Reef Tank dying -- Must be the heat

[Mickey]

Sad days.. I got a phone call at work Tuesday afternoon from my kids that my reef tank looked dead!!!

When I got home, they were right. Brain coral was disintegrating. Trumpet, hammer and bubble corals were tightly withdrawn and looked terrible. Brown mushrooms looked like they were torn open and turned inside out.

Temperature was 84 degrees which is up 4 degrees but prior summers the temp had gotten close to 90 a few times without this problem. Hubby had turned the air conditioning on late that afternoon but I doubt it was on long enough to lower the temp too much so I assume temp got to 84-86 or so.

I immediately turned off the lights. Removed the brain as it looked the worst and moved it to the little tank in the kitchen (after changing a few gallons of water in that tank just in case).

Tested water for ammonia and nitrite just in case one had actually died suddenly earlier in the day and polluted the tank. Both 0. Other parameters also okay. All fish accounted for. Working on water changes now in case that will help.

Interesting enough the nano reef still looks great even though it's temp had also gone up due to the heat.

I just can't figure it out and now I'm very depressed. Maybe I don't want a bigger tank and metal halides after all. :sad1:

Hopefully I'll have better news by Saturday.

[Dazed1]

Sorry to hear about your tank :( . The bubble and the mushroom's are wonderful !! This heat has been really terrible !! I've left my a/c on for the last 2 day's, and then the temp is stable at 84 :( .
If you think you might need some space to keep the coral's for a while, i would love helping you out. But I only have a 20G and will keep whatever I can.
Do let me or i guess anyone know if you need any help that way. :)

[mig29]

Mickey...

So sorry to hear about your tank. I know I have been in fear of the heat over the past week or so as well. The shame is that it takes so much time, effort, and money to build the tank you want, and to see it in the condition you describe must be heartbreaking. I suggest you should be named the winner (by default) of any raffles at the CARS meeting so you can restock!

Len

[DEEC77]

Hey Mickeydee

Sorry about your tank. I know it may not help much right now but fill some zip lock bags with ice and float them in you tank it helps keep the temps down in weather like we're having.

Hope all goes well ~DEE~

[pncstod]

Mickey,
We are so sorry to hear about this.

How are things looking today?

[Mickey]

Things are not much better today. Temperature has been back to within 2 degrees of normal since Wednesday. Back to 80 degrees (which is my normal temperature) since Thursday. Bubble and Hammer are still totally withdrawn and look terrible but may pull through as I haven't seen evidence of tissue loss.

The mushrooms are still awful, but they did this a year or so ago and shrunk down to almost nothing then came back so there is hope there.

I just don't know about the Caulastrea. It is so withdrawn you can see the septa in every corallite, but it does seem like I still see small mouths in the center, so perhaps it will pull through.

I hate to lower the temperature more than normal as that may provide more stress, but I figure I'll keep the lights lowered.

The sea mat, brown polyps and zoanthids are fine. So is the piece of colt coral I got from Eric in January. It was only an inch tall then and is 4-5 inches tall now and seems totally unaffected by everything.

I'm going to do another water change and run some carbon tonight. I don't know why I didn't think about running carbon earlier. Just not thinking clearly I guess.

I'll try to take some pictures to share tomorrow.

Mickey

[dburr]

I feel real bad for you.:( I hope it all pulls thru. This heat came so fast and it's a shame all that work can be ended within hours.

If you need anything let me know, my 90 gal is up and connected to the 55 gal sump if you need me to store anything for you.

You may need to keep your temp alittle higher in these summer months so you wont have the temp swings.

See you on sat. My hopes are w/ you.

[ladymagicka]

:sad1: so much heartache, ...maybe i should leave the reef to the ocean...everyone here has sooo much more experience and still trouble... to think I was upset cause my newly piled live rock is falling down on it's own, with yellow water.... so sorry Mickey.......Good luck...too bad a massage wouldn't help them,, that i can do.

[minh_han]

Any update Mickey?

[Mickey]

Well, the bubble seems to be recovering. Bubble vesicles are back to normal looking but it isn't expanding much yet.

Hammer is losing tissue at the ends but the middle looks okay. Not expanding at all but still a bright fluorescent green which I assume means there is hope.

Caulastrea shows one or two corallites are okay but the rest are dead.

Mushrooms are starting to recover but many have selfdestructed and are broken into multiple pieces. The middle seems to have blown out and only the edges are left.

Brain is still in my little tank in the kitchen. Expanding a very little but color is a deep red so I hope that is also a good sign.

I am getting ready to go on vacation for two weeks and I just hope things can stablize by then.

Mickey

[Mickey]

Well, I got back from two weeks on the Cape yesterday and tanks survived.

The hairy mushrooms are almost totally recovered from their meltdown - these guys are amazing! Bubble coral is expanding again as much as ever.

I thought the trumpet coral (Caulastrea sp) was gone but it turns out most of it survived. A few corallites have died but the rest is coming back. Not as nice or expanded as much as before but showing promise.

Looks like the only casualty is the hammer coral. I had hoped that part of it would survive but it is all gone. Very sad...........................

If any one is interested in the pictures of the mushrooms that self destructed I'll post them soon.

Mickey