Coral status after vacation

[nystang]

I returned after a week vacation and some of my corals don't look. They are either closed or not inflated. The worst looking corals are Aussie Torch, Aussie Hammers. Frogspawn which was always very inflated and happy looks much smaller and the tentacles are much shorter and thinner. Other corals looks the same as before I left - Blastos, Acans, Duncan and Octopus frogspawn.

I checked some of the parameters and they are OK.

Salinity 1.026

Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate - 0

Phosphate -0

 

The day before I left I made a 20% WC and I did 18% WC yesterday, after I returned but nothing changed. I also found some amount of green slime algae that i didn't have before the vacation. I was dosing API Algaefix every 3 days since 06.04 and also DR.Tims Waste-Away. So the conditions instead of improving are actually getting worse. I checked the temp for the last 6 days when I was on vacation and the temp was between79.0 - 81.3 with one spike to 81.6. Most of the time the temp was 80.0 - 81.3. I left the food in small containers and as far as I can believe she fed the fish every day as I explained to her. What was changed also was that I added 6 Margarita snails the day before I left, on top of 4 other that I added about 4 days earlier. I found 2 of them dead or actually only the shells.

Yesterday I dipped the Aussie Torch and Aussie hammer in Coral Rx solution for 10 min but it didn't help.

 

Any idea what may be wrong and how I can correct it?

[revaltion131]

I don't know what's wrong but my suggestion for a fix is probably what you'll get. Keep your water chemistry as clean as possible. What is your tank's filtration set up? Is it possible something's old and needs to be replaced?

[nystang]

I only have HOB slimmer working 24/7.

[Dr. Pete]

Sorry to hear this happened to you. I've got a vacation coming up in July and this sort of thing is what I fear may occur. I'm just a noob, but I wonder if chemical warfare is the cause. Is is possible one of your corals is affecting the others? How often were you feeding the torch and hammer? I feed my hammer mysis every 2-3 days. Did you try feeding them? I usually find the tentacles more inflated and extended afterwards. I'm sure you'll get better advice, but these are my initial thoughts. I'm curious myself so I'll be watching for what is recommended.

[nystang]

Here are 2 pics of the torch and hammer. I did WC 2 days ago. Do you think it is safe to do a larger water change today? let's say 40% ?

 

 

[Tenor]

I would do 10-20% water change and see what's happen next, also clean filter pad. Did you reduce light schedule while on vacation?

 

Algae growth after vacation is normal because no one clean the glass and it will adding up after a week.

[nystang]

The light schedule was the same as usual. I believe that the amount of the food I left in the small containers for each day was a bit too much. I am going to clean the skimmer and the glass all around plus WC tomorrow.

[Tenor]

Extra food would make ammonia spike and up set corals. Keep using the Dr Tim waste away or live bacteria to remove it slowly.

[nystang]

When I tested for ammonia it was 0 but who knows what happened during this week. My Apex doesn't show those things. I am out of Waste Away already. I will try to add more bacteria by adding Microbacter 7. I already cleaned Skimmer, powerheads and glass. I am in the process of WC now.

[M&C]

When I tested for ammonia it was 0 but who knows what happened during this week. My Apex doesn't show those things. I am out of Waste Away already. I will try to add more bacteria by adding Microbacter 7. I already cleaned Skimmer, powerheads and glass. I am in the process of WC now.

 

IMO I would ditch the additives. Your livestock is stressed already and adding more stuff to disrupt your water chemistry isn't going to help. Just keep doing water changes. Also, I would remove those margarita snails still living-they will all slowly die in 80F water. They're typically found in cooler water.

 

As to what is causing this, I'm not sure. Something weird is going on. 1 week of vacation is not that long. If your tank-sitter adhered to the feeding regimen then nothing really changed in that week you were gone--If you think about it, you leave your tank alone a week at a time between water changes anyway right? Even if that person overfed a little, that won't cause an ammonia spike. Are you sure only 2 of your new snails are dead? If more died, that could be the cause.

 

Edit: Another thing you can do to help is to buy a cheap HOB filter and throw some carbon in there to help remove any toxins or chemicals that might be causing this.

[remy443]

Does your Apex controller show if you have lost power? Ask your reef sitter that question if not. You may have had a storm or something knock out your power. That would have created a lack of oxygen and not be obvious by any of the standard water test that you have performed.

 

Snails are usually the first to go due to a lack of oxygen in my experience.

