Can a tank just be mad for no reason

Yesterday my tank was looking a bit clowdy and just overall not happy.So i tested everything (dont ask what the numbers were i am at work and dont remember off hand) but i can tell you everything that was supposed to be 0 was 0 and my Ph was fine and did a calcium and phosphate test and those were fine.Checked temp checked salinity.All was fine. I slowly just watched all my coral aside from my Kenya tree ( who BTW never looked so good) just wither away for most of the day.my zoas and polyps closed up my hammer coral went down to nothing at all.And this lasted for a few hours.When i noticed the down hill slide i went ahead and did a water change (RO/DI) and things are looking a bit better this morning but not good.

I have a 24 jbj nano
in the back there is active carbon
sponge
live rock
cheato

I have about 30 lbs of live rock in the front and the only fish are two clowns and a few crabs and snails

 

Maybe a bacteria bloom, it happens when something dies and the bacteria has a population boom. It should be ok bacteria will go back to normal levels when the food is used up. You really need to find out what died and why

 

The only thing that it could be is a hermit crab or snail

 

There was a similar thread recently that involved something similar but there was a macro algae in the cheato ball that went sexual (at least I think that is what happened). Do you have any other algae except the cheato growing any where? Caulerpa maybe?

 

Well, no. There is always a reason; just a matter of finding it.

Just some things to consider.

Numbers being "fine" and numbers being stable are two different things.

Carbon can be old and release weird toxins

Contamination can happen and not show up on a test - like dropping pennies in the tank, or putting an escaped snail back in that has crawled around where you spray for bugs, someone spraying lysol or having one of those air fresheners in the same room, or other sources.

Your tests might be bad. Maybe your Mg was fine but you raised it by 500 points in a single day (not thinking you did, just some areas to consider).

Good luck
P

 

I was just looking at some of your other threads. Is this the same tank that you recently were adding salt directly to the DT (or as you called it, 'diluted salt')?

If it is, I'm not sure what you've done since then, but having done that, I would expect the tank to take quite some time to balance back out.

Thinking the 'reason' here is the tank's history...

 

same tank.I have been adding to it for the last week or so.I let it sit for a week doing small water changes like i was told i think it was coriline . And MLF store recommended the same.All my params were fine.But yesterday it was like it was going to crash again. It never did but it was milky again...With the water changes i was using water pre mixed at the fish store so that there were no salt mishaps again

 

"I have been adding to it" <- this means? fish? (livestock?)

A week is nothing in this hobby. Reading over this and other thread, this tank really needs to just sit and be maintained for a month or two before adding anything livestock wise. Seems to me (based on what I'm reading) you're moving along too quickly and the tank can't (re) stabilize let alone catch up to additions...

good luck though
P

 

i added two fish and a few corals.I was told if everything was stable for a week that would be fine. No?

 

I mean, well, proof is in the pudding so to speak. Obviously not right

I don't have experience with mixing salt in the DT, but from what I've read, that can have some really bad effects and I'm sure it would take the inhabitants some time to recover from that kind of stress. It messes with more than your SG. Your O for example can have wild swings due to the SG swing... dominos....

I don't know your entire stocking list, or what was added. But adding 2 fish at the same time in a non-established tank can be problematic in its own right (assuming fish are more substantial than gobies or blennys). Adding 2 in a tank that is already going through fluctuations is just going to increase fluctaions and the variety of fluctuation types to deal with.

That can stress what's already there and, of course, what is newly added. Their reaction to the stress can further stress other aspects. More dominos.

I'd advise to keep up on weekly WC for the time being and not add any livestock till the tank is stable. IMO, one week does not constitute stability. If it were me, I'd give it at least a couple months, but ya know, give it at least a month of stable (after it stabilizes! so like 2 months from now or something). Not just give a month to become stable, but a month of stability after it becomes stable.

This hobby really does take forever - once you cross forever to a stable tank it gets easier. But you really have to be annoyingly patient in the beginning.