Tank is crashing...

[vresor]

I came home today to cloudy water in my BC14. Calcium, alkalinity, salinity, pH, temperature and flow are right where they have been for almost three years. The Zoas and Green Star Polyps were all out, the Fire Shrimp was active and the clam was open, but the huge Orange Monti cap looks gray and the torch is all sucked in. The mushrooms are sucked in too and the Candy Cane heads look about half their usual size.

 

"A big water change," I thought. When I shut the pump down I quickly noticed a sheen on the surface, like an oil slick. Only the usual detritus came up in the siphon tubes. I put a bag of carbon in chamber 2. Six gallons of new water later here I am typing.

 

What might have gone wrong? My girls say nothing went into (or out of) the tank today. The other tank (Solana) looks fine and unchanged. Both tanks get virtually the same maintenance, make-up water, percent water changes, etc. I'm stumped.

[aquariumdude]

Check your ammonia if you haven't already. You most likely have a algae bloom going on in the tank. Have you introduced fish lately or changed something? Also are you running a rio pump? Those things are bad around leaking oil like stuff in tanks. It is a reason I'll never buy a rio. I've been electrocuted by countless rio pumps that the seals go bad where the electrical cord goes into the pump.

[vresor]

It's been about three hours since the water change and while the water is definitely less cloudy, everything still looks very stressed. My huge Monti cap looks "thin" in places, almost as if tissue is gone and the calcium carbonate skeleton is thin enough to see through. Very sad. The Cyphastrea looks tight and pulled in too.

 

No new fish, corals or physical changes at all. Of course I don't have an ammonia test kit (any more). The tank has been up for three years. Contaminant-wise, all I can think is that some kitchen counter grease or skunge got on my arm or maybe the glass scraper and then into the tank. The tank sits on our kitchen counter, but well away from the stove and sink.

 

I've never used a Rio pump, but I did upgrade the stock BC14 to a MJ900. That was a year or so ago though.

[Hammcd]

i had a similar occurance recently and i found out that some of my cheatoh had broken off and clogged my return pump...maybe check the return pump and make sure its not clogged and the flow is where its suppose to be

[vresor]

The ball of Chaeto is all still contained in chamber 2 and the pump is putting out what looks like normal flow. The water level has been right on target for months.

[Daleo]

Take a paper towel and lay it on the surface of the water. Just enough to absorb the "oil" appearance. I would also run a low micron mechanical filter if you aren't already in addition to the carbon.

 

The only other thing you can really do is another waterchange tomorrow...

[aquariumdude]

Take a paper towel and lay it on the surface of the water. Just enough to absorb the "oil" appearance. I would also run a low micron mechanical filter if you aren't already in addition to the carbon.

 

The only other thing you can really do is another waterchange tomorrow...

 

+1.

 

I wish you luck and hope everything survives.

[vresor]

I didn't think of the paper towel trick; thanks Daleo. I do have filter fabric across the cover of chamber 2 and am making DI water for another water change tomorrow.

 

And thanks for the wishes Dude. My fingers are crossed.

[Lawnman]

Are your corals slimed up?Sounds like a chemical warfare chain reaction to me.Run the carbon and plan on doing some daily water changes.

[Squared]

maybe your algea went asexual? even though the whole reason cheato is used in fuges is because it dosn't reproduce often, it can happen, i think... my halimeda did that, water became very clould, but my corals and fish and shirmp were perfectly fine...

 

just an idea. Good luck.

[Lawnman]

maybe your algea went asexual? even though the whole reason cheato is used in fuges is because it dosn't reproduce often, it can happen, i think... my halimeda did that, water became very clould, but my corals and fish and shirmp were perfectly fine...

 

just an idea. Good luck.

I recall your thread a few weeks back.

[vresor]

The corals aren't sliming at all. It's really quite the opposite. I've seen sliming when my water change temperature is off. This is more of a sucked in look. And the Monti cap looks tissueless and thin. Look at the white patch on the Cypastrea. To the naked eye that looks like missing tissue, but through the macro lens it looks like a layer of white stuff.

