What the heck!!!

J

jrthomas40

Guest
ok...so here is the story...cyanobacteria started growing, corals started to die fish started falling off then wham crash everything but 4 fish and a few crabs...well needless to say i did a large water change and cleaned everything in the tank, changed the bulbs (waiting on the hqi now), cut down light cycle, weekly 10%changes opposed to 20% every 2 weeks, cyanobacteria quit growing then when i think everything is cool i order 100 astrea snails all of them die...get a second order all of them die...finally i take the sump apart clean the sump tank, pumps, protein skimmers, and hoses....still no luck...what is going on??
ph-8.4
ammonia- 0
nitrate- 0
nitrite- 0
calcium- 220 (i know)
temp- 76
Salinity/SG- 1.025
tank almost 1yr
 
yogoshio

yogoshio

Member
Sounds like the devil is uprooting the life in your tank. That is really weird. You might want to consider removing your fish from that tank and just let it sit with some new live rock for a little while.
 
rcoultas

rcoultas

Member
Sounds to me like you may possibly have a phosphate problem - get your water tested. Also test your water source - it may be the source of the problem (assuming no RO/DI is in place)
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
no phosphate tested...havent checked copper...but there cant be copper in tap water...i have another tank that i could set up to put the fish in and let the tank try to put new rock in it but its a 90gallon tank with probably close to 100lbs of LR so that is kinda expensive to be replacing
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Of course there can be copper in tap water...just from copper pipes alone but also from natural sources.
Do you have any metal fittings in the tank?
How did you acclimate the snails?
What fish and what was the method the died...eg symptoms, etc.
IMO it is rare to have some sort of issue requiring taking the tank down and replace the rock. Often the problems are related to stocking, feeding, maintenance, etc.
What do you clean the tank with (eg...no kitchen sponge, right?) What cleaning is done around the tank..products...painting, etc?
I would post a complete review of the tank set up, age, maintenance, fish involved, feeding habits, etc.
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
well here is an update...i took a water sample to a local fish store and had them test the water...he did a nitrate test only and the test reveled nitrate level over 40ppm and according to him because there was cyano growth then my protein skimming is insufficient
oh yeah for got to mention i retested the water when i got home and it again showed nitrate 0...so i am assuming my test kit is bad....can test kits go bad???
 
mscarpena

mscarpena

Member
You need to watch what you are doing. It might not be your skimmer is under rated it could be too many fish or over feeding. What size tank and skimmer do you have. Also get some chem clean to get rid of your cyno. Also if your fish eat cyno it can kill them. If the bacteria start to grow on your corals it will kill them as well. You need to realize it is not an algae, but a bacteria so phostates are not an issue. Also 40 ppm nitrates is not horrible, not good, but not horrible. I'll bet if you test the water in your LFS fish tanks they will have 40 ppm nitrates as well. In my opion the nitrates are not your problem. Do smaller weekly water chages. Your calcium is too low I will also assume your alkalinity is too low. Also your lightin is not an issue because light and cyni have no relation ship. I would say get your coral survival(iodine, calcium, alkalinity, magnesium) levels right and cut back on feeding. If it mere copper it would have killed all inverts, but your fish would have lived unless really high levels. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
tinmanny

tinmanny

Member
I would bet your ph is off too it usually follows that ph will fall low in that case have you used ph buffer these two will kill plants and fish
good luck
Manny

ps change water twicw weekly for two weeks abt 10-15% and watch what happens
 
J

jrthomas40

Guest
the tank is a 90 gallon been running for the last year, i was running 2 seaclone 100s...but one quit skimming so i took them out and put in 1 coralife 125 needle wheel that i had for my frag tank, i have 3 fish now and i feed them 1/4 cube of frozen food everyday...i will be getting a new test kit shortly and will get the iodide, and mag. kits too...and the test didnt test at 40 it was more than 40 but less than 80...and since my nitrate test was so bad off then i assumed everything else was as well
 
yogoshio

yogoshio

Member
Even when seaclones are working, they're not. Seaclones are some of the crappiest skimmers. That whole tornado deal is garbage. It might be pulling some stuff out, but it is terribly ineffective in comparison to just about any other out of water skimmer.
 
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