Please help!!!

Discussion in 'Coral Health' started by Jim522, Sep 13, 2009.

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  1. Jim522

    Jim522 Purple Spiny Lobster

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    Yesterday I stopped by a new lfs store I heard about through a friend of a friend. A nice place across town, seemed to be much better priced than the stores closer to my house and the employees seemed very nice and helpful. As I looked around a couple of things caught my eye. A nice rock full of zoanthids, maybe 30 polyps or so for $15, and a bautiful orange ricordia mushroom for $10. Being very pleased with the prices and pleasant employees, I assured the owner of the store I would be back and headed out the door. I got home and dropped the bags in the tank. While the bags were floating I did a small 5 gal water change like I do every other week, along with rinsing the filter sponge in the fuge, changed out the carbon, scaped the glass, and cleaned the lids on the dt and fuge. Within an hour of placing the new corals in my tank they were opened up and looked beautiful. A few hours later before going to bed I cheacked everything out again. All corals looked great.....
    This morning I was headed out the door for work but wanted to first stop and take a quick look at my new purchases. I couldn't believe what I saw...
    Zoanthids...dead
    Ricordia....dead
    Want to know what's worse? ALL OF MY CORALS LOOK DEAD!. Zoanthids, buttton polyps, star polyps, green, red, hairy, ricordia mushrooms, zenia...everything looks dead! Everything was laid over, looked like goo, and everything had a slime film over it.
    And even stranger....my urchin that Ive had for 2 years....on his back dead! Both my flame scallops that Ive had forever...dead! Even my three feather dusters look like theyre on their way out the door. Their crowns looked like they were falling apart. Ive had the same three for years! I didnt even know you could kill a feather duster!!
    All of my fish look fine, coral banded shrimp looked fine. I saw one sand sifter star crawling up the glass, he looked fine. Emerald crab, snails, hermits, all running around just fine.
    So I checked the water...
    Nitrate--0
    Nitrite--0
    Ammonia--0
    PH--8.2
    Temp--77
    Cal--450
    Did something get in my tank from my new purchases? The lady that bagged my stuff came in from outside, I didn't notice her rinse her hands off. Maybe she had something on her hands or arms??? She put the bags in a small cardboard box, maybe the box had something in it that got on the bags that were then floated in my tank??? Anybody have any ideas? Also is there anything I can do to slow things down? I just lost ALOT of coral overnight! Im terrified to get home and find my fish or other inverts dead too!:confused:
     
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  3. steve wright

    steve wright Super Moderator

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    Hi Jim, terrible news, sorry to hear this.

    have you got anything in your tank thats not on your signature or in your post above
    anything that might have toxins? like Sea Apple, Sea cucumbers and possibly a load of others I cant think of just now? - sometimes total wipe outs like this are caused by something with toxins dying and basically taking out the tank with it

    are you running activated carbon? if not , I would add some to your filtration system as whatever is in there causing the corals to look distressed needs to be removed

    also if you can get Polyfilters TM - a chemical filtration pad that will remove all manner of toxins / chemicals etc from your tank

    also you need to be sure that whatever triggered this off did not come from your own water? -

    maybe , mix another batch of salt water for a water change and then get that water tested
    just to make sure

    Steve
     
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  4. swagger87

    swagger87 Zoanthid

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    I am so sorry for your loss! How terrible!
    +1 on adding carbon and filtration pads.
    (I know now isn't the time, but a 20 gal tank is kinda small for a horse shoe crab.)
     
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  5. Jim522

    Jim522 Purple Spiny Lobster

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    Hey Steve,
    Thanks for the quick reply.
    Im pretty sure everything I have is listed above, minus a small slug that made its way down to my fuge, but i saw him him crawling on the glass this morning.
    I do use activated carbon, which I changed out yesterday like i do every 2 or 3 weeks.
    How much water do you think i should change? All of it? Ive never really changed more than 5 or so gallons at a time.
    I probably wont be able to get a polyfilter until the end of the week. By the time i get off work all the stores in my area are closed.
    I have little faith in saving any of the corals. Im really concerned with the fish and inverts now. The worse part is that I wont even be home from work until later this evening to see what else has happened.
    Man, this makes me sick to my stomach...I was almost in tears this morning!
     
  6. Jim522

    Jim522 Purple Spiny Lobster

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    yea i know my tank is too small for him, but he's pretty small and ive had him for quite some time without any problems. He came out of my friends 55g that he was planning on tearing down and needed to get rid of him. I was only planning on keeping him temporarily, until i could find somebody to take him...but that was like 3 or 4 months ago.
     
  7. steve wright

    steve wright Super Moderator

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    In a 20 Gallon - 5 gallons is 25% Jim and that would be a good start IMO
    just make sure that the problem is not something you introduced with the last change
    I assume you not using tap water?

    Steve
     
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  9. Jim522

    Jim522 Purple Spiny Lobster

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    I have the 20 gal dt and a 20 gal fuge. I usually do 5 gallons every other week, just did yesterday. I can do another 5 gallons when i get home. I mix "instant ocean" salt with distilled water. Thats how ive been doing it for years. Ive actually never bought water from a lfs.
     
  10. steve wright

    steve wright Super Moderator

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    Jim do you have a ground probe?
    Im not 100% sure on this due to no personal experience of this situation , but its possible that you have stray voltage from something electrical in your system - Others have posted on this site previously that stray voltage can cause a negative reaction with corals

    it could be a water quality issue, something that can with the new arrivals or on the container the new arrivals travelled in

    a 30% water change with known good quality water, would be a good idea IMO

    Steve
     
  11. Jim522

    Jim522 Purple Spiny Lobster

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    Im not even sure how to check if there's an electrical problem? But i guess thats a possibility, i cant even think of what else could damage the feather dusters like this. They look terrible. I still have a gut feeling its something that got into my tank when I introduced the new corals yesterday, but i really have no idea.
    Ill check everything out when i get home and definitly do a decent size water change.
     
  12. Jim522

    Jim522 Purple Spiny Lobster

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    So I just got an update from the wife...and of course it doesnt sound good.
    She says all of the corals are pretty much small spots of goo on the rocks, the coral banded shrimp is now eating the dead urchin, she put a few pellets in and none of the fish are eating, the feather duster's crowns are completely missing (but she says she can see the worms inside their tubes), and she says the water looks cloudy.