VW_TDI_02 Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 What is "WWNRD"? "What would Nano Reef do?" That's my guess at least. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 What is "WWNRD"? "What would Nano Reef do?" That's my guess at least. Yup! I'm at a loss, I don't know what I should do. Yet I also don't want to do too much and make things worse! Link to comment
jack1978 Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 SPS are fine. LPS are dying. ...... I lost a few colonies of acans and a few other LPS when I went to GFO. I way over did it with the GFO due to GHA frustration. I haven't gone through your thread.....you running any GFO or added more carbon than you had been running? Overstripped the water? Warfare between corals? Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 SPS are fine. LPS are dying. ...... I lost a few colonies of acans and a few other LPS when I went to GFO. I way over did it with the GFO due to GHA frustration. I haven't gone through your thread.....you running any GFO or added more carbon than you had been running? Overstripped the water? Warfare between corals? No warfare that I can see. 3tablespoons phoslock and 8tablespoons carbon (which I have been running for 6+ months). I upped the carbon a little (normally 6tbs) because they weren't happy after I manually removed a ton of xenia from the rocks at about the same time I rescaped. It was slimy and gross. Link to comment
gena Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Maybe it's an invisible pathogen attacking just LPS? I really don't know. Or maybe just adding in 2 extra tablespoons of carbon could do that? Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Maybe it's an invisible pathogen attacking just LPS? I really don't know. Or maybe just adding in 2 extra tablespoons of carbon could do that? Negative on the carbon.... I didn't/don't measure carbon and have put in (About; don't measure) 3 cups into my BRS reactor with no ill effects. Link to comment
vlangel Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 I doubt it's the carbon either. One guess I have is bacterial which you can't test for with reef kits. There are pathogenic bacterias that can build up unseen in places where heavy feeding has taken place. That is the biggest danger to seahorses so maybe some fleshy LPS are vulnerable too. You could try sano-life mic-F probiotic and see if that turns things around. Seahorse Source carries it and a little goes a long way. Also Seachem stability has multiple beneficial bacterias to burn up detritus and out compete the pathogenic bacteria. Link to comment
TigerLily Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Oh Kimber, Im so sorry. I've read through the responses and I don't have any other ideas. It looks like you're covering all the bases. Good luck and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 I'll be extra careful when doing my testing tonight. Maybe there's something I'm missing. Thanks everyone for the input so far... Link to comment
cindyp Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Yup. Target feed (spirulina brine, bloodworms, cyclops mix) 2-3 times a week, and broadcast reef roids 1-2 times a week. maybe it's overfeeding? i don't know. i've really cut back on feeding because i feed the fish and also the duster worm. and that seems to be enough to have all sorts of things i don't want thrive in the tank. 2-3x for corals seems a lot to me, esp if you have critters you drop food for. maybe someone with more experience can chime in? Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 maybe it's overfeeding? i don't know. i've really cut back on feeding because i feed the fish and also the duster worm. and that seems to be enough to have all sorts of things i don't want thrive in the tank. 2-3x for corals seems a lot to me, esp if you have critters you drop food for. maybe someone with more experience can chime in? Keep in mind though, that I do have 4 fish, one being a mandarin. Each feeding is probably about 3/4 cube of frozen Link to comment
cindyp Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Keep in mind though, that I do have 4 fish, one being a mandarin. Each feeding is probably about 3/4 cube of frozen okay. and you target feed LPS on top of feeding your critters? if so, i think that might be a lot? i daily feed the fish and daily phyto. and will give some frozen coral frezy directly to LPS maybe once every 10 days now. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 10, 2015 Author Share Posted July 10, 2015 okay. and you target feed LPS on top of feeding your critters? if so, i think that might be a lot? i daily feed the fish and daily phyto. and will give some frozen coral frezy directly to LPS maybe once every 10 days now. That's for fish and corals. I cut the cubes in quarters. Then take one piece each of brine, worms, and cyclops. Then I make the rounds target feeding corals and squirting a bit for the fish. Link to comment