[d9hp]

The corals aren't sliming at all. It's really quite the opposite. I've seen sliming when my water change temperature is off. This is more of a sucked in look. And the Monti cap looks tissueless and thin. Look at the white patch on the Cypastrea. To the naked eye that looks like missing tissue, but through the macro lens it looks like a layer of white stuff.

 

 

Are you able to mix your own water? I'd go ahead and mix 2x your tank volume to have on hand.

 

There's really NOTHING keeping you from doing 2 50% water changes in a single day spaced 8-10 hours apart. That might REALLY save things if its chemical warfare or anything else in the water.

[Squared]

Now that I think of it, it probaly isn't your algea. I have euphyllia and caulastrea in my tank, and they were fine with the clould water. Maybe you should move your livestock to your solona, before everything else starts looky crumy.

[vresor]

I thought of that, but haven't yet because I thought I should contain the problem rather than spread it to the other tank. Now that the lights are off I can see that the Monti cap is almost completely dead. How can it go from a huge, happy coral the size of a cantaloupe to a bare white skeleton in a matter of hours? And might all that death cause the ammonia to spike and the water to cloud?

 

I am mixing water and will do another 50% change in the morning. It's all quite disappointing.

[vresor]

I did some more comprehensive water chemistry testing and everything came back normal. My alkalinity was a little low, but exactly where it has been for three years. Ammonia was zero, nitrite was zero and nitrate was a trace. Yes, I've done two 50% water changes in ten hours, but if it was an ammonia spike, there would still be plenty of ammonia to show up on a test. I'm still stumped. This afternoon the water is cloudier than ever, the affected corals look deader than ever, and the unaffected corals, fish, crustaceans and molluscs look as good as ever. WTF?

[monosyth]

This is a mystery for sure. I wonder if there is something in the water that is undetectable to kits?

[Gromit1710]

If I were you, I would change out everything in chambers 1, 2 and 3.

 

It really sounds like something unnatural is happening with the water in your tank. Something that noticeable is more than a little trickle of chemical warfare or an accidental drop of something in your tank when you weren't around. ( and no one would dare admit )

 

I would start by running out and getting a new pump and return hose to rebuild chamber 3. Then, if you have a heater, get a new one of those in there too. Replace all your filter media and rinse off whatever you have holding them in chamber two with fresh water. Dry completely before putting back in the tank. I would take your Cheato ball and chop in down to 1/8 the size it is now. Water change like a mo-fo for a while until everything stabilizes.

[vresor]

The unnatural thing is the best fit Gromit. And no one would dare to admit dumping something into the tank, although they assure me they didn't. Scary thought. As part of my water changes I've pulled out everything from the back chambers and wiped it down. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. I now have just a tennis ball size Chaeto, a bag of carbon, the pump and its intake sponge, the heater and pH and temperature sensors. Another 50% water change is due this afternoon.

[vresor]

Everything was substantially worse when I got home this afternoon. I rescued what I could in quarantine buckets with heat, circulation and fresh mixed water. The 14 is sitting on the patio waiting for a hose out tomorrow. What a bummer.

[Daleo]

Hope your corals make it. Tank crashes are never fun... I had mine crash about a month ago, but luckily 85% of the coral made it.

[Gromit1710]

I'm real sorry to hear that. Sounds like a nightmare.

[spham24]

i think it was chemical warfare

[vresor]

The plan this morning is to hose out the tank, rinse with fresh salt water, refill (six gallons at a time), and put the live rock, YWG, crustaceans, mollusks and surviving corals back in. It will be barebottom this time, but other than that, no difference. Still no clue what went wrong, so I have the distinct feeling I'm just setting the stage for an encore. The only bright spot is that neither of the overnight buckets developed the cloudy water I saw in the tank. Are there any obvious options I'm missing?

[MikeTR]

cloudy water.. bacteria bloom.. bacteria needs oxygen to survive, it majorly depleted the oxygen out of your tank.. if other parameters were fine, and no stray voltage.. this would be my guess. The other cause for cloudy water is calcium precipitate, but you'd notice white scum on everything.