Tank Crashed, weird waxy white stuff on suction cups

[BOMPH]

On November 3, received a batch of coral. Everything went well, they were open and expanding, until December 3, when I did my monthly water change.

All my coral ( bubble, caulestrea, maze brain, and a zoo colony) died, save for a pair of orange Rics which seem to be fine. The tank is only 4 months old at this point, so I didn't lose alot, but it still irriatates me to no end.

I lost all my snails save for 1, but my cuke, serpent, hermits and clown all seem fine. All the little critters that come out at night are still running around.

I recently did some pump maintenance and noticed that the suction cups had a white waxy film on them that was thick and stuck on there to the point where i had to soak them in hot water and then scrub it off with a toothbrush.

Any ideas what that white stuff could have been, and if it might have been indicative of the cause of the death? Im pretty sure I just screwed something up with the water change, but I dont know what I might have overlooked. RO/DI water, raise temp, mix salt, adjust, aerate, put in tank..... I've done it 100's of times by now.... Ugh.







I ask because I've never noticed it before until the 'crash'

[TippyToeX]

The white build up sounds like calcium deposits. Do you test for Calcium, alkalinity and pH?

As for the crash, your salinity matched perfectly? What of your pH, alk and Ca? Some salt mixing can have big inconsistencies we have to watch for.

[BOMPH]

No, it definitely wasn't ca deposits, because the stuff was 'snotty' in consistency, had the look of a thick white snot uniformly covering only the suction cups on my pumps. there are 12 suction cups total in the tank, all from maxi-jet pump kits.

I wonder if this is not some reaction of the rubber itself to something?

Im sure Maxi-jet rubber suction cups are all over the place, so it's not like i think it is the rubber itself, but it seems weird that the stuff only formed on the rubber, no where else in the tank did i see it, even in the adjacent parts of the plastic frame that the suction cups snap onto.


weird.

[BOMPH]

yes, I check ph during water changes. I never test ca and alk tho in the makeup water, but I do test the water every 3 days and there was no drastic change of either that was not what I saw as the norm for my tanks uptake of either.