 

Corals will usually survive, they will be upset for a while but will slowly and fully recover.

 

Your water parameters are great, you may want to also check PH and alkalinity. Not much point in doing large water changes if these are all within range. Patience, stability and time are what is required if a power loss did indeed occur.

[rovster]

As long as your parameters are in line, I would go back to your usual routine and reassess the situation in a week. The last thing you want to do now is start messing with the tank. JMHO. GL!

[nystang]

Thanks for your help. My Apex does show power failure but it didn't occur during this time. I checked pH and it is fine, 8.4. I found another snail, dead and not only the shell. I'm afraid that as Matt20 said they will not survive summer although they are good algae eaters. I will cut my lighting period a bit also.

 

There is also something I think about. My daughter was cooking something and completely burned it, even now the house smell a little. The tank is close to the kitchen, so maybe the fumes could create additional problem, especially if the fan was on at that time. What do you think?

[Spencer7]

Im leaving for 3 weeks

 

Holy ####

[DaJMasta]

If your tank is open topped, there is a very real chance that stuff from cooking came into the tank through the air. That's why aerosol sprays and incense are no good. I've also noticed that when cooking particularly aromatic food, the skimmer production changes, and my tanks have never been in the kitchen.

[nystang]

yes, my tank has only a mesh on top. I will pay more attention when there is a strong cooking smell at home. I changed 30% of the water. So far no change in the coral appearance. Duncan is thriving, Blasto and Acans look great. I wander if the Torch and Hammer were not attacked by shrimps (damn peppermints or skunk).

[czdiver]

I also say get rid of ALL of the margarita snails. As someone else said, they can't live long in a warm water tank. You can probably trade them in for some more suitable snails. I have a nice variety in my tank: 2 turbos, 2 astreas, 2 ceriths, and 3 nassarius in a 14g bio-cube. They do a great job. I only have to clean my glass once a week, right before I do my water change. The ceriths and nassarius also do double duty at keeping the sand nice and stirred up as they spend most of their time plowing through it.

[Spencer7]

Turbos are the best algae eaters

 

 

 

*IMO*

[Rrudo74901]

I didn't see any Calcium, Magnesium or Alkalinity levels posted.

Same thing happened to my hammers a few months back when my calc was extremely low.

[nystang]

Sorry for that. I tested Calcium and Alkalinity now so after 30% WC I did yesterday.

Ca - 380

Alk - 10 (I usually had 8-9) 10 is still good but higher than I had before.

 

I don't have a Magnesium test kit.

[Rrudo74901]

If you did 18% yesterday and another 30% today I'm thinking the calc was way low. Get the calc over 400, Alk is fine and will come down naturally.

Before I leave for a week, I usually dose calc to 500 and mag to 1450 so levels stay up for a few days.

 

See if the corals start to bounce back once you get the calc back up.

[diablovt750]

The large water changes might not help that much if the "Euphyllia" are the only ones that are affected. My last tank was up for 3 years and all was going well! I did a, say 40% water change and more torch, hammer, and frogspawns all bailed out of there skeletons. Everyone told me that it was because they like dirtier water qualities and that they didnt like the large quantity of new water that I had added. I since have replaced those ones and only do 10% water changes and it has never happened again.

 

This is a perfect thread for me to start reading 3 days before I go on vacation for 2 weeks! THANKS! I just hope that my girlfriend has been paying good enough attention so that everyhting doesnt go to hell!

[nystang]

I'm afraid of adding any buffers now since as someone else mentioned before my corals are stressed enough. I think so far i did everything I could. I will wait a couple of days and see if WC helped.

[Rrudo74901]

You can dose calcium without a problem.

Based upon the tissue loss in your pictures, you can't do anything that will make them look worse. With the amount of skeleton showing, they will take a long time to recover if they do.

 

Grab a calcium product, I use seachem's ion series and have used ESV as well, just look at the concentration of the product. Dose 25 ppm for two days and retest for Alk and calc levels.

 

Euphyllia hold high levels of calcium in their tissue, to get to where they are now, the levels had to drop for a good period of time to allow the levels to drop internally to exhibit this level of decay.

I lost a beautiful wall hammer this same way. Been dosing ever since and everything is growing like crazy.

[Rrudo74901]

Just looked closer at your pictures on my pc, they still have intact deflated tentacles. That is good.

Mine had tissue "peeling" off.

If you don't want to dose, watch them for a few days. If they don't improve, recheck Alk and calc and adjust accordingly.