Reef CRISIS!

[giambi4343]

i have been having a major problem with my 96 gallon reef tank for about a month now. almost every coral in my tank is dying off. my lps, softies, zoas/pays especially. idk why this is happening or how. what happens to the zoas is that they are doing great and looking fine. then all of the sudden they will close up then never reopen. as time goes on, they just litterally melt away. my lps's tissue starts to recede, ending in all the tissue being gone. i have been doing water changes twice a month and really keeping up on track of things. i have even been lokking for a paristite or zoa pox but there is literally nothing! the stange thing too, is both of my clams are doing absolutly fine. i have heard that they are usually the first to go.i have also had an anthias and a cardinal die in the past week. my water quality is as follows:

Phos- 5.0 dosing phosbuster in my tank as we speak
Calcium- 700 its always been high because of the sea salt mix i use
dkh- 8
Nitrates- 0
Nitrites- 0
Salinity- 1.023
Ph- 8.2


i run a protein skimmer 24/7 and have 350 watts MH.

i urgently need help with this one guys. im starting to lose everything. it is spreading like this dang Swine Flu. PLEASE HELP


Here are a few pix

[Packersfan21]

I don't know if it's the phosphate or not but I would clean the sandbed and liverock w/ a turkeybaster followed by a waterchange if you haven't done so already. Any chance of copper or anything like that getting into the tank?

[wegotcrabs]

What Sea salt are you using??

[davewbush]

I'm leaning toward the phos. Are you using ro/di water for changes. What is your Mg at?

[giambi4343]

there is no copper i see at all in the tank. i have siphoned the sand already and have gotten a ton of crap out. it was amazing what i got.

i am using oceanic sea salt mix. that is why the calcium is always a little high.

[nathenvan]

Look into stray voltage, it happened to me couple days ago ( my thread is nolonger available) all of a sudden couple of my sps and lps started dying. I posted here on RC for help, fellow reefers here on RC suggested that it might be stray voltage leaking into my tank. I unplugged couple pumps and heaters, and eventually I hit the nail on the head. It was a small pump that was feeding my phoshate reactor. Small but mighty in a way of leaking stray voltage into the tank. I have since removed the pump and my tank is slowly but surely recovering from the incident. I lost couple pieces of SPS but it was a great lesson for me in reef keeping. Anyway look into stray volt, try to unplug one thing at a time and see how it goes. Good luck

P.S. Big thanks to RC for saving my 65 mix reef. I was not able to find the original thread that I posted. THANKS again!!!!!

[giambi4343]

i use regular tap water and i use slime coat to get the chlorine out. where can i get other water to use. my closest pet store is 30 min away and its a petsmart.

[GSMguy]

Wallmart distilled or Drinking water

any Distilled water from the grocery store.

the slime coat and tap water plan just wont work.

the other option is to buy an RO/DI unit.

[svb57]

Cal too high, ALK and Mg too low my guess.......

[giambi4343]

ok ill do distilled water than. can afford a RO unit as of now. ill try that my next water change.

[giambi4343]

do you seriusly think its the tap water thats doing it? cuz im really worried right now

[Crazy4Coral]

Your calcium is way to high it needs to be around 450 when your calcium is to high it will drop your alkalinity to low. You need to check your alkalinity level. I dont think your salt mix will give you that high of level of calcium you may want to check your tap water.

[daudelus]

Have you retested your parameters with different kits? 700 Calcium is an amazingly high number!

[snorvich]

Originally posted by GSMguy
Wallmart distilled or Drinking water

any Distilled water from the grocery store.

the slime coat and tap water plan just wont work.

the other option is to buy an RO/DI unit.

Yes, I am almost your water is the problem. Tap water won't work in a reef tank. However, you also MUST use a calibrated refractometer for measuring specific gravity (salinity). I would move closer to 1.0264

[Ohiomom]

Beg to differ with the tap water..just from my personal experience..everyone says it won't work but I have wonderful water quality in my tank, extremely clear, no algea and at least 10 diff types of coral with no issues for over three years..so would look for something else also..

At one point had tried running some GFO cause someone had told me it would be easier to keep my corals "happy". Seriously took it out in less than two weeks cause everything started "shrinking". All back to normal now thank goodness..perked up and splitting again.

