A Reef Mystery

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Westie

Westie

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 10, 2008
463
2
48
Bay Area CA USA
I have a 90g reef with refugium. Up and running 3 mos. 8 chromi's, 2 damsels, 10 hermits, 2 sally's, all fine. Problem is I can't keep a coral or snail alive more than a day or two. I have a reef tank at work thats absolutely booming and needs fragging/trimming. Home tank, not so much. The last 3 fridays I have been bringing home mushrooms and polyps from work tank and within 48 hours of being in the home tank they just shrivel to nothing? Finally took my water and had it pro-tested and, nothing, no heavy metals...
Parameters-
lighting
500w mh's 250x2 10K
54w blue
9 hr/day
Refugium
Live rock
Chaeto
Sand bed
Skimmer
24/7 lighting
Water
temp 78
SG 1.023
KH 9
Ca 460
Nitate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammo 0
Phos 0
Mag 1280
pH 8.4
Probably 90-100 lbs. live rock.
1200gph main pump
1400 gph powerhead 30sec on/30 off.
Weekly 10% wc, ro water
Lastly, I grounded my tank. Didn't help.

Any, ANY suggestions would be helpful. All I can think of is to do a 100% water change and start over?:cry:
 
First, I'm suprised all the fish are thriving considering the mass bio-load in an immature system - however, since they are, and your parameters seem to be in good shape, I'd assume you've got a healthy colony of bacteria that's keeping up with supply and demand.
When it comes to the corals - you state that you have a flourishing reef tank at work, so I'm assuming you're well versed on the essential supplements that routinely need to be added to support coral life, correct? Things like calcium, strontium, molybdenum, iron, iodine, manganese, etc., etc.?? And I'd also assume you've been adding these?
Secondly, assuming you are, I'd also assume you know that corals - softies especially, aren't just photosynthetic, but are also planktonic filter feeders, so the addition of fine filter foods such as Mirco-vert or of the like is also being added into the water?
And third, I'd assume you are aware of proper lighting spectrums required for varying corals, and the ill effects created by either too intense or too weak of lighting?
Fill me in, and we'll figure it out. Offhand, the above would be my first guesses, but if you're doing all of the above and in accordance with each coral's specifications, then we'll need to dig a little deeper on this one.
 
What's the lighting like on your tank at work? seems like your lights might be too intense for the softies, are you light acclimating them? What sort of salt mix are you using? if its just basic SW mix which has no essential supplements i would suggest finding a brand of reef crystals like Instant Ocean.
 
Gprime;4543536; said:
What's the lighting like on your tank at work? seems like your lights might be too intense for the softies, are you light acclimating them? What sort of salt mix are you using? if its just basic SW mix which has no essential supplements i would suggest finding a brand of reef crystals like Instant Ocean.
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+1...that was the only thing that jumped out at me as...a potential issue. What are the lights on the other tank like? They might just shock from the change.

Are you trying anything other than zoa's? They can actually be fussy until they get established.

What is different between your tank and the work tank...therein lies the answer.
 
Thank you guys for your fast responses. I'll try to fill in the gaps. I am using r.o. water. Not rodi.(?) I'm using Seachem reef salt and supplementing mag, iron, trace elements etc., though I have not added micro-vert yet.(?).

The major differences between the work tank and home tank is lighting. Home has 2x250w mh's + 54w blue actinic (90g, 24" deep) whereas the work tank is a 40g with 2-T5's. All corals transfered are place at bottom.

The only other difference between supplementing ang lighting is that on the successful work reef I use aeration. i.e. bubble wand. After realizing this to be the only other major difference I dropped one into the home tank in the hopes that maybe I'm out-gassing something toxic?

And, any ideas are considered useful. Thanks!
 
All things considered, it sounds like they are getting fried by a drastic increase in light. You didnt post your light spectrum, but the par difference between 2 t5s and 2 250w MH is pretty glaring, regardless of spectrum.
 
Heathd;4545508; said:
All things considered, it sounds like they are getting fried by a drastic increase in light. You didnt post your light spectrum, but the par difference between 2 t5s and 2 250w MH is pretty glaring, regardless of spectrum.
Click to expand...


I agree. Has to be the drastic change in lighting...
 
I'm going to have to disagree because I was given a frag from my lfs, red mushroom, which shriveled into a button too and, it does not explain the snails dying or button polyps not opening. There's got to be something toxic in my water to corals and inverts that I'm not catching??? Clean hands, check. Clean water, check....
 
Usually saltwater tanks don't want any sort or air stones, if the air gets trapped somewhere it can lead to nitrate problems.

Air stones are primarily for CO2/O2 exchange. Power heads help with that in SW tanks due to water surface agitation I believe. If you're thinking there's not enough oxygen getting into your tank, then your fish would be dead too.
 
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