HELP!!!!! My tank blew up...

[KillerReef]

Well not exactly, but I need help ASAP. All of a sudden within 1/2 an hour my tank clouded up big time. I can't even see thru it and the sump is the same way. There is some kind of whitish film/foam floating in the sump. Can someone help please....

Hopefully someone is still up and has a suggestion. I don't want to lose my whole tank. Thanks...

[dattack]

What exactly happened? A little more detail please.

Fish, tank size, pumps?
Did you just add something recently and do you have a refugium where the caluerpa went sexual?
Pump blow up?

[KillerReef]

Everything is working fine. Nothing was added. Tank is 80 gallon, with 5 green chromis, purple tang, blue hippo tang and a flame angel. I did find a big off-whitish glob of something clogging the skimmer. No refugium, no macroalgaes. a bit on the sandbed probably from the new lights(a month ago) and a small amount of what looks like cyano starting on the sandbed.

As far as what happened exactly, I have no idea. I looked at the tank about 8:30 pst, then I came up stairs and then my gf got home about 9:15 and asked what happened. I ran downstairs and saw that the whole tank is cloudy as heck. I can't see into the tank at all.

pumps are a ca 4000 for the return, and 2 cap 800s for circulation in the tank. I have a k2r attached to the tank but everything is working fine.

[dattack]

I am sorry to hear that but you do have a nice tank?
You need to check your water parameters, check all the plugs and powerheads etc.
It could have been a bacterial bloom or if you added calcium, it might have precipitated if there is excess calcium.
The best thing you can do is do a water change and add some carbon.
Make sure no corals got stuck in the powerheads or something died.

[KillerReef]

Thanks for the replies....

I definitely plan on a water change tomorrow. I had planned it for Sunday, but it is now being moved up due to the circumstances. As far as the carbon, I have never used any mech. filtration, just the skimmer in the sump, so I have no idea how to use it in my setup. Where is the best place to put it to get the most water passing thru it? If you look at my website, you can see how my sump is set up.

Thanks again for the help....

[dattack]

I am not really sure what is causing the whitish thing. Have you checked your calcium reactor or the alkalinity of the tank? Calcium can and do precipitate.
If it's a bacterial bloom, it should be resolved in a couple of days.
If you have a sump, just dump some carbon into a nylon bag or pantyhose and throw in into your sump where there is lots of water movement.

[KillerReef]

Well, I would have to believe that it is probably the calcium as you said even though I have always had too low of calcium and have been fighting to get it up, even with the K2R I did add Seachem reef calcium with the topoff water as I do on a weekly basis. The cal level was 380 lst Sunday(my testing day). I didn't check alk at that time. I will check tomorrow with the water change. Do you think my fish and corals will be okay?

Thanks again. This is why I love this site. Almost no matter what time it is I can count on helpful people being around.

[KillerReef]

BTW, that 380 cal reading is coming up from a 300 level as of 2-1-02...HTH

And does the cal level have to be too high to precipitate or does it just do it no matter the level...

[KillerReef]

One last thing, 44 views and only dattack is willing to offer his help? Come on guys you're better than that....

[dattack]

I am not sure how it will affect your corals or fish but make sure to do the water changes slowly because of difference in pH if the alkalinity and calcium precipitate is the problem.

[ixbx]

sounds to me like as snail or something was releasing sperm into the water column. did you notice that the tank kinda smelled bad? Did it kill your skimmer for a while? To bad you didn't look close enough to find the source.

[tendar]

So did you figure out what it was. Like a missing coral or something. You dont have any one else in the house who could have put something in the tank?

[KillerReef]

Nobody else in the house at the time to put something in. My LFS conferred with ixbx about something releasing sperm into the water. He thought possibly a coral. I just can't see how that totally fouled the H2O so much you couldn't see into it at all.

It has since cleared up but I did lose all 5 of my green chromis to it. But the good news if that all my other creatures are fine. The thing that worries me is what's to stop it from happening again?

[saltkreep]

sorry about the scum sucking white stuff.my clams caused a problem like that.almost every other day for three weeks.YES SPERM LOTS OF SPERM.water changes were in order.hope you figure it out



scott

[Nek]

Do you have caulerpa???
Possibly went sexual.

[Nek]

Sorry, just read you have no macros.

[KillerReef]

My question about the whole situation is if it was a coral sperming, I assume it will happen again. Is there anything to help prevent it from happening? It sucks losing the chromis, but to be honest, I was planning on removing them soon anyway, just not this way. I wanted to make room for a couple more fish and I felt my boiload was at its limit.

And if it was enough to kill the chromis, which I thought were hardier than the tangs and angel, how did they get affected but not the others? Everything in my tank is perfectly ok, even all the inverts.

Once again, thank you all for your insight. I greatly appreciate it.

[rdelong]

I've had this clouding happen to me before when adding Seachem Reef Calcium to the tank to make a large adjustment. Seachem Reef Calcium is a Chelated calcium that uses a substrate that is gluconates. Gluconates as it turns out is a food for bacteria. In modest amounts, it causes no problem but in large amounts, it will cause a tremendous bacteria bloom that will cause all of the symptoms you describe. Stop using the Seachem liquid calcium if that's what you're using and go to a powder calcium like Kent Turbo Calcium or Seachem Reef Advantage. Also Kent makes a liquid calcium that is made without gluconates. Keep that Skimmer clean and functioning at max efficiency and hang on for a few days. A water change won't hurt either. Good Luck!!!

[puff the magic fish]

White stuff in the tank. There are three things that I can think of off the top of my head, calcium precipitation, a coral releasing sperm, or a large bacterial bloom.

If it is calcium precipitation, the inhabitants of the tank should be alright. Loss of calcium can cause shock with the PH swing that happens, but it is usually ok.

If something released sperm, it is a bit more urgent to get the water clear again. There are a lot of nutriants in the water which will decompose quickly causing ammonia.

If it is the bacterial bloom, the bacteria consumes so much oxygen that the fish quickly die. I lost an entire tank overnight because of that. (my son poured in Kool-aid before he went to bed)

puff