well at all.

 

[CocoReef]

I would do a copper test. Inverts and copper do not mix well at all.

+1 to this

 

[frankny]

Inverts are typically kind of delicate especially crabs. So anything that is altering water chemistry I would be concerned about.
Also have you parameters like salinity Alk and CA be stable fluctuations can cause issues

my kh n ph swung, all 3 urchins gone,and few snail ill(not moving) end up dies. also i heard that nutreits went up to

Hi @mehaffydr, it is interesting you mentioned chemiclean... may i know why? I used it during my fight against dino a few months ago.

seem people has dino outbreak after they finished gha treatment! i think they lower the nutreits too low, and the dino takes adventage of it.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

White dots look like snail eggs

 

[Blake423]

After viewing this post, I think I might have similar issue in the past few days:

Similar symptoms:
1. I am also fighting GHA, and I've been dosing NOPOX in the last few days (6ml daily). But I don't think I have dino at the moment.
2. There are tiny white things on the GHA, very sure they are not bubble, I always think they are pods, but not sure. Any input would be appreciate.
3. I lost one Astraea snail first, after a couple of days, a tuxedo urchin. Another Astraea snail just fell off on the sand this morning, but it is still moving after I turned it, so not sure if it is dying or just fell. But right before my first Astraea died, it just kept falling from the rock.


My tank is 255L and about 8 months old now and water parameters are stable:
Salifert:
PO4: colorless
NO3: 5
ALK: 8.7
CAL: 460
MAG: 1400

I have been wondering the following:
If it is copper or unstable water parameters, wouldn't my coral be the first to react? But my LPS and SPS are doing fine.
My other invert, trochus snail, anemone, Stromb snail, Nassarius snail are doing fine so far.

My tuxedo urchin has a tiny hole (anus) opened up on the top of its shell when it died, was it attached by a fish or other snails?