Help Reef is crashing !!!!

by **nicholas542** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:50 pm

I got something going on in my 40 gallon reef that isn't good can't figure it out. Corals that have been thriving and multiplying for months are now dying or gone. Water parameters all seems to be good. I requested a water analysis from my local city, to see if it might be in the water I am using. Any help or suggestions would be great. I'm not using RO water in the tank, but I do treat the water with chems before adding to my sump.

by **fihsboy** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:20 pm

It could be a copper build up....when they die are they melting? Or bruising to death. copper would melt it.....bruising would be caused by irritant water parameters such as nitrates and phosphates. We always talk about bad test kits...have your lfs test your water. I would certainly use RO water....I go buy all my RO from my lfs when I buy my salt........he gives me the RO for free when I buy the salt. So I ususally get 50gallons of RO and a bucket of salt....mix half for a water change and the other half is for top off. I would water change for now.......see if it helps. But do it with RO. I hate prime and those chemicals....people say it doesnt make a difference but I have noticed a HUGE difference in my water since I switched. Did anything die? One coral dieing could cause another by the nitrate spikes too,....

by **nicholas542** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 9:26 pm

yeah about half my corals have died off in a matter of a couple days so it sounds like a copper build up. My boyd's chemi-pure elite carbon is supposed to filter that out though.

by **Snowboss4492** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:09 pm

i can't say for sure on the copper, i know chemi pure is supposed to take care of it, i have put chemi pure in my tank on 3 different occassions to deal with phosphates and it hasn't made a bit of difference, i know some people swear by it but IMO it's snake oil

hope you get this figured out bud
Boss

by **saltwaterpimp** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:23 pm

Snake oil huh...lmao..i love it the origanal chemi pure...nicholas did you say you opened the bag ??? that could be a factor also...

by **schigara** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:20 am

Not to pour salt on a wound but but an Ro/di filter should be the first purchase when starting a reef tank. The source water may not be the problem, though. What exactly have you witnessed with the corals? Which corals died and what was the progression?

by **nicholas542** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:36 am

my cyphastera basically disolved and died in two days the things was growing fine for about two months. Some of my smaller polyps closed up and looked like they where sealed shut. I did find a couple of emerald crabs that had died in the tank when I re-designed my rockwork yesterday.

by **blueshoes2208** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:07 am

hey i was looking at an add in a fish mag today and theres a product on Kordon.com that supposedly takes out metals I.E zinc, copper stuff like that, you might look into it

That might be the first descent reading worthy piece of information ive ever put on here... haha

by **puffedupseagull** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:03 am

did the corals die before or after the rock rescape????? if one coral dies remove it or they will poison other ones. Also fishboy is right chems suck. RO water wont require chems and what you save will pay for the system real quick

by **nicholas542** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:17 am

one coral started to die after the rescape. I didn't know if a coral dies it will poision others that totally sucks. That is the problem one of my corals started to die, and I left it in the tank to see if it would recover. It probably killed the ones next to it.

Help Reef is crashing !!!!

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