[B&KSpaghettiOs]

Hello, we are seeking assistance on behalf of Brandon's brother, whose 120 gal reef tank is experiencing a meltdown. The tank was doing great, then he installed a 10 gal refugium and did a 20% water change. Shortly after, all his turbo snails died and most of the corals followed suit. He did numerous water changes to try and fix it but with no results. The pH is running at 8.2, salinity = 1.024, alkalinity = 3, and the temp is about 78-79 degrees farenheit. Everything is slowly dying and now red slime algae is starting to cover all of the live rocks, where previously there was none. He used tap water from the town reservoir which we know to be less than optimal, so we think that might be a possible cause; however, we're at a loss to figure out why this crash occurred so suddenly when everything was going great before. We would really appreciate any help or information you could provide us because he is giving up hope and we don't want him to. Plus, it would be a shame to let all of those beautiful corals go to the great big ocean in the sky. PLEASE HELP!!!!

Thank you!

[e_baer]

How long has the tank been st-up? What kind of coral is dying? soft coral, lps, sps, etc...


The alkalinity could definately be a bit higher. If I had to guess why the tank crashed, I would have to say something with the water. Do you use a skimmer? If so, what kind? Also, when you do water changes, so you match the SG, PH, temp, etc exactly? Doing a 20% water change can be detrimental if everything does not line up properly. I would go to your local store and get RO/DI water. I know in my area you can get it at walmart for about 70 cents a gallon. If you have any pictures, that would really help!



Oh, and welcome to RB! Hope everything works out for you.

[unclejed]

HI, after giving this some thought, I would need to know exactly what was put in the refugium. I am leaning that way as that was a (for lack of better wording) "drastic" change to the water cycle. If you provide that info I will be happy to try and diagnose the trouble along with others here.

[ianizaguirre]

it could be he dident use an aquerium safe silicon on the 10 gallon if it was a do it yourself

[B&KSpaghettiOs]

Thank you guys for your replies!

ianizaguirre- he didn't use any silicone for the refugium, just superglue, which we were told by the guy who owns our local aquarium store is perfectly reef safe.

UncleJed- he put 10 lbs of LS and 5 lbs of cured LR in the refugium that was recycled from the previously established tank, and a "baseball - sized" ball of cheato, along with a coulple of turbo snails.

Ebaer- the 120 gal tank has been set up since March of this year, but all of its contents were transferred from a 55 gal that was set up for a year before he got the 120. All of his soft and LPS corals are dying. All of the levels were matched up perfectly, so it can't be that, and he said when we asked him again that the alk is actually a bit higher than 3 (3.6-ish?). As for the skimmer, he uses a JEBO 520 in his sump tank.


We are going to pick up some distilled water today, hopefully our walmart has it, and I'll get some pics up soon. I forgot to mention that his fish (4 green chromis, 1 maroon clown, 1 false perc clown, 1 lawnmower)

Also, we were wondering if anyone thinks that one of those water purifiers you hook up to your faucet would work.

thanks again!

[unclejed]

Refugium sounds fine so now to the second guess. Does he dose Iodine and Magnesium? IF so what are the numbers for those. If not testing for Iodine (many don't) and is adding, how much, how often.

[e_baer]

Good point leon about the dosing!

Many people dose even though it is not necessary.

What about the ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels? Also, is he doing them himself oris he going to the lfs to get his water tested?

[demonsquirt]

1 main reason NOT to use unfiltered water is all it takes is one water change with high readings to affect stock. But it might not be the source , sure would be great to rule the source out.But you cant.
Then it could be the addition of the fuge. If new uncured LR or LR was used or any additives where added.

We really need the water readings he test for and there levels to help.

[dinor2]

How is the calcium level? I have just learned from a mistake I made; I was dosing Kalkwasser at night and stopped testing the calcium level. Before I knew it my calcium level was thru the roof too high and therefore threw balance of minerals and ph out of balance and my soft and lps corals were NOT happy, I even lost a blue spot sleeper goby and I had cyano and BAD hair algae until I got this fixed. Took a few weeks of small every other day water changes, every day monitoring of calcium levels along with all the others and finally, calcium is back to normal along with everything else and corals are happy and growing again.

I still think dosing can be very beneficial if not necessary but, as I have learned, you must test your water regularly when dosing anything! Just a thought, hope it gets better soon!

[spanko]

Just tagging along here to see what develops. Sounds to me like the water change with the "tap water from the town reservoir" and the "numerous water changes" with it may be the ultimate cause here.
IMO the RO\DI or distilled water changes in increments of 10 - 20% every couple of days with some heavy wet skimming and the addition of some carbon filtering changed out every 24 - 48 hours would be of assistance here, along with the cessation of any dosing that Brandon may be doing. This all until the tank re-stabilizes some.