My Coral is dead..or dying

flower

flower

Well-Known Member
SEE POST #5..{Electric shock killed the corals)

My tank got cold, 76..I keep my tank at 80/82…so that is quite a dip in temp. I had removed one of the heaters and didn’t put it back in after using it to heat my new mixed sea water. So when the heater went the tank got cold. It was the last straw for them I guess.
...I had added salt to the top off and upped the SG to 1.026 but my skimmer went nuts in the middle of the night (I was at work) and flooded. My ATO replaced the lost water with RO so the SG dropped again back to 1.024. That is quit a swing in SG over 2 days, I also had been dosing the tank with Calcium to bring that up from 280 it is now at 320.
My Sea fan is almost all black, my Xenia are tiny little nubs, not just closed but shrunk and gone. My Yellow tonga leather is a tight little fist, my zoas are all closed as well as all the GSP. My Cabbage and lettuce corals are drawn up tight and shedding. The huge mushrooms are like pin heads in size.
All the fish are fine, I will do some water tests here in a bit, here are the test readings (4/8/2010) just before the disaster.
  • PH…8.4
  • Alk ..2.9
  • Nitrates…10
    Nitrites…0
    Ammonia…0
    Calcium…280
Here is a before and after picture….AHHHH




 
luvmyreef

luvmyreef

Active Member
No worries flower. My tank is at 78 and I have had it drop to 74 overnight due to heater failure. Everything seemed pretty angry, but they all came back to life once the tank was rewarmed slowly. I would recommend that you slowly bring your temp up to 78 leave it for a day, and then raise it up more if that is your preference. But I wouldnt mess with the sg again. Then wait and see. If your coral was healthy, it should recover like mine...(not sure about the sea fan though)
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by luvmyreef
http:///forum/post/3258042
No worries flower. My tank is at 78 and I have had it drop to 74 overnight due to heater failure. Everything seemed pretty angry, but they all came back to life once the tank was rewarmed slowly. I would recommend that you slowly bring your temp up to 78 leave it for a day, and then raise it up more if that is your preference. But I wouldnt mess with the sg again. Then wait and see. If your coral was healthy, it should recover like mine...(not sure about the sea fan though)

This all happened yesterday, the tank is at 80 right now. As soon as I added the other heater the temps went up throughout the night. I am doing my bills right now, and I will do water tests to see if something else may be going on as soon as I am finished with the bills...I haven’t actually cried yet...close, but I have hopes something will make it..this morning everything still looks like sh_t.
My sea fan is black, a tiny corner is yet purple..Maybe I can crop it if that area makes it and save the frag. I don’t want to mess with anything right now because they are so stressed..I have had that sea fan for years, they grow soooo slow, mine is/was 10 inches.
My Xenia are just spots, but they have grown from snot spots two years ago when my lights went bad. They may come back..the leathers..I don’t know they are pretty hardy. My lettuce coral is years old as well, it was one of my first corals. My GSP was fragged 4Xs all of them are closed up tight. My neon dragon eye zoa were the size of a quarter and the colony had grown to the size of a half sheet of paper. My eagle eye zoa that I got from Loopy101 was about 6 polyps and the colony had grown to about 80.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Flower 76 isn't very cold.....A lot of peeps keep their tanks thattemp....the only issue would be how fast it dropped (IMO) and how fast you brought it back up......I know nothing about seafans, but I would bet the other stuff perks up eventually
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3258060
Flower 76 isn't very cold.....A lot of peeps keep their tanks thattemp....the only issue would be how fast it dropped (IMO) and how fast you brought it back up......I know nothing about seafans, but I would bet the other stuff perks up eventually

