what the hell happend?

[spectrum]

Went to bed last night with my reef looking fine, woke up and it looks like a bomb went off in it. Almost all my polyps, corals, etc.
have receded. Fish and other inverts seem to be fine (even my derasa looks normal). This tank is a little over a year old, 65 gallon with another 20 gallon sump, AquaC EV90 skimmer, homebrew calcium reactor. About 50 lbs LR and a 4" dsb.
I only use R0/DI water,
Checked the parameters:

Temp 80
PH 8.29
Alk 3.6
nitrite 0
ammonia 0.25 <--was 0 two days ago
nitrate 2.5
Copper 0



I see that the ammonia elevated in two days but is may be a reflection of what is going on. Even check for stray voltage, none.

Just did a 5 gallon water change and will do another as some as I get enough RO/DI to do one. Any thing else I should check?

[greypet]

Check your o2 level and your buffer levels. Not enough buffer and not enough circulation to the surface could create a high co2 level. Skipton pet in boston will check out your water free if you bring it in. ask for brendan or leo (me). good luck hope the system is hanging in there.

[spectrum]

In searching for an explanation of what happened to my tank I came across the following....

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/2000/feb/newbie/default.asp

This is exactly what happened to my tank, I've been looking for the second half of the article but have yet to find it. I anyone has seen it could youpass along the url.

Thanks,
spectrum