Unresolved Everything is dying! Please help!!!

Have you changed the light recently [the last two months]?

I think 8 bulb t5 on that setup is way too much light for those corals.

All you listed are only needing of pretty low [intensity] light...

I would cut back the photo-period (Timing of lights) 1/hour a week and see if it doesn't get better.

Even if they need particular parts of the light spectrum to live - You can kill corals with even too much [intensity] of the same light [spectrum in nanometers]...

For example - while corals do need some "actinic" light to survive, it is possible to over-saturate and kill corals with way too many Actinic bulbs.

Speaking of, what bulbs you runnin? <-------- just curious; either way I would scale back the photo period and see if that helps.

 

It's the smaller T5 bulbs. We have 4 white and 4 blue. We've had the lights since we set up the tank in Jan, and this is the first time anything died or started dying was about 3 weeks ago, other than 2 fish that jumped out of the tank. We run the lights 8 hours a day instead of the recommended 10-12 hours, and on Wednesdays they stay off.

 

oh ok. I thought you had 8 54 watt bulbs on there...

 

Yeah, that's what they are, TL 54w. Sorry, thought those were called T5.
4 whites and 4 blues

 

Have you checked stray voltage? I almost lost my whole chalice recently due to a bad skimmer motor. Even though I had a ground lead, it was still drawing. I would get a voltage meter and check it just to be safe.

 

I can stick my hand in the water and not get shocked. LOL! But no, I haven't checked it with a meter. Don't have one on hand.

 

Do one large 50% water change. But not all at once. Spread it out over afew hours. Change out say 15gallons wait an hour and repeat. Then up your wc to 10-15% weekly. Without testing mag/cal/alk doing more frequent wc should keep levela resonable. The only coral that really needs feeding is the gorgonian. Try just spot feeding that coral for now, and give the others a rest. You wont need to feed the other corals very often once a week maybe even less.

 

I have similar corals to yourself and I dont feed them.

 

If you're not dosing, and relying on water changes alone, there comes a time when you just can't replace enough elements without doing huge water changes. The numbers will slowly fall as dilution occurs, because your corals use up what's in the water. If you don't test your water on a regular basis and make adjustments, disaster will eventually happen. It's the "everything was fine" syndrome. You're not alone, it's very common.

First thing is to get your results, and get the parameters back in line. Next is to get your own test kits, then study up on parameters and dosing to keep things in check. There's a lot to it, but everyone here can help along the way.

 

Well, as stated before, all params are good. Wife tested for cal and mag today at work and both fall within range of where its supposed to be.

I changed out my carbon in case it's a chemical imbalance. The carbon should pick that up. And I will also do a 50-75 gallon water change this weekend. This should be fun.

Anyone know how long corals that aren't dead can stay out of water? I really don't want to have to tear down the entire tank to get every price of coral out if I don't have to.