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Corals dying after tank upgrade and water change - ALK finally lower at 13 but Ammonia is 4! HELP!

Batiatus

Batiatus

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I just upgraded to a 100GL last sunday. I transferred all the rocks, sand and water from my 55. The fish are doing great, but since the water change yesterday none of them would open up. Im not sure if its the ammonia, but i cant think of any reason why my corals are suddenly like this. I think my bubble is a gonner. I can see the skeleton.

I also just changed from a T5 to a 2x150w Halide at 20K and 2x96w pc, is that enough lighting?

After the water change yesterday I added Kent Essential Elements, Stess Zyme and Ammo Lock. also added Bionic alkaline and calcium lastnight. Im currently using instanct Ocean.


I just finished some testing and our parameters are

Salt 1.023
PH 8.0-8.2
AM 0-0.25
Ni 0
NA 5-10

Thanks
 
hi tony,

i re-used the sand and the rocks. so i don't really know what's wrong. everyone was doing great yesterday until the water change and the solutions we added. pls advise. thanks.
 
The thing is you shouldn't reuse all your sand without heavy washing, only the top layer can be used without washing. The bottom has all the stuff that shouldn't be in your tank.
 
Kensington Reefer said:
Water changes every 3 days (25-30%) for next 10 days or so. Until the system has a chance to get back to normal.
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when you say water changes until its stable, do you mean until nitrates and ammonia are back to zero? my nitrites and ph are normal i believe. my wife and i really dont know whats going on. everythng was fine yesterday til after the water change. we moved them last sunday so its been a week.
 
Sfork said:
The thing is you shouldn't reuse all your sand without heavy washing, only the top layer can be used without washing. The bottom has all the stuff that shouldn't be in your tank.
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hi tim, i basically used all the sand but mixed it with new sand that i cycled before moving. so basically now its 50% old and 50% new. I cleaned the sand too before loading everything so we really don't know whats wrong.
 
The system has been disturbed. As was mentioned, the deaper sand has released the nasties. So the water changes will dilute this. The solution to polution is dilution. If it's not an issue, you can do water changes every day!
 
Kensington Reefer said:
The system has been disturbed. As was mentioned, the deaper sand has released the nasties. So the water changes will dilute this. The solution to polution is dilution. If it's not an issue, you can do water changes every day!
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25-30% everyday??? for how long? my wife's gonna love that. she's so worried about the corals coz they were really doing good before the upgrade so maybe she'll help me lol thanks for the advice erin.

just wondering though, do you think it could be an alkalinity issue? i don't have an alkalinity test so im not sure if that's what i should look out for. if its the alkalinity, what should i do?
 
I'd recommend the water changes as well. My money is on the substrate. Old sand transfered to a new tank can release all sorts of bad stuff.
 
so what should i do about the corals? a friend of mine told me to do an iodine dip. will this help?

its never been this bad even after the move til yesterday after the water change? they seemed to be doing better until we did the water change and after we put in all the solutions. so im not really sure what's wrong if its the solutions? the system being disturbed manifesting after a week (?) or just new tank syndrome (but after a week? kinda late isnt it?). we just did a water change so we're hoping it will get better tomorrow. but if it doesnt what else is left to do?
 
I agree with everyone above. +1 to the water changes, but you might also want to add some carbon for a little while at least. It won't necessarily help w/ the root of the problem, but if corals are dying odds are toxins are in the water from them as well.

Any way to get a better reading on the ammonia? 0-.25 is a little ambiguoous?
 
phishphood said:
I agree with everyone above. +1 to the water changes, but you might also want to add some carbon for a little while at least. It won't necessarily help w/ the root of the problem, but if corals are dying odds are toxins are in the water from them as well.

Any way to get a better reading on the ammonia? 0-.25 is a little ambiguoous?
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Hi mitch - my wife and i are bit conflicted with the reading coz its too close to tell. she says its more to 0.25 but i think its more to 0. We do have activated carbon in the sump btw.
 
Kensington Reefer said:
Pm me
I'll give you my phone number
call me tomorrow
what water are you using?
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hi erin, sorry but i don't know how to pm you here. i cant find it in the website. hope its ok if you can email me instead at gpvv78@yahoo.com

thanks - glenn
 
it may also have something with doing so many changes so quick, you went from a cycled tank with t5's to a brand new tank (plus adding the sand bed) with MH, ususaly one wants to do changes in steps as to avoid to much shock, but I also agree the only hope is to do water changes and try to keep everything in check.
 
remember, if you have coral tissue on a "dead" coral, it isn't dead yet :) Bleached is recoverable. A little bit of attached tissue is recoverable.
 
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