Near Total Crash Report

[Mr. D]

Hello,

I very recently had my display tank nearly crash on me, so I though I would document what happened here for future reference and to see if anyone could pinpoint the cause. I will try to be as thorough as possible in my report. If I miss something, please let me know and I will add it.
__________________

*Reference:
--> I am currently on my 6th day of recovery currently (today being 10-30-13).
--> I have completed 3, 18% water changes since Friday (10-30-13) and replaced carbon every 48 hours and will continue to replace carbon until this coming Friday (11-1-13).

Livestock:
2 Banggai Cardinals (small)
1 Clownfish
1 Tailspot Blenny
1 Cryptic Wrasse
1 Pom Pom Crab
2 Turbo Snails
Varies Hermits
1 Nerite Snail
Various SPS, LPS, zoas and softies

Equipment and media (before & after):
*27 gallon Marineland cube
*~25lbs of live rock (3 large pieces)
--> 4 days before crash 1 rock was taken out and replaced with a dried base rock that had been circulating in water with live rubble for a few weeks.
*Marineland heater
*Aquaclear 50 (containing poly-filter and carbon in mesh bag)
*(After noticing signs of crash) I put my Aquamaxx HOB Skimmer on the system.

Water Parameters (before, during and after):
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0
Ca - ~380ppm
Mg - ~1300ppm (If I remember correctly)
Alk - ~7.5dKH
Temp - ~78 F
Salinity - ~1.025-1.026 (Varies with manual top off)

To my knowledge I noticed the first signs on Thursday (10-24-13) of last week. I noticed a small number of corals in my tank had shriveled up (i.e. Most of my acans and my colony of Devil's Armor palys), one in particular (micromusa) was not only shriveled up, but producing a mucus like substance. The following day more of the corals were shrinking and looking very bad.

*Special Note: Not all corals were affected over the 6 days evenly. Only a few corals from each section (i.e. SPS, LPS zoas and such) were affected while others showed no sign of stress that I could find (the unaffected showed normal polyp extension and color with no bleaching).

The most affected corals (i.e. either losing substantial amounts of flesh or all signs of polyps) are my twilight zone chalice, undata and jedi mind trick monti. All other corals seem to be making a standard recovery. The twilight zone lost a substantial amount of flesh, but looks to be healing just fine now. The undata and jedi mind trick have lost some appearance of polyps, the mind trick seeming to be most affected (both corals located in about 6 inches of depth difference inside the tank). I cannot say for sure the mind trick will recover, but the undata looks to be able come back without an issue. I also forgot to mention that a favia (about 2 inches in diameter) showed serious signs of stress and mucus, but otherwise lost no flesh.

Steps taken during this time:

*The next day (Friday), I completed an 18% water change (my weekly normal) and changed out for fresh carbon. That night and following day, the corals showed no change.

*On Saturday (2 days after), I completed another 18% water change and switched out for fresh poly-filter pad. Most mucus problem were gone the following afternoon (end of day 3). By this time, the twilight zone chalice was having serious issues. Some other chalice looked as if they were excreting some of their intestines while other were not.

*Sunday (3 days after), another 18% water change, fresh carbon and Aquamaxx HOB skimmer was added to help oxygenate the system (advice from a friend) and skim out anything nasty. A good chuck of flesh from the twilight zone chalice was gone now showing skeleton in numerous places.

*Monday (4 days after), no water change and no fresh carbon. Things were looking as if the total crash had been averted.

*Tuesday (5 days after), no water change, but carbon was changed out.

*Wednesday (6 days after) - Waiting to get home and see how things are. Will be changing for fresh carbon every 48 hours until next water change, then I will return to normal maintenance routine.

Final Comments:

-The skimmer was on the tank originally, but was taken off for ~1.5 months with only Aquaclear HOB filter using poly-filter and carbon (carbon changed monthly)

I still have no idea what the exact issue was. My experience says to point at the newest, biggest change to the system which would have been taking out one big rock and replacing it with another (the base rock that was circulating with other live rock for a few weeks). However, this would not make sense because there wouldn't be enough bacteria for catastrophic die off on the base rock and there was no cycle recording while I was testing the system. Another reason could be anything stirred up while rocks were being repositioned, but from past experience in doing this slowly and taking proper precautions (i.e. fresh carbon and right before a decent water change) this had never been an issue in the past...and I have stirred up much more without an issue. Another culprit could possibly be saturated carbon in the filter? Again, I've never experienced an issue in using carbon for at least a month straight (although it should be used sparingly).

So, I am at a loss for what happened here. I hope this may serve to help others act faster and more efficiently so as to avert a crash. Please feel free to comment/question and remind me of anything I have forgotten.

-Mr. D.

