Another one bites the dust, reefers that is...

[MelanieF]

Can't deal with this. I'm just absolutely sick right now. Three months ago I bought a 260 watt power compact setup for my 72 gallon bowfront tank. For the past two years or so I've only had 3 regular hood lights on top totalling about 45 watts of light (with only low light corals mind you). So I've been gradually increasing the lighting times with the new setup to allow for an additional hour every 2 weeks and figured the increasing brown film was just growth from stronger light as all water parameters were normal. (<10 Ammonia, <10 Nitrite, no detectable Nitrate, 8.3pH, 420 Calcium, 78 degrees F for temp.)

Much to my dismay last week my tank started smelling like rotting vegetation so I did a 25% water change and the smell went away. I've been testing the water ever since every other day with all tests showing everything should be fine.

This morning, however, everything was NOT fine. I came downstairs to find nastiness and goopy stuff in areas of the water surface, brown gunk covering EVERYTHING, all corals spitting out their insides and dissolving and only 3 yellowtail damsels and my powder blue tang were moving. All else DEAD.

I've been gradually putting money into this thing which I'm sure is well above $1500 and poof like that it's all she wrote.

I'm gonna set up a small refuge for the damsels and powder blue and decide from there if they're going to new homes because at this point if I don't know why the hell this happened why would I want to take the chance again?!

I've received suggestions that maybe a sponge died off or maybe the new package of dried algae for the tangs was rotten or maybe this or maybe that but if I can't rule out everything and determine what exactly caused this then I have no business putting any other life on the line.

Here are before & after pics... thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Anonymous]

all water parameters were normal. (<10 Ammonia, <10 Nitrite, no detectable Nitrate, .)

Yikes! Those water parameters are not normal. Any detectable level of ammonia is a sign of a serious problem.

Your tank crash was totally unrelated to your lighting upgrade IMO.

 

[Ben1]

Dinoflageates how ever you spell it. They consumed all the c02 and cuased a pH problem. I would bet the bed is loaded and releasing to much ammonia for the bacteria to convert quickly or something along those lines and allowed the dinos to bloom like crazy. Once a tank is properly established you should never detect any ammonia.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm a super noob, but I'm so sorry....
Anne

 

[MelanieF]

Thanks for the replies... I put the Ammonia reading down as <10 because even though it shows 0 on my test kit I've been told on this forum before that there's always some so 0 is never an accurate number.

Update: All fish except the 3 yellowtail blue damsels are now history. I ran to the pet store and got some Chemi-pure (in case any toxins did somehow make it in the water) and PhosX and put them in my filter and also hooked the skimmer back up. (It had been removed due to the Alveopora didn't do well w/ skimmed water but always perked back up w/ it off.)

I put any hopefully salvageable corals in a separate recovery tank as well so I'm crossing my fingers that I won't have a total loss.

Called my local Saltwater store and spoke with the manager and she's leaning towards what Ben suggested as far as Dinos causing a pH problem as the pH did drop to 7.8 within two days and even though I got it back up that may have already done damage.

The reason I lean toward the lighting is that this tank WAS properly established as I said it's been running for over 2 years... and I never had any Dinos until that light was put on... oh well, we'll see what happens.

 

[ickypimp]

I am in with the rest ... it sounds like you have had something die...the pic you posted looks just like a tank that is coming to the end of a cycle

couple of big water changes wouldnt go amiss, i have had this happen it turnrd out to be a turbo snail that had gotten itself lodged in a crevice and couldnt get out...

 

[johnnjen]

I'm a super noob, but I'm so sorry....
Anne

make that 2

JNJ

 

[Hal1]

I'm sorry to hear of your problems.

It sounds like you're getting a good diagnosis on the problem, though, and now you're more informed going forward.

Running without a skimmer hurt you twice. First, the skimmer removes organics that the algae/dino's might use for a food source. Second, the skimmer aerates the water, reducing any CO2 buildup.

I know it's frustrating to see this kind of disaster, but keep in mind that because of your new knowledge, this will never happen again. I've had plenty of mistakes in my time as a reefer, but I try to learn from each one and I don't make the same mistake twice (I find new ones).