All corals closed up and new animals dying

[Michel]

Hello,


As I’ve mentioned in my first post (meet&greet) I have a problem in my 20g nano reef.
A while back everything was doing great but slowly everything started closing up and later on algae toke over.
This is how my tank looked a few weeks back

This is how my tank looks now.

I have also got my water tested at my LFS and they also told me everything was good. They told me it might be poison in the water from a chemical warfare from all the corals because I didn't filter over carbon.
So I've put some active carbon in my tank but after a few days no difference.
After a good inspection I noticed I had a really bad rusted magnet that might have caused it?
So I have also placed a piece of Poly-Filter in a high flow section and did 3 waterchanges of 25% in 3 days (one a day).
It seems the waterchanges and Poly-Filter redused my nitrates and phosphates to 0 but I still don't see any changes in my corals…

Here are some of my measured water parameters:

I did move some of the corals to my second nano tank (8g) which is doing great and the corals are looking great again after 2-3 days.

Because the water parameters looked good I bought an urchin to get rid of the algae. I did acclimate him really slowly so that wasnt the problem but he didn't move at al and lost all his spikes in 2 days. I didn't want him to die so I tried moving him to my 8g nano and he is super healty again from the moment he switched tanks.


I don't know whats wrong with it... but I'm sure there is something wrong with it.
Is there someone who has any thought what it can be or what I can try?

 

[Doctorgori]

Wonder if you can or should cross post in the Tank Emergency section.
I had a bad magnet experience once and it made me paranoid about magnets ever since, get more opinions but my moneys on the metal
Somebody makes a detox solution, cant recall the brand....someone please rescue

Edit: heck Man you took ALL the right steps so far ..good job!!!!

 

[Duffer]

Get your nitrates and phosphates up, the corals like a little dirty water.. the mag definitely caused the problem

 

[vetteguy53081]

Mag is quite high as your target is 1300
Are you using RO water or tap water from faucet?
All the specimens I see in your tank are capable of releasing toxins and I would suggest if not already running carbon. I use Chemipure blue or Elite

 

[HuduVudu]

If it is a metal issue the fastest and safest way of dealing with it is by water changing IMO.

 

[red02]

big water change,and carbon in a reactor, works best

 

[Michel]

Mag is quite high as your target is 1300

I don't know why my Mg is that high, but it has always been like that (1500-1600). Maybe I should try testing my fresh made salt water to see the Mg levels (I use Tropic Marin Pro Reef).

Are you using RO water or tap water from faucet?

I am using a RODI unit with 0 tds output.

big water change,and carbon in a reactor, works best

Agree, right now I have a media reactor running with active carbon and a sheet of Poly-Filter in it.

 

[rmurken]

Feel for you man. Lotta good advice here. Best wishes.

 

[Pkunk35]

Wow so sorry that must be very hard to deal with,

Some good advice here. One thing id like to point out is that the urchin dying so fast is quite unusual. That would make it seems as if something in the water is just taking out inverts. I have no idea but the rusty magnet would personally concern me, read some responses here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/d...-reef-that-much-do-you-worry-about-it.683523/

 

[rmurken]

Magnet sounds highly suspicious—with it gone, hopefully it’s just a matter of cleaning up.

Have you given any thought to an ICP test in the event things don’t get back to normal in short order post-magnet?

Cuprisorb is another product that may be worth trying, and at least can’t hurt. Wouldn’t run it indefinitely, but seems like you’ve got nothing to lose.

 

[MnFish1]

Though I usually don't care for them - I would consider an ICP test in this case (where there is a problem you're trying to fix) - as compared to just checking 'for fun'. If its the magnet - you will find metals. Of course - organic compounds are not seen on an ICP test - That said - water changes (and there are plenty of calculators out there that can help you decide how much water - and how often to change. The sooner - the better IMHO. Good luck

 

[Michel]

Yeah I was already thinking about doing an ICP test before. But then I found out about the magnet. I think it's a bit of money waste at the moment. Lets say the result will be high metals, than it means I paid like 40 euro for something I already knew. And i've read somewhere it can take quite some time to get the results back when you send it from the Netherlands. I want this problem fixed ASAP and I dont want to wait for 1-2 weeks to get the results.

 

[MnFish1]

Yeah I was already thinking about doing an ICP test before. But then I found out about the magnet. I think it's a bit of money waste at the moment. Lets say the result will be high metals, than it means I paid like 40 euro for something I already knew. And i've read somewhere it can take quite some time to get the results back when you send it from the Netherlands. I want this problem fixed ASAP and I dont want to wait for 1-2 weeks to get the results.

Then - I would use this calculator - and figure out how much water to change - https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectOfWaterChanges.php

 

[Michel]

Then - I would use this calculator - and figure out how much water to change - https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectOfWaterChanges.php

Thank you, thats a really handy site.

My tank is about 80 liter and I did 3 water changes of 22 liter which means 61.89% is new water now.
Maybe I should try to do 1 water change of 44 liter which does almost the same as 3 water changes of 22L (I use 22L buckets)

 

[Michel]

I think the water changes, active carbon and poly-filter are working a bit. I don't see any changes in my corals yet but my anemones are starting to open up a bit more and the water is crystal clear now! Only strange thing is there is a lot of bubble algae popping up everywhere.

 

[Michel]

Still not many improvements. I have recently upgrade my 8g cube on my desk to a Waterbox Cube 10. Everything is still doing great in that small tank so I have moved a lot of the corals from my 20g to this 10g. There is really nothing I can think of that causes all the corals and anemones to stay closed up so I'm thinking of taking everything out and clean all the sand and rocks or something.

Could the light also be a cause of the problem? I presonaly don't think its the light because everything was good before with the same settings but u never know.

I'm using the BRS AB+ profile (AI Prime HD) on my 20g which ramps up from 10AM to 11AM and it ramps down from 10PM to 11PM.

 

[Auto-pilot]

I'm not sure what your problem is but I would second the fact that your nutrients are low and bumping that up a little might help.

 

[Michel]

I'm not sure what your problem is but I would second the fact that your nutrients are low and bumping that up a little might help.

I did try dosing nitrates and keep it at 2-4 mg/l for some time but it didn't change anything. But I do have low phosphates, my Hanna Phosphate LR checker always reads 0 and with my Colombo I read somewhere between 0 and 0.03.
I have never tried dosing phosphates because i think thats kinda difficult in a 20g.

 

[Auto-pilot]

I just know that if my phosphates are at zero my corals start dying. Same with nitrates if they drop super low my lps will let me know

 

[Michel]

I just know that if my phosphates are at zero my corals start dying. Same with nitrates if they drop super low my lps will let me know

And what are the phosphate levels you are aiming for? And how do you raise the phosphates when they are to low?