[Ohiomom]

p.s. if you have a dsb..not a great idea to "stir" the sand except the very top layer..releases lots of nasty stuff.

[daudelus]

Originally posted by Ohiomom
Beg to differ with the tap water..just from my personal experience..everyone says it won't work but I have wonderful water quality in my tank, extremely clear, no algea and at least 10 diff types of coral with no issues for over three years..so would look for something else also..

At one point had tried running some GFO cause someone had told me it would be easier to keep my corals "happy". Seriously took it out in less than two weeks cause everything started "shrinking". All back to normal now thank goodness..perked up and splitting again.

Then again, it wouldn't be a good idea to generalize that all tap water is okay to use, because TDS in various tap water supplies can vary from very low to very high.

[andrew0125]

its your tap water no doubt...the money your throwing away fighting your problem could be saved for a r/o unit which is essential for a reef. if you continue using tap you will fight this for ever.tap water varies from month to month city to city..bottom line it just wont work for reef...sorry for your loss but i bet you learn from this.

[JEFFR259]

Originally posted by Ohiomom
Beg to differ with the tap water..just from my personal experience..everyone says it won't work but I have wonderful water quality in my tank, extremely clear, no algea and at least 10 diff types of coral with no issues for over three years..so would look for something else also..

I agree with you here Ohiomom. I ran tap for the first 8 months my tank was up. Alot of reefers say it's an absolute no-no and that the tank is doomed. IMHO, the biggest drawback to tap is that you will eventually and ALWAYS be fighting some type of nuisance algae due to phosphate and silicate counts. I used PRIME on my tap water to help it out, but I eventually broke down and did buy a RO/DI unit.

Am I glad I did?

YES! I noticed a general tank improvement even just 2 weeks later after using RO/DI for top offs and water changes. I paid under $200 for a great RO/DI from www.melevsreef.com, and if I wouldn't have spent the little bit of extra money on it, I would have spent way more over time on Prime and battles with nuisance algaes and the such


Originally posted by Ohiomom

At one point had tried running some GFO cause someone had told me it would be easier to keep my corals "happy". Seriously took it out in less than two weeks cause everything started "shrinking". All back to normal now thank goodness..perked up and splitting again.

What you most likely experienced with the GFO is an initial overdosing of the quantity of GFO. GFO amount must slowly be added to the system, more or less an acclimation eventually working up to a full strength dosage of GFO.

[chimmike]

water for one, lights for another. I'm running 500w in a 75g and that may not be enough.

Those zoas are long/stretched like that because they're looking for light. Also, that's a sign to me that you don't have much flow in the tank. What ph's are you using?

[Ohiomom]

Originally posted by daudelus
Then again, it wouldn't be a good idea to generalize that all tap water is okay to use, because TDS in various tap water supplies can vary from very low to very high.

Never did generalize..said in my personal experience..and yes my water may be the exception..but it works for me..I can truly say I have not had any algea problems aside from the initial cycle period. I also have wonderful coraline growth.

The only other time I had a very minimal cyano outbreak was when I canged substrates a year back and went away on its own in less than a month.

Thanks for the gfo info..

[Anemonebuff]

I am in NY and the water is loaded with phosphates and silicates. I am sure NJ is no better. If you plan on buying and lugging gallons of water from Pathmark home you are insane. Get the RO/DI system and it will pay for itself in three months. You will spend over a $1.00 a gallon for DISTILLED water, then you need to waste gas and transport it home.

[Shawnbeaulieu]

my tap water can test fine one week and HORRID the next. you dont have control of what they add to the water floride choline other stuff they use to kill off stuff to make it "safe to drink" RO/DI is one of the BEST investments.

[SnowManSnow]

the tap water thing is debatable, depending on WHERE you live and WHAT your local treatment plant puts into the water. I'm sure it can work out for some people, but as a general rule I think it's safe to say that tap water is a huge gamble that isn't worth taking. It's kinda like running a tank with no skimmer. Yes it CAN be done, but the stakes are too high and the variables too many.

[kyle1284]

calicum and phos... do some big waterchanges with aged water