Major Tank Crash of Unknown Source...

[Dreichler]

So I've had my JBJ 45 up and running for about 6 years now.  Ive got it loooaaded with corals of all sorts, so its a mixed reef.  Check out the Instagram @reef_45g to see it all!  But it might not continue after what just happened.  3 days ago, I went to the LFS to get my 10 gallons of salt and 5 gallons of RODI to do my weekly 20% water change as normal.  I came home, did the water change, woke up the next morning (yesterday) to some unfortunate losses.  I noticed my hammer coral was pretty much dead, overnight.  I removed it and then began to see that my WWC grafted monti cap had begun to turn white, even though it had been in the same spot for over a year now with no change in lighting.  Also, my WWC Sunfire grafted monti was completely dead.  All overnight.  

So I take my water to the LFS to get tested and of course it all comes back fine.  (Ammonia & Nitrite 0) (Nitrate 2) (Phosphate 0.3) (Alk 8.0) (Calcium 440) (Mg 1320) (Salinity 1.025).

Fast forward to today, my chalices are showing skeleton, my gold torch lost heads, my centerpiece trachy is just releasing mucous, my zoas are closed tight, several montis are showing no sign of life....  Basically all about 100 pieces of coral are dying rapidly, if not already dead.  OVERNIGHT.  

I have not had any recent significant changes in any routines, chemistry, or livestock.  The only fish I have is a yellow assessor.  No sign of pests.

 

So now I'm thinking it's my LFS water....  I go home with a TDS meter to check out the LFS RODI water.  I was told that filters should be changed at a TDS reading of about 4-5 and RODI from a LFS shouldn't be any higher.  I tested the LFS RODI water 6 separate times with TDS measurements being 20, 20, 20, 21, 21, 20.  

Would doing a 20% water change using only about 2 gallons of this high TDS water cause such chaos?  There have been no air pollutants released in the room in the past 7 days, but there is house work being done on the first floor, tank is on the second floor.  I cant imagine anything getting all the way up there, its pretty unrealistic.  

 

I have attached a few pictures of my WWC monti cap specifically.  You can see that the hammer in the first pic is basically half receeded, so I removed it the following morning when it was pretty much all gone.  You can also see the small JF bloodshot colony to the right of the monti, opened fine in the first pic, and not so happy in the last.  You can also see a small frag of chalice glued to the back wall that is now showing skeleton.  

 

ILL POINT OUT ONE MORE TIME THAT THESE PICTURES SHOW RAPID DEGENERATION OF CORALS OVERNIGHT 

[MrObscura]

Man that sucks. Tds that high isn't ideal, but in and of itself probably wouldn't do that unless the lfs water was contaminated somehow. Sounds like something got into your tank, either through the air or waterchange. But I'm not sure. 

[Pinner Reef]

I'd guess there's some sort of contamination as well.  Run some carbon as well as plenty of filter floss. Also, not the worst idea to get a second opinion when it comes to a water test. Other things to check would be temp and possibly stay current

[Clown79]

I was thinking of contamination as well.

 

Definitely add fresh carbon and I would use distilled over the lfs water

 

[Dreichler]

I changed out the carbon yesterday to two 11oz bags of Chemipure blue, a day after I did the 20% water change.   Today, my friend gave me some PolypLab Carbon and I just quickly swapped that in for the Chemipure, I’ve always wanted to give this product a try, and I like PolypLab because they back their products up with a lot of good research. 

[Dreichler]

I ended up transporting my legendary pieces to my friend and he’s gonna keep them in his tank until I solve mine.  I took the least affected and most cherished corals.  Some of the affected corals I’ve had for 5+ years now, hopefully they can recover.  Crazy to see some die literally overnight that have been growing STRONG for 2+ years. 

[Tamberav]

I would dose some prime to help with any heavy metals.

 

TDS of 20 just depends what that 20 is. Maybe look into getting your own RODI, never know if something fell into their mixing bucket or if a disgruntled employee would drop something in it. 

 

You can go buy distilled water and use that instead with your own salt since we're not sure if the water is tainted. 

[Dreichler]

Update 10/31: Red starfish legs show signs of degeneration.  Tips of legs turning white and curling up like shriveling.  Took it out because if that were to die, it would probably be all over then.  

[HarryPotter]

Gotta make your own water, can't trust anyone to do things for ya. That sucks. 

[Clown79]

What salt did you use?

 

 

[Dreichler]

4 hours ago, Clown79 said:

What salt did you use?

 

 

I do not make my own water as it just isn’t convenient in my house.  I buy mixed saltwater and RODI from my LFS, I’ve never really had an issue but after doing this one water change and testing the LFS water, it came back with a high TDS.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

I'm so sorry about the losses  I hope you get it figured out soon. Hope everything that is still alive can fight through the rough time.

[Dreichler]

Update 11/1:  Moved all livestock except my two cleaner shrimp and yellow assessor to a friends massive reef in hopes they can recover.  I will not be going back to that fish store.  

I went to the fish store, poured a gallon of RODI water into my jug, tested it in front of the store owner, the TDS meter read 26.  I told him that RODI water for a reef tank should read no more than 4-5 TDS.  He responded with the fact that he uses this 26 TDS water on all of his tanks and the clients tanks.  Which explains why his store tanks look pretty bad.  He then continued to tell me to buy my own RODI system.  I was pretty upset that he told me to go buy my own system, when the whole reason for him to even sell RODI is for people like me that don't have the availability to setup a whole RODI system.  Very frustrated with the LFS, he gave me $150 gift card, but that does not make up for the thousands of dollars of corals that are hanging on by a thread, not to mention the hundreds already dead.  

 

I then went to another LFS owned by a very knowledgable Doctor of marine biology.  I would go to him for everything but his store is pretty far.  I only go in these cases where I need help from a professional involving chemistry.  He told me that if I still have some of the saltwater from the LFS near me from when I did the first water change, I should bring it in and he will test it for Red Tide.  The reason he is going to check for red tide is because I live in south florida, and the LFS that is near me (26 TDS one) has stopped getting natural seawater because of the red tide, but felt the need to still fill the natural seawater jug with mixed saltwater.  So the belief is that there was still natural seawater in the jug when he added in the mixed saltwater, potentially releasing red tide into my tank....

[Dreichler]

I am going to be tearing down the tank this weekend, cleaning it out very thoroughly, and setting it back up.  I am getting new return pumps, a full dosing schedule, and a new aquascape.  Hopefully i can still use most of my rocks left in the tank for the new scape because I dont want to have to cycle again.  

 

Check out what is in the recovery process here: Insta Pics