What's happening?

travis32 · 02/04/2015, 09:22 AM

O.k. well, I've been in the hobby for 5 - 6 years, I have a near fully automated system. I test monthly and do every other week water changes with reef crystals. I have a 230 gallon reef with 75 gallon sump.

Fish list:
Hippo tang
black tang
2 oscilleris clown fish
1 blue chromis
3 banghai cardinals
1 radiant wrasse
1 coral beauty (with damaged fin, been that way for 6 months)
1 cleaner wrasse.
1 pyramid butterfly fish

This is in addition to the list above:
In the last few months I lost:
1 Chevron tang
1 pyramid butterfly fish
1 dragonet (was fat and happy).
1 a purple dotty back.
1 banghai cardinal

Corals I lost in the last 2 months:
Hammer coral
Elegance coral

Corals dying or not doing well:
I have a green brain that used to show it's tentacles all the time and was big and happy, and now won't open at all. Just has been closed up.

I have a green nepthia that was big (8" tall or more) and happy and growing and now can't hold it's own weight. It's still green, but, fallen over.

Things doing well: Most of my SPS are all doing great, full polyp extension, growth, and happiness. My bubble coral routinely has feeder tentacles out, my frog spawn are twice the size they were last year.

I have one small 2-3" rainbow bubble tip anemone and it has come to front and center of the tank and seems to be doing good, when I first got it bleached out and now it's got all it's color back and doing really good.

I have grande palys and zoas that seem to be doing fine. Growing and spreading.

So, that said, What's killing my elegance and hammer corals?

I've only found one corpse of the fish that are "missing". I'm assuming they're dead because they don't come out at feeding... But, no corpses were found.

I suspect what may have happened is I went out of town for 4 days. I have an autofeeder and the flakes in it may have clogged up the auto feeder so it didn't feed. I suspect too much competition for food and the bigger fish destroyed the smaller fish and/ or antogonized the other fish until they either jumped out or jumped into the overflows or something and that's where they died.

I don't know really what happened to them. That's my best running theory.

That said 2 weeks later, I had a cyano bloom, algae bloom, and about 2-3 weeks before the fish disappeared my elegance started the process of receeding and dieing. and finished dieing during this 4 day period.

I tested things out here's the results:

Phosphates: (consumed by algae and cyano) tested 0
Nitrates: 5
Water: 1.026
Alk: 8.5 dkh (trying to keep around 10)
Calcium: 550
Mag: 1600
Temp: Apex controlled between 76 and 79
Export systems
Skimmer: Diablo skimmer half full container of sludge weekly (or more).
Growing Chaeto in sump and mangroves, both are growing quite well, remove 3/4 of the chaeto monthly, usually triples in size.
Water changes twice monthly of about 20 gallons each.

Lighting: 3 Apollo reef LED lighting systems (dimmable with apex), 3 watt per bulb, I have them set to hit 100% and they stay there for about 2-3 hours, then ramp down, between ramp up and down, a total of high lighting for 6-7 hours.

Dosing alk (baking soda) and BRS calcium chloride daily controlled with bubble magus.

I also have a fair amount of asterina starfish popping up. They started in the sump but have been spreading to the display.

Is there some way to identify if some type of choral parasite made it in that only eats elegance and hammer corals?

I think I have two issues, the fish die off I suspect was from food competition. The corals were dying or had died prior to the fish dying off.

I'm open to criticisms or suggestions!

FraggledRock · 02/04/2015, 09:25 AM

why the continuous ramp up and down?

why don't you just ramp up stay at 100% then ramp down?

how is there food competition? what is your feeding habit?

itz frank · 02/04/2015, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FraggledRock

why the continuous ramp up and down?

why don't you just ramp up stay at 100% then ramp down?

how is there food competition? what is your feeding habit?

It's ramping up to 100 and then ramping down. Not repeating. The food competition is from the 4 days he wasn't home and thinks the autofeeder wasn't working...

travis32 · 02/04/2015, 10:49 AM

Exactly. itz_frank! Thanks. Sorry for the confusion. ramps up stays there then ramps down. normal config, nothing fancy. Moonlights come on for two hours at night.

