Valentines Day Massacre Help!!!

[broach]

12 years in the hobby I've never experienced what has happened. Complete nukes on handfuls of montipora, stylocinellia, stylophora, pocillapora, digitata
Acropora and millepora are healthy looking.

On top of this multiple Lps deaths leptos, cyphastrea. Complete loss on acans, hammers frogspawns, bounce mushrooms

zoanthids and palythoa seem disturbed but may bounce back.

Background to the system
Red Sea reefer 450
Parameters
Alkalinity 8.5
Calcium 440
Magnesium 1380
Po4 0.00 Hanna reader
No3 0-2.5
Water temps stable at 78

No carbon or chemical media
Left town on Friday evening did normal routine when I leave town.
Water change night before
Change filter socks
Top off auto top off check for pests or unhealthy specimens
Spot feed corals and feed fish
Dose accordingly no auto doser
Check light timers

Came home Sunday afternoon to a tank full of white death, cloudy and multiple pieces receding

 

[TheWhiteFord]

Wow I can not see anything wrong with your system! I very sorry this happened to you[emoji20]

 

[jdl513]

Any sign of a power outage? Any fish deaths? the oddball is the sps look fine with the white cloud water..

 

[cnseekatz]

Not sure how to read the first sentence about the SPS (which are okay, which are not).

Check your electronics. I had a similar event, and there was live electricity in the water. If none of your equipment is out of place (i.e. fallen into the water), you may want to check wiring to anything that is submerged and make sure that there are no exposed wires.

If all that is well, then it's likely chemical. Certain specimens like anemones, xenia, etc. can release toxins into the water when they die.

 

[broach]

Everything in the system is gone or on the way out.
The acros and millepora are perfectly healthy.
I've checked for stray voltage. I added a new xf130 a week ago but stuff seemed to perk up after that better than ever

 

[jdl513]

Could be a toxin from some coral that died that does not affect sps? If it is a toxin carbon may be able to filter it out. Could not hurt.

 

[wish]

I've also heard in the winter months people put hand lotion and forget ......and stick there hands in the water.

 

[Squid]

Could be not enough nutrients and or salinity since you didnt say what your salinity is.

 

[broach]

Salinity at a steady 1.026
No lotion here in Florida.
Could be flow after talking it over with some other people.
Sps looks great but lower flow items took a hit. Nothing was moving in one direction just a steady stream of flow with a gyre xf130 running 40% and a mp10 100% reef crest.

May have been flow to disrupt a piece of coral then a domino affect of chemical warfare

 

[JMacedo]

Do you use an Alk Hanna checker? If so when was the last time you had it calibrated? If this is the case, I would suggest to test checkers against a reference solution or against freshly made saltwater. Few weeks ago I noticed the coraline algae dying and some stn on my sps... tested the water and parameters seemed alright but my alk checker was reading 7dkh when the real value was 5dkh. Also check if some equipment is leaking more voltage than normal. Hope you find the culprit and corals start to recover.

 

[Diesel]

That's really odd.
Sorry to hear to come home and see this and not knowing what's going on.
IMO it has to do for what ever you did before you left, WC, change filter socks, dosing and spot feeding.
Now that this been a few days ago what have you done so far to your system?


[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

 

[kschweer]

I would check with neighbors who were around when you were away and see if there was a power outage. Your description sounds exactly like my tank which crashed during hurricane sandy.