Well I went to do my water tests to see what else might be off because I too think the colder water temp should not have done that much damage…My heater didn’t just go out, it was in two pieces. I just found it when I went to get my water sample for testing. It sits behind a rock obscured from view so I didn’t notice it until just now, so my coral was electrocuted. My shrimp are dead, I don’t see any of them. My fish are okay but I don’t know how. They ate yesterday but were hiding quite a bit in the rocks.
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
Not to scare you but if your tank was electrocuted, you may lose more. A buddy of mine had a halide unit fall into his tank shocking the tank. He lost several things immediatley but over the course of a month, he lost everything. The fish seem to hold on the longest. This was a 350g tank that probably had $20k or more worth of stuff. Needless to say he is out of the hobby now. I hope this doesn't happen to you.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by mrdc
http:///forum/post/3258072
Not to scare you but if your tank was electrocuted, you may lose everything. A buddy of mine had a halide unit fall into his tank shocking the tank. He lost several things immediatley but over the course of a month, he lost everything. The fish seem to hold on the longest. This was a 350g tank that probably had $20k or more worth of stuff. Needless to say he is out of the hobby now. I hope this doesn't happen to you.

Me too, but I can’t give up. A heater does not pack the punch a MH unit would, and I have GFCI on every outlet to the tank. It blew a fuse and I thought it was the skimmer that caused it. I reset the GFCI and everything came back on, I don’t think the heater could have kept a current going..once it blew it died..I HOPE.
When the temps went cold I assumed the heater had just quit working, I wasn’t concerned about it breaking, it was plastic. It was down in the rocks so I was going to remove it when I did the next water change, I didn’t think it would do any harm to just sit back there, and I had forgotten to unplug the thing too.
I am pretty sure the coral will die. The green stripe and blue mushrooms are shriveled but in full color..so maybe..they could survive..I know..I know, I am just wishing right?
The Kole Tang is MIA, but he is a good hider..he did not come out even a little bit however to eat. I don’t see the two cleaner shrimp, I just saw my fire shrimp and the hermits are milling around. The fish are eating, but the blue Hippo tang is staying in the rocks to eat. I saw the Frimani dottyback briefly, which is the norm for him, he lives in the deeper rocks, the clowns and Lemonpeel angel are out and feeding like nothing is wrong.
I had this happen to my freshwater tank years ago, that was a glass heater. I lost allot of fish but some did survive, of course I had no coral then…and the replacing the fish cost me under $100.00
Latest test results:
  • PH- 8.0
  • Alk- 2.9
  • Nitrates- 20
  • Ammonia- .25
    Calcium- 380
    SG-1.024/1.025
    Temp-80
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Flower, what kind of heater do you have? How does a heater break in two?
Do you have a grounding probe in your tank? (don't know if that would have helped...just curious)
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3258086
Flower, what kind of heater do you have? How does a heater break in two?
Do you have a grounding probe in your tank? (don't know if that would have helped...just curious)

The heaters are old, which is why I wasn’t too surprised it had quit working. I had them in my freshwater tank. When I converted to salt I just kept them. yeah, very old.
The top came apart from the base. I had pulled the heaters out to lower the temps, I had tugged on the one to get from behind the rock where I had it wedged…I didn’t think of it weakening it till just now, one I put back behind the rocks like before and one I kept out to do my water changes and help the salt to dissolve. I had always kept two so if one gave out I would still have one running...

I am going to the store for new heaters today and I am going to start collecting RO water (takes a few days ) for a water change. I don’t want to stress the fish any further, so I am running only the actinic lights and shut off the MHs for now. The Tangs are hiding in the rocks so they want it dark and quiet. The corals are not responding to light right now anyway.
I don't think there is much else I can do.
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
Not a whole lot you can do IMO. Watch your water parameters if stuff starts dieing and adjust appropriately. I am a big fan of the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals RENA SmartHeater. They aren't the cheapest heaters but they sem to be of high quality. The led light will flash if there is a temp swing of +/- cetain degrees (can't remember the degree #). My light flashes often but it was due to being placed in the flow of a powerhead. I did this because I thought it would circulate the heat better. When I turned the powerhead off for awhile, the unit didn't flash anymore. So now I just don't worry too much about when I see it flash. Anyway, the heater is housed in "unbreakable" plastic which is one of the reasons I went with it. I worry about glas heaters breaking.
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3258095
I like the Marineland Stealth, and now they have the pro model....
I have one of those also that I use in my mixing water. It's also been a good heater. I think heaters are like skimmers and salt purchases when it comes to opinions!
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3258095
I like the Marineland Stealth, and now they have the pro model....