I feed flake food (I'm too lazy to do frozen, probably should though) I generally over feed. My hippo tang is a fricken pig, I"ll put two to three pinches in and he'll beat up other fish to get the food. (push them out of the way and speed swim around the tank to get every last piece). So, I have to flood the tank with food, my clowns are lazy and don't swim for food so, I have to almost target feed them.... I'm actually surprised my clowns survived with limited to no food... They don't eat off the rocks, everyone else does.

Lots of film and fuzzy algae the tangs eat off of, the wrasse eats whatever it finds on the rocks, etc.

Anyways, do elegance and hammer corals have special requirements that are beyond raising SPS corals?

I'm boggled by their die off.

Compliance · 02/04/2015, 11:05 AM

euphillia corals can succumb to brown jelly disease (I believe that's the name) Was there a noticable brownish bubble surrounding the polyps at any point?

FraggledRock · 02/04/2015, 11:07 AM

At night your tank is in complete darkness?

do you have any Anenome in there?

Stray voltage maybe?

travis32 · 02/04/2015, 11:08 AM

Not that I noticed. The only thing I noticed with the hammer is that a fish died and the corpse landed in the hammer. The hammer ate the corpse before I could get it out. Then within 2 -3 weeks the hammer was dieing. I noticed after the Elegance died I found a cardinal corpse half eaten. Can eating fish cause corals to die? I thought they liked meaty foods.... Fatal indigestion??

geemanaz · 02/04/2015, 11:12 AM

Have you cheek see if might have a stray voltage leak. Guy in LFC lost all of his fish and corals due to a voltage leak from his skimmer pump

travis32 · 02/04/2015, 11:23 AM

I did have one that I could actually feel before all this happened.. that was in my sump and my sump is around 60 feet from my display. So, most of it dissipated before hitting the display, but, I removed the source of the leak. I don't physically feel any voltage now, but, I haven't tested for stray voltage.

02/04/2015, 09:22 AM	#1
travis32 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: West Fargo, ND Posts: 2,161	What's happening? O.k. well, I've been in the hobby for 5 - 6 years, I have a near fully automated system. I test monthly and do every other week water changes with reef crystals. I have a 230 gallon reef with 75 gallon sump. Fish list: Hippo tang black tang 2 oscilleris clown fish 1 blue chromis 3 banghai cardinals 1 radiant wrasse 1 coral beauty (with damaged fin, been that way for 6 months) 1 cleaner wrasse. 1 pyramid butterfly fish This is in addition to the list above: In the last few months I lost: 1 Chevron tang 1 pyramid butterfly fish 1 dragonet (was fat and happy). 1 a purple dotty back. 1 banghai cardinal Corals I lost in the last 2 months: Hammer coral Elegance coral Corals dying or not doing well: I have a green brain that used to show it's tentacles all the time and was big and happy, and now won't open at all. Just has been closed up. I have a green nepthia that was big (8" tall or more) and happy and growing and now can't hold it's own weight. It's still green, but, fallen over. Things doing well: Most of my SPS are all doing great, full polyp extension, growth, and happiness. My bubble coral routinely has feeder tentacles out, my frog spawn are twice the size they were last year. I have one small 2-3" rainbow bubble tip anemone and it has come to front and center of the tank and seems to be doing good, when I first got it bleached out and now it's got all it's color back and doing really good. I have grande palys and zoas that seem to be doing fine. Growing and spreading. So, that said, What's killing my elegance and hammer corals? I've only found one corpse of the fish that are "missing". I'm assuming they're dead because they don't come out at feeding... But, no corpses were found. I suspect what may have happened is I went out of town for 4 days. I have an autofeeder and the flakes in it may have clogged up the auto feeder so it didn't feed. I suspect too much competition for food and the bigger fish destroyed the smaller fish and/ or antogonized the other fish until they either jumped out or jumped into the overflows or something and that's where they died. I don't know really what happened to them. That's my best running theory. That said 2 weeks later, I had a cyano bloom, algae bloom, and about 2-3 weeks before the fish disappeared my elegance started the process of receeding and dieing. and finished dieing during this 4 day period. I tested things out here's the results: Phosphates: (consumed by algae and cyano) tested 0 Nitrates: 5 Water: 1.026 Alk: 8.5 dkh (trying to keep around 10) Calcium: 550 Mag: 1600 Temp: Apex controlled between 76 and 79 Export systems Skimmer: Diablo skimmer half full container of sludge weekly (or more). Growing Chaeto in sump and mangroves, both are growing quite well, remove 3/4 of the chaeto monthly, usually triples in size. Water changes twice monthly of about 20 gallons each. Lighting: 3 Apollo reef LED lighting systems (dimmable with apex), 3 watt per bulb, I have them set to hit 100% and they stay there for about 2-3 hours, then ramp down, between ramp up and down, a total of high lighting for 6-7 hours. Dosing alk (baking soda) and BRS calcium chloride daily controlled with bubble magus. I also have a fair amount of asterina starfish popping up. They started in the sump but have been spreading to the display. Is there some way to identify if some type of choral parasite made it in that only eats elegance and hammer corals? I think I have two issues, the fish die off I suspect was from food competition. The corals were dying or had died prior to the fish dying off. I'm open to criticisms or suggestions!

