Robb in Austin Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 As some are aware, I've lots two brains and 1 clam in the last 2-3 weeks. Now, my hammer is starting to die off, lost 5 heads or so in the last week. Water params per Shane at Fishy Business last night: ph:7.9, Alk: 10. Temps have been in the upper 70's. Consistent with previous years. Last water change was in early Feb, making water now, will do one in am. All other inhabitants doing fine; fish, zoos, BTAs, inverts. Changes: new-ish tank as of Jan, new sand, same rock/livestock. Still T5's, but 54W vs 38W over the 58. Cheato/calupera in fuge was added in Feb sometime. Anyone have thoughts on what would be causing the die off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jb247 Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 How big was the water change in Feb.? I change A LOT more than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckylou Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Good idea to do smaller frequent water changes to replenish trace elements. maybe that's what your water is lacking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Mg levels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 As said above, more water changes will get you a LONG way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Yes, more WC will help I agree. But.... Last one was ~20g. This one will be too. Dunno about Mg level, need to test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gonzobob Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 So just pure speculation did your brains, clam and hammer heads die an item / head at a time or did they show signs of distress and gradually die. I suspect the consensus above that lack of water changes may have caught up with you is certainly likely but does the sequence of loss provide any other clues. LPS and a clam but not zoas, nem, fish or other inverts. Have you checked your tank after lights out for any possible predation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 The brains were somewhat simultaneously lost. The hammer is going one or two heads at a time. The clam has never really looked happy since I moved everything over from the 58 so it may have been stressed and then something else took it out. Haven't checked for predators, but that shouldn't be it as the only new addition was sand which was dry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 What kind of livestock do you have? Also, what other corals do you have specifically? Any hair algae growth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 LPS typically likes dirty water. What do they look like when they die? Do they have a brown slime on them or are they bleaching out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Corals: Hammer, frogspawn, 3 clams, various zoos, a few rics, GSP, a few xenia and anthelia, a few acans, 2 bta, 1 goni, 1 more brain. Fish: sailfin tang, lamarcks angel, 2 clarkii, 2 blue reef chromis, 1 blue-green chromis, tailspot, lawnmower. Inverts: 1 pep shrimp, astrea, cerith, emerald crabs, asterinas. And 1 aiptasia. I have a little bit of cyano here and there. No other nuisance algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 @Derek: My 58 was an LPS factory, I was hoping to continue the trend when I moved into the 75 that was 2 feet away but alas it hasnt proved so. My initial suspicion was that the fuge has made the water too clean, some of the dying seems to have started right after I added the cheato, but I'm not sure. The brains just started to recede, not inflate, then bleached slowly and died. The hammer has been shrinking/dropping polyps and dying 1 or 2 heads at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medi Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Test for nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia? What about phosphates? I know my water was too clean for LPS for awhile but the only sign of stress I ever saw was my one wellso started bleaching, still inflated and put out polyps, but was almost solid white. I started target feeding and it regained most of it's color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Hmmm, I was thinking something livestock-wise, as in the sailfin turning his tastes to nipping at LPS and clams, since the corals affected are the first to be snacked on when a fish turns to the darkside. But in this case, I'm thinking unlikely... I'm going to lead myself to the lack of water changes during the extended period between early February and until your recent water change. With the old system, I'm sure the sand played a significant part of your whole tank nutrient-reducing system (sump, filters, refuigum, live rock, sand). To say that your new sand has the same filtering capabilities as your old established sand would be a slightly reaching statement at best. And currently it has to deal with the entire livestock of the last system without having the time to build up the appropriate amount of bacteria yet, as your old system had the fortunate ability to adjust one piece of coral and one fish at a time. Add to that no water changes for a significant time span and I could see how that could be a possible explanation why some of your LPS and clams are not too happy. I understand LPS like dirtier water, but I think a lot of people, including myself, confuse dirty water with toxic water sometimes. I'd be curious about your results for nitrates, nitrites, phosphates, and ammonia. My 2 cents... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessie Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 @Derek: My 58 was an LPS factory, I was hoping to continue the trend when I moved into the 75 that was 2 feet away but alas it hasnt proved so. My initial suspicion was that the fuge has made the water too clean, some of the dying seems to have started right after I added the cheato, but I'm not sure. The brains just started to recede, not inflate, then bleached slowly and died. The hammer has been shrinking/dropping polyps and dying 1 or 2 heads at a time. Could it have been brown jelly disease? My frogspawn developed it not too long ago and it wiped out some other LPS and even some SPS I have. My duncan colony survived but only cause I dipped it a couple times and dosed vitamin C. I tried this with the frogspawn colony but it didnt appear to help any so I tossed it. I added some carbon also and did weekly 10% water changes for about a month. Are your other LPS showing any signs of stress? My zoos, mushrooms and fish also were not affected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Never test for NH3, NO2, or NO3. It's probable the 'trates are high due to lack of WC. My phos kit is old so I don't trust it, along with the poor results from them and lack of nuisance algae growth suggest against PO4. (Of course, now I have an excuse to go get new kits of all of these tests. To match the new Salifert Ca/Alk/pH ones I got the other night. Just to be sure and safe! ) Results from this am: SG: 1.026 pH: 7.85 (in between 7.7-8 on the Salifert card so it's a guess). Alk: 13 (yikes!) Mag: 1300 (old Elos kit so maybe off) Temp: 77 Off to change the water! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 I doubt brown jelly, due to lack of it. Although it is possible. Ty brings up a good point about the sand bed. I agree the WC should be more but as we all know, life gets in the way sometimes. My WC schedule is on the low end at the best of times anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 What was the progression of the death of the corals? Did the tissue recede, melt, disintegrate, or bleach? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Also, do you have pictures of the placement? LPS tends to have a big need for a "no fly zone" between each colony so they don't sting each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 See post 12. 1 brain let go of it's skeleton, secondary to too much flow on it, and was placed into a floating cage to let it recover. It appeared to for the first week or so and then just stayed uninflated and finally melted. The colonies were not in close proximity to each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 PO4=0-0.05 per Elos kit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 That's really odd. I have only seen them recede when the sand bed is too high on their sides. They can get a bit of an infection from that. You might want to make some little pedestals for your corals that are on the sand bed, maybe just a reef plug epoxied to the bottom of them, so they sit about a quarter of an inch above the sand bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 29, 2011 Share Posted March 29, 2011 Was there a big change in the lighting? I'm grasping at straws asking that. Are you using carbon? This is basicly a shotgun approach but a product like Poly Filter or Boyd's chemipure will pull a range of stuff out of the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robb in Austin Posted March 29, 2011 Author Share Posted March 29, 2011 No changes in lighting from the last 2 months. Yes to carbon and gfo, although they are currently off line from yesterdays water change. The hammer is looking worse today and no the frogspawn has dropped a head. Any one want to babysit these for me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Robb, I can babysit if you want as long as they're not too huge... I have a very stable Nanocube 24, already have one of each that are fluffy and happy, and also have a well established and stable Biocube 14 with plenty of real estate. I'm up north, just let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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