Need help with tank.

[JSellars]

I have a 25gal cube, not exactly sure what is going on in my tank but everything is slowly dying off. About every 3 days I notice another coral is dying. I have done awful maintaining my tank this summer. I never test, just do water changes every 2 weeks but now I severely need help.

Not sure if switching salt a few months back caused my issues or if moving it a few weeks ago to do new flooring is the issue but I hate to see everything die off. Do i set up a “quarantine tank”? Or have someone hold my corals until I can get the tank back in order? I know I need to test my water ASAP in order to know what’s going on with it.


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[dbowman]

man  that is awful. hope you get it figured out. test your water and compare the results to what you had before. did your remodel contaminate the tank?, is your temperature stable? did the problems start in the  last few weeks or a few months ago? that might indicate whether it was the salt. the problem with quarantine is the disruption that it entails in moving your livestock. i have a fallow tank that you could use if you needed it

[JSellars]

There were a series of new things I started doing a few months back, I switched to fritz red box salt, started using a new coral food and I also started adding the Red Sea AB+ coral nutrition, which caused a GHA outbreak, but I slowed down on those feedings and getting that under control. It all started with all my acans slowly dying off, now I’m losing a head of euphillia every few days, it’s depressing.

I only moved the tank to put in new flooring, it was a quick process. But things seem to be getting rapidly worse since moving the tank a few weeks ago.



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[dbowman]

in the move did anything get dislodged? are the flows the same? is there any possibility that the temperature is off, up or down? is the light the same?   I have been using Instant ocean and have bought some fritz red pro and was planning to switch but now i may not.

[JSellars]

Don’t base your switch off of my failure lol. I’m a horrible reef keeper, I haven’t tested in about 9mo lol

The only thing I can think of is when I filled the aquarium back up, the water being pumped back into the aquarium stirred the sand up pretty bad. I had never disturbed the sand bed since I set the tank up March 2019.


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[Heinbaughb]

This scenario seems like a good candidate for sending off a water sample for an ICP test. You’ll find out if there is a nutrient or maybe (hopefully not) a contaminant issue.

[dbowman]

good points

[SweetReefOH]

Don’t base your switch off of my failure lol. I’m a horrible reef keeper, I haven’t tested in about 9mo lol

The only thing I can think of is when I filled the aquarium back up, the water being pumped back into the aquarium stirred the sand up pretty bad. I had never disturbed the sand bed since I set the tank up March 2019.


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You can’t even begin to get a cause or plan of action together at this point. If your car breaks down, you don’t start changing tires and replacing brakes when the problem is a bad fuel filter. You have to test all your parameters to know where you’re at before you start trying to fix a problem.

[dbjonesjr]

Why don’t you do a few 50% water changes over the next week or so? Then add some nitrates to make sure your nutrients don’t bottom out.

[JSellars]

Why don’t you do a few 50% water changes over the next week or so? Then add some nitrates to make sure your nutrients don’t bottom out.

I started doing 5gal water changes every Sunday for the past 3 weeks now. Not sure if it’s helping any.... getting my water testing equipment back from my buddy tonight so I can see what’s going on.


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[dbjonesjr]

Only removing 20% of the problem if there is one every time you do that. Still 80% left.

[Heinbaughb]

Only removing 20% of the problem if there is one every time you do that. Still 80% left.

There is a chance his nutrients might be pretty low only having 2 clowns.

[dbjonesjr]

There is a chance his nutrients might be pretty low only having 2 clowns.

Also true. Mentioned adding nitrates in the first post. Have no idea without testing though.

[JSellars]

Salinity 1.024
Alk 3.0 / 8.4dkh
Calcium 450
Mag 1640

Magnesium seems high.

Phosphate is super high too. I added a bag of chemipure elite last week. What else will remove phosphate? My water TDS is 6 before DI and 0 tds after DI.

[Steve]

The solution to pollution is dilution. I think the more important issue would be detecting the source, fish food, water etc. I would also retest just to make sure you did the test right or see if you can use someone else's meter to make sure yours isn't faulty.

Only removing 20% of the problem if there is one every time you do that. Still 80% left.

I have to agree.

[King_Reefer]

Salinity 1.024
Alk 3.0 / 8.4dkh
Calcium 450
Mag 1640

Magnesium seems high.

Phosphate is super high too. I added a bag of chemipure elite last week. What else will remove phosphate? My water TDS is 6 before DI and 0 tds after DI.

Are you using Reef Roids by chance?


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[JSellars]

Are you using Reef Roids by chance?


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No, I was using benepets reef food, then switched to the coral feast. I’m about to switch back just because I never had any issues before, then I decide to try out new stuff and my tank goes downhill.... should have just stuck to what I was doing.


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[JSellars]

15gal water change is finally done. Should I just continue doing my 5gal water changes every week? Or keep doing large water changes?


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[dbjonesjr]

Is that 50% total volume? If so I’d probably do at least 1 if not 2 more. You’re left with 50% of possible contaminant with 1 change, 25% with 2 changes, and 12.5% with 3 changes.

[JSellars]

It’s only a 25gal tank, with a sump that holds around 5gal. So I’m guessing about 25gal of actual water volume with rock displacement. But I will keep doing 15gal changes every week for a few weeks. I really don’t want to lose any more coral.

Side note, I need to find a small return pump to pump from trashcan into tank. If anyone has one cheap, or knows of a cheap one ~$20 let me know.


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[dbjonesjr]

I use a Marineland Maxi-Jet 1200. You can run into PetSmart or any other pet store that price matches and have them match it to the Chewy.com price. It’s normally around $15.