Help! Chemical warefare? Corals dying

Ashley L · Mar 20, 2016

Hi everyone! I hope someone can help me. I haven't added anything new to my tank and my parameters are good. My corals are dropping like flies. I have a umbrella leather that is about 5in and sheds a lot. It is very irritable. Could this be causing me to have chemical warefare?
So far I have lost my torch coral, clove polyps, torch, hammer, two plate corals, fox coral, brain coral, and I think my pink stylophora is suddenly turning white. Should I take them out to keep from contaminating my tank? If it's the leather doing I can and will rehome him. My big elegance coral is starting to show signs of problems too! Please help! Thank you.

sc50964 · Mar 20, 2016

What parameters have you checked?

Ashley L · Mar 20, 2016

Here are some pics.

Ashley L · Mar 20, 2016

Hammer and plate

Retro Reefer · Mar 20, 2016

In order for anybody to help you we would need all details of your tank such as complete list of all parameters, how old, size of tank, filter type, skimmer, flow ect. A shedding leather shouldn't kill all your corals, mine shed prob 5 times in two weeks when I first put it in my nano with no ill effects on anything else.. Make sure it's getting lots of flow as it will help with shedding..

Ashley L · Mar 20, 2016

Elegance, Duncan, and green star polyps.

Ashley L · Mar 20, 2016

sc50964 said:
What parameters have you checked?

I checked
Ph
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Calcium
Mag
All were good. The only this is my nitrates are about 10. I wouldn't think they would cause this much trouble just being that high though. My tank is a 110gal with two strong canister filters, protein skimmer, and lots of flow worth my two powerheads. I also have a rescue BTA that isn't doing well, but it still alive. Could that be a possibility?

sc50964 · Mar 20, 2016

You might have accidentally introduced copper or some household cleaning chemical into the tank to have this kind of overall kill effect. Still want to know what parameters you have checked, and suggest to run active carbon to reduce any harmful chemical that you might have brought into the tank.

Ashley L · Mar 20, 2016

The tank seems to be fine, I have a lot of other corals that seem okay. It's been running two years with no major water problems.

sc50964 · Mar 20, 2016

Check phosphate.

sc50964 · Mar 20, 2016

I don't think the BTA is the issue since your ammonia checks out. That means that it isn't decomposing and polluting the water. When BTA dies, you for sure will know coz it stinks and will cloudy the water.

sc50964 · Mar 20, 2016

Btw, unless you clean out your canister filters at least once a month, you should prob consider taking those out since they are often a phosphate factory that dooms many reef tanks.

Retro Reefer · Mar 20, 2016

What is the time frame that your tank went down hill? Some of those corals look like they have been sad for quite a while..

twilliard · Mar 20, 2016

Bacteria is also another consideration to rule out.
Test your ph, keep it capped and note how many hours it takes to turn yellow (titration ph test) and let us know.

Ashley L · Mar 22, 2016

Retro Reefer said:
In order for anybody to help you we would need all details of your tank such as complete list of all parameters, how old, size of tank, filter type, skimmer, flow ect. A shedding leather shouldn't kill all your corals, mine shed prob 5 times in two weeks when I first put it in my nano with no ill effects on anything else.. Make sure it's getting lots of flow as it will help with shedding..

I think I answered almost everything on my last comment that you asked. I just retested my parameters and here are the readings now:

High Range PH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 15
Phosphate: 0.5
Copper: 0
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1290
KH: 15.7
Alkalinity: 5.59

I don't know what's going on, but I can not get my ph up. I have tried and tried. I have used a entire bottle of aqua vitro ph buffer over the past week and a half and it hasn't budged.

Ashley L · Mar 22, 2016

Retro Reefer said:
What is the time frame that your tank went down hill? Some of those corals look like they have been sad for quite a while..

They were doing great and suddenly something happened. I've had the tank going two years and this began about a week and a half ago.

Ashley L · Mar 22, 2016

sc50964 said:
Btw, unless you clean out your canister filters at least once a month, you should prob consider taking those out since they are often a phosphate factory that dooms many reef tanks.

I just retested my parameters and here are the readings:
High Range PH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 15
Phosphate: 0.5
Copper: 0
Calcium: 450
Magnesium: 1290
KH: 15.7
Alkalinity: 5.59

I don't know what's going on, but I can not get my ph up. I have tried and tried.
I added some more carbon and it seems like it may have helped a little.. Too soon to tell. I am cleaning my canister filters 1-2 times every two weeks. I had to learn the hard way that they are nitrate/phosphate factories lol. I clean them very often just to be on the safe side

I have set up a little hospital tank for my corals that were not doing good and now everything in the tank seems to be doing okay, but my elegance coral still isn't coming out as good as it was. I did find something on a couple of the rocks I took out. Three things actually and I have no idea what they are. I will upload pics.
(1.)The first one is some big brown thing on a piece of rock with three mushrooms around it. It has hollow holes on both sides of it and doesn't look alive, however, if I go near it the hollow holes close up and it retracts. I have never seen it before.
(2.) The second pic is something small and green, it looks like a little blob that is stuck to a rock in my hospital tank. I have since found one more in my main tank. It doesn't move. I had a lettuce nudibranch disappear a few months ago in the tank that was identical in color, but these two things aren't moving around and are circular.
(3.) The third pic is something white and fuzzy attached to a rock in my hospital tank. They are about a inch long. I don't know if they are eggs of some type or what, but I have never had them in the tank before.