Corals Closed Up

bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Usually most of my corals are in feeding mode first thing in the morning. Today everything was closed up. It looked very unnatural. Does this ever happen to anyone else?
Temperature was fine. I have a titanium probe connected to a ground and everything is plugged into GFCI so I don't think it's electrical. Although my main pumps are not on a GFCI and one of them is 15 years old.... hmmm
I didn't have time to test the water before I had to leave for work.
 
veni vidi vici

veni vidi vici

Active Member
If its not your water or a electrical short,maybe one of your critters was disturbed during the night and released toxin.It may just be a hiccup in nature, one of those unexplainable things.

Let us know how things are when you get home.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Looks like my system is in the middle of a severe crash. Ammonia is very high, PH is slightly low. Most corals are disintegrating, some fish are dead. The surface of the display and the lagoon are coated with thousands of dead Amphipods.
I'm now draining most of the water from the lagoon so I have less water to attempt to fix and to get rid of all the dead pods floating on the surface. The remaining fish are going into a hospital tank I luckily already had going. The corals are going into a new tank until I can find the source of ammonia. I can't find anything wrong with the electrical. I just put 2 pounds of carbon online in case it's a chemical contamination of some kind.
 
tdog7879

tdog7879

Member
Originally Posted by Bang Guy
http:///forum/post/2900653
Looks like my system is in the middle of a severe crash. Ammonia is very high, PH is slightly low. Most corals are disintegrating, some fish are dead. The surface of the display and the lagoon are coated with thousands of dead Amphipods.
I'm now draining most of the water from the lagoon so I have less water to attempt to fix and to get rid of all the dead pods floating on the surface. The remaining fish are going into a hospital tank I luckily already had going. The corals are going into a new tank until I can find the source of ammonia. I can't find anything wrong with the electrical. I just put 2 pounds of carbon online in case it's a chemical contamination of some kind.
Sorry to here that keep us updated !!!
 
natclanwy

natclanwy

Active Member
That's horrible, keep us posted on what you find.
My guess is the ammonia is a secondary issue caused by something else, in a system as large as yours it would take a massive die off to cause a spontanious ammonia spike, you had the massive die off but it was likely triggered by something else.
 
mboswell1982

mboswell1982

Active Member
ouch, sorry bang, i hope you get everything figured out, definitely keep us updated an let us know how things are turning out
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Found the problem :( I found what's left of a large rodent, looks like it might have been an Opossum or a really big rat. I don't know how it got in yet. I made a mistake and tried to pick it up with tongs and it fell apart. Ugh, I found a smell worse than dead Xenia.
I shut off the main pumps to cut off the display tank from the lagoon. I'm draining most of the water out of the lagoon and about half out of the display. I have no choice but to try to get the display livable first and work on the lagoon later. I had about 30 gallons of saltwater and I'll put it in the display tank as soon as it finished draining. I've got 20 gallons of RO and 30 gallons of limewater. I don't think the limewater is of any use right now so I've got the RO making more water as fast as it can.
None of the fish look good, there's no flesh left on any coral. It could be a total loss
 
gmann1139

gmann1139

Active Member
Originally Posted by Bang Guy
http:///forum/post/2900859
Found the problem :( I found what's left of a large rodent, looks like it might have been an Opossum or a really big rat. I don't know how it got in yet. I made a mistake and tried to pick it up with tongs and it fell apart. Ugh, I found a smell worse than dead Xenia.
I shut off the main pumps to cut off the display tank from the lagoon. I'm draining most of the water out of the lagoon and about half out of the display. I have no choice but to try to get the display livable first and work on the lagoon later. I had about 30 gallons of saltwater and I'll put it in the display tank as soon as it finished draining. I've got 20 gallons of RO and 30 gallons of limewater. I don't think the limewater is of any use right now so I've got the RO making more water as fast as it can.
None of the fish look good, there's no flesh left on any coral. It could be a total loss

Sorry to hear that man. That lagoon is probably the most famous tank on the board.
 
janastasio

janastasio

Member
That is horrible, so sorry to hear about your troubles. You will have alot of people thinking of you and keeping their fingers crossed!
 
natclanwy

natclanwy

Active Member
My sympathy goes out to you, that is the first time I have heard of a situation like that and I guess that would be considered a major die off when you have something that large die in your tank.
 
C

cmaxwell39

Guest
Sorry to hear about that Bang Guy. Hope you can save at least a little.
 
subielover

subielover

Active Member
How awful. Salvage what you can, not much you can do to prevent something as crazy as that happening...wow
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I have the display tank going and the ammonia level is down to 0.25ppm. The Lagoon is a mess of dead worms and pods and it stinks to high heaven. There's nothing I can do for it. I have a pump spinning water over the sand bed but I don't have much hope. I have a sinking feeling that I'm going to have to shovel out all that sand to get the lagoon going again.
4 fish survived but no corals have any flesh on their skeleton. Perhaps some are still alive, time will tell. My Yellow Tang, a Coral Beauty, a Royal Gramma, and one Clownfish survived. Looks like everything else is gone.
It's an Opossum. It chewed or clawed through the plastic grill of the vent I had to let humid air outside. It must have crawled through the duct work and fallen into the lagoon. It was floating underneath the Banggai grow-out tank I had sitting on egg crate so I couldn't see it until the water drained. It might have been there a few days but I'm not really sure how fast marcupials decompose in saltwater.
I'm tired, I'm going to bed.
 
saltn00b

saltn00b

Active Member
holy cow i was not expecting to see that in a thread today, or ever. what a crazy fluke and terrible loss.
on the bright side, when you are ready, you can rebuild it from the ground up, stronger, faster, you have the technology!
 
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