Omg Help All Corals Are Dying

ColbytheClown

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2016
Location
Mississauga
hello so I did a 5 gallon water change last night as per usual, and glued all the corals down in the sports I wanted them to go, and I come back today to find them all closed up and dying. All of em are turning hard and white... should I do a water change, Params are all in check!!! image.jpg
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Quartapound

Active Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Location
Kitchener, Ontario
More info is required for us to help. It sounds like you just added all these corals to your tank last night? Were there any in the tank BEFORE yesterday... (that were doing well?)... are they still doing okay? or are they dying too? or did you have no coral in the tank before last night?

Which Params have you checked? ...I wouldn't use a blanket statement like 'params are all in check' because it would certainly not appear to be the case, and this is likely where the problem stems from, you just need to figure out which parameter.

Do you have good quality test kits?(not expired?) Did you dip them (the coral frags)?

In the meantime, water changes are always the best, fastest and easiest way to correct any potential water quality issues. I'd get a big batch ready to go asap.

Good luck!
 

Salty Cracker

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Staff member
Website Admin
Joined
Mar 10, 2012
Location
Rocky Mountains BC
It looks like a small tank, so a water change that is wrong can literally wipe out a tank.

You need to check the following:
Ammonia
PH
Alk
Salinity
Nitrates
Nitrites
Phopshates

If I had to take a totally random guess, I would say either a) the salinity of your water change was way off b) someone used your water change bucket for something c) it's a new tank and it's just going through an ammonia spike.

That said, I'm totally guessing at the age and size of your tank... but we all had bumps in the road, so stick with it and figure it out, we're here to help.

https://users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/cycling.html
 

ColbytheClown

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2016
Location
Mississauga
More info is required for us to help. It sounds like you just added all these corals to your tank last night? Were there any in the tank BEFORE yesterday... (that were doing well?)... are they still doing okay? or are they dying too? or did you have no coral in the tank before last night?

Which Params have you checked? ...I wouldn't use a blanket statement like 'params are all in check' because it would certainly not appear to be the case, and this is likely where the problem stems from, you just need to figure out which parameter.

Do you have good quality test kits?(not expired?) Did you dip them (the coral frags)?

In the meantime, water changes are always the best, fastest and easiest way to correct any potential water quality issues. I'd get a big batch ready to go asap.

Good luck!
They have all been in the tank for over 2 months, I was just glueing them down in the spots I wanted. All of em were perfectly fine, and healthy. They are no bleaching and dying, and closed up.
Ammonia=0
Ph=8.3
Nitrates=3
Nitrites=0
Saltinity=1.025
Phosphates=0.05
Great quality tests kits that have not expired, and I have dipped every single coral. As I mentioned before, most of them have been in there for about 2-5 months, no new additions...
 

ColbytheClown

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2016
Location
Mississauga
It looks like a small tank, so a water change that is wrong can literally wipe out a tank.

You need to check the following:
Ammonia
PH
Alk
Salinity
Nitrates
Nitrites
Phopshates

If I had to take a totally random guess, I would say either a) the salinity of your water change was way off b) someone used your water change bucket for something c) it's a new tank and it's just going through an ammonia spike.

That said, I'm totally guessing at the age and size of your tank... but we all had bumps in the road, so stick with it and figure it out, we're here to help.

https://users.cs.duke.edu/~narten/faq/cycling.html
Salt levels are perfect, no one used the bucket for anything else than the WC ( I am very strict about that LOL)
Tanks been running since September, and the ammonia is 0.. anything else you can think of?
 

AdInfinitum

Super Active Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Location
Thorndale, Ontario
contamination from the WC bucket has been covered...You also had your hands in the tank gluing corals (with gel superglue I assume)...no contaminants on you hands? soap, perfumes, cleaning products, paints or solvents, sunscreen, bug repellants?

Are you saying these corals all looked good and healthy...good extension, colour, no recession, etc. immediately prior to the WC then sudden death? (honestly not uncommon for the SPS pieces in a young tank... but odd for the LPS)
 

ColbytheClown

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2016
Location
Mississauga
contamination from the WC bucket has been covered...You also had your hands in the tank gluing corals (with gel superglue I assume)...no contaminants on you hands? soap, perfumes, cleaning products, paints or solvents, sunscreen, bug repellants?

