Changed Filter Media - Everything looks pissed.

[reeferx2]

On Monday, I performed my usual water change and went ahead and did my 3 month filter media refresh. Almost all of my coral has looked pissed off since then and I can't wrap my head around it. I have noticed this strange pattern on the top of my tank glass which I have tried to capture in a few of the photos below. Also attached some pics of my pissed coral.

 

Here's the skinny:

 

6 gallon Fluval Edge

Tank has been up for a year now and all coral has been consistently happy.

Coral: zoas, mushrooms, some LPS, and one SPS - which doesn't want to polyp now.

Media is chemipure blue, sponge filter and bio-max.

Water parameters are all perfect, calcium was a little low so I dosed today.

 

What can I do besides ride this out?

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[GrandLotus]

Is your media tumbling to much or did you add in to much carbon/GFO?

 

Did you get all the 'fines' out of your media before running her on your tank?

 

Have you tested your salinity?

 

Trying to get some of the basics out of the way since they were not provided in original post.

[reeferx2]

Media is the same as always...standard fluval edge sponge and bio-max but with a bag of chemipure blue in lieu of regular carbon.

 

I always rinse my new media wit old water from the tank.

[ajmckay]

My guess is that the filter media had become a significant part of your biological filtration...

 

With so much flow it could grow a very dense bacterial film (compared to your LR) so when you clean them too much or replace then your system could take a hit and not be able to process waste as well.

 

Have you tested ammonia or nitrite since the issue? It may have only been small and for a little bit but even that would piss off corals for anywhere from a few hours to a day or 2.

 

Regarding the strange patterns - those look like snail tracks.

[reeferx2]

My ammonia was at zero and I didn't bother testing for nitrite because of that. But I guess it couldn't hurt to check that out.

[reeferx2]

Sooooo nitrite is at zero too. This really stinks. Hope it just passes in a few days.

[HarryPotter]

Sooooo nitrite is at zero too. This really stinks. Hope it just passes in a few days.

Take out chemipure blue? If nutrients are that low I wouldn't use it.

[Benny314]

Looks like the gunk might be residue off of some new media, did you rinse it in old tank water before adding it to get rid of fines as already suggested.

Also as already mentioned, changing all media at once is a bad move, it often becomes a major bacteria support system and you have just removed all that bacteria in one hit.

Change up your routine and change half of the media one month, and the other half the next. Should lessen the impact of changing it all at once.

[reeferx2]

That really does make a lot of sense. Going to have to just change one or the other from now on. As for my tanks health I really hope it just passes. I have one colony of zoos melting at a ridiculous rate.

[Benny314]

That's the biggest draw back to a tiny tank, any minor change is a massive impact on such a small volume of water.

Maybe try some 10% water changes daily for a week just in case it is a contamination issue. Make sure you stir anything that may have settled on the corals up so you can suck it out in the water changes.

[Benny314]

I've just had a proper look at your pictures, that looks like an algae bloom on the top glass, you can see where snails have been eating it. Again a sign your nitrite and nitrate have spiked, but it may not be contamination which is good.

Also I take it your toping off your tank with RO/none salt water to compensate for evaporation?

If not every water change will be making your tank saltier.

[reeferx2]

Yea I top off with RO almost daily. The brown algae that you're seeing is actually only directly underneath where my custom lighting fixture lays on the top glass. This is the first time I'm seeing this also, it's never happened before.

[reeferx2]

update as of this afternoon,

 

Just about everything but my zoas and SPS are back to normal. Really frustrating as those colonies were just beginning to really take off and grow in my tank.

 

I get how changing all my media at once wasn't the best of ideas, but with no changes in my water parameters I really can't understand why this happened, I still have an abundance of pods on my glass and all that good stuff. My friend even gave me an unwanted Galxea last night and it opened right up!!