Rainbow Crush Chalice Dead Overnight =(

lviva003 · Sep 23, 2015

Hey Everyone,

I had my precious rainbow crush chalice for over 5 months and it was doing great. I bought the chalice when it only had one eye and for the past months it was doing great, it had over 4 eyes! Anyways, one day I ran out of salt (reef crystals) and I remembered that a few months ago I bought some hw reefer salt. I usually make my water changes every week or every other week. It all depends on my work schedule. Anyways, since I was on vacation I could not do a water change for two weeks and when I came home I realized that I left the reef crystal salt container opened and all of the salt was a huge rock so I threw it away. Then I remembered that I had the brand new still sealed in the bag hw reefer salt, it was also clumpy, but not where as near the the reef crystal. So I decided to used it and let it mixed for 24 hours. I then made the water change and everything seemed to be happy. The following three days I noticed nothing was affected and all the fish and corals were very happy. On the fourth day I woke up and saw that my rainbow crush was all white! I could not believe how white the chalice was! But for some reason that was the only coral affected. So I immediately tested my water and the only thing off was the calcium at 320 and alkalinity at 5. So I started to dose and adjusted the levels. It has been two weeks and my rainbow crush show no signs of life. Anyways, I just don't understand if this is even possible that the clumpy salt could of killed my coral. Also, if that was the case, why only coral was affected? Don't get me wrong I am glad it was only one coral, but the coral that died was my favorite of all. Sorry everyone, just venting out here. Any suggestions/ questions/ comments are always welcome.

Thanks

Mattyice008 · Sep 23, 2015

First off, that calcium and alk is very low, I'm surprised your hard corals are doing okay. Alk should be around 8.4-11 depending on what you're keeping, and calcium around 400-460.

Now, here are the things that I believe may have caused the severe stress that lead to death.
1. Switching salt and doing the water change. Was it a big water change? I have lost corals within 2-3 days just because I switched salts too fast. I went from reef crystals to red sea coral pro and had disastrous results. So this may have caused it.
2. How much did you dose? If you dosed enough alk/calc to raise your levels from where they were, to ideal, all in one dose, that could have been enough to stress it to death. We want stability in our parameters, not just replenishing them after they fall to all-time lows.
3. Was there any new coral placed nearby that could have stung it? My previous 2 theories are kindof stumped at the fact that NO other corals were effected, so its possible that it was one single factor leading to the chalice's death.

jcdeng · Sep 23, 2015

IME when alk swings (usually dip below the lowest tolerable lvl) first corals to go are chalices, and once they are on the path of decline, there is usually no turning back even if you fix the lvl. More over, when a LPS is stress and starts losing tissue, all your fishes and cuc will begin feasting on the flesh. I had an alk swing b/c my doser problem and 90% of my chalice collections die while the 3 sps remain unharmed. My alk was 6.4 at the time.

lviva003 · Sep 24, 2015

I have 36 gallon tank and O usually do a 15 gallon water change. And as far as raising the levels, I raised calcium and alkalinity slowly. I raised it by 40ppm daily. I had that chalice on a frag rack next to other chalices, but no where near close of getting stung by the other corals.