Slow mass casualty event....but why?

monicalooze

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 28, 2020
Messages
263
Reaction score
287
Location
Minneapolis
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ok....I feel like I'm having a slow mass casualty event in my tank.

First, my porcelain crab slowly lost all its limbs and died. It was in the tank for 1.5 weeks. Then my cleaner shrimp unexpectedly molted (it has just molted) and looked really ragged and sad. It died within 24 hours of the molt. It was in the tank for approx 2.5 weeks. Finally, all my snails are starting to die.

For more history, a few strange things happened leading up to this: 1. I use an oxydator and I suspect it overdosed h2o2 into the tank over a few days. If this is the case, that likely explains the shrimp death. But the h2o2 should have dissipated quickly, so I don't know what's up with the snails.

There was also a small bacterial bloom and an outbreak of hair algae. All this happened in the same week.

I did three 30% water changes over several days, changed out the carbon for purit and tested my parameters three times.

Last readings:
Ph: 8.2
All: 8.6 dkh
Phos: .04ppm
Nitrate: 1ppm
Ammonia: 0 (there was .02 ammonia after the shrimp died)
Temp: 25 c
Salinity: 34.7ppt

I have a 10g nano and it's been up for about 8 weeks. 1 clown and a tailspot, running filter pad, purit, marine pure bio balls, a refugium with Pom Pom gracilaria.

Image with the sad hair algae. It's probably the ugly phase, but doesn't account for the death.

Apologies for the missive.
A4E6BEC6-FFC4-4B8B-B8FE-229F5DF69B64.jpeg
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
View Badges
Joined
Dec 9, 2014
Messages
29,822
Reaction score
23,768
Location
tejas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Did you change your mind on doing the cleaning of the tank, we never heard back

finding a single cause of the issues above is one possibility
and starting from a known clean water slate is a possibility as well, couple different ways to see the challenge and leverage the easy access of the system vs the packed reef which take all kinds of analysis to discern
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
monicalooze

monicalooze

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 28, 2020
Messages
263
Reaction score
287
Location
Minneapolis
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Did you change your mind on doing the cleaning of the tank, we never heard back

finding a single cause of the issues above is one possibility
and starting from a known clean water slate is a possibility as well, couple different ways to see the challenge and leverage the easy access of the system vs the packed reef which take all kinds of analysis to discern
No I didn't. This is a separate problem. This weekend is for the tank.
 
OP
OP
monicalooze

monicalooze

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 28, 2020
Messages
263
Reaction score
287
Location
Minneapolis
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Any copper in that rock?
I just did a hanna checker test, and it did come back at .08ppm. The range of error is +/- .05, so that's close. But I don't know how much copper is enough copper to kill an invert, and for the life of me, I have no idea why there would be any copper in the tank.
 

Looking back to your reefing roots: Did you start with Instant Ocean salt?

  • I started with Instant Ocean salt.

    Votes: 188 71.5%
  • I did not start with Instant Ocean salt, but I have used it at some point.

    Votes: 19 7.2%
  • I did not start with Instant Ocean salt and have not used it.

    Votes: 49 18.6%
  • Other.

    Votes: 7 2.7%
Back
Top