Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

the other day my corals looked bad ant werent opening up, yesterday, they looked worse, today my snails are dieing. all my tests tell me that my water conditions are fine? i dont know what to do or why they are dieing. please someone help!?
thanks,
russ

Well, what has changed?

Did you add water?
Did you add any chemicals?
Did someone spray something in the house?
Temperature change?

Need to start thinking about any or all possibilities.

the only thing i changed is that i used a brita pitcher to clean the water i added or mixed salt into but that was a month ago & this happened suddenly. other than that, nothing has fluctuated or changed
thank you,
russ

A few more questions...

What size tank?
What kind of livestock do you have?
When was your last water change?
It would help if you post your test results, as well as temp, ect.

72 bf
79 degrees
ammonia, nitrite, nitrite all minimal
alk, a little high but manageable
salinity 1.025
did the last water change 3 days prior, then was told by someone who cleans & maintains reef systems to do a 15 gallon water change & i did that yesterday
thanks,
russ

satchmofish wrote:72 bf
79 degrees
ammonia, nitrite, nitrite all minimal
alk, a little high but manageable
salinity 1.025
did the last water change 3 days prior, then was told by someone who cleans & maintains reef systems to do a 15 gallon water change & i did that yesterday
thanks,
russ

You say alk is a little high but manageable. How high is a little high?

my test has a color coded graph that goes from yellow (low) to blue (high), mine is in the normal section but closer to the high section, if that makes any sense. oh, & a Ph of 8.3
thanks,
russ

ammonia and nitrite should be zero. If they are not, you have something feeding the nitrogen cycle.

High alkalinity could mean high pH.

Other than that, we don't have much to go on.

Use a bunch of carbon in case it is contamination.

just put carbon in, & a guy is coming saturday to check it out & give me an idea of what is wrong. unfortunately, i think i may need to start over with coral & cleaners now, but thank you
-russ

If anything is still alive I would check the refractometer to make sure it is calibrated. If it is ok I would do a large water change (~50%). What water are you using? If you are just using tap water filtered through a Brita you are not removing enough stuff. Some of the impurity levels will continue to increase every time you top off your tank. You can also get a RO unit from Ebay for cheap. Check you heater. Mine broke and killed a bunch of stuff a few years ago. Also check for anything that could have contaminated the tank, rusty pump parts, etc. Did you have anything like a sea apple or other posionous inhabitant in the tank?

If everything is dead, tear it down, cook the rocks per instructions on RC by SeanT, clean it good and try to find out what happened. I have had corals, fish, snails and hermits die for not apparent reason. Sometimes it happens but not all at once without a cause.

any stray volts going into the water? faulty powerhead, broken heater?

Best thing to do ATM is to do water changes with good known water. Make sure the TDS of the water is below 10, preferably 0. Water changes can bring things back to normal, as long as the problem is not something like stray voltage.

Also if you use glass thermometers, make sure it didn;t break and leak murcury in your tank.
Is there anyone near by that could hold these guys for you till you find out what is going on, or better yet, do you have a holding tank?

Is there anybody in Mobile, who can help satchmofish with housing his corals till he finds what is going on. Come on, we have all needed help one way or another and the group has pulled together for the better of the hobby.

What kind of test kit are you using? You need to test your water with a voltmeter if there is volage get a ground probe voltage could arch from your lights through the vapor in the air. Use a TDS meter and check your top off water. These are some things that will cause a problem.