lost almost all my corals:(

jellygirl · 01/03/2008, 10:01 AM

I'm pretty new to to saltwater i HAD a 39g w/ lr, tomato clown, brittlestar, and a good amount of coral. This was all before 12/15/07 when i went out of town on vacation and left my tank in the care of my boyfriends mom. When i came home on x-mas day I find about 75% of my corals are dead. I was very clear that she really didnt need to do alot to the tank just top off the water, feed my fish, the lights were on a timer, for no reason should she put anything in the tank, and if something did seem wrong to call a friend of mine. Well i come home and she has ran out of top-off water and my salinity was .031 and that scared me and the temp was about 75.8, everything else was normal. I was told high salinity and low temp wouldn't have killed off everything yea it would have been bad and they wouldn't be happy but it wouldn't have killed them. The funny thing is all the ones that died were pretty hardy. I had bubble coral, huge hairy mushroom, moon coral, hairy mushroom rock, fungia, caulastrea, 2 trachyphyllia, and some zoo's all die. My mushroom rock is recovering everything else is completely gone, but my frogspawn, birdsnest, zoo colony, 1 shroom, clown, and brittlestar are all happy. I figured maybe something got in the tank but wouldn't my birdsnest have been the first to go. Anyone have any ideas?

Fish_wiz2 · 01/03/2008, 10:16 AM

I think the SG really stressed them (and killed) but i need to know how long that was because if the high salinity lasted long it would have been R.I.P tank.

jellygirl · 01/03/2008, 10:24 AM

when i let my tank looked great all my corals were happy and the salinity was about .023 and everything looked fine. I was gone 10 days in total and i left a decent amount of topoff water so there is really no way for me to know how long the salinity was high. What really had me confused is my birdsnest was still alive and looked fine along with my fish and brittlestar.

taillonjohn · 01/03/2008, 10:41 AM

ya, that seems funny, but who knows, maybe she wanted to be nice to you and clean your place spraying lysol cleaner stuff all over.... it could be anything, and she might not be aware of it

Sk8r · 01/03/2008, 11:04 AM

The frog is tough. The others---delicate as a birdsnest may be, they are a near-surface type stony, capable of tolerating tropic rainstorms that may radically change the salinity for several feet down; and tides that may expose the reef.

How to recover from this:

Automate as much as possible. Get an autotopoff system from autotopoff.com. Connect it to an old salt bucket from your lfs, filled with ro/di water. That will take care of ANy need for topoff for a week or so. DO learn how to set up that system: the night before you leave is too risky.

Second: your fish will not starve in one week, nor even two. They endure that during capture and shipping, no problem if well-fed in general.

Third: keep your fish load very low if you travel a lot. That way if you have power problems your tank will get through.

Tell your fish sitter to do NOTHING, and only to come to your place if there has been a power outage. Tell her be sure the pumps are running, and to phone you if not. Period. Then you can tell her specific steps to take.

I hope you find a better fish sitter.

You can also take the power backup from your computer system and connect it to your main pump and topoff while you're gone. This can save your tank. The smaller pump of a 29 ought to get quite a few hours of running off that source.

01/03/2008, 10:01 AM	#1
jellygirl Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: north carolina Posts: 69	lost almost all my corals:( I'm pretty new to to saltwater i HAD a 39g w/ lr, tomato clown, brittlestar, and a good amount of coral. This was all before 12/15/07 when i went out of town on vacation and left my tank in the care of my boyfriends mom. When i came home on x-mas day I find about 75% of my corals are dead. I was very clear that she really didnt need to do alot to the tank just top off the water, feed my fish, the lights were on a timer, for no reason should she put anything in the tank, and if something did seem wrong to call a friend of mine. Well i come home and she has ran out of top-off water and my salinity was .031 and that scared me and the temp was about 75.8, everything else was normal. I was told high salinity and low temp wouldn't have killed off everything yea it would have been bad and they wouldn't be happy but it wouldn't have killed them. The funny thing is all the ones that died were pretty hardy. I had bubble coral, huge hairy mushroom, moon coral, hairy mushroom rock, fungia, caulastrea, 2 trachyphyllia, and some zoo's all die. My mushroom rock is recovering everything else is completely gone, but my frogspawn, birdsnest, zoo colony, 1 shroom, clown, and brittlestar are all happy. I figured maybe something got in the tank but wouldn't my birdsnest have been the first to go. Anyone have any ideas?

01/03/2008, 10:41 AM	#4
taillonjohn Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 753	ya, that seems funny, but who knows, maybe she wanted to be nice to you and clean your place spraying lysol cleaner stuff all over.... it could be anything, and she might not be aware of it __________________ John

01/03/2008, 11:04 AM	#5
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	The frog is tough. The others---delicate as a birdsnest may be, they are a near-surface type stony, capable of tolerating tropic rainstorms that may radically change the salinity for several feet down; and tides that may expose the reef. How to recover from this: Automate as much as possible. Get an autotopoff system from autotopoff.com. Connect it to an old salt bucket from your lfs, filled with ro/di water. That will take care of ANy need for topoff for a week or so. DO learn how to set up that system: the night before you leave is too risky. Second: your fish will not starve in one week, nor even two. They endure that during capture and shipping, no problem if well-fed in general. Third: keep your fish load very low if you travel a lot. That way if you have power problems your tank will get through. Tell your fish sitter to do NOTHING, and only to come to your place if there has been a power outage. Tell her be sure the pumps are running, and to phone you if not. Period. Then you can tell her specific steps to take. I hope you find a better fish sitter. You can also take the power backup from your computer system and connect it to your main pump and topoff while you're gone. This can save your tank. The smaller pump of a 29 ought to get quite a few hours of running off that source. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

01/03/2008, 10:16 AM	#2
Fish_wiz2 Mangroves are kool. Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Chicago Posts: 5,246	I think the SG really stressed them (and killed) but i need to know how long that was because if the high salinity lasted long it would have been R.I.P tank.

01/03/2008, 10:24 AM	#3
jellygirl Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: north carolina Posts: 69	when i let my tank looked great all my corals were happy and the salinity was about .023 and everything looked fine. I was gone 10 days in total and i left a decent amount of topoff water so there is really no way for me to know how long the salinity was high. What really had me confused is my birdsnest was still alive and looked fine along with my fish and brittlestar.