02/04/2015, 09:25 AM	#2
FraggledRock Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: New York, New York Posts: 2,185	why the continuous ramp up and down? why don't you just ramp up stay at 100% then ramp down? how is there food competition? what is your feeding habit? __________________ “For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.”― Jacques-Yves Cousteau MarineBio.org Current Tank Info: 40 Gallon Breeder w/ Bean Animal Overflow 20G Sump, Mixed Reef.

02/04/2015, 11:07 AM	#6
FraggledRock Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: New York, New York Posts: 2,185	At night your tank is in complete darkness? do you have any Anenome in there? Stray voltage maybe? __________________ “For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.”― Jacques-Yves Cousteau MarineBio.org Current Tank Info: 40 Gallon Breeder w/ Bean Animal Overflow 20G Sump, Mixed Reef.

02/04/2015, 11:12 AM	#8
geemanaz AZ FRAG Club Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 540	Have you cheek see if might have a stray voltage leak. Guy in LFC lost all of his fish and corals due to a voltage leak from his skimmer pump __________________ Sent By Nexus 6 Current Tank Info: Nano In The Wroks

02/04/2015, 10:49 AM	#4
travis32 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: West Fargo, ND Posts: 2,161	Exactly. itz_frank! Thanks. Sorry for the confusion. ramps up stays there then ramps down. normal config, nothing fancy. Moonlights come on for two hours at night. I feed flake food (I'm too lazy to do frozen, probably should though) I generally over feed. My hippo tang is a fricken pig, I"ll put two to three pinches in and he'll beat up other fish to get the food. (push them out of the way and speed swim around the tank to get every last piece). So, I have to flood the tank with food, my clowns are lazy and don't swim for food so, I have to almost target feed them.... I'm actually surprised my clowns survived with limited to no food... They don't eat off the rocks, everyone else does. Lots of film and fuzzy algae the tangs eat off of, the wrasse eats whatever it finds on the rocks, etc. Anyways, do elegance and hammer corals have special requirements that are beyond raising SPS corals? I'm boggled by their die off.

02/04/2015, 11:05 AM	#5
Compliance Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Posts: 144	euphillia corals can succumb to brown jelly disease (I believe that's the name) Was there a noticable brownish bubble surrounding the polyps at any point?

02/04/2015, 11:08 AM	#7
travis32 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: West Fargo, ND Posts: 2,161	Not that I noticed. The only thing I noticed with the hammer is that a fish died and the corpse landed in the hammer. The hammer ate the corpse before I could get it out. Then within 2 -3 weeks the hammer was dieing. I noticed after the Elegance died I found a cardinal corpse half eaten. Can eating fish cause corals to die? I thought they liked meaty foods.... Fatal indigestion??

02/04/2015, 11:23 AM	#9
travis32 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: West Fargo, ND Posts: 2,161	I did have one that I could actually feel before all this happened.. that was in my sump and my sump is around 60 feet from my display. So, most of it dissipated before hitting the display, but, I removed the source of the leak. I don't physically feel any voltage now, but, I haven't tested for stray voltage.