tank pics with story...I need immediate help

[jacko]

So, I finally finished my sump / fuge / SCWD / MAG 9.5 project this week. My plan was to show some pics tonight, but I came home to a dying tank. I'll still show some pics of the sump set-up because I am really happy it is physically working. But, unfortunately, nearly every coral of mine is dead or dying. This is a major problem. As soon as I got home, I tossed a bunch of carbon in the overflow. I just about doubled the water volume with the new sump this week. (from about 25 gallons to about 50). And I introduced the new water about 2 days ago, but the corals dies today. After adding the carbon tonight: Salinity = 35 ppt, Ca++ = almost 400, Alk = 2.4 meq/L, nothing seems wrong with the levels. My best guess is some silicone (GE silicone II), glue (Quicktite with cyanoacrylate), or cement (Craftics #33 with methylene chloride) did not dry adequately and some toxin got in the water. HAS ANYONE HAD PROBLEMS WITH THIS??? My only other guess is RTN, which of course is not a good guess because I have no clue what causes this, and the fact that this plague occured with the new set-up can not just be a coincidence. So, please advise me with any suggestions: reasons why, or actions I should take. Enjoy the pics, sorry the photos are not all focused (point & shoot dig. camera) and I have no where to upload them, so they are all attachments. Lastly, I'll be going away skiing this weekend, so I'll miss you at the frag swap (not that I could have given you anything) and the tank will be on auto-pilot this weekend.

1st pic is the stand with 'fuge below.

[jacko]

2nd & 3rd shots are the sump behind the stand

[jacko]

3rd - sump & pump

[jacko]

tank / fuge / sump

[jacko]

overflow

[jacko]

full tank

[jacko]

clowns

[jacko]

decent shot

[jacko]

Top -- the lower left coral was a green digitata -- MARCO -- remember giving me this baby frag in Arpil 2003 ?

[jacko]

Marco -- here is that green digi again

[jacko]

center of tank
frogspawn - receded & shrivvled

[jacko]

clam not open very much

[jacko]

top shot -- notice the dead green bali slimer frag
the dead orange digitata
the dead purple digitata
The dead pink stylopora (sorry Bec)

[jacko]

the pink birdsnest looks okay, but I can see white forming....
Bec, look at the growth!!!

[jacko]

dead orange & purple digi
frogspawn -- receded a lor, bleaching, was about to split both heads.....not dead yet

[skyedolphan]

Jacko !st shots all look good
2nd sorry to here about your tragedy when it is all figured out and set right again let me know I will help to restock with whatever I can:)

[jacko]

that's it for tonight
thanks for any suggestions you may have

this just sucks. I was so proud of my tank last night & this morning.

[moe_k]

I'd recommend pulling what you can and housing it either in a QT tank or with friends.
I dunno what coulda caused it, wish I could help Jack.

[wrassefan]

jacko,
can you give some info on how you added the new water? how fast (over what period of time)? Salinity 35ppt?? What is the ph?? Temp??

[jacko]

yeah, i don't believe the new water caused this. I say this because i added the new water 2 or 3 days ago, & corals all died today. so, I rinsed all the of the new hardware with 10 gallons fresh water overnight 2 or 3 nights ago, and i was able to remove 5 gallons. I then added 20 more gallons, and the salt, and the heaters, i let it all circulate for over 15 hours.....the temp matched the tank (80), the salinity matched (36 at the time), I did not check the pH of the tank then nor pH of the new water. And after that 15 hour circulation / mixing, i just let it rip -- i turned on the overflow, and SCWD, put the tank in-line. all at once. fast-like. no problem with livestock (they were a little uncomfortable, new smells, new Calcium and alkalinity, etc... but no death.) then i had the leaking and the overflow i did not trust it, 2 days ago and yeststerday and last night, so i re-glued and cemented......let dry for 6 hrs over last night.... and i put the system in line without a fresh rinse this morning.

[Marco67]

Man Jack that's hard to read, sorry to hear it. I agree with moe pul as much as you can and get it safe while you finger it out.

[Scott Merrill]

jacko,
if you want to get some water. i can pull 30g out of my tanks and send it your way....
may not solve the problem but it may help with the qt tank.
i had this happen not too long ago.
mine was related to PH alk and CA.
cursed media in my reactor.
:mad2:

[wrassefan]

Please excuse my ignorance but what is salinity at 36ppt equate to on a refractometer or swing arm? I know salinity only as 1.0xx?? i.e 1.025.

[jack fors]

Wrassefan if you look on your swing arm it should have a ppt scale next to salinity. I think 35ppt is target range for reef tanks.

[wrassefan]

Thanks.

[jciwlsn]

oh no, jacko, if there is anything you need let me know. I live in NH so can help you out with anything you need. Hang in there.

[reefnroll]

Jack -

If you were going to be in town, I would recommend water changes over the next few days... along with the carbo you're already running.

Unofrtunately, sometimes its tough to tell what causes these freak incidents, though you're probably on to something with the chemicals... who knows? MOst important thing is ti dilute the problem and, as Moe suggested, get stuff into another tank if/when possible.

This stinks.

b

[jacko]

wrassefan - NSW is 36 ppt, and I prefer the use of ppt to specific gravity because it is completely independent of temperature.

I'll be able to do water changes next week, as necessary.

I also tossed all the xenia out of the tank, because it had been shrivveling up over the last week.......it had not died yet, but it was heavily stressed by too much flow. It could be that xenia released a lot of its junk into the tank.

The morning, the LPS were looking a little better: 90% receeded, but the polyps started to puff-up a bit. The softies were all decent, and every SPS is dead (except 2 acro frags).

[reefnroll]

Jack -

I'm so sorry. I'll help with stock when you're ready.

In the mean time... in leiu of water changes if that's not immediately possible, I would beef up the water movement as much as you can. Maybe you could have some new salt water mixing while you're away.. so you can do a huge change when you get back?

b

[jacko]

I talked for a while with Greg Hiller today at work.

We came up with a decent hypothesis:

Yesterday when I left for work I put the kalk-drip in line with the new sump. Yes, I am leading into a story eerily similar to Marc's. I have the Tsunami level-controller, which flips my kalk-pump on and off when the water level rises and drops about 1.5 inches. So I used to have the level controller in the tank. But yesterday, I set it up in the sump. Now the sump has a larger surface area than the tank, so it took quite a bit more kalk to raise the water level up 1.5 inches. So when I was at work yesterday, I added quite a bit more kalk than the tank is used to. I added almost 3 gallons of saturated kalk to about 50 gallons of tank water over the course of the day. Not being used to kalk every day, with so much fresh IO water, the pH probably spiked. I cannot tell how high, my (poor) test kit read 8.2 last night. Luckily the pump shut itself off after 1.5 inches.

[Groove]

I only have one frag, a peach colored finger leather you are welcome to. I am just about to dive into the SPS world. If I had any I'd offer it.

I don't see home brewing in your "interests" profile yet. Have you done any research yet?

The macro you gave me is growing. The halmedia(SP?) is growing extremely quick. The chat(not even going to try naming it)... brillo pad is just starting to grow.