 

[mcarroll]

7.5 alkalinity is pretty low if you are estimating from one or just a few measurements. If it gets much lower than that your tank can have serious pH issues which can potentially be devastating to coral. Do you know what your minimum and maximum pH levels are on average? Test before lights-on and before lights-out to check it.

I also think your logic in singling out the new rock is correct, but you may be assuming too much about the new rock you put in. There could still be something wrong in the rock. You could have had something on you that got in the tank when you did the work. But unless you have some reason to really suspect one of those things, the reality is probably less dramatic. One likelihood is that you dramatically changed the flow around the tank and some of your corals are now relatively in dead zones. There's nothing more important to coral than light and flow...when you change either one, you're messing with them!

Unless there are changes you think you can reasonably undo (remove the rock and put everything back?), I would not make any drastic moves and just make sure conditions in the tank are as ideal as you can make them. If there are any issues (flow, or otherwise) fix them if you can.

Hope this helps!

-Matt

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Sorry for the issues.

 

[Mr. D]

7.5 alkalinity is pretty low if you are estimating from one or just a few measurements. If it gets much lower than that your tank can have serious pH issues which can potentially be devastating to coral. Do you know what your minimum and maximum pH levels are on average? Test before lights-on and before lights-out to check it.

I also think your logic in singling out the new rock is correct, but you may be assuming too much about the new rock you put in. There could still be something wrong in the rock. You could have had something on you that got in the tank when you did the work. But unless you have some reason to really suspect one of those things, the reality is probably less dramatic. One likelihood is that you dramatically changed the flow around the tank and some of your corals are now relatively in dead zones. There's nothing more important to coral than light and flow...when you change either one, you're messing with them!

Unless there are changes you think you can reasonably undo (remove the rock and put everything back?), I would not make any drastic moves and just make sure conditions in the tank are as ideal as you can make them. If there are any issues (flow, or otherwise) fix them if you can.

Hope this helps!

-Matt

To address your first point:

I do not test my pH regularly. That was something I forgot to measure during the incident.

Now the second point:

-I am unsure if something was on my hands. I try to make a point to wash my hands well before putting my hands into the water, so that would be less likely, but not ruled out of course.

-As far as change in lighting and flow are concerned...that could very well have been an issue, but it was specific to only a few corals as some were not moved and still experienced heavy stress (the twilight zone chalice to be specific). I am not confident enough to say light and flow were the catalyst here because only some corals that were moved exhibited stress while others did not. It cannot be ruled out though.

-Your points could be the overall issue though. A combination of all of those could have affected the corals. My gut feeling now says could be a pH issue, alkalinity issue or some other element not testable in the water column.


Thanks Rev. My system is doing much better now without any total loss of a coral. I was able to avert losses this time, so I wanted to put this up in case it helped someone else.

 

[Mr. D]

I just noticed I forgot some pictures.

My apologies for saturation. I didn't get to take proper pictures for documentation. These are likely not helpful.

 

[eg8r210]

Keeping the reef to me is much harder to do with a smaller volume of water. You mention you wash your hands, if you are using soap then there is a "chance" that is contaminating the water (along with anything airborn that might have been sprayed near the tank). My money would be on the rock. You took out a piece of rock with tons of bacteria that was capable, in concert with the other rock and equipment, to handle the bioload and added another rock that was not up to par (not yet). In a smaller tank this would have more catastrophic effect than it would on a tank even twice as large as yours. In tandem with the chance some stuff was stirred up, possible carbon issues, etc I think it was a recipe for disaster. I struggled with my 3 gallon which was a nightmare compared to my 210. Your steps to remediate the issue seem pretty sound and it looks like you are turning the corner so my hats off to you. The SPS seem to be the least hardiest so it is not a surprise the jedi is giving you some hassles. 7.5 dkh is not a big deal at all and within NSW parameters. Just get the water cleaned up and maybe recommend you dose some bacteria.

 

[Mr. D]

I couldn't have gotten this far without help from friends. They deserve the credit here.

I am surprised to find the other more mature sps colonies didn't seem to flinch.

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[k2parkstar]

Sorry to hear about the crash Tanner, I've got a free frag of jason fox god of war palys for if you want them whenever you think your tank is ready.

 

[Rob.D]

Glad to hear you didn't lose many corals Tanner, great documentation!

 

[Mr. D]

Sorry to hear about the crash Tanner, I've got a free frag of jason fox god of war palys for if you want them whenever you think your tank is ready.

Thanks, it was nothing compared to others I'm sure. A very small thing. As for the palys, I appreciate it, but I'll definitely give you something for them, once things have settle back in that is.

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[Mr. D]

Glad to hear you didn't lose many corals Tanner, great documentation!

Thanks for the help Rob and patience. Just hope it's useful for someone else and they can act quick enough.

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