Something weird happened overnight...

Hermie · Jan 20, 2022

So I just took a look at my tank for the first time today and the first thing I noticed?

Tons of the little aiptasias in my tank are gone. Yes I have a peppermint shrimp (male). but the aiptasia has been a consistent presence for months now. So why did the shrimp all the sudden decide to go bananas all over the live rock?? Well I did leave one powerhead off overnight, and my guess is that with the flow reduced the shrimp scavenged new areas.

But the other weird thing?? My Urchin lost (or appears) all it's spines!!!! I think it's dead or dying... but yesterday it was fine. Why would my urchin die the same night that a ton of aiptasia disappeared?

What else did I do differently? I put some filter floss in the sump for the first time in many months... I just wanted to clear up some particles in the water...

So did my filter floss kill the urchin? Some sort of pollutant on the filter floss?? Did the Peppermint shrimp kill the urchin? Have you heard of that before??

This is weird!!!!!!!

davidcalgary29 · Jan 20, 2022

The loss of spines in urchins is a good indicator of poor water quality. That might also have caused your aiptasia to retract -- which gives the appearance that they've been consumed (they'll probably be back).

Filter floss would not do anything like this, unless it's been contaminated by some type of irritant and/or heavy metal. I'd check your heater to make sure it isn't cracked, and also check to make sure that nothing has fallen into the tank or has been sprayed near it.

Hermie · Jan 20, 2022

davidcalgary29 said:
The loss of spines in urchins is a good indicator of poor water quality. That might also have caused your aiptasia to retract -- which gives the appearance that they've been consumed (they'll probably be back).

Filter floss would not do anything like this, unless it's been contaminated by some type of irritant and/or heavy metal. I'd check your heater to make sure it isn't cracked, and also check to make sure that nothing has fallen into the tank or has been sprayed near it.

I did squirt about 50ml of Hydrogen peroxide in the ATO container to clean off mold inside it... that might be where the toxins came from... either the h2o2 directly or the dying mold... I'm going to clean out the ATO container now, wipe down and dry it.

the odd thing is that the SPS don't show any extreme signs of stress, only very slightly less extended polyps. The GSP looks like it was "picked" on by something, and I have 2 species of GSP, only the colony closest to the shrimp's cave showed any signs of stress.

Hermie · Jan 20, 2022

malacoda · Jan 20, 2022

no telling what might have killed the urchin. They can be sensitive until settled in, have you had it long? Is there a lot of coralline in your tank? Aside from high nutrients, starvation is a possibility. Whatever the cause, that urchin is a goner.

As for the aptasia, is it possible they may have just closed up? While I don't have any in my DT (that I've seen), I do have some on the live rock in my sump. Often, when I open my sump door (causing vibration), or turn the light above my sump on, they will retract and become much more difficult to see.

Hermie · Jan 20, 2022

davidcalgary29 said:
The loss of spines in urchins is a good indicator of poor water quality. That might also have caused your aiptasia to retract -- which gives the appearance that they've been consumed (they'll probably be back).

Filter floss would not do anything like this, unless it's been contaminated by some type of irritant and/or heavy metal. I'd check your heater to make sure it isn't cracked, and also check to make sure that nothing has fallen into the tank or has been sprayed near it.

Omg just tested alkalinity and it's over 11 dkH, normally I keep it around 8-9

Either my AFR doser is messing up or... IDK... the only change recently chemistry wise I've done is adding a CO2 Scrubber to the Skimmer...

Is it possible for a CO2 Scrubber to raise the alkalinity? Possibly if the kalk-pellets somehow disintegrate (via too much water in the container) and leak into the skimmer...

Sebastiancrab · Jan 20, 2022

I would add some Polyfilter to your sump.

Hermie · Jan 20, 2022

malacoda said:
no telling what might have killed the urchin. They can be sensitive until settled in, have you had it long? Is there a lot of coralline in your tank? Aside from high nutrients, starvation is a possibility. Whatever the cause, that urchin is a goner.

As for the aptasia, is it possible they may have just closed up? While I don't have any in my DT (that I've seen), I do have some on the live rock in my sump. Often, when I open my sump door (causing vibration), or turn the light above my sump on, they will retract and become much more difficult to see.

The urchin was about 1-2 years old in the tank, so very stable for a long time. Not a ton of coralline but the urchin didn't starve I am fairly confident.

For the aiptasia, I suppose it's possible but it's hard to say. I can understand toxins affecting them but have not heard of that happening to anyone before. Can an alkalinity spike affect aiptasia?

Hermie · Jan 20, 2022

Perhaps the alkalinity spike is a result of the corals stopping consumption of alkalinity (while the dosing has stayed consistent) because of some other factor... like my calcium/mag levels are wrong... or something else...

Sebastiancrab · Jan 20, 2022

Love your name and avatar. If you haven't already, I would also do a decent water change.

Hermie · Jan 20, 2022

Sebastiancrab said:
I would add some Polyfilter to your sump.

I want to get some GAC hooked up asap

Hermie · Jan 20, 2022

I think I may have had a pH spike from the scrubber being too efficient but I don't have pH reagent right now...

The water level (from humidity and condensation) in the scrubber may have reached a critical level where it melted enough of the pellets to form a slurry and that slurry caused the scrubber to become hyper-efficient leading to a pH spike. That lack of Co2 in the water may have led to micro algal death (stopping of photosynthesis) and other chemistry problems (that I'm unaware of)... I can't imagine that an ammonia spike from the urchin's death would have caused corals to stop uptaking alkalinity. The urchin must have died from the pH swing I'm thinking. Unless the urchin consumed something toxic on the rocks like dinos which may be thriving in the absence of coral/algae biochemistry.

Hermie · Jan 20, 2022

I've been checking the tank intermittently tonight with a flashlight and I just saw the peppermint shrimp where it would be eating aiptasia.

I believe the peppermint shrimp is responsible for the disappearing aiptasia, but at the same time I have an alkalinity problem which I think is caused by a pH spike and a CO2 deficiency (caused by scrubber). I see leptoseris with tissue peeling off and some recession around the edges. This lepto has been in warfare with a hammer coral but I don't believe slight coral warfare would cause the lepto to die off en masse, I think it's the pH issue causing it (which directly correlates to CO2 deficiency).

Tomorrow morning I'm getting a pH test kit, and I'm taking off the CO2 scrubber because my tank was stable and growing without it.