Mine are so old I don't remember the brand...I am off to the Fish store for new ones. I will have to see what they have, I want the best..I always want the best I can buy.
 
mproctor4

mproctor4

Member
My heart just aches for you!! We lost a tank full of fish once too, many of the fish we had over 10 years, it was just heart breaking. Hubbie has a Marineland Stealth that we really like. I just got 2 new 200watt Marineland Stealth Pro for our big tank. So far I am NOT impressed! I've checked my water temp. with 2 different thermometers and they both show the temp at 77, and the heaters are set at 82 to maintain that temp. Most of the time they aren't even on. Anyway the internal thermometer on them doesn't appear to be working correctly. Heaters are a nightmare. Hope you find a good one.
 
ibanez

ibanez

Member
I use hydor theo and don't have any problems with them since I used them. They never seem to be set quit where they should be, but once you get it at the temp you want it at, it holds it well.
 
pirates

pirates

Member
Sorry to hear what happen to you i have had a bad storm last year my electric when off had a 8,000 watt gen. and some one stole it lost almost all my tank now i have a 12,000 watt gen. 240v will power the hole house it will not happen again it is to big to move had to move it with my skid steer hope that your hole take is all right my 90 gallon tank temp is 76 to 80 and my stuff are all growing good
 
tur4k

tur4k

Member
I've been wondering how your tank is doing. I haven't seen any updates lately. I really really hope that your fish are all still doing well and that some of your corals and inverts are making a recovery. I've been depressed all week because my Midas Blenny jumped. I can't even imagine what you are going through.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by tur4k
http:///forum/post/3261292
I've been wondering how your tank is doing. I haven't seen any updates lately. I really really hope that your fish are all still doing well and that some of your corals and inverts are making a recovery. I've been depressed all week because my Midas Blenny jumped. I can't even imagine what you are going through.

I am so sorry about your blenny, they have such great personalities. I never had one jump..

Thanks for asking about my tank, I didn’t want to bore people too much with my problems and wasn't sure when to post an update.
Life is good. All the Green Star polyps have survived and almost all open now. I see the Eagle eye zoa looks like it is peeking out…just a bit. The dragon eye zoa isn’t open but still looks puffy with life, so I have hope they may still come on out. The green stripe mushrooms and true blue ones are all doing well.
I lost quite a bit of coral, the sea fan, lettuce, cabbage, Yellow Tonga, all the Xenia is gone, and not even a snot spot remains. I have a tiny frag of Kenya tree still clinging to life. My corals were well established and I had them for years. My tank looks so very empty now.
I have not lost a single fish, I saw my fire shrimp briefly but that was days ago and the cleaner shrimp are gone.
The ammonia is down to .25 I keep an ammonia disc attached to the tank glass so I can monitor 24/7 and I do a test each day. The disc has stayed in the safe zone. If it even gets to alert I am ready to do a water change.
The sand does not look good, I am sure there is death all down in it, with bristle worms and such. I have stirred it up a few times to hopefully prevent trapping any gases down deep. I’m running enough Purigen and carbon to handle a 225g tank and I only have a 90g. The tank smells like the ocean with no dead smell, so I think that is a real good sign.
I have allot of dead hermits, but a few have survived. I saw a lone snail going across the tank and an astria star (spelling?) this morning. So some life still exists in the rocks.
I plan on ordering a new CUC at the end of the month. I want to make sure everything is stable first; I don’t want to add to the problem. I am going to add some serpent stars then as well. I need a real hungry CUC.
So for now it’s a waiting game. I was thinking about changing up on the type of coral to introduce later on, since all I had before were the easy ones from my beginner days. I have to make sure all is perfect before I start adding new coral…patients…The day will come.
 
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