Coral and Fish EMERGENCY!

[isufishtank]

Hello! About two hours ago I noticed that all the coral in my tank had receded into their skeletons and both my fish are hiding which is very unusual. This is an abrupt change as everything was doing fine earlier today. The tank is a 20g long and all parameters look fine:
Calcium: 420ppm
Phosphate: ~oppm
Alk: ~6 (low but I believe it is my test kit as it always tests low)
pH: 8.4
Ammonia: 0ppm
NO2: 0ppm

All of these parameters are typical for the tank. I don't feel any stray currents and nothing has been dropped into the tank to my knowledge. Now I know the standard response to this: DO A WATER CHANGE! My issue is that I don't have an RODI system (in a dorm) and am out of distilled water which is what I normally use. I've got no way to get more tonight. I can attempt a water change with city water -- which is supposed to be good based off of the online spec sheet -- but I'm wondering if I should risk it. Any advice is welcome!!!!!

 

[4FordFamily]

Has anyone used any cleaning solution nearby? Any repairs or maintenance done to your dorm recently? Anyone not like you that decided to harm your tank?

A photo of the tank would be useful as well as a better description of the fish’s behavior.

 

[isufishtank]

Has anyone used any cleaning solution nearby? Any repairs or maintenance done to your dorm recently? Anyone not like you that decided to harm your tank?

A photo of the tank would be useful as well as a better description of the fish’s behavior.

I keep a tight glass lid on the tank most of the time, however I did have it open for a large part of today which is quite unusual. Being in a dorm, I'm unsure of whether any chemicals may have been used nearby but I know that none have been in our dorm. Nobody would have harmed the tank. Here are some pictures of the coral (fish are currently hiding under a rock) :

 

[4FordFamily]

Something is in the water, or something is amiss. Think long and hard about what may have changed recently. Sorry I’m not more help.

#Reefsquad

 

[Biocube32]

think maintenance maybe did some serious pesticide spraying or anything? I know the bug guy at my father in law’s wiped out a cichlid tank once. The bug guy said all you need to do is turn the AC off until he is done spraying, but a tank full of dead fish determined that was a lie.

 

[Flippers4pups]

As a precaution against contamination, I would run some GAC ASAP.

Yes, water change couldn’t hurt ether. Reduce your light intensity and photo period for a little while. Stressed corals can’t photosynthesize well at times of stress.

 

[isufishtank]

As a precaution against contamination, I would run some GAC ASAP.

Yes, water change couldn’t hurt ether. Reduce your light intensity and photo period for a little while. Stressed corals can’t photosynthesize well at times of stress.

Water change is done and activated carbon is in.
I'm adding even more right now!

 

[Peach02]

I’m guessing you have roommates, ask if any of them used any chemicals eg windex in the room recently
And check the temperature

 

[isufishtank]

I’m guessing you have roommates, ask if any of them used any chemicals eg windex in the room recently
And check the temperature

He hasn't and temp is stable, fingers crossed the activated carbon helps.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Definitely don't resort to using tap water, since most city water sources contain measurable amounts of chlorine.

While I don't have any answer why you're seeing sudden changes, I can say that the photos of the retracted corals look exactly like what I experienced when my phosphates and nitrates were at zero. Corals need at least some of these nutrients to be healthy. Once I got my PO4 and NO3 levels up, they've been much more extended and colorful. I now keep NO3 around 4 ppm and PO4 around 0.05 ppm.

 

[Lasse]

Scented candles, hand cream ?

Do you have a skimmer?

If so - it is the largest interface for water/air and if there is any bad things in the air - it will enter the water through the skimmer even if you use a thight glass lid.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

Definitely don't resort to using tap water, since most city water sources contain measurable amounts of chlorine.

Normally no problems if you use a table spoon of vitamin C to each 100 litre of water. You will have a small NH4 rise if they use chloramines but it does not matter if it is a well working aquaria.

I´m with you about the nutrients but in this case - it happens suddenly.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[glb]

I hope they all bounce back!

 

[isufishtank]

Update! The corals are doing better after a water change (I treated the water to remove chlorine and no chloramines are used in my tap water)! Not quite sure what caused the problem but hopefully everyone is on the path to recovery now! I'm guessing there was some sort of contaminate in the air the got into the tank, but activated carbon removed that overnight and everyone seems happy :) thanks for all the help everyone!

 

[MnFish1]

Did you happen to check your salinity? What were you using to top off the tank?

 

[Skazila]

And make sure your refractometer is calibrated. I’ve had corals look like that when my salinity got off.

 

[Heavymman]

Definitely don't resort to using tap water, since most city water sources contain measurable amounts of chlorine.

While I don't have any answer why you're seeing sudden changes, I can say that the photos of the retracted corals look exactly like what I experienced when my phosphates and nitrates were at zero. Corals need at least some of these nutrients to be healthy. Once I got my PO4 and NO3 levels up, they've been much more extended and colorful. I now keep NO3 around 4 ppm and PO4 around 0.05 ppm.

Not to hijack thread but how long did it take and what did you do to increase it? I’m experiencing same issue

 

[SuncrestReef]

Not to hijack thread but how long did it take and what did you do to increase it? I’m experiencing same issue

I turned off my GFO reactor to allow PO4 to build up, and started dosing Spectracide stump remover (potassium nitrate) to increase NO3 for about a week or 2. With slightly increased fish feeding the NO3 and PO4 levels were where I wanted them and remained steady. I haven't needed to dose for nitrates since, and turned the GFO reactor back on to keep PO4 from getting too high.

 

[isufishtank]

Did you happen to check your salinity? What were you using to top off the tank?

It was perfect at 1.025. While it hasn’t been calibrated in a bit, it seems odd that it would go far enough off to affect corals in a day! I tested the new water I added with it and it fixed the problem so it couldn’t have been salinity. I’m assuming it was some contaminate that was fixed with a water change and carbon. Considering myself lucky!

 

[isufishtank]

I turned off my GFO reactor to allow PO4 to build up, and started dosing Spectracide stump remover (potassium nitrate) to increase NO3 for about a week or 2. With slightly increased fish feeding the NO3 and PO4 levels were where I wanted them and remained steady. I haven't needed to dose for nitrates since, and turned the GFO reactor back on to keep PO4 from getting too high.

I have a fuge that I turned off for a bit and set to be on for a shorter period so that it doesn’t suck up all the nitrates and phosphates!