Tank Crashing before my eyes....

RobBaglieri · Oct 22, 2016

20 Gallon IM Nuvo. Current parameters below. Did a water change on Thursday. Added a new acan and live brine shrimp last night. Tank was thriving... This morning, clam is closed, all coral closed shut tight as if the lights were off. Crabs, snails, shrimp, conch and starfish seem fine. Did a 50% water change and making more water now. Filled two filter socks with carbon and added them to the overflows. Blow off the rocks with a turkey baster and my Xenia melted away like wet paper. Any ideas? Suggestions? I used the same water to for my other tank and that tank is fine.

ammonia 0 (api)
nitrate 0 (api)
phosphate 0 (api)
CA 515 ( a little higher than usual, trying to dial in kalk and doser) hanna
alk 11 ( a little higher than usual...) hanna
salt 1.026 (read sea pro made with RO, 0 TDS)
pH 8.1 (pH meter)
temp 79

Pellet reactor, skimmer working as usual. Using a grounding probe,

sa6hir · Oct 22, 2016

Everything seems to look in check, any chemical used in the same room as tank? Or maybe by hand transfer into the water. You have added carbon so the next best thing would be water change. Doing 6 gallon a day for the next 2-4 day should help remove any alien chemicals or what ever is hurting ur reef

RobBaglieri · Oct 22, 2016

sa6hir said:
Everything seems to look in check, any chemical used in the same room as tank? Or maybe by hand transfer into the water. You have added carbon so the next best thing would be water change. Doing 6 gallon a day for the next 2-4 day should help remove any alien chemicals or what ever is hurting ur reef

no chemicals in the room besides a pump socking in vinegar. Perhaps I had something creepy on my hands. Also, I added live brine shrimp yesterday too. That couldnt do this much harm.

jasonb87 · Oct 22, 2016

Frag anything in the tank that is toxic?

sa6hir · Oct 22, 2016

I don't think it was the brine shrimp if there was any chemicals in their transportation water they wouldn't have made it into ur tank alive. I'm not to sure if slightly high alk & cal could cause this negative effect. Your water changes should help resolve that.

Rick.45cal · Oct 22, 2016

Any bleaching or Tissue Necrosis occurring?

RobBaglieri · Oct 22, 2016

jasonb87 said:
Frag anything in the tank that is toxic?

Great question. No, I have not fragged anything in ages. I do have some palys in there. In the last day or so One got squished by a frag that fell on it and the paly died. I understand they create a toxin, but this bad? Aything else toxic besides palys? I have great flow and always run chemipure blue.

RobBaglieri · Oct 22, 2016

Rick.45cal said:
Any bleaching or Tissue Necrosis occurring?

no bleaching yet. Only the Xenia melting if you want to call that necrosis. There is some mucus around a couple of favias. i fed the tank after the water change to guage activity. Fish, inverts and bristle worms came to dinner as usual.

Rick.45cal · Oct 22, 2016

RobBaglieri said:
Great question. No, I have not fragged anything in ages. I do have some palys in there. In the last day or so One got squished by a frag that fell on it and the paly died. I understand they create a toxin, but this bad? Aything else toxic besides palys? I have great flow and always run chemipure blue.

What kind of Paly? The ones that contain Palytoxin can nuke your tank and you with very limited exposure. That would be my first suspect. My second suspect would be nutrient poor environment, but that would likely manifest itself in a bleaching event or burnt tips, especially with as high as your alkalinity is.

Got any photos?

RobBaglieri · Oct 22, 2016

Rick.45cal said:
What kind of Paly? The ones that contain Palytoxin can nuke your tank and you with very limited exposure. That would be my first suspect. My second suspect would be nutrient poor environment, but that would likely manifest itself in a bleaching event or burnt tips, especially with as high as your alkalinity is.

Got any photos?

The torch, hammer and duncan are open a little the whole time. the paly's center is greener than in the pic.

Rick.45cal · Oct 22, 2016

Hard to say with any certainty. I don't know whether those big green paly's have palytoxin or not, I have some and I don't mess with them on their little island in the sand. One going to war (and losing) is almost certainly cause to believe that it used it's chemical warfare before dying. The xenia melting could be a result of the paly releasing it's toxin. It would certainly explain EVERYTHING in the tank not being very happy.

Maybe ReefSquad or someone will come along and propose some other ideas. Having 0 NO3 and 0 PO4 is bad ju ju in my experience, but lots of folks pull it off for long periods of time.

RobBaglieri · Oct 22, 2016

Rick.45cal said:
Hard to say with any certainty. I don't know whether those big green paly's have palytoxin or not, I have some and I don't mess with them on their little island in the sand. One going to war (and losing) is almost certainly cause to believe that it used it's chemical warfare before dying. The xenia melting could be a result of the paly releasing it's toxin. It would certainly explain EVERYTHING in the tank not being very happy.

Maybe ReefSquad or someone will come along and propose some other ideas. Having 0 NO3 and 0 PO4 is bad ju ju in my experience, but lots of folks pull it off for long periods of time.

I never thought that chemical war could do that much damage with good flow and chemipure. Good to know. I agree with the NO3 and PO4, im not one to keep SPS and I dont usualy get anal about N and P. Had some hair algae a month or so ago and perhaps my phosguard, chemipure, carbon, biopellet, cut back on feeding response was a bit too much. Once N and P hit zero, I started a normal feeding again to try to raise it up a tad. I is interesting that the soft corals and getting hard much harder than the LPS. The LPS are about 20% out, not completely retracted. Kenya tree is in bad shape.

RobBaglieri · Oct 22, 2016

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Blasted Palys!

Marsr · Oct 23, 2016

Update?

RobBaglieri · Oct 23, 2016

3 water changes. Tons of carbon. 10% of the zoas are open. All other softies are not well. Kenya tree is limp. Clam is miserable. Cleaner shrimp dead.