Chemical Problem?

ooja3k · #1 12/03/2007, 02:13 AM

Hey, I think we may have a problem...

Last night after we acclimated everything it all looked great! This morning however, our zoanthids aren't looking good at all...

Let me start by letting you guys know what we did, and what might have happened...

We picked up two clowns and a feather duster from the LFS last night.

We floated the clowns and the duster.

We then put them both in the tank and left the lights off for the rest of the night..

When we got up this morning everything was great! The clowns were vacuuming up the pods and eating the pellets that we feed them. The feather duster was out and enjoying everything!!

Later this morning I went and picked up a small maxijet 400, to replace the small top fin powerhead that we currently have... And I did a 10% wc while I was at it...

That is when everything went downhill...

i had to work on some school work for about 4 hours, and when I returned is when i noticed something wasn't right...

All of our zoas began closing up, and the feather duster went bye bye... Everything else is fine, our Palythoas and GSP are perfect, its just the zoas that shriveled up and then closed... It was really weird. And the feather duster will occasionally come out, but then just close back up...

I thought the powerhead might be leaking voltage or something so I put our old top fin back in.. That didn't work...

I though more about what could be happening to the zoas and then I thought wow, the carbon hasn't been replaced in a while.. So i replaced the carbon...

They are still closed...

What should I do??

I am currently at my girlfriends house and all i can test is:

Ammo - 0
Trites - 0
Trates - 0
ph - 8.2
temp - 80
SG - 1.025

btw this is my girlfiends 10gal nano that has been setup for around 2+ months...

Blown 346 · #2 12/03/2007, 04:29 AM

What type of lighting? Alos with any new addition, the fish corals should be acclimated. Floating the bags to get the temp up isnt enough. The water quality and salinity can be different from the LFS to your tank. Everything should be acclimated to tempo and water.

The best way to do this is to do the drip method like an I.V.
Get airline hose, start a siphon with it. Tie it in a knot until the water drips 2 or 3 times a second. Get the corals and fish in seperate bowls etc with all the water fromt he bag to make sure there is enought to cover the fish coral.
Drip acclimate for an hour before lett ign them into the tank. When doing so never put any water fromt he bags into your tank. Net the fish and place in the tank, grab the coral and place in the tank

Racing1 · #3 12/03/2007, 05:40 AM

Could be the water change also. You should have done that before introducing the new livestock... How long did you mix it? Should be at least 24 hours... Hope everything makes it o.k.

ooja3k · #4 12/03/2007, 01:11 PM

Ya i drip acclimate all inverts... I probably should have dripped the feather duster. While floating the bags i would add a small amount of tank water to the bags to try to achieve the same thing.

The tank had been fallow following a black ich problem for like 6-7 weeks... During this time, I really slacked on water changes.. I was always testing the water and it was always perfect. I didn't have calc or alk tests, those are at my house...

Im wondering if my wc that I did suddenly added a bunch of minerals and trace elements that had been depleted into the tank and threrw everything off... is this possible?

otiso777 · #5 12/03/2007, 02:14 PM

They could just be acclimating to the new tank and also to the new lighting that they are exposed to. Is your lighting similar to the lights used at the store?

Also the stress of the move could be causing your zoanthids to remain closed. It has taken almost a week for some of my zoas to open up after acclimation.

A 10% water change probably didn't cause your problem as long as the water was mixed for at least 24 hours.

Gdevine · #6 12/03/2007, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by otiso777
They could just be acclimating to the new tank and also to the new lighting that they are exposed to. Is your lighting similar to the lights used at the store?

Also the stress of the move could be causing your zoanthids to remain closed. It has taken almost a week for some of my zoas to open up after acclimation.

A 10% water change probably didn't cause your problem as long as the water was mixed for at least 24 hours.

^^^^^What this person said^^^^^

sm51498 · #7 12/03/2007, 02:58 PM

using chlorinated tap water can do this. I've made that mistake before.

ooja3k · #8 12/03/2007, 03:33 PM

ohh... Im sorry...

The zoanthids have been in the tank for a month or so.. Its only when i did a WC and added two clowns and a feather duster that they closed all up...

I use RO/DI water mixed with reef crystals for my wc's. it was mixed for about a day and brought up to the temp of the tank before doing the wc.