E.Y. Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Recently sold my house and am currently building a new one. I moved my tank to my office while the build is being completed. The tank was thriving before the move. It has been a month and slowly all the corals are dying off. I am also getting a lot of brown algae on the glass. Cleaning daily. Fish are swimming and eating fine. Have had some invert losses, but I still have snails, emerald crabs, and hermits that are alive and eating. Tank parameters: Salinity 1.024 Nitrate 5-10ppm Phosphate: 0ppm Calcium: 440 KH: 161.1 Link to comment
burtbollinger Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 any temp swings in the office or anything odd like that going on? would the brown algae be diatoms....if so, is there some overfeeding going on or something, was the sandbed violently disturbed....perhaps you re-set up the tank and used the old dirty sand? what corals are dying? how big is tank? skimmer? could a PH be pointing in a new direction or be up too high? is an office worker secretly feeding your fish? is your janitor doing you a favor and cleaning the tank or spraying some BS around it? are there hidden dead inverts you could be missing and need to pull out? is your Alk. test outdated? (could this number be off? I'd double check) is your refractometer calibrated? (could this number be off? I'd double check) just tossing out ideas... regardless, right off the bat, I'd be stepping up the water changes...I'd even go so far as to do 2 partial ones a week...with perfectly matched water. I'd also be running my skimmer if I had one. I'd personally also be running good carbon and a Poly Filter. Link to comment
fishfreak0114 Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 Is someone using chemical cleaners near the tank? Link to comment
holy carp Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 I suspect construction dust being the culprit of recent problems I had in my tank. Not sure the state of the construction in your new place, but that can definitely introduce all kinds of undesirable compounds. [edit - I assumed the office was in the new house, but you may mean a separate location, in which case, disregard...] Link to comment
E.Y. Posted March 30, 2017 Author Share Posted March 30, 2017 Thank you all. It's a 24g biocube. I am using chemipure and purigen along with filter pads and ceramic rings in the back chambers. The tank is in my work office. No temp swings or ph swings, but I did not change out the sand when I moved the tank. I left some water (2") in the bottom of the tank and just refilled it with most of the water that I had taken out of the tank. I did put some new water in. No skimmer. Gf may have overfed, we work together and it is in her office. Wouldn't nitrates be higher though? Refractometer is keyed in. All tests are new within he last three months. I'll start changing water immediately. Keep y'all updated. Thanks so much for the thoughts. LPS corals. Duncan, frogspawn, zoas, acans. Duncan and frogspawn retracted. Some zoas not opening. Acans look like crappy. Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 I think the move may have disturbed the sand bed just enough to release some nasties. I agree I would start with a few large WC but that is were I always start when I am not sure. Link to comment
E.Y. Posted March 30, 2017 Author Share Posted March 30, 2017 That's what makes the most sense to me as I read the reactions. I'll do a large WC today. What a bummer. Link to comment
Pjanssen Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 +1^. I doubt that salinity is a problem unless you had a big swing, but you should consider investing in a refractometer as it's much more reliable. Are you using the same water as you did at home? hopefully RO/DI and same salt mix. So many things can piss off your corals. Link to comment
E.Y. Posted March 30, 2017 Author Share Posted March 30, 2017 I am using a calibrated ATC refractometer. Same mix and RO water as I was using at home. Thanks y'all. Link to comment
Clown79 Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 There is a lot of stuff that builds up in sandbeds. Anytime you move a tank, either ditch the sand or remove it and wash it completely before replacing it. The only other thing is chemical cleaners used for office cleaning. Even if the cleaner doesn't clean around the tank, the chemicals are in the air. Link to comment
E.Y. Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 Our office isn't large. The woman who cleans it doesn't use chemicals in my office because I have a 60g peacock tank in it, and she also hasn't used them in my gf's office since we moved in the nano cube. I definitely think it was the sand. Talked to my local LFS guy yesterday, and he agreed. I read into it, and the multiple posts I had read all said that they had successfully moved their tanks without changing out the sand bed. Did a large change last night. When I came in this morning, the two frogspawns were out further than yesterday. Duncan is still fully retracted. I am going to do another change tomorrow. Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 You didn't list your levels for nitrates or ammonia and I know after a tank is cycled, those typically don't get tested, but sometimes they get out of line. It would be a good idea to double check - good luck! Link to comment
burtbollinger Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 2 hours ago, Clown79 said: There is a lot of stuff that builds up in sandbeds. Anytime you move a tank, either ditch the sand or remove it and wash it completely before replacing it. I think this is the reason for everything. Link to comment
E.Y. Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 Nitrates were listed. 5-10ppm. I didn't test ammonia, as the tank was already cycled, and my ammonia test is buried in a storage unit with the rest of my house. The zoas seem to be doing somewhat well, along with the frogspawn. Hoping that things start to come around as I continue the water changes. Link to comment
hinnenkm Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 4 hours ago, E.Y. said: Nitrates were listed. 5-10ppm. I didn't test ammonia, as the tank was already cycled, and my ammonia test is buried in a storage unit with the rest of my house. The zoas seem to be doing somewhat well, along with the frogspawn. Hoping that things start to come around as I continue the water changes. The reason I suggested ammonia is because my classroom tank just had the same thing happen to it. Things weren't doing well and when I tested all 3 of those variables (nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia), ammonia had gotten pretty high. It would be worth digging that out or getting it tested at one of your local stores. If it does test well, at least you have eliminated that possibility. Link to comment
E.Y. Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 I will definitely look into it. Thanks for the suggestion. Link to comment
E.Y. Posted April 1, 2017 Author Share Posted April 1, 2017 Had the lfs test my water today. Going to continue water changes. Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 ph: 8.2 salinity: 1.024 phosphate: 1.0 calcium: 440 magnesium: 1320 alkalinity: 11.0 Temp: 76f Link to comment
gone_PHiSHin Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 if you don't think there are any outside influences affecting the tank (cleaners being sprayed near the tank, other people overfeeding, etc) then i would agree it was due to the sand bed being disturbed during the move keep up with the maintenance and water changes and i bet the tank returns to normal in a couple weeks every time i've moved a tank i started with new sand. washing it is a giant pain in the ass and sand isn't expensive so i always recommend just getting new sand. Link to comment
Clown79 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 At the time of the move, there may have been a spike in ammonia and now its processed but still may have caused the problem. Your phosphates at 1 is high. You want it at 0.03 Link to comment
gone_PHiSHin Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 agree, i was going to mention the phosphate being high can phosphate be released from stirring up sand? Link to comment
Clown79 Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Yes they can. When i test my water my phosphates have always read 0 but if i take a sample of water from the sandbed, I get results. Link to comment
E.Y. Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 I don't understand the phosphate. When I tested with a brand new test, I came up with 0. Had to buy a new one because my other was in the storage unit. I've only used the exact same water since the tank has been set up. It was thriving before the move. I thought about adding a phosphate remover, but when I tested zero, I didn't go with it. I dont think there are any outside influences. I work at a small company and am close to the woman who cleans because I am always in after hours working on my Cichlid tank. She is a fish fanatic and she's assured me no chemicals have been used around the tank. I'm stuck on the sand thing, but would maybe it wouldn't hurt to add a phosphate removed either way? Thoughts? Link to comment
Clown79 Posted April 3, 2017 Share Posted April 3, 2017 My water always tests 0 phosphates unless i get a sample from the sandbed. Your test kit says 0 and lfs say 1? Not sure. I still think moving the tank with the sand is the most likely cause. Link to comment
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