Are you saying these corals all looked good and healthy...good extension, colour, no recession, etc. immediately prior to the WC then sudden death? (honestly not uncommon for the SPS pieces in a young tank... but odd for the LPS)
Ok so I noticed one of the montiporas turning pale, but that was because it fell OF where I had glued it previously, and was sitting upside down for a day. Had just finished some weeding in the backyard, but obviously washed my hands clean and wiped off soap fully. It wouldn't have been my arms/hands. Could I maybe have upset all the corals from the disturbance of the glueing, the WC, and forgot to mention that the filtration output pump on the biocube stopped working for an hour, due to e pump not being clean. Maybe all the stress was the cause?? They were all great before the WC, no issues. I'm honestly lost at his point...
 

Salty Cracker

Administrator
Staff member
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Mar 10, 2012
Location
Rocky Mountains BC
my wife asked me yesterday if she could use a water change bucket for soap and water to wash the cars.... well good thing I hardly ever do water changes lol
My housekeeper once poured floor cleaner and ammonia (etc) into the laundry sink which had a bucket of RO/DI water in it. I poured it out but then put that bucket into another bucket, which contaminated THAT bucket. Next water change had devastating affect, even in a 120gal system. I learned to keep a better eye on the buckets. That's why I asked about the contamination...

I also once had my hands in the tank after being in the hot tub...I'm thinking I had bromine still on skin, took a while for tank to recover from that too.

I have to think that contamination is the culprit here... being in the tank and doing a water change are the only things that really could have done it, unless something was sprayed in the air near the tank ??

Parameters look good, nitrates should be lower than that, but that could be almost anything...
 

ColbytheClown

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2016
Location
Mississauga
My housekeeper once poured floor cleaner and ammonia (etc) into the laundry sink which had a bucket of RO/DI water in it. I poured it out but then put that bucket into another bucket, which contaminated THAT bucket. Next water change had devastating affect, even in a 120gal system. I learned to keep a better eye on the buckets. That's why I asked about the contamination...

I also once had my hands in the tank after being in the hot tub...I'm thinking I had bromine still on skin, took a while for tank to recover from that too.

I have to think that contamination is the culprit here... being in the tank and doing a water change are the only things that really could have done it, unless something was sprayed in the air near the tank ??

Parameters look good, nitrates should be lower than that, but that could be almost anything...
When I went to test the temperature of the bucket water, all of the black beads in the mercury fell onto the bucket, and then I realized, it could be mercury poisoning. If so what percent of a WC do I do?
 
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Quartapound

Active Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2011
Location
Kitchener, Ontario
When I went to test the temperature of the bucket water, all of the black beads in the mercury fell onto the bucket, and then I realized, it could be mercury poisoning. If so what percent of a WC do I do?


most newer aquarium thermometers use coloured alcohol, not mercury. they also use those lead beads to keep the thing upright in the tank.

how old was the thermometer? Likely wasn't mercury, but it still contained lead... not sure how toxic that alcohol would be and if that's the effect your seeing... Hopefully it wasn't a mercury thermometer
 

ColbytheClown

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2016
Location
Mississauga
most newer aquarium thermometers use coloured alcohol, not mercury. they also use those lead beads to keep the thing upright in the tank.

how old was the thermometer? Likely wasn't mercury, but it still contained lead... not sure how toxic that alcohol would be and if that's the effect your seeing... Hopefully it wasn't a mercury thermometer
Ok it would probably not be mercury, I'm stumped.
 

Pistol

Super Active Member
Donor
Joined
Aug 16, 2012
Location
Corunna
When I went to test the temperature of the bucket water, all of the black beads in the mercury fell onto the bucket, and then I realized, it could be mercury poisoning. If so what percent of a WC do I do?
The animals would have to ingest the mercury to be affected by it, it doesn't mix with water. I would suspect you used too much glue at one time.
 
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