Sancho Posted July 10, 2015 Share Posted July 10, 2015 Get rid of the sand. Or replace it. Your troubles started when you disturbed the sand bed. You may also want to cut back on feeding I feed my tanks every couple days. Although you have a mandarin so that may not work. Changing out the sand in my 34 made a huge difference. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 11, 2015 Author Share Posted July 11, 2015 Results are in!!! All RODI in containers tested at 0TDS Temp: 80.1 Salinity: 1.025 Red Sea... Alk #1: 8.4 Calcium: 435 Magnesium: 1325 Ph: 8.4 Alk #2: 9 Nitrate: 15 Ammonia: 0 API... Ph: 8.1 Nitrate: 5 I was going to test some newly mixed saltwater, but I had been doing tests for about an hour by then. I did calcium and got 420, also magnesium and got 950... Makes NO sense that fresh mixed water would have lower values than my tank water... Decided to shelf it for the night and try again tomorrow. Nitrates are a bit high, so I'll do another water change this weekend, but still, everything seems relatively stable... Would nitrates that high cause these issues? Link to comment
teenyreef Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 I'm sorry your're still having so many problems. As you know, softies don't usually have much trouble with high nitrates. But you're having problems, so it might be a factor. So many people here on NR are way more experienced than me, so all I can say is that if it was my tank, I'd try draining a lot of the water into a bucket, put all the rocks and corals in the bucket, and then siphon out the sand really well (into another bucket). Then put the rocks and some of the water back in. Fill with freshly made water to give yourself about a 30-50% water change. Or just pull the sand and all the gunk out completely and put in new sand. Clean your back chambers out while you're at it. It won't help if you're fighting a bacterial infection, but at least you'll have the peace of mind knowing your tank is nice and clean, and you will eliminate one possible source of the problem. Link to comment
metrokat Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 I'm suspecting a contaminant of some sort. Link to comment
gena Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 I'm sorry your're still having so many problems. As you know, softies don't usually have much trouble with high nitrates. But you're having problems, so it might be a factor. So many people here on NR are way more experienced than me, so all I can say is that if it was my tank, I'd try draining a lot of the water into a bucket, put all the rocks and corals in the bucket, and then siphon out the sand really well (into another bucket). Then put the rocks and some of the water back in. Fill with freshly made water to give yourself about a 30-50% water change. Or just pull the sand and all the gunk out completely and put in new sand. Clean your back chambers out while you're at it. It won't help if you're fighting a bacterial infection, but at least you'll have the peace of mind knowing your tank is nice and clean, and you will eliminate one possible source of the problem. I like this idea . Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 11, 2015 Author Share Posted July 11, 2015 Yikes, that's a lot to take on!! Hmm... I may have to clear my calendar for next weekend... Link to comment
Merthynia Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 How is the tank doing today? Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 How is the tank doing today?I was just about to post... Not any better. Hydnophora is completely dead and gone. Acan only has 4 and 2 halves of a head (down a half head from Wednesday) and the trumpet is down to 1 and 2 halves (down another half a head as well). Sort term fix... 8 gallon water change Sunday evening and possibly adding cheato if Merthynia and I can find some tomorrow. Long term fix #1: Take out all sand, leaving almost everything else as is. Long term fix #2: Go for broke, take money from savings and do my upgrade to a new tank now. Long term fix #3: Get a par bulb, move my favorites to my 10 gallon qt, restart the cube from the ground up, new rock, sand, better light, likely delaying an upgrade another year. Another option: Deal with it. Whatever dies, dies, as long as I keep my fish happy. And if I end up with a FOWLR then fine... (except my leathers are doing great so... Wtf... Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 sorry to hear about the tank, my vote goes to #2. Maybe take out the sand, wash it in RODI water, and put everything back? Honestly, my corals in the plastic tub are doing pretty good...My sandbed was FILTHY when I took everything out AND I vacuum the sandbed all the time. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 sorry to hear about the tank, my vote goes to #2. Maybe take out the sand, wash it in RODI water, and put everything back? Honestly, my corals in the plastic tub are doing pretty good...My sandbed was FILTHY when I took everything out AND I vacuum the sandbed all the time. Gonna take water in tomorrow to see if they test any different. Very much leaning towards slimming down and restarting though. I guess we'll see what the LFS's have tomorrow!! Link to comment
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