Tank crashing - not sure why

[Letterkenny]

Part of this will be my fault just due to my schedule (CPA working 80+ hour weeks since January) so the tank has been getting some neglect. I have a 45g JBJ and half of my corals have just been melting away causing me to loose close to $1k in livestock (the indo gold NY Knicks really hurt loosing). That said, I’m not really sure what’s causing the issue. I’m on track to loose 8 heads of hammers in total, one two head Cristata, and one torch. I have one frogspawn that seems to be doing better but is on my watch list. Euphyllia wise, I still have two torches left that seem to be doing well and one large frogspawn that is excluding the one on watch. My other corals were doing fine until yesterday where my two Acans that were nice and healthy melted overnight. Hard to get in focus but something is growing on one of the mouths that appeared over the night. Any ideas?

Parameters seem fine (1.025 salinity, 8.3 PH, 10ppm Nitrates, 8.5 alkalinity, 460 calcium). I tried to do phosphates but my Hanna decided to break on me just as I was doing so. My first concern was that it was due to changing salt from tropic marin to Fritz (changed about 18 gallons over the course of a month with the Fritz) so changed back after my first coral loss (the indo gold torch). My other thought of the cause is that I added a bio pellet reactor (using only 1/3 of the recommended pellets to ease into it) and I read that the biopellet reactor can cause the issues along with Algae growth which I am seeing more of. I scrapped that a bit ago but I think it is too late for those corals.

That said, I just want to figure out the likely cause of the issue so that I can preserve what I have left and while I wait to rebuild.

 

[Bxr126]

Carbon reactor? Water change? What's your temp?

 

[PotomacReef]

How often do you check the pH? It's possible that you have a pH swing that is stressing the coral out pretty massively.

Any recent changes in flow rate or lighting?

 

[brandon429]

you need to rip clean the tank which is clean off rocks a special way, outside of tank, and the sandbed 100% clean, and all new water changed. this gets all the pores open and free of waste, so that you can stop biopellets and any form of po4 management and begin feeding correctly, this will save the corals. kill the algae off your rocks while disassembled, not through the water.

we then easily focus on twice weekly feedings directly to corals + water change after this clean start above, and your light set to bluest with least white. sustain 8 weeks, you'll be happy.


*let the record reflect most would not do any of this above, hence the state of today's algae issues. we have a 30 page thread on these fixes recommended above, this is the condensed version.

you need to get your tank ready for mass feeding and export, which is totally opposite of how its currently running. the number one thing the masses say you should not do is what you should do (take the tank apart and clean it correctly, most would tell you this makes it worse, they dont have 30 page threads either)

all steps listed are part of being opposite of a crash; a crash is a hands off situation or a situation that mixes harmful waste detritus into the tank-we do opposite of that.

a nano reef will always grow coral if the rocks and sand are cloudless, a coral light is being shined above, and reef food circulates in and out of the container. it always works, we just reset your tank back to the + work mode and all is saved. crash averted.

 

[Letterkenny]

you need to rip clean the tank which is clean off rocks a special way, outside of tank, and the sandbed 100% clean, and all new water changed. this gets all the pores open and free of waste, so that you can stop biopellets and any form of po4 management and begin feeding correctly, this will save the corals. kill the algae off your rocks while disassembled, not through the water.

we then easily focus on twice weekly feedings directly to corals + water change after this clean start above, and your light set to bluest with least white. sustain 8 weeks, you'll be happy.


*let the record reflect most would not do any of this above, hence the state of today's algae issues. we have a 30 page thread on these fixes recommended above, this is the condensed version.

you need to get your tank ready for mass feeding and export, which is totally opposite of how its currently running. the number one thing the masses say you should not do is what you should do (take the tank apart and clean it correctly, most would tell you this makes it worse, they dont have 30 page threads either)

all steps listed are part of being opposite of a crash; a crash is a hands off situation or a situation that mixes harmful waste detritus into the tank-we do opposite of that.

a nano reef will always grow coral if the rocks and sand are cloudless, a coral light is being shined above, and reef food circulates in and out of the container. it always works, we just reset your tank back to the + work mode and all is saved. crash averted.

But what do you do with all the livestock? Set up a QT for a bit?

Carbon reactor? Water change? What's your temp?

I am running chemipure elite in an in tank media basket. I have carbon and GFO availible to run but need new filter pads as the ones that are designed for my reactor done stay in place

How often do you check the pH? It's possible that you have a pH swing that is stressing the coral out pretty massively.

Any recent changes in flow rate or lighting?

I have been weekly. I don’t have a monitoring device but am looking at getting an apex and a trident one day to help avoid these issues. No changes in flow or lighting

 

[brandon429]

my friend Jon ran one he held the fish and corals in buckets of water. the total takedown time isn't too long, maybe they'll be in the bucket an hour or so its like re riding home from the lfs, not stressful when they go back in a pristine tank. here's the thread if you want to source out others ideas on rip cleaning to force compliance in reefs.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

notice these trends:

not one ammonia measure whole thread. we predict what ammonia will be, and it is. the way we predict ammonia is by predicting where detritus clouding waste will be, and not exposing that to corals or fish. detritus is the cycle event, the ammonia loss event. no detritus means you can flip the whole system any way you want and it will comply.

not one bottle bac used to tamper things over, not needed. we predict what bac will do, and they do.

not one lost system, clean systems are hungry and want feed, they add mass without disease.

 

[Ultra Aquatics]

When I have issues I look at what changed and then work backwards from that. Sounds like it could have been the biopellets. How’s your RODI water? 0 TDS? I would focus on getting nutrients in control and keeping your parameters rock solid. With that much algae growth you definitely have excess nutrients.

 

[clffthmps]

The only ? I have is the salt that you had before,was it working?and was your tank Thriving? with the salt you were using before,were all your parameters in check, And did your tank look healthy?I’m not a big fan of switching salt just because the company Advertising it,say it’s a better salt.I’ll look at it as if it’s not broke don’t fix it and if it doesn’t need it don’t add it.

 

[Letterkenny]

The salt change was really from the wife wanting to save money but not worth it in the end. I noticed an increase in algae which is why I started with the biopellet reactor. Seems like the path forward is either a full disassembly of the tank per Brandon and scrubbing the rocks or some other path? I honestly rather not break down everything but if there was a more over time method, I’d be more inclined to try that.